DIL CHAHTA HAIN meets Nagesh Kukunoor...meets BLACK

such an eclectic amalgamation is what " 5 point some one "written by chetan bhagat is all about ..I simply loved reading that book ...brought me memories of my college days... (minus neha though :-( )

Even though I have picked up the book a year late .... such works are timeless one's ...as i love stories that cater to the "guy-next door " feeling and talk about the subtleness of feelings . That book has kept me occupied for the last 2 days and I am all set to devour anoter one ..but on B school lines ..its called MBA (Mediocre but arrogant !!) ..by abhijit bhaduri ... tonight

I had attended the blogger meet last sunday and it was a sense of deja vu ..meeting new persons and with the fact that one had id cards printed .it was easier to din into the minds of the bloggers my url .... and also met quite a few old friends ... Amethyst seems to have a lovely setting and kudos to Kiruba for having selected that place .. I guess blogger meets have now come a long way ....from the first official blogger meet that was held in 2002 and I was a part of the 6 people who met ...read more about that here.

POTHOLED EXISTENCE

Biking on the IT highway can be the most painful thing especially when waterlogged roads lead to huge potholes which when stepped on ..can have a telling effect on the spinal cord..as the bike's shock absorbers tend to eschew the shock and is generous enough to pass on the load to the rider.

I guess Chennai too is slowly turning into a mini bangalore ....unless and untill the goverment ramps up the 6 lane highway on OMR , such wet weather coupled with bad roads and no streetlights can only spell disaster for biker's.

Back home things arent too pleasant with my area madipakkam getting flooded upto knee level for the third time in 3 weeks ....but atleast for now ..i dont see myself abandoning my home and taking refuge elsewhere ....as the rains more so seem to have subsided with the sun coming out today...

Its not about the bike !


Well seems a single thread connects lance armstrong, the ace champion cyclist and ur's truly...as they pervaded through tough road conditions and became champions.Lance did it on the pyrenees and alps and most of france ,while i get to show my bravery on Old mahabalipuram road and the road linking to madipakkam,via the thuraipakkam-pallikaranai bypass road.Last evening after waiting for a long time..In office due to the rains...when the downpour mildly lessened , I decided to start from office.My bike suprisingly didnt misbehave even after being drenched in water for most part of the day. My bike started smoothly like a dream ...and soon enough minutes after I hit the Old mahabs Highway (so called IT corridor ) my dream became a nightmare..When strong winds and heavy rain had inundated the road in minutes.My bike though..was resistant to all that was happening around it braving the fact that some (4n + 2 ) wheelers in the hope to get home soon splashed water all around me and my bike.Now that is one thing that i hate ....when vehicles tend to accelerate when the roads are flooded , thereby splashing water on the other vehicles...near it. Anyway..it was ineveitable given the sense of urgency to return home for each of the people driving vehicles in such heavy rain.My bike as soon as it turned left from thuraipakkam towards pallikaranai ... entered what one would call a labyrinthine water trough.... where on a normal sunny chennai day the highway road is flanked by huge open spaces of the pallikaranai marsh....but due to the rains over the past week or so , the marsh had turned into an ocean ..and adding misery to my biking experience was the fact that all the roadlights went kaput and i had to pervade through darkness on a lonely highway road ..on which beyond a particular distance even the roads were flooded thanks to the flood waters receding the embankment level of the marsh. At this point my bike sensed danger and did a ctrl-alt-del and stopped right in the middle of the puddle of water..I tried starting it in vain ... only then did i condescend to get off my bike and see reality surrounding me after i wiped my glasses .the water level in that half hour of rains ...at 7 pm had flooded the troads to such an extent that i felt i was waiting to practice scuba diving in the middle of an artificial ocean.I could not distinguish between the road and the huge marsh that lay adjunct to the road..and given the fact that the marsh flanking the road was easily 50 metres deep as the road was on a higher level ....fears of me drowning soon engulfed my head ... I waited for a while for the rain to stop ...but it didnt ...

I had no option but to push my bike “”upstream”” agains the current of water on the road ,even as leviathan lorries and buses raced ahead with impunity splashing waves of water over me and I was left simpering like a fool , laughing at my own misery. I knew that it was a long walk back home ….6-7 kilometres to be precise …. But to walk along with a bag slung over my shoulder and to push a bike was a tough ask .

The road seemed to extend until eternity when I finally decided enough was enough..as my arms were aching from pushing the bike along …and thank goodness the rains had just about stopped …so I gave my rugged old bike a couple of more kicks to start the bike …it didn’t …. A few more it didn’t ….. Exasperated …I took a deep breath and with my might kicked it ..and finally my engine awoke ….making a brief noise and disappearing into the dins of the frogs croaking and the vehicles honking from behind. This was enough to kick start hope into my heart and I repeated the same with more patience … as I kicked harder , the engine started to slowly make some noise and it started releasing huge puffs of smoke …along with pumping a few litres of the gutter-rain mixture out of my bike ….and yo my bike seemed to start…. But ….the power in it seemed so dim that incase I switched off or lowered my speed/gear the bike wouldn’t start again … Taking note of the constraint my bike imposed on me.. I did a “”keanu reeves speed” making a steely resolve that I would not lower the speed below 40 ….and flexed my accelerator to full throttle on the roads ..turned into a (Himalayan moto cross track) to blaze my way through ….a relatively empty road.

My bike seemed all ok , when I turned on the pallikaranai highway road leading to velachery …but just remembered that this damn place has medians all around the road as the road has its own curves and potholes ..so biking on the wrong side of 40 was like committing hara-kiri and I slowed down to avoid …. Hitting the median..when I landed in a huge pothole …and drat the bike went kaput this time around… after a few unsuccessful attempts to revive life in my bike … the proverbial final kick …..Started the bike ….and it was like driving on free space ….with me not knowing where exactly the road was …as to expect street lights in this area was akin to expecting Neanderthal man to shoot an email to fix a bug and to make matters worse a fresh spell of heavy rains started again

Soon relief came when a IT company bus with huge lights honked me from behind ….and I did not dare budge from my position ahead of him …as the light from the bus seemed just about ok to confirm that I was on a road and not straying on any mud laden heap of sand …deposited on mist highway roads.

Finally a hour and a half after I started … and after facing a lot of verball volleys from the bus that followed me ,in the hope that I would give way …I landed home …. Bruised ,wet and of course with a sense of achievement that I had won the battle ….. (with the rains just about being reduced to a drizzle ).I was expecting a champions welcome ..when we mother chided me for using the bike in such wet weather…. Grumbling I went inside and after I settled down ….and sat near the window ….proudly gazing at the road my bike had braved through…..amidst such trying circumstances ….a fresh spell of rains again pounded …my place so as to tell me “ u just lived to fight another day “…while I said to myself “I might have won the battle ….but the war is still on …. With heavy rains expected for the next few days “….

Anyways its just that Lance Armstrong makes headlines on the Tour ‘de’france ….I thought why not claim my share of fame on the Tour’de ‘OMR”…. So that’s why this “epoch breaking story “ .Bouquets or brickbats welcome …..

PS: I HAVE COME IN MY BIKE AGAIN TODAY !!!

Holiday !

I am waiting to go one one ....am really bored sitting up at home ,or coding in office....as life seems to have become mundane ... I desperatley need to sit down and ask myself..what i intend to do with the rest of my life.Life kinda seems boring .. I see that i have stopped some of my hobbies and interests in pursuit of other " feline material comforts" ,though in vain ... just need to do a recheck on life and get back to enjoying life as i did while in college.

Heard that Kiruba is organizing the "n"th blogger meet ...and I shall be attending one after quite a while considering my last one was some time last year at the beach.

KhushBOOED....

My take on the khushboo issue is that the actress...might have erred on the wrong side..by apologizing to the so called "political activists" who are bent on ostracizing her. She should have taken the rebuttal by the political activists by the scruff of the neck and quashed their so –called protest. Her tame apology, certainly doesn’t send the right signal or vibes to any woman who wants to air her views ,as it will now be perceived that there exists an imaginary veil that prevents people from speaking their minds out. In one form, I feel the political men folk are showing their chauvinism too far, that poses serious implications on women’s rights. The way these PMK political cadres, behave when they say that she has no right to say whatever she said, projects an image that the role of the Indian woman in the society is just of a child bearing machine and not beyond that. What if the same comment had been said by some one like shah rukh khan or surya ? would the protests be of the same level and intensity so as to dethrone them of their position in tinsel town ? Her comments on female virginity, pre marital sex..were off the cuff comments , or more so views aired by her at an AIDS summit, where she advocated safe sex.. and said "premarital sex was ok as long it was done with protection.." . I am certainly not arguing and saying this statement was right or wrong ,but I believe that she as a democratic Indian Indian has every right to pass her views to a magazine on what she believes is right. Suhasini, a former actress and wife of the Indian film maker Mani ratnam...rightly supported khushboo in this regard. but going by the grapevine ..i guess she too would beat a hasty retreat by retracting back her statement ..and being forced to eat humble pie.

The Tamil political society at large ...(especially the goons who fill up the political vote banks and the ones who address gatherings in white and white ..masquerading a "heart for public service" ) makes me feel inherently queasy about their mental thought process...with all their actions ..Being highly prejudiced ...and dictated by the whims and fancies of their leader's plans to come one up against the opposition by stirring some hornets nest. I feel that people out here tend to get a touch uncomfortable when reality bites them.... as anything said or depicted openly evokes a huge hysterical opposition from the public (powered by the politicians and driven by the common man heh !!).

Digging further … khusboo made statements that “no sane guy can expect his wife to be a virgin “ was probably driven by the increase of pornographic acts on the web, like the DPS school video case and various other videos on the web.It is a true fact that the age girls take to say “yes” to experiment with sex is slowly decreasing to below15-16… and the girls today are more open than they were ever before, but for the tamil society to generalize that this statement was said “to debase the Tamil culture “ wholly speaks of extremely poor reasoning .

The tamil culture as such is said to be pure and respected because of the literary compositions,Vedas,slokas and a traditional form of life in the tamil households which also speaks volumes of the attachment the tamil community attaches to music .No where does it say that “sex” or the act of sex ..tends to debase culture. If one were to observe any famous Hindu temple in the south, the murals depicted here and the idols of the various gods adorning the walls or the gopuram’s show female gods in the nude and even in certain positions of love making. We were the people who taught the world what “kamasutra “ was and here we are living in a self imposed veiled society where having sex is great,but speaking about it evokes a strange protest from sects of people as though “sex” was something they renounced ages back.

Its not just the Tamil culture ,but this is prevalent in several places in India ,where sex is seen as something immoral and debasing and sense of moral policing takes place (in Mumbai the shiv sena , I heard used to ransack shops selling valentine day gifts because they thought”love “ was too western a culture….) , a kind of double speak ….which is now perfected by politicians and filmmakers to speak politically correct and not from their heart and maintain have their share of the vote bank.

Politicians and their diatribes are diluting the strength of the common man and his rights and unless we have a unanimous wave …that rebuts such peevish acts of petty revolting curbing a woman’s basic instincts to speak her mind out,we as a country ought not to have the “democracy” tag attached to our nation. The need of the hour is to reform this whole system with younger blood which thinks rationally and practically ,and not be prejudiced into devious and superstitious ways of thinking. Secondly we need to accept the act of sex for what it is and stop spreading a veil around it…as by doing this we are only increasing the curiosity levels of younger adolescents who with half baked knowledge ,try some juvenile voyeurish thing ,which would only need to further bottling up of our emotions about what people call “sensitive” topics and would result in a society that never speaks its mind out.

Iqbal -Hooked on !!!

iqbal_u, originally uploaded by kartik kannan.

I happened to watch IQBAL ...last week and I did enjoy the movie just as I hav done in all of nagesh kukunoor's previous movies.


IQBAL is about a deaf and dumb boy who dreams of being a great cricketer. Shreyas Talpade(IQBAL ) plays the title role of a 18 year old deaf and dumb boy. His dream is to play for the Indian cricket team as a pace bowler. Iqbal's father is a farmer and he wants Iqbal to help him to plough the fields,as he feels that Iqbal can atleast do that earn a living for himself given the fact he is deaf. Iqbal's mother and sister support him to the hilt to see his dreams through.

I felt the young girl ...played by Shweta Prasad, as the kid sister, was impressive in the sense that she displayed her emotions very well ...and potrayed her as a loving sister.Her cherubic face and innocent laughter makes the film all the more enjoyable... with her garrulous tounge that comes across very well in the movie..just goes on to show that gen next is realy loquacious and quite precocious when it comes to giving their 2 cents gnyaan.

Well I suppose all movies with this "underdog" mentality seem to do well as I guess most of the people at some point of their lives might have gone through some tough phase ...and immediately relate to it ..when something similar is shown on screen. This makes a good case study as how people can be made to think in a much positive manner after watching such movies... if i remember right Lagaan - was a case study in positive thinking and overcoming the odds in the most emphatic way.... and being an indian ..what better way to motivate people by showing the contest between bat and ball ..which the average indian can more easily relate himself to.

As the proverb goes ... "Behind every man's success there lies a woman " .. a cliched bolywood adaptation would go something like this ...Behind every successful (or unsuccessful )movie lies the background score ...and Nahesh kukunoor has just done an encore ..by playing a track repeatedly at varius stages of the movie ,called "ASHAAYEN" ..which I must very honestly say has got me hooked ...to it that I haveplayed it 174 times on my computer after watching the movie... kinda keeps u inspired ..incase a major goal is beckoning...

I guess I would pretty much be an infrequent blogger till such time my health returns to normal . There are a lot of things the mind wants to say,hands want to type .... but laziness and tiredness prevent me from doing it .

so any bloggers frequenting this page ..remember to come back after a month ...or so .... i should be in fine fettle by then..so till such time c u tata bye bye ....

I had been to college last saturday to give some gnyaan to the present final years students about what the IT industry as recruiters expects from them,and what the students would need to do (like preparing for company tests etc etc ..technically and mentally ) to get into a good company.

The awareness levels were abysmally low and there has not been much of a change from the time we were there...except for the fact that the some new rooms have been built and the college is functioning more professionally than ever before doing away with the slave like customs u find in most chennai based engineering colleges(sathyabama,rmk,st josephs ...etc etc ) .

I will put up some of the photographs soon enough ..

It was great weekend ...with some of my friends as we enjoyed playing late in the night at besant nagar beach,got drenched fully in the highly salty water of the ocean ..and gorged heavily on some lacklustre food in planet yumm that got my tummy into some problem.I have now got fever and jaundice ..so am sitting at home. I guess I would report back to work only a couple of week's later..

will blog more often as thats my only break from sleeping the whole day waiting to get better.

Kyunki saurav bhi kabhi "dada" tha

Kyunki saurav bhi kabhi "dada" tha, originally uploaded by kartik kannan.

The recent news that indicated a split between saurav and the coac greg chappell ,soes not seem to augur well for indian cricket.

I personally feel Ganguly has crossed the line by going public with greg's comment on his exclusion.If ganguly was that determined about getting his place in the 11,he should come out all guns firing ...and silenced the critics with his bat doing the talking.But instead the "prince' decided that ..he would use a few political gimmicks that would win him some sympathy from the public at large.

I feel chappel was right ..in asking ganguly to step down as ganguly was more of a liability in the team,than a member who was contributing.Ganguly has to digest the fact that his days in the sun are almost over...and he seems to play with a fear and premonition that is totally uncharecteristic of him.

His frequent statements of him being "temporarily" out of form...does not go well with me..as a guy cant be out of form for 5 years. He has scored 5 centuries in the last 5 years...all coming at points when his form was hitting nadir.. with only the hundreds against england at leeds and the aussies at the gabba being knocks he dominated against a quality attack.

recollecting...his other 3 centuries have been against NZ and ZIMB coming against some lacklustre dibbly dobbly seamers...

So I personally feel that neither do stats save ganguly nor his present form and given the fact that youngsters like kaif,yuvraj and badani are on the bench because ..ganguly is unwilling to hang his boots..indian cricket portends a not-so-safe future.

Contrast this to aussie and pom (england) style of leadership/selection criteria ...wheer some one as reputed as steve waugh ,mark waugh ...were just shown the door ...as the selectors felt they were inmpediments to the growth of young blood in the team.

Our captain ..here with a so so record gains sympathy from his supportesr with the claim that he is india's most succesful captain....but 10000 miles away someone with a 80 % success rate ...like ricky ponting has the damocles sword hanging over his neck after a pulsatingly close and nerve wracking series...

strange are the ways of the yardships ...selectors use to select people..

Talking from ganguly's side ..the fact that he had moulded a side from scratch and converted them into word beaters ..is true ....but those acts of the past cannot be a ticket for the future...and it is this feekling that ganguly is not able to digest...his ego ..is not allowing him to progress any better

so all i can say ..my dear "PRINCE OF CALCUTTA" is that the days of the "RAJ" are over ...and its better u hang up ur boots...when the going is good rather than being chucked out.

faux paus !! nearly

faux paus !! nearly, originally uploaded by kartik kannan.

A couple of days back at around quarter to 9 , I was sandwictched between the huge IT company buses and right in front of me stood a leviathan of a vehicle .... and my eyes couldnt stop noticing reading the sign as "STOP CELEBRATING WORK " as i read it in a hurry ...and it immediately didnt make sense ...and that was when I realised my folly ...

CTS,TCS and a few other IT companies seem to crowd the road ..after 8 30 am on sholinghallur on OMR ..but the blame is to lie more with the infrastructure division of tamilnadu than these companies...and that's one chink in the infrastructure in Chennai...which otherwise has no major traffic jams on it's IT corridor as compared to the horrendous Hosur road traffic..where...I guess the only improvement that can be done is to make the whole hosur road ..a WI-FI zone so that people dont get hampered by the traffic jam's and can work from the conveniences of their buses ..ignoring teh traffic jam (this was one of the burlesque suggestions regarding the hosur road mess.

dark clouds hovering above

dark clouds hovering above, originally uploaded by kartik kannan.

I was as usual going through some specification document....which had monotonous lines of rules all over it and just when work..seemed boring...I got a message from my friend , asking me to take a peep outside....

I immideately moved the curtains out of my building window....and all i saw was a layer of black ....fluffy .clouds threatening to conquer chennai....

Clouds of doubt !!!

infy campus ..during the onset of heavy rains, originally uploaded by kartik kannan.

The dark cumulo nimbus clouds in chennai are like the proverbial beautiful nymph that bewitches one by her beauty and makes people anticipate and expect more....succintly to put it in tamil "asai kaati yematharadu" .The kind of darkness that engulfed chennai ..looked more like some alien spaceship had taken charge of the sky ...threatening to give mumbai and cherrapunji a run for their money ..but alas the chennai clouds only flattered to deceive.Though I got wet on my way back....the rains were not as severe as the clouds portended to be.

mY New car-santro xing

mY New car-santro xing, originally uploaded by kartik kannan.

Well some good news ...earlier his week.On vinayaka chathurthi day ..A brand new santro xing was the latest addition to our home.In a few days once the Rc BOOK AND INSURANCE arrives,I should be taking the car to office instead of the bike.It's a lot safer travelling in the car, than in the bike and also means lesser backaches and strains...

another angle of my car

another angle of my car, originally uploaded by kartik kannan.

We settled for a white color after flirting with a greyish blackish blue..and a aqua marine green for our earlier cars.

the vagaries of the human mind ....

19-02-05_2022, originally uploaded by kartik kannan.

That shot of me was taken by my cousin some time back. These days I have been wondering while going to bed....what the power of the human mind can actually do. Success in any field is totally dependent ..on how the mind percieves what we would like to do in our chosen activity.

I have seen the vagaries in perception when the mind is conditioned to repeated failure...and the kind of image beating that happens when repeated failures pass along the way is horrific.. I have been through positions of extreme success and extreem failure and as I look back at small instances .. where I have failed miserably ..I realize one thing .My mind seemed to have a pre conditioned safe paying level..which was percieved as difficult ...and as time went on since success was not knocking at my door..I became conditioned to failure...in those related activities..and now when i look back ...those activities look so easy now... but somehow eluded me ..because of my attitude not so long ago.

When I also look back at some of the successes ..I find that those were due to untiring unrelenting efforts....that were put ,along with a great attitude ...all because ..I was interested in that activity...and went in a perfectly executed and organized manner ..because heart of hearts ..I wanted to do that .More than that It was that I was a little familar to doing those activities...so i knew what it took to get there ..whilst certain other activities....that were relatively new ... I wasn't quite sure what the path looked ..like and where the destination would show up..so I meandered along a beaten path struggling to be safe ...with my state of mind resembling the state of unrest one has , after having fallen in a sticky swamp. Living through with such a sick feeling has blunted all the edges of my other skillsets....and led me into a path which i belived to be amaze which i could never get out of ..

I was like the guy without a directon in life ..like the proverbial blind man searching in a dark room for a black cat which is not there!!! ...

but slowly but steadily ...life has changed for the better with each passing day ...and as the time ticker says 73 days to D day !!! I realize i at last see light at the end of the tunnel...and this glimmer of hope .. has resulted in me recollecting some of the lovely moments when success chased me ...so that I am able to correlate and get the feel good factor back...


Though this thing of attitude determining ur altitude is a cliched term ..I am realizing it practically ...in realtime .I know a lot of water has flown under the bridge ...due to some negative mindset...but still with 73 days to D day ...anything can happen ... and this feeling of slowly evolving euphoria...has just started like a fire...and I only hope it spreads like a rage .... into a bigger forest fire ..thus defeating the demons of the mind.

Katrina ....the truth that was'nt told

I came across an interesting article written by ross gelbspan on the herald tribune , which was also featured in last sunday's Deccan chronicle OP-ED page. The author reveales a strange villain as the sole cause of such natural calamities . It is simply said that most of the natural disasters in recent times ranging from the tsunami last year,snowfall in los angeles,drought and forest fires in spain,heat wave in arizona,the mumbai rains...to the new orleans tragedy ...all are attributed to global warming.

Global warming ....is it where it all stops ...not many bothered to ask the underlying causes for the global warming to be so pronounced in recent times... and the main reason is that the coal and oil industries have spent millions of dollars to keep the public in doubt about the issue.

The reason is simple...to allow the climate to stabilize requires humanity to cut its use of coal and oil by 70% .That of course,threatens the survival of one of the largest commercial enterprises in history.Reportedly EXXON MOBIL ...has spent more than 13 million dollars toscientists who were public dissenters on global warming.

I am shocked to also hear that the bush government has been a haven of sorts for all these coal/oil companies ,who've flourished in this poiltical climate ,while common man ...on the otherhand ..is slowly falling prey to natural calamities raised by the issue of global warming.

alaipayuthe !!

alaipayuthe !!, originally uploaded by kartik kannan.

Yesterday after a long time I was at home in the evening , so chanced upon the movie "alaipayuthe" on SUN TV...

I have watched this movie so many times that I know the dialogues so well,but even then ...couldnt resist the temptation of watching this movie.

There's one thing that I learn from this movie .....

and that is ..

the college going chicks are far better on the beach -tambaram sector than on the beach -avadi sector !!! after extensive research conducted from 2000 - 2004 ...where I was also partly occupied for about 8 hours in a day in a dungeon ,supposedly where people believed that I was mastering the art of computer science engineering.

I've always loved travelling in the suburban trains...and this movie is all about a love story that started in the suburban trains ...so I instantly relate to this movie ... and secondly given the fact that maddy's charecter in the movie ..closely resembles mine (name: kartik, cool , loves being practical and simple , follows his heart ...,is not a regular temple going samathu iyer pullay , naughty at times ...and fun loving ). No please dont infer ...that I plan to run away from home ... (all thats only in movies !!! :-) )



..Alaipayuthe ..anyday would be a must watch film for me...

So had some good time pass yesterday !!

what's up with these ad's

what's up with these ad's, originally uploaded by kartik kannan.

I see quite a lot of disguised double meaning ad's these days on hoarding's in chennai ,without the name of the product for which it is being advertised.This one was spotted on Old Mahabalipuram Road.

THIS ONE READ'S

THE MORE WE DO IT ....

THE MORE WE ENJOY IT

CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO ENLARGE IT

Instant Road cleaning tactics

Instant Road cleaning tactics, originally uploaded by kartik kannan.

I happened to see this sight as I was driving along the thurapakkam -chrompet link road. I just dont see the point in that lorry carrying water as in about 2 hours of travel all the water would have been exhausted ...

More than that the water spilling on to the roads ,,poses grave threats to bikers like me as it makes the bike prone to skidding on such a wet/slippery surface.

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 ....