Goa Part 3

Part-3

The night at VAGATOR beach was spooky and exciting. We had dinner at a place near the road that leads to the beach.There were a few foreigners, who were also in the tables adjacent to us, as some of our photography flashes seemed to disturb them. We werent into anything naughty there, but then as soon as the food started to come, our hands were more focussed on eating than on the click button. Some of our Tamil jokes, were actually understood by the nepali cook, who was gawking at us. The legend was that he spent three years at a resort in ECR(East Coast Road in Chennai).

Thats Aanand in the background who is ruing the decision that we made to come to vagator beach.His idea of a holiday was to spend the night charging the mobile at our room :-)

That's Sabari and I having drinks after our dinner(dont mind the frooti, but I dont like beer)

After a sumptuous dinner we proceeded to walk to VAGATOR beach where the full moons light basked over the wet sands and the huge rocks.I went ahead and stood near the ocean, wetting my feet in the waves that lashed across the rocks.The lovely colour of the ocean against the moonlight, made it all the more excitingto just sit there and let the waves do all the talking. The guys who accompanied me, were shit scared and wanted to return home to the hostel.One of the other reasons, they wanted to return home was that some of them were tired after a 27 hour journey. Vagator is just the place for a naughty evening. Vagator beach has 2 disco's close by 9 bar and Club Cabana, which can be accessed by climbing the hill. The hilly part of vagator beach also has a flat helipad landing place, which has a few chairs across the edge of the beach cliff.This is unofficially the smooching point for lovers.I remember many couples blissfully busy, making hay while the moon shone :-).

I heard from the locals that Vagator beach has 2 parts to it.The one we were standing was called the big Vagator beach, which most Indians frequent.There is supposedly a little vagator beach to the left, which more so has only foreigners.They seemingly have named it the"Tel Aviv" beach.

I wanted to explore the beach and the spooky streets around Vagator, but my friends had enough, they were in no mood for any adventure.So they forced me to fix a cab and return home to Mapusa, the place we were staying(actually it was Peddem, close to Mapusa).There ended the day of 28th December sitting and charging our mobiles in our room



The next day, I was the first to get up at 6 15 in the morning, and decided to take a stroll around the place I was staying. I managed to see some lovely goan houses, all decked up for the new year.There was something about Peddem, that had an air of easiness about it. There was also a playground nearby which seemed shrouded in the morning mist. I must have walked about 2-3 kilometres in the morning exploring peddem on either side of the Mumbai Goa highway and enjoyed it as there was hardly any crowd or honking vehicles. Idling was fun there after a long time.

Adding to the fun was the colourful houses that were on display there

As I was busy exploring the colourful goan houses, I didnt notice that I had 4 dogswho were silently following me.The 4 became 7 in a minute as dogs surrounded me and I knew the golden rule of "never run before a dog", and slowly but steadily made every step, swallowing a few heartbeats as the dogs advanced. Thankfully due to some cyclists and a few jeeps the dogs had to give way and I walked a little faster and took some crazy route to reach the hostel,where I was staying.I was walking in new surroundings and had lost my way, in my escapade against the dogs. I kept faith in my ability to spot the correct way back home and thankfully, joined a road that took me straight to my hostel at Peddem.


After a round of idling I head back to our room and the guys are still fast asleep. I decide to entertain myself by watching Tendulkar's innings the previous evening on the Television that is there in the reception. After a couple of hours, the guys are ready to see Goa,and we walk across the peddem road to take a bus to Mapusa. On reaching Mapusa , we decide to go to Arambol beach(Rather, I ).This must rank as one of the best decesions I have taken in my life :-).

Arambol is 30 kilometers from Mapusa,and is accesible via the local buses, which works out very cheap at 15 rs a ticket. Bikes and cabs are other options available to reach Harmal Village that surrounds Arambol beach. We take a bus, that goes in the direction of Morjim, Mandrem and Kerim and get down at Arambol an hour after we started.

It was a pretty hot day, and standing a hour in a crowded bus, has sapped us of our energies and we get down to take some liquid refreshments.Some go for Pepsi, Some for beer, while Arvind and I go for sugarcane juice.Soon others follow and also order 2 glasses of sugarcane juice and a banana to keep us fit for the activity in the beach all afternoon.

We wade through tall trees and plantations and pass through several churches and cloth shops. Some of the guys decide to stop over to shoot photographs, while some get enamoured by the various colours on display by the cloth merchants.

and then ....as the trees and the huts clear, we see a pristine beach which catches our attention.The beach is lovely, and I see people swimming quite deep into the beach.The Outlook Traveller reports that Arambol beach is safe for swimming and I stand by that, after spending hours swimming on the ocean.The beach is quite a long horizontal stretch,that also has a fresh water lake in between the beach.The beach has miles of wet sand, an indication that the low tides are in operation.

We sit down at a place near the ocean and begin to throw all our accoutres into a common bag.We place our clothes,glasses,watches,mobiles in the bag and strip ourselves down to our basic minimums.Some of the guys..want to feel the warmth before they plunge into the ocean, so they still stay put there. I walk across the wet sand and plunge into the waters.The feeling of the chill water on a hot day can just be the next best feeling to the sensuality of biting a crisp dairy milk chocalate.

Soon Kishore and Arvind join me in the water. A few metres ahead we see a broken bottle.We decide to have a swiming race, as to who would get it first. All three of us, wade hard through the water but are stopped in our tracks, as we sight a couple trying out various "positions" of love making in the water.We decide to not to interrupt them in their intimate moments, but cant help noticing the topless lady as she walks past us, as she makes a headway to the coast, with her partner.

Welcome to Arambol.... a rather pristine...nude beach, with no heavy indian gazers...each one does his private thing, and thats why I like the beach.Spooky as it may seem, its a lovely beach, if you just want to forget the busy humdrum of life in the city.

We spend a few more hours in the water, and I spend some time in a new beach hobby.After a session in the sea, I would come back to the coast and smear mud all over me.That would basically be wet mud to stick better, followed by a round of dried sand, and yo thats already looking like a bufoon. I did manage to attract the attention of quite a few onlookers, but I liked the feeling of mud all over me, and then I would wash the mud, by lying on the wet coast,waiting for the waves to remove every sinew of mud that was invested on my body. It felt divine, untill my stomach growled and grumbled for lunch.

We just turned back and hit a shack for our lunch.We had quite a heavy lunch, which had cheese pizza and french fries for starters.Then we ordered dal fry and gobi,for which we helped ourselves to a few butter naans, and washed it down with a glass of Lassi.Sabari was the only guy, who apart from all this had 2 bottles of Kingfisher beer and a fresh catch of roasted fish,apart from chicken biryani.

After a heavy lunch at 4 pm, we then started walking across the wide expanse of Arambol beach.We had to bypass a mountain and in the small passage across the mountains were spread numerous cloth shops.Some of the guys were busy buying the goan trance "hare rama" and "Om" kinda T shirts, while I chose to stay aloof and rested at a nearby joint with my legs firmly placed on table and my eyes gazed on the excellent view that I had from the seat where I was perched.

After some bargaining, the guys had finally bought some souveneirs, and we were finally on our way to the next beach,which was an extension of Arambol beach, called the Sweet lake beach.The sweet lake beach, was a smaller beach than the main Arambol beach and had an amazing view with tree top shacks and paragliding options available.The waves and the current are extremely strong, in the evenings and its advisable to stay floating till chest deep water and not to venture beyond that.

Some of the guys were too tired and relegated themselves to the rocks.Arvind and I, were the only ones interested in any beach adventure.We repeated the mud-bath and walked across the expanse of the beach, getting curious looks from onlookers.As we strode along, we observed that this beach had far more people in the nude, with even more ladies being topless. I guess as Indian's staying in the sun for hours sunbathing, was probably something we werenot used to, as we came from a tropical climate.Arvind and I decided to have a moon bath, where we would lie on the beach after moonlight, as we would not be able to bear the heat of the sun.

We went to the extreme end of the beach and decided to venture out into the waters.We stayed there for a little more than hour, waiting for large waves to toplle our stance in the water. Next to us, were a couple and a lone lady in her 40's. All of us exchanged a few pleasantries in the water, and some general advice on what were the safe limits of staying in the ocean. Arvind and I spread ourselves and decided to take some rest,while the couple next to us, went into passionate love making. At this point Arvind and I, decided to leave them at peace and went inside the water for another dip.When we came out the couple's clothes were near the coast and the couple were totally nude, though not into making love. I at any point did not want to disturb them, but since my glasses were not be seen on the mud, I realized that my glasses were probably masked by the clothes of the couple strewn on the mud. Errr..I had to go upto them and ask them, if my glasses were behind their clothes.And lo it was....I spent a few minutes chatting with the lady on the next beach ahead,as I realized that they would feel a little uncomfortable by or prescence. She didnt mind talking to me in her state of nudity and directed me to another beach, across the mountain. Arvind and I immideately set foot and had covered a kilometre up,when the sun set and we realized that we it would notbe safe to trek back barefoot in the darkness.

We went back and reached the sweet lake beach, and spent some time basking in the moonlight as the couple didnt seem to mind our prescence.We were in the water for about half an hour, when we saw that 6 people were now there on the coast, and were getting ready for something.Thats when my friends came searching for us, from the other side of the beach, admonishing us for straying across so late in the ocean. They came, and they drove away the foreigners to put their clothes on.

We bid bye to our friends, the firangs (??? for the past half hour)..and set back to Arambol beach.We actually in the interim period did book an accomadation that was under the stars on the beach for 50 rs a night, but some of the guys objected and we had to return back to our hostel. If anyone does get a chance to go here, do take some one of the opposite sex, along with you..to enjoy the lovely full moon evening agaisnt the dark bluish skies and the rampaging waves. The fact we were 6 stags, did no good to either of us ..all dreaming of if's and but's....

We had an awesome dinner across the beach, in a shack and this was probably one of the most divine nights that we would have enjoyed in our Goa trip. Arambol Rocks...big time for the excellent options it has of food joints,beach shacks, mountain views, the lovely water and of course a non interfering crowd.

One of the best things to do at night, is to plug your walkman, and take a walk across the wetter parts of the beach and lo you feel the inner peace and a sense of calm, that seemed to be lost in your daily journey to work.

Expect more updates soon..........(with Pictures)

So near yet 14 runs far

West Indian Cricket, over the years have produced very few solo heroes who stand tall amidst the ruins. Some that I can think of are instances where indivudual heroics just add spice to an otherwise insipid performance. Lets go right back to Richie Richardson quitting the scene after the 96 world cup. Lara's twin centuries against the aussies in the carribean, Ricardo Powell's masterful 124 off 93 balls in the finals of the Coco Cola Championships against (who else !!!???) India, Samuel's charge against the Aussies in 2001 and his century against India at Vizag in 2002, Chanderpaul's 150 against the South Africans in 1999, and of course looking at Team moments , the best ones being the incredible 418 record breaking chase against the Australians at Antigua and the victory in the ICC Champions Trophy 2004. These are a few bright glistening moments amidst the appalling losing streak that the men from the carribbean have become used to.

But hey ..things are changing arent they? The West Indies have now bounced back tremendously since their home one day series against Zimbabwe and India, and though may really not have found all the answers to being a happy and winning unit, they are definetely on their way there.


Sometimes defeat can be the elixir of life that one may be looking for, as in defeat, one is forced to think of their insecurities and their battle with them.It may take anything from a second to a few years to conquer the demons of the mind, but as long as the desire to drive away the demons of defeat is there, hope can spring up like light at the end of a dark tunnel.
The West Indies have probably matured like that, over the last 10 years where they played not to lose heavily.The year 2005 being their worst, with 2 victories out of 18 matches, ending up last in the table of 13 teams. Its been a remarkable change for them in the year 2006, beating Australia thrice (No Team, except South africa did that last year) and also some of the other teams, and finishing 4th in the 2006 odi tables.


Somebody's whose stood through all through those losses and seen the team go from bad to worse and now slowly rising like the phoenix, has been Shivnarine Chanderpaul(along with Lara). Chanderpaul's innings yesterday seemed like a great greek tragedy in the sense that the old warrior fought when all was lost, and seemed to take the battle to the enemy's camp, sending frissons down Dravids spine.

There is a sense of ruggedness in bis batting.He may not posses the most sublime off frive or the flick, nor may be there any elegance in his stance,but all he has is the courage to conquer oppositions by his dogged resolve and batting. Yesterday his innings at Nagpur was a treat to the person who could believe that miracles do happen. His innings bordered on the mundane for a while before a sleeping giant woke up and decided to make India pay for their lapse(The catch Sreesath dropped). The consecutive fours off the bowling of Agarkar and Sreesanth made the bowlers frustrated. 3 fours after the dropped catch made agarkar fume. Sreesanth started the next over attempting to atone his sins of dropping chanderpaul and he too was smoted by Chanderpaul for 3 effortless boundaries before Chanderpaul unluckily gave the strike to Ramdin, who started the beginnning of the end.

Though 59 of 23 looked a distant possibility, when it resuced to 33 of 12, I was still biting my nails with a "what if " sign, as Chanderpaul's grit was like robinhood fighting for his land. What was then hot fire, now turned into a damp squib, when Chanderpaul gave up the fight in the last 2 overs.The warrior ran out of steam, but played an incredible innings,under pressure.What actually made me chew my nails was, the fact Chanderpaul was hitting the ball at will wherever he chose, and it was this arrogance that seemed like it could easily be India's bugbear.

Even though India managed to sneak through, It was certainly Chanderpaul's day, an innings etched into the annals of great chases..and as I say this, something tells me that Chanderpaul and Lara will fade into the sunset of their careers with World cup being their biggest hurrah, that they could tell their grandchildren, as their pearl which took a long time coming.

Lack of time

I have been a little busy lately battling the common cold, some personal work and family issues. I did manage a post on my alternate mirror blog.I am posting the link of my travellogue Blog part 2 here. I will add more to it in the coming days, atleast 5 pictures a day starting from today on my Blogger Blog.

The last few days have been a lot of interospection on life so far and what I want to get out of life etc etc. I have a lot to share here in terms of thoughts and opinions, posts that I have missed out, will soon feature here.

This blog will be back to brimming with my views, starting from today (not this post...the next one :-) )

Livin La Vida Goa-Part 2

The Next day, I woke up at 4 30 in the morning, given the fact that the train was scheduled to arrive at Mangalore by 5 30 am. None of my friends wanted to be woken up at this unearthly hour. The first major station I saw early in the morning was Kasaragod, a small town in Kerala.The train stopped there for a few minues, and I got down and searched the platform for any vendor, who could sell me some hot tea/ coffee, but it wasn't to be.

I started till here and gave up as the images took a lot of time to load. Expect a detailed post on each day coming up.I have already typed the content, but since content without images would be bland, I am waiting for an apprpriate time to add the images once internet bandwith and my mood are in sync. I am right now in the Bangalore Railway station,working on some personal work, as I have a conference in a few hours on Sankey Road.

The whole travellogue should be up this week.

Indian Cricket _Venkatesh Prasad Vs Aamir Sohail

Indian Cricket Watch the famous episode between Aamir Sohali and Venkatesh Prasad in 1996 World Cup Quarter Final, India vs Pak in Bangalore.

Livin La Vida Goa-Part-1

10-30 am 27th December- I get a call from my friend Anand, who's waiting at the central station, Chennai for 1 member of the gang to arrive, yes thats me..andI had to cut his call, as I was in a meeting, fully aware of the fact that, three kilometres from the place I work, a certain Mangalore West Coast express was all set to leave in 45 minutes. I quickly finished the meeting I was engrossed in at work, and sped to the station a good 25 minutes ahead of time, only to hear that the train was to leave half an hour later than scheduled.The surplus time was spent gazing the various platforms of Chennai Central and hogging in Saravana Bhavan.

Once the train started, we discovered that the 6 of us had been booked in two different sets of seats,3 in each set, though within the same coach.Unfortunately I had no glamorous woman between 18 and 25 in my coach, and I resigned to my fate of having to send the journey with 3 cronies and 2 potential terrorists. Out of these 5 people 1 was a 70 year old self proclaimed god fearing man, while his adjacent seat had a man wearing a white and white shirt and Lungi.He turned out to be a politician, a councilor of the Red hills area in Chennai.The other 3 people were his chamchas. A few minutes into the journey the 2 "potential terrorists" who did not posses a ticket, drove away the original inhabitants of the seats away with force,which was mutely watched by all passengers.Though I did raise my voice in support of the victims, the rowdie's voice seemed to overpower mine and mine was lost in the din of the noise between the harangued passengers, the hooligans and a shamed TTE.

If that was not enough the Councilor opened his suitcase and amidst a smelly set of clothes were a few bottles of liquor and heavily greased oil packets having chicken biriyani.These savage men went about openly having liquor as soon as the TTE passed and I had to bear the dirty smell, for well over an hour before the drunken stupor struck them and they fell asleep.

In their drunken state, before they lost consciousness, a eunuch entered our compartment and these 5 men, including the lecherous old man(the self proclaimed god fearing 70 year old), decided to extract his share of fun, for the tenner, he personally entered into the eunuch's blouse.He went about fondling various sensitive organs of the eunuch and the rest of the men also seemed to lay their hands on whatever they felt would titillate them. It was a like a porn movie with their clothes on.The eunuch went about teasing and entertaining her patriots before she decided that these 50 plus men, were not man enough. Our tour had an eventful start and left us shocked at the audacity of the politician and the old man.

From the Right-Clockwise - Thats the letch, Vinu Anand and arvind, sitting in rapt attention of what their future looks like

Before the old man, succumbed to the liquor, he also entertained us on the pretext of checking our palm and giving us pointers on astrology. He cracked some lewd jokes, that never looked befitting the image he had give us earlier, and the guys patiently listened as we had no one else in the compartment to speak to :-).

The 6 of us regrouped and started making fun of each other, especially the funniest college antics each of us did and topping the list was a discussion on one of our fellow companion, Sabarinath, who changed his name to Shabreee after spending an afternoon in London.Thankfully decent couple boarded the station at Vellore and they gave us company tell Palakkad, and we didnt have any more dirty episodes, barring a few minutes when the politician tried making a pass at the couple(the lady, more so ), in his last stages of drunken stupor.

The period from 6pm to 9 pm was the most enjoyable with the fresh evening breeze, cooling the warmth on a hot Chennai afternoon. This period was spent taking potshots at each others inane comedies while in College,after all it was supposed to be a small re union amidst friends.

December 27th seemed to be over in a flash, and as soon as we entered Kerala, I helped myself to a few banana snacks including chips and some local delicasies that is available at the wayside stations.

Sabari and I at Palakkad station.

The later part of the night was spent listening to music, and this particular song "Green -Day Bouleward of Broken Dreams" as I sat near the isolated window near the door, to reflect on what I wanted from this 6 day break from the normal routine.Though it was chill, I enjoyed opening the door of the compartment at night and feeling the chill gush of wind, even as I could see the train snaking along the bends and the curves under the moonlight, with my walkman providing the right musical ambience.

Thats me at the window

Expect more in Part-2 ( On day 2 the 28th of December-2006).

Insipid Life

Life for the moment is pretty hectic , insipid and not worth measuring. Expect a detailed post on my Goa travellogue soon. The Goa trip was a such a respite from work, but the short 4 night stay in Goa, was too short to explore North Goa properly.I managed to visit Arambol,Ashwem and Vagator beaches, and spent sometime in solitude on the moonlit beaches,with my walkman playing a few kishore da numbers.It was absolute bliss for the moments I sat there,on the rocks abutting the wet sands. In short Goa was like a dream that faded away in a wink.

Life looks hectic as whatever I plan to do invariably fails and the fast pace of life all off a sudden from the laidback lifestyle in Goa has had my body complaining of fatigue very easily.

Photos and Goa tour pics coming soon.

Saddam Hussein's Death-Video recording on Mobile Phone

Saddam's hanging seems to have been covered by a video.I dont know the extent to which this is true, but just passing it on to folks to share the video.

The embed code for LIVE LEAK doesnt seem to be working, but I guess it should work on a Wordpress Plugin.

embed src="http://www.liveleak.com/player.swf" width="450" height="370" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" flashvars="autostart=false&token=863ce7d4a3" scale="showall" name="index" />

Phew!!!

The last few days have been hectic, busy and interesting. Lot of time spent at work, swimming classes at 6 in the morning, and a huge back ache on a monday evening chennai traffic jam, is forcing me to leave work an hour earlier. Some application forms remain to be filled, by tommorow and then I am all set for the much awaited GOA trip of mine from Dec 27 -Jan-1

Sanjay Subramanian's Concert

Margazhi mood,Margazhi Music,margazhi menu - it is definetely a feel good atmosphere at Vani Mahal, during the Chennai Music season.Sunday the 7th of December was one such day.The mood was evident in the quality of connoiseurs who had turned up, the lovely ghee dosais served in the Vani Mahal canteen and in the colour surrounding Vani Mahal. There was something in this old-world sabha that conjures up a lot of images,memories of the classical Chennai music season, as compared to the state of the art auditoriums that dont quite have that "home grown turf" classical touch.

The audience were huge in numbers except for a few seats in the backrows, but the Chennai music festival is growing in prominence and proprtion as time goes by.The December festival is a cultural melting point where and artists and rasikas converge to get drawn to the sensuality that carnatic music exudes.

I have attached a few videos of the Concert in Chennai last sunday of Sanjay Subramanian. The artiste was carnatic vocalist Sanjay Subramaniam ably supported by Guruvayur Dorai in mridangam, Nagai Muralidharan in violin and Neyveli Venkatesh in kanjira. As a fellow rasika sitting near me observed Sanjay never eased up with any simple compositions, but kept on with quite challenging raagas.

Though I dont understand much of music,The best part about carnatic music is its non invasiveness and peace that it brings to oneself during the concert.

What makes Rajni tick?

Born as Shivaji Rao Gaikwad 57 years ago, Rajnikanth made his first steps into tinsel town with his first movie "Aboorva Ragangal" in 1975. Since then in the last 31 years.He has won 14 awards for his movies. A harder look statistics reveal that all of Rajnikanth's movies ran for more than 100 days, including his latest movie "Chandramukhi" in 2005.

The above statistic easily makes him the most watched Indian superstar amongst his peers. So what intrigues me is what elavated him to that cult status?

Was it his villainous moves and the angry young man looked he potrayed in some of his earlier movies? Was it the panache he displayed in terms of his unique style of flipping his sunglasses or throwing a cigarette right between his lips. Or was it due to the fact that a majority of people could connect with his "bhola bhala " roles in some of his movies post 80's which had the look of a loser simpleton who won in the end?

Rajnikanth remains an enigma to me, in the few movies of him I have watched. There was nothing spectacular about his acting or dialogue delivery, but I feel some of his earlier movies had this arrogant stylish cocky image that caught the fancy of people and that just stuck on, and by the times the late 80's and 90's came, he blossomed into a " people's hero" with tailor made roles that had a sense of ruralness connected with the way he acted.

I remember the famous line "I can talk English, walk english, laugh english" which instantly made him positioned for the masses, with people easily relating some part of their lives with Rajnikanth. Not that I am against him, but I feel that Rajnikanth's USP was his "pandering to mass" brand positioning that helped him come to the limelihght.

Since his brand has grown over the years like a tsunami gaining force, I see a lot of people accepting Rajnikanth as their "hero" and when Rajnikanth got this vital support from the masses, he started concentrating on throwing in political entendres in his movies, to suggest a hypocratic image of "If I want I can be the CM, but let the people choose me" . Nothing wrong with that too, he is a shrewd guy, who has learnt to capitalise on a certain brand positioning.

But If I were to pick the best Indian actor, I would definetely place Kamala hassan and the late Sivaji Ganesan as one of the most versatile actors of this era. I'd then rate Amitabh Bachan, for his dialogue delivery and that voice that has been the cornerstone of Indian cinema for a long time. If I remember right, Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh bachan owed a major portion of their success stories to the erstwhile singer Kishore Kumar, for some mellifluous songs that feature them, just as Rajnikanth owed some of his major successes to movies that had the "loser has the last laugh" image (most Indian movies have that, dont they ? )

Another reason why Amitabh and Rajesh Khanna figure higher than Rajnikanth on my rating would be the fact that the movies and the roles that they acted in were far more decent than some of the movies that Rajnikanth acted. In someways I feel Rajnikanth's roles were limited by the paucity of the quality of Tamil films in the 80's and 90's to leave a lasting impression on the mind of a viewer called Kartik Kannan. Even though some of Rajnikanth's movies were bordering on the run of the mill " I am my Mom's best son" types, it still had a huge fan following, while in the 80's and the 90's , Rajnikanths other adversaries had experimented with better movies and better roles.

So the argument is whether the quality of Rajnikanth's audience a discerning audience at all? Were they swayed too much by the hype of a man, over a stuck up" middle class, loser who wins" image?

I personally felt he had no exceptional qualities as a hero, neither did he have any quality movie (except Dalapati) since the 90's that could match the roles a Kamala Hassan or an Amitabh did. But I must say Rajnikanths star power in terms of the number of days his movies ran, is stil a record for an actor, and I keep wondering whether the brand positioning was what elavated him to his current king status.

Let the discussion begin :

The Music Season

It was a sunny day, before the sun faded away,painting the evening Chennai gorizon dark, with rain imminent. It is in such a season, that music seems to be in the air, and given the fact that I was attending a Carnatic performance, this evening, I was raring to go.

 

The Venue was Chennai's Vani Mahal, situated on G.N.Chetty Road.The lead singer was

T.M.Krishna

t

 

Though my knowledge of music is not all that high , I nevertherless watched his conert with awe as Krishna sang with domineering gestures,enjoying singing, probably envisioning beyond the melody percieved by tyro's in music like me. Even as I say, he had a domineering gesture, in sharp contrast was a man, who looked simlpe and some one who enjoyed showing his repertoire to the knowledgable gathering at Vani Mahal.

 

I had recorded a few clippings of his concert that I managed to catch up.

 

Video 1

 

VIDEO-2    

 

 

T.M.Krishna seems a pretty media savvy young person, who even has a website for himself to interact with his fans. I am informed, he had studied at The School, K.F.I, which was quite close to my earlier house at Adayar. Al in all, an enjoyable evening, listening to the various moods and expressions of T.M.Krishna, through his music.

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Incase you are an ardent fan of Carnatic music and want daily season tickets for Concerts in Chennai(Read Complimentary) , you can contact Team Sulekha ( hemak@sulekha.net ) for Tickets.

 

There is a caveat though.... YOU NEED TO EITHER CAPTURE THE MUSIC CONCERT ON A DIGICAM AND BLOG ABOUT THE EVENT(A MINIMUM OF 10-15 LINES). If you are game, I suggest you call up my team mate, Hema at 044-66789810 or mail her at hemak@sulekha.net

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Sulekha.com  is covering the music season on a group blog (http://musicseason.sulekha.com ), which is updated by daily blogs on the music season in hennai with reviews and pictures. Please do spread the word to music connoiseurs, about our new music blog page.  

Application Blues

The past few days have been quite busy checking out various B school brochures and seeing where to apply with my current GMAT Scores.I have lesser schools to select from as my scores are not in the 'Normal Indian" bracket, so that way I wont be wasting time even thinking about the IVY league. I have decided to schedule the GMAT sometime next year in February, which would be useful for applying for fall of 2008, but some schools may accept for the fall of 2007, especially the ones that have deadlines a little late, as far back as in April or beyond, but I would not be eligible for scholarships. Scholarships are preferable, but not essential as they are far and few in between when it comes to an MBA,but my focus on getting an admit is more so towards the course structure, my profile, the B school profile, the average GMAT score to apply at the B school and of course the Average Salary.

But somewhere down the line, the irritant that keeps nagging my mind from an ROI perspective is the fact that its a lot better, I wait a year and apply with better GMAT scores.In all likelihood, I may wait another year, but may apply to just get a feel of the programs and the interview experience, so that I can apply to the better league of colleges next year with renewed vigour.

Some of the schools where I have decided to knock the doors at least temporarily are these(subject to change- based on finances/essays and realistic admits).

Fox,Temple University- Philadelphia
Kelley- Indiana
Thunderbird,Garvin
Georgetown- Washington
UCD Micheal Smurfit SOB(School of Business)- Dublin
Peter Drucker School of Management-California

IE Business School-The Management in Marketing program-Spain

Essec Business School-Paris

INCAE Business School- Costa Rica

Oh Yeah !!! in this quest of Phoren B schools, I quite forgot some of the desi applications. I am takng JMET and Narsee Monjee(NMIMS) this Sunday and SNAP next Sunday with XAT to follow right after my GOA trip.

In between all this there are the 12 hour work days and the compulsarily made optional saturday that is there to work, leaving absolutely no time for other pursuits...(or am i a bad manager ). Too Many questions, Too much analysis, very few answers....Thats life right now.

On Your Mark, Get, Set, Go !

This particular incident came to my attention when I had gone to see of my friend last weekend at Central station, thankfully choosing to be away from Justin Kemp's slaughter on the Indians. When the evening train from Kolkata arrived at the platform where we were seated, we noticed the frenzy of porters who quickly arrived from nowhere and started to squat in serial order.I could understand they were waiting for the passengers to alight, so as to solicit their order of getting to carry the luggage. What I couldn't understand was however, the fact that the porters were aquatting at a certain position even as the train slowed.I wonder, if there is any tradition behind this act, or has it been something that has been transferred hands across generations.

Railway stations seem a lovely place to sit down and unwind memories, especially if you need a relatively not-so-costly and unobtrusive place.There is this cozy little 4 seater seat on Platform 10 of Chennai Central, a little after the Saravana Bhavan and Marry Brown Restaurant, which is not inhabited by many people. So if solitude and peaceful gossip is what you are looking for, this place with a Fresh and Honest Cafe near by seems a lovely hangout.



However dirty and yucky the stations might be, I still never seem to get bored of travelling by 2nd sleeper class. It may be a little tough trying to fit my tall frame on the limited rectangular space provided, but the very experience of travelling in a train , next to a window seat, seems to be lovely companion, providing you support, even as you keep your face on the horizontal poles on the window and waft away into thoughts.



I would always feel,as if I am on an army tank in the time of a war, (When I travel in a train) so I would condition my mind and stomach, to see anything comestible as a gastronomic delight and still I find that, the excitement of buying the dirty bondas and cutlet from the VLR stall, has never diminished. But one thing that still seems to draw a nauseating cringe to my face is the way the 2nd class toilets are maintained.The flush invariably doesnt work, and the only liquid that flows through the toilet seems to be the urine, and the male folk only add to the misery by spraying it all over. But for the toilets in 2nd class, life is still bindaas travelling by 2nd class, the biggest attraction being the amount of networking one gets to bond with people of different places and economy levels. The friendships made in a train journey are invariably like the lovely dream that lasts only for a few minutes, or more like a eye watering mirage. I have very rarely found any true companion and maintaine a friendship through such companions, though the journey and the moments spent with such strangers has always been fascinating.



My Next train journey would be on the 27th of this month,when I would be boarding the train to Goa with some of my college buddies for a much awaited re union.I am just hoping the journey is eventful and I reconnect with newer buddies.



The route that I have taken is quite a strange one, due to the lack of connecting trains and availability of tickets.I have tried to minimise the dependence on local buses, trying to make sure that the journey is confirmed, at all points and doesnt muck up, because one part of the journey depends on another part of the journey.

27 Chennai -Mangalore , leaving at 11 am

28 Reaching mangalore at 5 am , waiting for the connecting passenger train at 7 am to Madgoan.This is the KR2 Konkan railway train, replete with hajaar tunnels along the way. reaching Madgaon at lunch and boarding another passenger train that reaches Tivim, a way side station near the place we are lodged(Mapusa).

29 Explore and snore

30 Explore and snore

31 " Where's the party Tonight"?

1 Travel back ... Madgoan-Mangalore-Chennai

2 Reach Chennai at 5 am. Start running the race of life....

"Maami Samayal"

Christened a Tamil Brahmin for some time now has made my ear quite perceptive to anything that has a tag of "Iyer", my caste and community. It has also made my taste buds dance to the tunes of the food that is typical of a Brahmin household. There are times, when I have searched high and low for a meal that reminds me of home when I am far away from it, but I found only North Indian dishes closest to what is made at home(mine or a north Indian's home).South Indian food was largely left unexplored, often culminating in the quickie that Saravana Bhavan or Ratna cafe fed me. But these 2 hotels were frequented more by me for their "closer -to -home" status and the ubiquitous sambhar they served.


But since change is the only thing that’s constant in life, my southie foodie habits took a better turn last Friday in Chennai when the "MAAMI SAMAYAL" food festival was inaugurated. With the enthusiasm of the weekend setting in on Friday evening, I quickly found my way to the DaysInnDeccanfoodPlaza. The Olives restaurant was decked up with a pandal giving it a festive mood

I sat in my chair, waiting for the waiters, nattily dressed in white with the traditional Veshti to add to the authenticity of the place. Lady Chef Gowri Mami, from Mayiladutharai, showed up, from nowhere and I was introduced to her and found that this was her first such culinary expedition outside Mayiladutharai, and at that point I quite didn’t realize what an awesome debut she has made.


The wide array of the spread had my attention and the hospitable gesture of the chef prompetd me to taste, shunning all inhibitions of social eating.

It started off with the Neer Moar Panagam, which is a welcome drink, that had the pleasure
being gulped down thrice my throat, after which my tongues wagged towards the Podis and pickles. The Podis had the Paruppupodi and the ellu podi, and the pickles had the vepilai kati. Once the starters started to allay the fears of a stomach revolt, I proceeded to the main course. Porichakootu and Araithavitta sambhar, entertained my taste buds, before the Maami from Mylai, informed me that it was one of her favourites. Also in the main course and worth a nibble were the Kathirika Podi satham and the kuzhambu vada, which elicit memories of marriage functions and festivals at home.




Another mouth watering dish that I encountered was a special made by the "Mylai Maami", having meshed bananas with Dosa. It may seem a little out of place to have bananas with dosai, but I have tried this out at home some time back, but considering that this was professionally made, my mouth had a mind of its own, as long as it could take enough of banana dosai, until the deserts came to the scene. I am informed that the menu here changes daily in terms of the specialty dish that the "Maami" cooks during the 10 day festival.

The sweet tooth in me was waiting to explore the viands on display and the "Akkara Adisil,Gothumai Halwa and Kunja laddo add to the experience of savouring a lovely lip exercise, even as the mild instrumental carnatic music wafts you away releasing all the pressures of a hectic week.

I also happened to meet up with the executive chef of the Days Inn restaurant, Mr Shankara Subramanian and got to know about his work style. He spends his time researching on the web for newer recipes and wants to explore a food connoisseur corner on the internet to share his experiences with like minded people. A major chunk of his time, is spent on hunting for people /cooks from the "Real India" to add more authenticity to his food festivals. Sometimes its a "maami" fest or a "Rajasthan ka Khaana" or a Andhra food fest, all year long at his restaurant, for which he does the planning and execution of the food festivals.

He is of the opinion that working in a bigger hotel allows a chef to experiment with more cuisines as compared to a smaller hotel chain which is too busy poaching commercial interests as against exploring the nuances and researching of some more viands.

Wait a minute, I am not yet done!!. The Chef asked me to wash down my stomach with a kumbakonam digiri coffee, and guess what? They gave all diners a pack of goodies, the same traditional way goodies are packed at the end of a marriage and given to the guests. I was more than impressed with the finesse with which the food festival was conducted and professionally managed giving that all important personalised home touch.

Mami Samayal is from 24th November to 8th December 2006 at "Olives" the multi cuisine restaurants for Lunch and for dinner. Check out www.deccanhotels.com and you could contact the assistant F&B manager, Mr Suresh at 09840987713

Back in action

I am feeling relatively better now, though the proper reason of headaches and recurrent fever, is not yet sorted out. Doctor says, too much strain, lack of excercise, eye power increase and improper bowel habits may be a reason, which to an extent is true, but I am not really sure whether that is the only reason for recurrent headaches. I still have not got an appintment with the neccesary doc, but I guess over the course of the next few days, things should be sorted out.

Started the weekend in a lovely fashion, went to a lovely "Tam brahm Maami food festival" in Mylapore at the Deccan Inn and came back at about 11 pm last night. Then watched American Pie 4 and "The Guru" till about 2 30 in the morning with a couple of close friends and zeroed in our respective lives and our goals... till about 4, after which each of us fell asleep and got up at 8 am. It was one heck of a night watching and laughing laudly at both the movies, which could be described as the -sex comedy- genre of movies. I actually watched a full movie after a long time...and boy it was like reliving college day gang movie watching with friends in the wee hours.

I do plan to put up some photographs of the food festival, by the weekend.

Service Tax ?

The Indian goverment certainly, knows where to position the message, so that the message is "loud and clear" to the consumer...ahem the male half of the population.Now lets see an ad from the goverment that entices the female population too :-) .

Kartik C headache B fever 6(8)

The past 6 days have been quite puzzling, in the sense that both headache and fever have played truant with my health for an all important week, and show no signs of abating.A local doctor initially called it normal fever, then some one else said viral fever, and I actually dont know whom to belive. If the fever abates the headache doesnt, and a slight increase in headache starts to trigger the fever. I was feeling better on tuesday, but a trip out to ashok nagar in the evening chill(I know Chennai aint all that chill, but ...) seemed to have worked inimically against me.

Lying in the bed whole day long, seems actually pretty boring, as it makes me even lazier.It'a yucky phase of life that must be endured till a solution is found.Some time back,when I was studying my final year of engineering, similar bouts of uneasiness came by, with excessive stomach ache and headaches as symptoms.After a year and 6 doctors whom I consulted, I finally found the right doctor in Mr Rajkumar of Lifeline Clinic,Adayar, who diagnosed my problem as Tubercolosis of the colon,and I had to endure a rather painful laser operation which put me off for about three drugged months.

I am a little hesitant to move anywhere outside as the chillness in the air seems to affect me immideately and the last thing I would want is a headache while writing the all important CAT exam in a matter of 40 hours from now. I just hope I find the right doctor who is able to isolate the problem and free me from this tyranny of a headache, which makes me so paralysed, that I cant even bend my head down.

Hoping to get better...

PS:

I hear India has just lost a warm up game in Benoni. I think the team needs a dose of inspiration from Sandy Gordon, to psyche them up for the series that is getting under way in some time.The team is totally a pale shadow of what it was 9 months back after back to back series victories against England and Pakistan.

What does it take to the beat the Aussies

Ashes-What the Poms should do?

The Poms have just started their tour down under and have been just thrashed by a second string Australian XI by 186 runs. Will the Poms be thrashed severely in the Ashes? My take on the Poms is that as long as they are able to have a steady bowling attack that can unsettle and dishevell a few aussies, who knows the Aussies can be given a run for their money.

England needs to settle into a strategy where their batsmen need to dominate the Aussies at more than 3 an over and not to try to match the high Aussie run rate.Sometimes the advantage that Australia gives the opposition by their fast run scoring is, the time it gives the opponents to strategise against the aussies.Thats how India almost knoocked the wind out of the Aussie sails in 04.The Aussie strength lies in their mental mien that they exude, while that is just what England lack.Performance under testing conditions makes you belive in yourslf and since the aussies have done that quite consistently for some time, I presume hiccups for the aussies would be quite minimal and what England need to ensure is that they strategise well on and off the field.

10 Tips for England to keep the urn.

1) Dont give up on Verbal Banter.Give the aussies as good as they get.

2) Try to bounce out the Australians like the English summer of 05.

3) Attack the Aussies to make them lose 2o wickets.

4) England for heavens sake, please get out of your slumber and start performing from Test 1, as the first 2 tests have always been warm up games for England, as seen in the 94,98 and 03 series, the English performances start to peak only after the Sydney test matches.

5) Have the Barmy army in full force to vociferously support you.

6) Dont prepare Tactics against warne, just learn to hold on for dear life.

7)Learn to defend Mcgrath and Co and negate them and then attack after being settled.

8) If you are in a winning position, dont try harakiri against the Aussies, they are getting too bored.

9).Dont do foolish things and have your players injured.If I remember right the 93 or 94 series against the Aussies had 34 different English players playing in 5 test matches and the one day series.

10) Remind the Aussies hard that they lost the ashes last time and let Ponting and Warne only be spectators

In Search of life....

I am right now filling up an application form, for my Masters in business administration and when these questions stare at me, I just seem to copy it and stare blankly at life

Do I have a life?

Am I living the life I want?

Do I know what I want to do?

Do I know where I am heading in Life?

Do I know the right people to trust in life ?

My answers to most of the questions vacillate between a yes and a no and seem more inclined towards a NO. These questions are hitting me a week before CAT, and ya the timing couldnt have been better. My CAT scores havent really looked up, but humankind has invented something called hope, and I seem to subscribe to that more often than not. Life actually seems a rat race day by day and the added pressures of life, seem to take the sheen of life, and add it to the hedonism factor that my brain loves being pampered with, you just want to ask me " why the hell do you want to do management? ".

I guess life wouldn't ask me such questions If I was getting 14% ile higher than the current mock cat scores and if I had a seat at a premier business school by now.I would have cool'ly assumed that life was taken care of and not even recognize that my soul cant answer 5 basic questions that the conundrum called life put to me.

Its not a linear world, and nobody is out to give you sweets.They give you a box of sweets if you indirectly gave them a ton of sweets.Everybody is running, so am I, but when I take breather...I ask myself why am I running,where am I running, will running in this direction help me?even as someone running along with me lies to me that, this is the best path to run,since he needs company to accomplish the running task Sometimes the breather or the break extends a little too much into overtime and I again start running. While running there are rogues that push mud on filth on you, or make you trip, as they need to overtake you and even as you overcome all this, you still are wondering what a great leveller life is, it pulls you up only to be pushed down.

While you just relax and mull, there comes a comment that "X's daugher has gone onsite, Y's son got admission into IIM A, Z who got a lesser grades than you, somehow managed to become a program lead and hajaar such comments that keep reverberating in your mind to mindlessly push yourself against the wall to expand your horizons. Not that you dont appreciate their success, just that you ask yourself, why not me? and even if you didn't what are families there for?

Life for the last 3 years has been like trying to walk across a slimy surface and slipping time and again.The end seems near, but the 7th class lesson of Optical illusion seems to only seems to give you bad memories.Sometimes honesty gets you nowhere, while you see incompetent fools, avoiding the slimy path, as they get the "divine exemption". Does that mean, I change myself? I probably would'nt , but I would prefer to rely on persistence to get through the slimy surface inch by inch and then take on the injustice.Sometimes, you feel like getting all charged up and fighting back, but its always safe to not challenge the power of the waves, just allow the waves to hit and you,while you stand firm..and just wait for the waves to abate and rubbish the advice of a 100 " well wishers" who'd advice you to fight the tide.

43 minutes past this post I still have not found the answer to those questions.But since I need a fat pay cheque and a good life, I will eventually go back to lying about 5 questions and prove to the B schools that I am applying that

"You know what, I am the guy, whom your program desparately needs to add the diversity to the MBA Program, and .....blah blah blah........".

So give me examples of how you have handled crisis situations ?

"Once My friend threw cowdung on my face during a discussion and I immideately said "you know what, You dont know how much of protein and vitamin supplements you have given my face, I may now not want to use that "fair and lovely" cream for the face vitamins, as the shit that you have accorded my face, seems to be glowing my skin.but it seems to have hit only one part of my face, would you wanna paint the other part brown?"

The Result:: My other friend who was "networking" (flirting) close by, got convinced of my crisis management capabilities and gave me a job in his company.

Give some details of awards won

Award for the most "out-standing" student in college, as I passed all exams without actually being in the class.

What is the biggest lesson you have learnt in the Corporate World ?

I learnt that Pareto, didn't actually waste his time creating theorems, Infact one of his theorems was so practically followed at the places where I used to work.
The 80-20 rule does apply, with a slight deviation though :-
80% of the work is done by 20% of the people
The remaining 20% ask 80% of the questions *

How useful was the 6 Sigma concept ?

Well, according to popular management folklore experienced by friends of mine at various companies the concept is Indianised into6 Nagma concept:

6 Nagma's is what it takes to ruin your career.The 6 females laugh aloud at the workplace, get all the promotions, get to assign work to you, get to screw you in the "zor ka jhatka dheerey sey laga " way , get to laugh at you, get to leave at 5 15 before the honcho leaves and get to "network" in the female restrooms the time you spend on your machine staring at code.

Get three evaluators to write about you ?

First Person: Kartik...was an extremely intelligent ...

Second Person: Kartik is a potential L.N.Mittal .....

Third Person: Kartik is an immaculate guy .......

After three long praising essays I get happy at seeing so many good things written about me, but later concience pricks me, as I have done this mono acting of me being all the three reviewers, partially exhausted the word list and lied so much, that depression and grief puts me to sleep before the alarm raises its ugly head early next morning.

What are the three things you expect at your "ideal" job ? **


Better Pay
Better Pay
Better work atmosphere ( Better Chicks)


But, that’s not what you can say on your B School application now, can you ?
So, you come up with illuminating reasons. Some of them being:

Looking for higher exponential learning across various verticals.

Looking to increase exposure, for personal enrichment.


-------Its a vague rant alright.... but somehow I feel all this crap of "management selling" is a false way of life to project yourself and even a career progression depends on how you suck up sometimes and how you beg for the extra increment,every quarter....over a period of time.

MBA Schools know this, but still expect you to say lies in a smiling armour. Dont get me wrong,I may have not seen much of the world, but get a strange feeling that all the glitz and glamour that the corporate world promises...is only a false screen where puppets like you and me get that extra second of coverage.

* , ** Concept inspired from (: Sudhir)

Clash of the Titans

The ICC Champions trophy final is all set for a grand finale between the Aussies and the Windies. The Carribeans have been the most improved team since April, after their rather stunning turnaround in the one day series against India. I guess playing Zimbabwe at home, and beating them hollow 5-0 did a real favour to the West Indies as they found ways of winning which seemed almost non existent in recent years. As I was having my lunch, I picked up an old issue of The Sportstar dating to 1995,which talked about how Richie Richardson, the erstwhile WestIndies captain, made jarring comments about the Australian team calling them the "weakest team to tour the carribean", even after losing the series 1-2 to the Aussies.

That was the beginning of the end, in terms of WestIndian cricket, as victories have been few and far in between happening only versus India,England and Zimbabwe (1998 vs England 4-3 ,1999 Coca Cola Trophy,2001 Coca Cola Trophy, 2002 India TVS Cup and the 2004 Champions trophy). In between we got to see the worst of Carribean cricket,even though individual performances by Lara,Sarwan or Chanderpaul still shone through. So Will this Aussie match again be the turnaround in fortunes for the Windies? I belive so,atleast, as I see a ceratin hunger and a method in madness,in theirgame,which sadly has been lacking for a good part of 10 years.A victory at the ICC Champions trophy again can do a world of good to the Carribeans,in terms of reinstating their position back at the helm.

The semi final line up, pretty much were the most adaptable and improved teams since the last world cup.New Zealand and South Africa,in my opinion would continue to be on the top, since they are a team of 11 players , than being 3 or 4 star studded individuals making the team. Pakistan and India continue to show glimpses of brilliance, mainly bordering on inconsistency,while the lankans lag behind,when facing quality attacks and pressure.

The Poms, are going through an extended horrible run since 1995,and dont really seem to have set the Thames on fire since then(Victories include 97 Texaco trophy,Champions Trophy(Sharjah) and the Ashes Test series in 05).Otherwise ODI cricket wise, they have had a bad time, even though they did show some promise under Nasser Hussain.The Poms lack the ideal elements of a one day team.They just have 3 worldclass batsmen in Strauss,Flintoff and Pieterson,while the others fire once in twenty games(with the consistency of an Agarkar).Their bowling looks propped up in terms of pace, but lacks the momentum in the middle overs to complement Harmison and Sajid Mahmood. No Allrounders means, the death knell and all England can do is to compete fiercely with the likes of Zimbabwe or India to get some confidence before the World Cup.

So as they say, the new order changeth... I foresee the same semifinal line up in the World cup too(depending on the draws). I would be cheering for the Windies though...its time the bajans celebrated their existence in ODI Cricket

Whats up with the CAT?

The Common Admission Test(CAT) is one of India's most hyped up tests, in terms of media attention and in terms of adrenaline. I prefer to call it that way,even though I have been plain bulldozed twice before by the CAT, but this time around, though I dont really have any ammunition in terms of performance on the mock cats, I am just hoping for d-day to light up.My Percentiles in the mock tests are consistently hovering between 75 and 90 and I dont seem to be getting further at all. After work,coming and prepping is the hardest thing to do, but ya, that can be the lamest excuse. I have realised that CAT is not just about prep,but largely strategy oriented to help you sail through and thats one thing that I am banking on, to make me sail through. I guess just to test my ego, I would attend IMS's much hyped National Open Free Simcat Challenge.I really liked the way,Webchutney went about marketing it for IMS, given the fact that some of its earlier ad campaigns for Makemytrip was such an instant hit.

Sometimes the lack of prep helps you in a better position to solve only questions that you would bloody well know for sure. My GMAT flopped badly with a rather poor Verbal ability and a rather high quant score.I plan to revise some of my mock papers for the next week or so and ten get back to preparing hard for the verbal part for GMAT,which I plan to schedule it for the 3rd or the 4th week of November and also simultaneously take an honest call on the recco letters that i can honestly prepare from colleagues at work, as time for that is pretty less, given the fact that 2nd round admissions of most imminent B schools end in November December.

These are times, when you cling on to hope and smile all along.I feel like David walking up with a sling and stone in hand, as Goliath comes nearer day by day. Watch this space to know what happens next in a couple of weeks.

Social Bookmarking

Social Bookmarking, seems a relatively new phenomenon to have hit the on line world that seems to have hit the on line world by storm.Social bookmarking involves a user voting for a post, signifying his approval for the article.Lets say I read an article written on the " Indian Cricket team selection",by a user, and to elicit my approval for the story, I click the "vote button" near the story, the story gets an increment in the number of votes, proportionate to the number of people who liked reading that post. Its very similar to the model that is present in the Sulekha News, where users and commenter's help other readers read what would be only the best news or blog items.

So when a mass community helps you as an isolated reader, select the best news items to read, it saves you the time to sift through all the posts,and as the wont is, you to would not mind spreading the goodwill gesture by sifting through some of the articles.This in its true avatar is the changing face of citizen participatory media which is of immense value considering the dynamic nature of the content on the web.I am doing a small documented research on Social Bookmarking sites. If any body has a few ideas,examples to share, please do feel free to get in touch with me. For starters, I just see
Indianpad
Putvote
Indiagram.com


as 3 sites to start of from.

I am contactable at kartik (dot) kannan (at) gmail (dot)com and my research is more so on how the social Bookmarking phenomenon has revolutionized the Indian News reading sites and the influence of such sites on increasing the traffic on one's blogs.

Chennai in Spate

As I sit typing this, in my office, I hear winds buzzing past my ear,even though the windows at office are closed.Trees in and around office,are shaking to the tune of the wind.I am in office,right now,because I cant dare go back home, where I am sure, water would have crept into my ground floor home.I have shifted some of my books and other possessions to the first floor, but since there is no current(power) at home, I had to get out of madipakkam, wading through the slush.

The whole city, is battered by the recent rains and every where I see, road blocks and diversions and huge traffic woes.I dont intend to go back home for the next 2 days.I plan to stay in office as the winds and the rains are threatening and menacing to any driver riding his vehicle on the road. As observed in the mumbai rains, people longed to come back home,but I kinda differ, I feel more at ease at office than, being at home, as its worse at home with no power and all water all around.My only source of worry, is that my mother and grandmother are at home,and are pretty much marooned back home. I just wish and pray the rain clears, so that I can try my luck going home in this rain. I couldn't start from office at all, with the heavy rains through out the day,and given the fact that I need to bike 22 km's, the whole journey seems so unsettling and scary.

Right now, I am armed with my chair and trying to take a nap, in my cubicle,even as the winds threaten to blow away Chennai.

Whose BRIDE is it anyway?

A couple of days back, I had reached office , I received a phone call from my friend asking me whether I was interested in attending a colleague’s wedding, which I had conveniently forgotten in the melee of the 4 day long weekend. The marriage hall was identified as Om Shakthi Kalyana mandapam, in South Boag road T nagar.

I hurried my way through the traffic and met my friends at a predefined point, and then proceeded to locate this marriage hall titled “Om Sakthi”. After 10 minutes of “vulture” eye, tactics my friend swooped on the place, where a small board said “Om Shakthi” Manadapam.We parked our vehicles against the adjacent wall and went inside to observe that the marriage had long been over and people were belching there preparing themselves for a god siesta at about 10 30 in the morning. My friend Kishore, the intelligent guy that he is , gave a stunning explanation, that since the marriage muhurtam was at 11 00, they were waiting for the right time to arrive and assemble there

Waiting ?? ok , but that doesn’t mean the hall would have a deserted look.” Anyway, exceptions are in vogue, this season “ that’s what I said to myself and proceeded to search for my colleague “Ramachandran”(whose sister was getting married) who was not to be found anywhere across the lengths and breadths of the marriage hall. Since I had already spent a good 10-15 minutes searching, and was hungry,I decided to go and quench the call of hunger, hoping that “Ramachandran” would turn up to serve me food.That didn’t happen, and I was all to absorbed in having the idli,dosa and pongal drenched in mouth watering Sambhar of a typical “Tam Brahm” wedding.

After having our food, in between the belching, we felt odd that we didn’t know any one in the marriage hall, and there were no signs of Ramachandran.The time was 10 50 am now and as per Kishore’s logic, the bride and the bridegroom must have been on the altar now,but the bride was busy waiting someone after having her tiffin in the same session as us. Since , I had to also return to office,I wanted to get done with gifting the bride and pushing off,but it would’nt sound nice if the gift were to be given to the bride,without she actually knowing us. So we waited, for what must have been another 200 seconds,but seemed like eternity,before I mustered courage to stop this wait any longer.

I went up boldly to the bride and turned around and looked at her with a confident look,and suavely asked her “ U must be the sister of Ramachandran? “ . She gave me a quizzical look akin to a 4 year old boy seeing calculus. I cleared my voice and told that “I am for Sulekha.com and I have been searching for Ramachandran, your brother” , expecting that atleast now, she would put that faint smile that a bell would ring when she hears “Sulekha”, but alas ..she gave me an even more quizzical look, askin to a 4 year old kid in a topless bar. This was it, the height of insouciance, the bride cant be so irresponsible, not even knowing where her brother worked.Before I could figure out what to say next, the bride blurted “ I don’t know Sulekha.com” …..splash..just felt like a squashed tomato hit me and I retorted “ Its not about the company, but its about your brother” .

The bride all of a sudden pressed the panic button when her quizzical looks were spotted by some rather jobless family members who were contemplating when to doze off, with some paan(paaku) stuffed in their mouths. An old man , asked me what I wanted, to which I bluffed “ I wanted to give the gift, but forgot to address all the three gifting people involved” so, with that I bought some time to save further embarrassment , and went immediately to the next set of empty chairs and sat down with my two companions and gave them suicidal looks and asked them whether the marriage hall was the intended one. Just as the Bollywood movies would inspire a “ma –ki –saugandh sey bolta hoon”, Kishore gave me a stern look, to say “he’s absolutely damn sure that it was Om Sakthi Kalyana mandapam”. Having wasted eons chatting in an unknown place,I decided that I would go and check the name of the mandapam from outside, pretending to write the name of the Bride on the gift wrapped material. To my surprise, the board was stuck at a bout 10 metres saying “Om Shakti”, but what we missed was a board stuck 2 metres below it that said “Murugan Kalyana Manadapam”, to which I simpered like an idiot, though a furnace of anger was spewing within me, for having made a fool of myself in front of the bride.”Om Shakti” was on the first floor and it took us a minute to digest the fact that we had eaten in a marriage, of whom we were not related in any way.

Finally on the first floor,I saw a gleaming “Ramachandran” welcoming me, and enquiring why we were late? I had to name my boss as the villain who called me in for a surprise 8 am meeting (by the way the office starts at 9, which I forgot).When confusion and chaos reigns one realizes, that it takes seconds to start blabbering. He asked me to wait and have lunch , to which I politely refused, but he seemed adamant that he wanted me to see the bride,as he wanted to introduce us. Thankfully we only had our names on the gift wrapper, not the other “bride’s” name. But the bride, was busy dressing up …and we couldn’t eventually meet her. But I was suffering from too much guilt and was being the butt of my 2 other friends chaffs about my “ 30 second dialogue with the other bride”. After a few apologies, about returning to office, I left the building to start my vehicle, and just as I was waiting for my bike to start, I saw the guard in front of the “Murugan Kalyana mandapam”, with a wry look at we three, which seemed to silently mock at our Mandapam Misadventure.