Da Senti Tag

In this fast world when people are busy running faster than the fastest person, these tag blogs are nice respite that allows us to stop and spend sometime about ourselves and others. I' ve been tagged by my roomie. If I make a journey back in time, these are the things that I really miss....

1. WINNING. Itz such a great feeling when you triumph amongst some of the best competitors. My college days provided so many such opportunities in the fields of my interest. Itz been long since I have heard thunderous clappings when I received the prizes on the stage. Girish, You are still the best partner I have ever got for any competition. Where ever we go, however great or small we become, I know that we can never forget CIT Harmony in our lives.

2. FAST BIKING. I no longer have the guts to risk my life and do some crazy stunts that I used to try during college days. Sorry if you don't understand this, only my friends know about it.

3. SWIMMING in kerala. The place where I was pushed off a ridge into a 12 feet deep pond when I had no idea of what swimming is all about. This is how everyone learns swimming in Mathur ( My native place in Kerala ). Hours n Hours of swimming in the morning till the sun reaches itz scorching high, only to make me come back in the evening and swim till it getz really dark and the water snakes surface their heads and scares me out of the pond. Well, I do have a 16 feet deep swimming pool near my house in Pune, but nothing can be compared to the Mathur Agraharam pond.

4. TABLE TENNIS. Half my life in college was spent in the TT room. When I got the call letter from my company, the first thing I enquired was whether it had a TT table and a good crowd. I really miss Shabri, Shiva, and Kamalakannan Sir ( U taught me how to be an ass kicker in TT ) in Pune. I guess nobody can replace them in my life. However great a TT player you may be, You can't be any of these people. But what I got here was just one "dabba" board with a million people fighting for the worst torn, worn out bats. Shit it was.. I had to be content with what I got. Finally, that dabba thing was also removed and that place was made in a work station. Thanks to the growth pain of my company. Waiting with crossed fingers that the new GDC should have better facilities than these.

5. MYSORE BUS JOURNEY. As a kid, I used to be overwhelmed by the journey to Mysore from Coimbatore. That was something I used to look forward to in every vacation. Majot part of the journey involves a ghat section where there are 27 really sharp and steep hair pin bends. It used to be so much fun created out of sheer fear that the bus might slip off and fall from the top sometime or the other. Sitting at a window seat after fighting with my idiot bro ;) and holding my mom's hands tightly and taking a look out of the window with my head out was the ultimate joy of my life. I still remember that it was my 1st standard summer vacation, there was an accident at the 11th hair pin bend and the buses cannot go any further than that. My amma, bro and I decided to take a walk like every other person did. That was my first "Mountain Trek". Some good-hearted uncle got me an ice cream on the way and I paid the consequnces for the next one week. Everytime I sneezed or shivered out of cold n fever I used to hear my mom repeatedly say "Nanu ninage munche ne helidde ice cream thinnabeda antha". But ma, naanu avathu ice cream thinle illa, navibbaru adarabagge mathadulthalle irallilla 20 varushada nanthara.

Apart from these, I do miss everything that a normal 23 year old who stays away from home for work will. Friends whom we sworn as partners for life, my Mom's cozy touches, fights with bro, night shows with dad without Mom's knowledge ( I doubt whether she knows it till now ), bascially I'm languishing about my childhood days. But practically speaking, I love Pune. I love every friend of mine here. I know I have been very very very very harsh on a lotta people. But only they could have put up with all my nonsense. Given a choice, I would live like this forever.

Cheers,

Prad

To keep the ball rolling, I've tagged Bala, Akila, Neema, and Chef

With a Photographer

It is so much fun to use a digi cam. We don't have to worry about wasting any film strips, don't have try tooo hard and focus using the lens, and it's very easy to upload the pics to the computer.

These are my experiments with a digi cam. I took these pics around my office campus as a part of the Earth Day celebrations. So I thot I'll brag about it ;) Enjoy !!

The Modest Me !!

Cheers,
Prad

BOOMERANG

It was a hot summer morning in Mumbai. I was staying at Poonam Nagar, near Andheri. The college where I had to give my interview is at Deonar, a far far place near SION Trombey road. I got up early in the morning and caught a local to Bandra and got a bus from there to this college. Thanks to my friend who accompanied me on the previous day. Otherwise, with the amount of my Hindi knowledge, it would have taken ages to find out where this college is. The interview time was given as 10 AM in the intimation letter. But they were calling people based on the order in which we submitted the detailed application form on the previous day. I was helplessly waiting in a look alike dormitory room to get the interview call. There were so many other anxious aspirants with notes, laptops and what not!! Among all the others in the room, there was one girl who grabbed my attention. I could easily make out from her gestures that she was awfully nervous. She had an A4 size sheet in her hand which had something written on both the sides. It is anybody’s guess that the sheet contains answers to some basic questions like Why MBA? Why HR?? and so on. It was very funny to look at this girl especially when she was drawing virtual images in the air while trying to answer to questions in her mind. I kept looking at her when she suddenly turned and caught me. Not knowing what to do, I gave her a smile. She smiled back and continued with her virtual interview. But the smile was still lingering in my thoughts.

A couple of hours passed without any incidents. I went out for lunch to the college canteen. I saw that girl sitting alone and watching the India England cricket match. I bought a veg thaali and sat on the same table as hers. She turned around and gave me another smile, a smile of recognition may be. This time, I got a chance to see her more closely. Her eyes were a shade of gray and dark rimmed glasses were just a compliment to her beautiful eyes. I started off with a casual conversation by asking her about the match. I was surprised to meet someone from the fairer sex who was so interested in cricket matches and has so much knowledge about the game. Unfortunately, India was on the losing side on that day and I would have preferred to go to the interview with a positive note.

We finished our lunches almost at the same time. She asked me whether we could watch TV for some more time and I obviously said a Yes. I hope I didn’t make it sound very desperate though. I felt something really strange happening inside. Usually, I don’t jump into conversations with people whom I don’t know. I have never felt at home in those situations. But to my own surprise, I was very very cozy and comfy with this girl. I was feeling nervous early on at the interview-waiting hall, but I seemed to be better in her company, I thought to myself. Words were coming out freely and I didn’t have to try and be casual.

“Sorry if I am making you stay here. I hope your interview is not anytime now. I was feeling very nervous early on. I am feeling better in your company ”, she broke the streams of thoughts that were rampaging inside my mind with her sweet voice. ( Was it mind reading?? )
“ It’s perfectly fine , (Why wouldn’t I be fine ;)) are you a Mumbai localite? ”

The conversation continued for sometime till when I got up to buy a couple of packets of Lays. I offered her one, and we started eating from that. Unintentionally, our hands touched each other’s for short periods when ever we tried to take some chips from the packet. Her warm and soft hands had a magical touch to it.

“Have you looked around the institute? Did you like it?” I asked, hinting her to join me for a walk.
“ Not yet, I was not given the proper time of my interview”
“ May be it’s a good idea to take a walk and see around the place where we might end up for the next two years” I said in a more mocking tone.
“Yeah right” she acknowledged with a smile.

We came out of the canteen and walked through a narrow path surrounded by lush green trees and lawn. The ambience was kinda hot and I presumed it to be the summer heat ;) There was nothing much to see except for a library, a ground and lots of trees. I came to know that she is originally from Delhi and she has settled in Mumbai. The reason why she was so nervous was that she has already wasted a year in preparing for these entrance exams and this was her final resort with no back ups. It was around 4 30 PM and we decided to go back to the interview hall and find out about the slots. Ours were at 5 in the evening and coincidently, we were given the same panel with she as the last person and me just before hers.

“How about Coffee?” I asked.

We went to the café near by for a quick cup. I realized that I wasn’t nervous or insecure about the interview anymore. I wasn’t even thinking about it. Things would have been different if I had to stay alone for the whole day waiting for the call.

“ I am not even thinking about the interview anymore” She said.
“Man, what’s happening. Is she a mind reader?” I thought to myself.
I just gave her a smile.
“ Things may have been different if I didn’t meet you today. I don’t feel nervous anymore” she continued.
I can’t take this anymore. May be is this what people call as meeting someone of your frequency?
I opted to just finish off the coffee and not think about anything. We went to the interview hall where people were waiting in their chair queues and occupied the last two seats.

I wasn’t speaking anything for sometime, as I had not recovered from the previous conversation. To my surprise, she held my hand in hers and asked whether I was getting nervous. I lamely nodded at her not knowing what to say. She got up from her seat and brought me a glass of water. This was heights. I wasn’t nervous by any stretch of imagination and I told her about the coincidence thing. She started laughing and said that the same thing happened to her as well. Looks like when she wanted to ask me out for a walk and coffee, I did exactly the same. Even the words I used were similar, especially being there for the next two years part. It was truly amazing that something like this could happen. We talked on things like partying in Mumbai and stuff till I got my turn for the interview. I saw her looking towards the garden fountain when I came out of the room. I went close to her and whispered in her ears that I’ll wait till she is done.

She completed her interview and came out with a very happy face. She told me that she had just given the best interview of her life and hugged me. She broke into tears right outside the panel.

When things eased out, we started walking towards the gate. We didn’t speak much. I was thinking on how to end this magical day. I wanted to stay in touch with this girl and find out something more. But another thought in me was cautioning to keep it slow. It was all happening too fast for me to believe it. I stopped and looked into her eyes. She looked at me with something running behind those eyes. I was wondering whether I could go ahead and ask for her number. In every other situation, I would have asked for it. But this one was different. I won’t say this is love, no way near a mere crush, not friendship. We were good companions to each other for the whole day. I was sure that she made a lot of difference on my day and I think I had done something similar on her too.

“ I have to go to Andheri from here and then go to Dadar and catch a bus to Pune” I made a blank statement.
“ Oh that must be pretty tiring” she replied as if she was expecting some other question from me. May be something like, what’s your phone number? Even I wanted to ask her number. Only once in a while you come across people with whom you can experience such surreal days. But I believe that Life is a Boomerang. When you throw the Boomerang at the right angle, you can be more than sure that it’ll come back to you. So far, I have thrown this boomerang of a relation at the right angle. I want to enjoy the thrill and suspense of finding out whether it’ll come back to me or not.

“It was great meeting you today. Hope we make it into this college” I said with a smile, shook hands with her and left for the bus stand.

I don’t know where she lives or what’s her number. I only know that she has come to this college for the interview. I am not sure whether we will get to meet again in our lives. Some of you might say that I have done the stupidest thing in my life. But according to me, I’m enjoying every moment of this suspense. The repeated questions whether I will get to see her again or not keeps ringing into my ears for which I’m still not able to find an answer. This uncertainty with the die-hard eagerness to see her again is what I’m enjoying the most. I have let go what I like. Let’s see whether it comes back to me.

Cheers,
Prad

Twilight Zone

In a quiet and peaceful night,
My vision had blinded due to the lack of sight,
Mild winds bellowing the spirit’s sound,
Time just flew by and I lost a lot of ground,
Lay there on a bed with velvet sheet,
My tears were drifting and washed her feet,
Her hands were folded against her chest,
I wage the battle when she is at rest,
Her face revealed the pain of loneliness,
I am dying too see the belongingness,
The frozen tears across her face,
Things just happened at a rapid pace,
The mysterious smile across her lips,
The memories of her in Polaroid clips,
I swam against the tides of the wildest sea,
But her eyes were closed and refused to see,
Mourners in black coat avoiding their gaze,
Stood there waiting behind the haze,
All I had to give was just my heart,
But the priest had come to read his part,
Her soul is trapped in the twilight zone,
Why must I live when she is gone?

Just tried my hand on poetry. I had a concept in my mind when I wrote this. But am not sure whether I was able to express it through these lines. In case you have read this and decided to comment, then please leave back your understanding of this work.

Thanks to Iron Maiden, I copied the title from their Album - Killers !!

Cheers,

Prad.

My Salute To Our National Hero

When I started off with this blog writing, I had made up my mind that I won’t be posting stuffs that aren’t mine. But this one is different. I received this as a forward today morning. May be I wouldn’t have been moved this much had I not visited NDA and /or watched RDB off late. Please read on and lets do something about it. TODAY!!!



During The Attack on Akshardham temple on 24th September 2002 this Brave Man fought the greatest battle of his life. Yes he was the N.S.G. Commando Late Mr. Surjan Singh , who sacrificed his life for the Nation. Sadly On 19th May 2004 he lost the Toughest an d Longest battle against life exactly after 600 Days being in Coma, he lost this life. The Bullet which hit him in the head made him Unconscious for almost 600 days. His family members were hoping that one day their Hero will open his eyes but he didn't.It was the Longest Wait for the family members of this Brave Man. When the whole India was busy in Guessing Who will be the Next PM of the country - Will it be Sonia or will it be Manmohan Singh, This man was fighting his Last battle. But it's so sad that in the hype of all the Political Drama, the News about his Death was Lost like a needle in a hay stack! Even the leading News Papers & So Called Best News Channels of India which Works on 24 X 7 basis, failed to highlight this story of the Brave Man. Unfortunately it was mentioned somewhere on the middle page of some newspaper.....This was the Reward for the Brave task for which he lost his life. Besides his Family members, only one thing was there with him during those toughest 600 days. It was there near his bed till the last Moment. Can you guess what it was?............... It was the "Tiranga", yes! Our National Flag, which was saluting him for his Great cause. Absolutely No words can suffice our Gratitude towards him...

If news papers refuse to cover, TV channels refuse to cover, let us do our bit.

This is the only post where I thought less before writing and more after that..

Vande Mataram!!

Cheers,
Prad.

The Curse Of The UNSATISFIED !!

It was a regular Friday till then. Since it was a No moon day, the night was darker than usual. I came back to my home after a hectic long day in office. As usual when I reached my home, I saw that the door was locked. I struggled to reach the main box in the darkness in order to switch it on. God knows why, that night was perfectly silent. I could hear everything that is moving, the insects, humans and even the breeze. Looked like it was trying to convey some message to me in a language that I’m not aware of. But one thing was clear – it was not a good message. In that eerie, creepy night, I suddenly felt something running across my fingers. I shook my hand vigorously more out of fear than anything else. I quickly removed my hand from the main box and reached for my mobile inside the pocket. I switched on the torch and look around the place. I couldn’t see anything substantial except that there was a half exposed tail wagging behind the box. Assuming it to be a lizard, I reached for the main box and switched it on.

My portion of the house is on the first floor. Above that there’s a roof. The staircase that leads to the roof lies just opposite the main box. It turns 180 degrees and reaches another door that opens out to the roof. The house owner primarily uses this space for storing some furniture or foodstuffs, which he needs for later use. Usually this place is a domicile for a lot of pests. The noises from up there are quite common. But that day I heard a voice. Someone was speaking. I couldn’t understand what it was, but I could make out that it was a girl. I didn’t bother much thinking that it was my owner’s daughter. I was too tired to check out who it was. Just before I stepped into my house, the power went off and simultaneously I heard a loud deafening shriek. I ran towards the staircase and stumbled on it and somehow reached to the roof door. Surprisingly nobody was there. I cautiously opened the door and went into open. No sooner than I walked a couple of steps, than the roof door shut itself with a heavy blow. There were no heavy winds that could have caused it. Even before I could think about it, I heard another cry from the far end of the roof. The roof is L shaped and the edifice of the staircase wall blocks the perpendicular view. I couldn’t clearly see who it was. I ran to the other end and nobody was there. I was totally scared and shocked. My hands had already started to tremble. I looked down from there expecting someone to have fallen down. But it was too dark for me to see. I stood there for sometime and started walking towards the door. There at the other end I saw a girl. She was sitting in somewhat a crouched position with her head buried between her legs. Her hands were folded in front of her head holding her knees together. She had let her hair loose that covered her whole face. I went slowly near her and asked. ‘ Kaun hai tu ? ’ My voice was trembling and I was gasping frantically. I didn’t get a reply or I was too scared to hear it. The night fell perfectly silent again. I could hear that she was crying. I again asked who she was. No reply. I bent down slowly and I touched her hand. It was very cold and pale. She slowly raised her head. I saw her, the vision of my life. She was totally pale. Dead pale. I looked directly into her eyes. She didn’t have any. It was completely covered with blood. She didn’t have eyes at all. She laughed frenetically. She got hold of my hands very hard. It was too hard for me to break the hold. I somehow managed to let myself free and ran towards the door. I opened it and ran down the stairs. I wrong footed one of the stairs and my head banged right against the wall. It opened up and blood started to pour out. This was least of my concerns anyways. I reached the house door and found it locked. I had not opened it after coming back. I put my shivering hand inside the pocket and searched for the key. I couldn’t find it. It had fallen on the roof. Near that girl, that thing!! I didn’t have the guts to go back to that haunted place. I tried pulling the lock like a crazy hungry dog. It refused to give up. I frisked the shoe rack and found a hammer buried inside it. I started banging the lock with the hammer, as hard as I could. The lock finally lost the battle. I opened the door, got inside the house and latched it immediately. I tried to run towards the pooja room. But she was standing at the doorway. This time, she wasn’t looking ghastly. A normal girl with her arms wide open. She kept repeating something that I didn’t understand. I was totally hypnotized and couldn’t control what I was doing. I started walking slowly towards her. Some kind of a power was pulling me towards her. My conscience wanted me to stop, but my body kept on moving. Inching towards her. She stretched her arm towards me. I stretched mine as well. Just at that moment I heard a loud thunder and my eyes encountered a blinding light. By the time I recovered from it, the girl was gone. I came back to my normal self. Everything around me looked normal. Where was that girl, what made me go near her? I couldn’t decipher. I went to a washbasin to freshen me up. I poured ample water onto my face that was already wet with my sweat. I searched for the towel in the darkness. I frisked the wall in order to reach the towel stand. I suddenly felt something else. The same chillness of her hand. Her hand!! I opened my eyes immediately and saw her standing in front of me with bloody eyes. She gave out a wild shriek again. Why isn’t anyone helping me ? Where did everyone go? I knew that death was nearing me and I had only myself for the rescue. I grabbed her hair with my other hand and pulled it as ferociously as I could. She gave out a wild cry. This time it was not that of a girl. It was a man’s voice. Whatever it was, I was not ready to fall for her disguise. I wanted to finish it then and there. She let my other hand free out of pain. With my one hand still pulling her hair, I grabbed her hand with my other one and pulled it close to my mouth. Without wasting much time, I bit her hand as hard as I could. Again she screamed. Again it was a man's voice. I suddenly felt someone slap me. It was not hers this time. I heard someone call my name. “Prad, Prad. Leave my hand and hair, idiot, ass@#@# “ I then realized who it was. It was my poor roomie. I was pulling his hair and got his hand twisted in an awkward position. Finally I let him go and turned towards the otherside of the bed and continued my sleep. However, I’m not sure what happened next to him !! May his soul rest in peace !! Amen !!

Cheers,
Prad

An Ideal Day In Office !!

The last one week has been a dream come true. The AllgoRhythm activities were kick-started. It is not certainly the toughest thing I have got thro' in my life. But I really liked the concept of conducting interviews before getting people into this club. It definitely reflects on the quality of people who made it through (Me, mE, ME...) By the way, coming back to my awesome week, I was out of my cubicle for most part of the week under the AllGoRhythm banner organizing a treasure hunt for the entire vertical. Reminds me of my good old college days. In college it was some dry canals or benches where we used to have those short notice meetings, and here it is either in some board / conference room [ corporatieeesshhh ] and in the worst case, Canteen bhi chalega. Except that there are no buggin boring profs, who were so desperate to see me in their classes. No attendance proxy and On duty issues as well.

But looking back at it, I feel that, it was the best part of bunking classes. You always need some kinda challenge if you want to get a sense of achievement. However here, my manager is more than happy to let myself involve in such club activities. May be he thinks that me doing such stuffs in office is much better than me writing some amazing codes that nobody could comprehend why it fails every single time. Somehow he wants the project to survive. And I'm trying my level best to make him realize his dreams with a little bit of challenge by working with those codes at times. Just being a true team guy dudes!!

Today is very auspicious. I was praying that my onsite guy shouldn't have sent a response to my queries so that I need not proceed with my task. I opened my outlook. Tada!! There were 57 unread messages and I quickly glanced for that guy's mail.. No mails from him. I checked for other official mails and looked like nobody was interested in me. Adding on to this, today the Mainframe link was down and techie guys couldn't fix it. I quickly checked my internet connection and surprisingly it was working perfectly fine. No wonder everybody in my project was having a blast. So today I became someone who really wanted to work in the office but sadly and unfortunately the link was down. What could this poor guy do ;)? AllGoRhythm, Here I come !!

We were quickly done with our meeting and we dispersed to go ahead with our tasks. We got dressed up like Pirates [ The theme of the event was Pirates of the Caribbean ] , converted a store room into a pirate den [ Isla de Muerta, I had to copy - paste this from one of the mails ] lit only with candles, covered the room with chains, ropes and not to forget the Caribbean Rum [ Read as Coca Cola ]. We were all christened with special names[ I was called as Bloodiieee, I liked The Prince Of Dead Wives thou' ]. Now here comes the worst part. Facial Paints!! We painted ours and all the participants' faces with water paints just to give them the feel of real pirates. It was very embarrassing earlier when only the organizers were painted. But when it became more of being a roman in Rome, the real fun started. I personally liked the spirit shown by the Tech support guys. They really rocked. [ Am I saying all this? These were the same guys who caught me with Movies in my PC ;) ]

The chaos began after the painting session. People running and screaming at every possible direction. But my job was simple. Just kept clicking stills after stills. Was really happy to find out that I was not the only dumb looking guy on the floor. Hey by the way roomie, your mush idea was mine. This is the only possible way where you could have something black underneath your nostrils ;) !!! You looked more like a Kerala Smuggler than a Pirate from the Caribbean da !!

The show got over finally and there was only one eventual winner. But thatz fine. Ultimately the whole floor was set on fire. Nobody worked from 2 to 4. They were just wondering what these ugly looking badly painted guys were upto !!

Huh, why can't all the days be like this man? Mainframe link down, Internet working, some crazy show on the floor ? Man, I'm really missing my college days now. Chalo, I pity my CEO. Coz if this continues, I'll end up missing his as well !! ;) !! It will be very tuff to find another dumber to give me a job !!


Cheers,
Prad ( Datz me in Pic, Find me if u can ;) !! )

Lost In Time, Lost In Change ??

It has been a common saying that everything is this world changes. The only thing consistent in this world is the change. But does it all really mean that everything changes ? Hmm.. let me think !!

The person whom I was a year back is not the same person who I am now. My life style has changed completely. I have come across a lot of new people in my life. I have never ever felt so independent before. The lessons that I have learnt in the past one year have been more valuable than tons and tons of gold. My friends have changed. My city has changed. My house-maid has been changed more than once. Isn't there anything that doesn't change in our lives ?

I sat at the porch, gazing at the evening sun. The soft guitar solo of Mark Knopfler's Telegraph Road blended beautifully with the evening breeze. Suddenly I heard Waltz of the flower, my special mobile ring-tone for my family.I looked at the display screen and saw that it was my mom. I picked up the call and I heard her ever cheerful voice. We spoke for sometime about so many things that were happening at my side and her side. While on the phone, I didn't realize that it was almost dark and the CD that was being played in my system has reached the tenth track.

May be I don't feel such an excitement all the time I speak to my Mom, but it was very special on that day. I remembered one of the sentences that she spoke to me. "Kutta, You don't have to tell me that you are sad whenever you are sad. I can feel it here". How true it is !! I got the answer for the question. There is definitely one thing that will never change - Mother's Love.

May be I should stop with this. There are few things in this world which are best when unspoken.

Cheers,

Pradeep

The Demon inside Me

Love is something that can enter into anyone’s heart as easy as a cool breeze enters into a beautiful garden. But expressing it to the concerned person is where the real battle lies. The psychic torment that a person goes thro’ when he really cannot express his love can be compared to any of the worst tortures in the world. If love is something that is very natural and common (I hope everyone agrees), then why do we have to suffer so much?

This has been the problem for so many people, across so many nations, for so many years. The obituary of our love will be written even before it is born. There are so many stories about break-ups. But I’m more than sure that there will be many more stories about Love, untold.

As far as guys are concerned, I believe most of us do not have the guts to express directly what we feel for a girl, mainly because we are bad in accepting defeats. The question “What happens if she doesn’t feel anything of that sort towards me and rejects my proposal” keeps ringing in our ears. The answers to this question are not very pleasant. While most of us are worried about losing an existing relationship [Most of the time, it will be under the banner of “Friendship”], there are cases when we feel attracted towards a girl, we don’t even have the courage to start a conversation with that girl. While the former reason is pretty common, the latter one is pre-dominant among persons having some high levels of ego [Prefer calling it self-respect]. The ego-clouded person tends to think that the girl will consider him low if he speaks to her as an act of pre-emption. This scenario is very dangerous as it leads everyone to think that there is some kind of an animosity. This may lead both of them to hate each other after sometime since most of the expectations are prone to go unfulfilled. There is not much scope for this case unless the girl takes an initiative to speak to the guy [May have sounded like a joke of the century].

I believe, most of the times, we are more worried about how bad our friends will tease if they come to know about the rejection than what the girl herself thinks about us. Whether we accept it or not, we are of course concerned about our image as well. Nobody wants to feel low or treated low in front of anyone. This is also a reason why guys don’t come forward in expressing their love.

As a conclusion to this, I wouldn’t say that guys are total losers. But some part of this trauma lies at the girls’ side as well. It all depends on how matured the girl is and how well she rejects a proposal without making a fuss about it. [I’m not concerned about Success stories here]. Some of them really wish their friends know that guys are drooling behind them. The number of proposals received is taken as a measure of how beautiful she is. Just like most of the guys want to be known for their smartness, most of the girls want to be known for their beauty. But unfortunately the guy who proposes to her becomes the bait.

I would suggest that the girl understands that a guy who has proposed to her has won over a lot of demons inside him and has finally taken the bravest decision of his life. But still at that moment, he is in the most fragile and vulnerable state. While rejection in itself is a great pain, doing it in an awful fussy way just adds on to the woe. At the same time, the guys should also understand that it’s not an easy thing for a girl as well.

I read in a book about two kinds of people as far as passion is concerned. The first type suppresses the passion, analyzes it by taking all the pros and cons of it into picture and tries not to fail by not trying to succeed. But they convince themselves that they have acted in the most intelligible way and have won over their fate.

The second type where as, tries not to suppress the passion and allows them to be taken over by the spur of the moment. They are not worried about the consequences as they consider them as a part of their path. If their decision works out, then they will attribute it to everyone involved, directly or indirectly, in it and when it doesn’t, they blame it on themselves for taken such a decision. But they still do not stop themselves from being taken over by their passion again.

In reality, while the first type of people will have a safe and secured life, the second one’s life will be more adventurous. I believe, as far as love is concerned, being in the second type helps a lot. [By the way, don’t try to be very smart by bringing in a Rang De Basanthi touch to it] I agree that there is a lot of important things at stake if we decide to express our love, but I believe that there are lot more important things at stake if we just decide to stay dumb-folded. If the love we have is genuine, then I believe that it is best if we let ourselves be taken over by the passion.

Relax and Enjoy

Cheers,
Prad

One Night @ The Call Center

If I have to describe my experience with this book in a single line, I would say,
ONE WEEKEND WASTED!!

May be that was too critical a comment about this book, but when it comes to writing (any art, for that matter), I can tolerate anything but plagiarism. It just pisses me off. Especially when we Indians just do some cheap copies of some Caucasian’s work.

If philosophy was the least expected twist from Chetan Bagat, so is the climax of his second book. I just can't stop myself from comparing it with the climax of The Life Of Pi. The whole thing about having an unrealistic story being told defying every natural possibility, and later on the story-teller gives a second legitimate version of the same story in order to increase the credibility of the story to the listener, was all written earlier itself. How much I enjoyed reading The Life Of Pi, I regret twice as much for reading this second book from Mr. IIM fart.

You may tell that the whole climax thing was a mere coincidence, but this book has character plagiarism as well. Esha’s character is just a photocopy of Paulo Coelho’s brainchild Maria, the prostitute girl in Eleven Minutes. It really hit me hard with a blow when I saw that one of the sentences is just a copy paste from that book. It’s when Esha says that, she had a choice, but she slept with some guy so that she can get a break into the modeling world. It is just the same dialogue said by Maria in Eleven Minutes.

Plus, the whole thing about having sex in confined places was all forced into the story just to add a Chetan Bagat touch to it. May be he thinks that he can become a sell out author, by including some soft porn stuff in all his books.

I thought that the counter-attacks by Vroom and Shyam against their boss were the most childish acts anybody could think off in the corporate world. For the benefit of someone who has not read the book – Vroom sends an e-mail from Bakshi’s (The Boss) comp to Esha calling her to sleep with him if he had to consider not firing her. He then asks everyone in the call center to call their American customers up under the banner of their client and spread a virus attack rumour. This was all done to increase the call rate in their center. Man, please do let me know which client is as dumb as the ones mentioned in the book. I would rather quit my job right away. Also if a boss is calling someone to bed, will he be doing it using Microsoft Outlook? Knowing very well that it’s a hard copy proof and that he can be blackmailed later on.
Doesn’t anyone use Desktop Lock before leaving the place? Don’t tell me that it happens only in my company and elsewhere it is so easy for any Tom, Dick and Harry to access the boss’ computer at his will. I have just two words for this . BULL SHIT !!!



The only consolation I can take from this is that I did not buy this book. Just borrowed it for a couple of days to read, from my friend in Pune. I could have rather used the money notes as a tissue paper rather than buying such shit novels.

I apologize for the profanity of this article.

Anyways,

Cheers,
Prad

I'm Tagged

I have been tagged by my roomie.. Anoop..

Four jobs I have had :

I'm still surprised how I made it into this job on the first place !! Four Jobs is a good joke !! My Mom will be bawling if she comes to know about this !!

Four movies I would watch over and over again:

I'm not really a movie Buff. But there are quite a few movies that I have enjoyed to the max.

1. Rang De Basanthi - The last one which I have seen, Awesome Movie..
2. Thillu Mullu - I still believe that this is the best movie from RajiniKanth
3. Mr. Bean - The Movie - Makes me forget everything else happening around - Any resemblence seen between me and dat guy is purely coincidental.. !! One of my Nick Names in college is Mr. Bean !! FYI ;)
4. Gladiator - Russel Crowe at his best.


Four places I have lived:

I suppose it would span across four states..

1. Coimbatore - My Place of birth
2. Mysore - My mom's native - The best place I have ever seen !!
3. Palakkad - My dad's native
4. Pune - Rocking City - Having some of the best days of my life here..

Four TV shows I love to watch:

Apart from sports, I have spent major part of my life watching Cartoons in TV.

1. Mr. Bean Show in POGO - Still remains my all time favourite
2. F.R.I.E.N.D.S - Very close to my heart, reminds me of my club - mates in college.
3. Tom N Jerry - I have laff'd my head over heals to glory so many times, Actually My dad's favourite show !! So started watching it as a kid sitting along with him and fell in love with it.
4. WWF oops.. its WWE now.. - John Cena Rocks !!! So does Trish Stratus - Oh WHat a Babe !!

Since I can write only four, I couldn't mention about Full House .. Itz such a cute Show, Have watched countless re-runs of it.

Four places I have been on vacation:

1. Mangalore - My Aunt's native.. , Had been to Hemambika Temple.
2. Bangalore - Both as a kid and a grown up. I loved Malleshwaram and Lal Bagh as a kid, and I love MG Road and Lal Bagh( Now for a different reason thou' ;) ) as a grown up.
3. Mysore - Later on in my life, Mysore became only a vacation spot rather than a domicile for me. Really miss those Hassan Buses, Chamundeshwari Temple, Mysore Maharaja Palace, Mysore Dusherra and those 27 hair pin bends in the ghat section.
4. Mathur Agraharam - My native village in Palakkad, the place where I learnt how to read malayalam, how to swim, and how to celebrate festivals to the fullest..Still remember the Rama Navamis and Shastha Preethiz which I have blasted there..


Four of my favourite foods:

1. Off-Late, I have got addicted to anything and everything in Chicken.. Chicken Lollypop is still my favourite
2. Pav Bhaji at Iyer n Co. in Coimbatore - the best I have ever had
3. Dahi Puri from Shiv Bhel, Pune... God knows what Magic she does to make such delicious dahi puris.
4. Ofcourse, My mom's Palak Rice and Molaghutal ( Not sure which language it is, should be either of kannada, malayalam or tamil ). Itz the primary reason why I look as fat as my Dad in my company Id Card.

Four places I'd rather be now:

1. St.Petersberg and Moscow - Heard that culturally and architecturally, these two cities are two extremes in Russia. Would love to check them out myself.

2. Monaco - Do I need to say why ? Awesome place, Preferrably, see a F1 Grand Prix.

3. Manchester - Dying to check out MANU play at Old Trafford

4. Vienna - Got interested in checking out that place after reading Mein Kampf..


Four sites I visit daily:

1. Fantasy Premier League - Can't live without Football
2. ESPN STAR - Can't live without sports news either
3. Google - General Searches
4. Off-late - Blogger.com..

Four bloggers I am tagging:

Deepa
Smyta
Balaji
Aruna

Happy Blogging,

Cheers,
Prad

On A Day Like Today

Just trying my hand on something hard. Actually wanted to write this as a book. But finally decided to take small steps at the moment.

It's a Friday evening. When my whole city comes to life, here I am. In front of a belligerent black demon, that breaks my head on a logic that has been eluding me for sometime now. The coffee on my table has become more of a fossil. So am I !! At 23, with loads and loads of dreams to be realized, I am spending my time here hoping that this is just how I can realize them. Well Hope drives everyone, doesn't it ? It has been driving me for the past 12 months. Every night, I have been trying to count the number of stars hoping that one night it'll all be over. Is this what I wanted to do in all my life? I was shaken by these alarming thoughts and decided to call it a day and go back home. I shutdown my PC and took a long look at the rest of my office. I could see my colleagues lost in thoughts with their work. Or at least they seemed like. I looked at the watch and got myself confirmed that I have been burning the oil for longer than I thought I was. I bid adios to my mates just to see their surprised faces. Nisha even asked whether anything is wrong with me. I may sound very strange, but leaving at 9 was never my routine. Returning a content smile to all of them, I set off to my home, as I didn't bother digressing them from their work.

My home is a pretty 7 kms off from the workplace. Usual mode of transport is the bus provided by my management. But today, I decided to talk a long walk back so that I can spend sometime at my ease. More than anything, I was desperate for loneliness, especially today. Lost in a deep retrospect, I hit the streets at the night. I have lost in touch with the comfort of an AC room. But wait a minute, didn't I think the other way around when I was at my office. When I was confined to a room, where I need not bother about heat, dirt or sweat, I was languishing about the mythical freedom on the streets. The other side of the river has always appeared greener than your side. I walk on giving a brief attention to the errands around me. After all, I have decided to spend sometime on myself - for a change.

It is very funny that when we want to look back at our lives, only our failures and sad moments seems to be sparking at every nook and corner of our thoughts. It may be a bad break up, or arrears that stopped from you from higher studies and job, it may be losing a friend, a spat with parents, it may be anything. I am no different either. There were a lot of " If at all I had done /" and "If at all I had not been " moments which were being recollected. I feel it is always good if we manage to dedicate sometime for ourselves. But once we dive into the waves of depression and start repenting for our plight, then we are doing no good to recover from feeling low. But do we have a choice? It's so easy for any Tom, Dick and Harry to say or write about allowing only positive thoughts to get into us and block every drop of negative flood from trickling inside our minds. But it takes a lot of beating and thrashing in life to become immune to negativity. Life will always be a teacher and will keep on teaching us hard lessons irrespective of whether we are willing to learn them or not.

I wanted to find out the reason why I was so unhappy with my life. At that moment, I saw a road-side shop where a kid was standing in front of a hot stove making parathas and shouting from the bottom of his stomach so that he can catch the attention of few passer-bys and get some customers apparently. I really wanted to know what this guy wanted in his life. There's a reason why he had decided to make parathas, burning himself in front of that stove. Didn't he have any ambitions? I approached him with a smile. The boy didn't smile back. Assuming that I was one of his customers, he recited the menu card. I ordered for a plate of hot parathas and sat at a place that is somewhat close to where he was. I broke the ice and asked him how old he was. He was just 12 years old. But he looked much older than that. May be the life has already taught him some lessons. Then I asked him for how long has he been working here. He replied that it was his father's shop and he has been working since he was 5 years old.

Though that guy was not educated, he knew the mindset of his customers. He had the knack of making people like him. I have always felt that it is one among a few qualities that people can't get through education alone. Loving others and making others love you is very tough. It is very hard to please everyone every time and it is even harder to expect people to be there and please you all the time. The only way to find a balance in our relationships is by allowing a lotta personal space to the other person and by reducing our expectations. Otherwise, you'll find yourself at the peak of happiness at a few moments and hit in extreme sorrow and pain because of the same person at the other moments. This becomes very tough, especially for those who are not so good in taking disappointments. Too much of extremes in our lives is always toxic.

The paratha guy started a conversation with me. He told me that when he was 4 years old, he wanted to go to school like every other normal child would do. But his family could not support such a luxury. Since he was the first child in his family, his father started using him as a helper boy in his paratha shop. Initially his duty was to clean the tables. Even though he didn't like what he was doing, he refused to give up. He set a goal for himself. Instead of cleaning tables, he wanted to be a waiter. He slowly got the confidence of his father and finally became a waiter in his hotel, taking orders from the customers.

After some months, he thought it was time to move on. Instead of just taking orders, he wanted to make parathas. But this involves a lotta learning. But the boy was willing to grow and he asked his dad to teach him to make parathas. He was not a gifted kid. His initial days of paratha making were full of mistakes. At times his dad has gone reckless on this kid for wasting the dough. It may be jus a half-kg dough for us, but for that family, it was one meal for a day. The kid once even burnt his hand accidentally. The scars of which are still seen visible.

Finally one day when his dad was very ill to run the shop, our kid stepped forward and said that he'll take care of the shop that day. The dad was very worried, but hesitantly acquiesced to his son's wish. Grabbing this opportunity with both the hands, the kid made some of the best parathas and some of the worst parathas of his life. He did something that his dad had never thought about. He shifted the stove more towards the outer part of the shop and started making parathas. With the help of his friend, he made a billboard saying that hot parathas were available there. Adding on to it, the kid used to shout at the sight of potential customers that hot parathas were sold. After all, this guy has an eye for customers. People started flooding in more than ever. His dad was very happy with the business and decided to play this boy upfront.

We all know that confidence comes with success, but it is also true that you need confidence to succeed. I asked him what he wanted to do further? He said that he has started saving money with the profit he makes. He also said that he was using 1/20th of the dough less than what his dad was using so that he can save one paratha for every 20 he sells. With that money, he was planning to buy more chairs to the shop so that he can accommodate more customers. With more customer comes more profit and with that the boy wanted to buy a bigger place and make his hotel a bigger one.

This guy’s life would have been very normal. But it made a huge impact in me. We have heard about a lotta such people rising from the bottom to the zenith of fame, but meeting one such guy made a lotta difference in my life. I realized that the reason why I was unhappy with my life was because I thought I was not there where I wanted to be. But isn’t that the same with the kid as well. He is definitely not where he wanted to or should have been. But does that stop him from going where he wants to, if not where he wanted to? If this kid were asked the same question before, he would have coveted to become an engineer or a doctor. But knowing that he cannot do it anymore, he has changed his destination. But ultimately he wants to succeed.

This guy taught me that success is not achieving what we want in our lives, but to get up and move ahead when we fail. If we don’t know how to fail, then we wont know how to succeed as well. May be this is not where I wanted to be in my life, but why should it stop me in succeeding in something that I have never thought of? If this kid had lost his heart when he was asked to work as a cleaner in his father’s shop, he would have remained a cleaner all his life. If this kid had given up on making parathas when he burnt his hand or when his father made him starve for two days without food for wasting the dough, this boy would have remained a waiter ever after. And more importantly if this kid had stopped to admire the path he has traveled to become the paratha maker, he won’t be making any more progress.

So is the case for everyone. If we assume our life to be placed between two gates, gate of new beginning and the gate of success, then every one of us will be a mere traveler in that path. The only thing constant about our life is the gate where we begin our journey. The gate of success will always be at some distance from our current position. When I’m an analyst programmer, the gate of success will be a module lead. When I become a module lead, my gate of success will be a project lead. When a project lead, project manager, when a manger, director and so on. We’ll find ourselves at a place where we didn’t want to be in all the time. But we have to realize that our gate of success will be traveling ahead of us.

Many would have said that opportunity knocks at your door only once, but we should also know that we have to knock at the opportunity's door many times. If we miss out on something, we should have the sight to look at something else from there on. If we stop to look back at our path and repent, then we will miss out on looking at the road ahead. Also if we stop with a feel of accomplishment and admire at everything we have been through, we will again miss out to realize that the road is much longer than this and there is more distance to travel.

I got up from my seat and left the paratha shop as a new man. The guy whom I wondered whether he ever had a life, turned out to be flooded with hopes and aspirations. For him, I was important as a customer, but for me, he was much more than that. He made me realize the true essence of life. These realizations don’t happen on auspicious days. The day it happens is auspicious and it will happen On A Day Like Today!!

Cheers,

Prad

A Unique Adventure

Life Of Pi – Yann Martel

Some of you would have read this article when it was published in the Office magazine. But since this is my first attempt at writing, I am publishing it in this blog as well !! Something more out of sentiment ;) !! And here it goes.................................

What will you do if you had decided to write for the living and your first book sinks with hardly a ripple? Hmmm… WRITE AGAIN?? That too, a crazy story of a sixteen year old Indian, who shares his skiff with a fully-grown Bengal tiger? That’s Yann Martel for you. The Canadian’s outrageous fable, Life of Pi, is a successful attempt of survival, both by the fictitious protagonist, Piscine Patel, and by the author himself.

What can possibly be said about 277 days of survival at sea with a hyena, a zebra, an orang-utan and a royal Bengal tiger? If it is Yann Martel, then what he spins is a 300+ pages of a spiritually adventurous yarn. If the literary pages have written the obituary of the magical realism of the 80s, nurtured by the likes of Marquez, Rushdie, and Calvino, then our man proves that he’s one heck of a phoenix with his Life of Pi.

This book is obviously the story of Pi, an Indian Teenager from Tamilnadu. It kicks off with Pi’s strange religious practices (him being a Hindu, a Muslim and a Christian… all at the same time!) and a lot of detailed descriptions of the minutiae of zoo keeping and several lessons about the relationships between man and animals.

The stage is set for the magical adventure when the cargo ship to Canada, carrying Piscine Patel (Better known as Pi and also known as “Pissing” Patel) and his family with much of the menagerie, sinks. Pi wakes up only to find himself pinioned in a lifeboat with Richard Parker (the fore mentioned Royal Bengal Tiger) and a few other zoo animals (come on… if this is odd, then think about a dad who named his son as Piscine Mortel Patel (??) and his tiger as Richard Parker!!). As Pi languishes to get back in touch with his lost family, he embarks on a series of hair-raising adventures that include, combating hunger and thirst (well, don’t be surprised when you read that Pi eats even the metabolic wastes of Richard Parker), a blind French man whom he meets at the middle of the sea, a man-eating island inhabited by meerkats, cannibalism, tiger taming lessons, and what not! (I am almost sure that, after reading this book, you won’t forget to puke and piss around your territory if you end-up with a man-eater in your lifeboat!)

This is no regular adventure story. The climax of this fable adds a magical touch to the rest of Pi’s adventures and makes it even more meaningful. It is an extraordinarily spun fascinating tale that may, as the author boasts, make you believe in God !!

Rendezvous !!

A write-up to show my love to my roomie,Budu !!

Anoop "Budu" John hails from a remote village in Kerala called Chenganur. With no basic infrastructure facilities in his village, my sweet roomie's life has been nothing but struggles, pains and sacrifices. This is clearly evident from his face dat has a pair of Bugs Bunny Teeth and Ashtray lips. His life was all about choices. He could have either had all the beauty in this world with minimal food or all the food in the world with absolutely no looks. It is needless to say what he opted for.

He became the chief tester of his company. The world, as usual, was interested only in winners. Everyone wanted to write about Budu. But my humble roomie, the personification of modesty, kept rejecting the interviews one after the other. It took a lotta convincing and brainwashing sessions to make him agree to one such interview.

Matty, Bala and I took the pains of fixing a date with this all-famous reporter who can give him the much deserved publicity. Budu wanted to make this interview a very memorable one. He called up the reporter and asked him to give the questions well in advance so that he can be prepared with the answers. This was mainly because he is not very comfy with English and didn't want make a fuss at the time of the interview. The reporter, considering that it was budu's first interview, gave him the questions with much hesistation.

The questions were very simple and straight forward. Budu was very happy and started memorizing the answers in the questions' order. The D - Day was nearing and my roomie was getting nothing but confident about his responses. He wanted to make it as expressive as possible and be modest at the same time. The questions were :

1. Do u think people from rural areas with a moderate economical background can shine in this competition rich world ??

2. What about a overall best performance award next year? . Will dat change things in u ?

3. (contd. from Q2) That is for others, but how will the true Anoop take the award ?

4. What in Anoop is so captivating that can attract people towards u ?

5. Do u think regularity in our daily routine is very crucial for our success ??

Scene : D - Day, 9 AM Sunday, The Interview Kicks Off !!

The reporter had promised to come to Budu's house at 9 AM sharp. Now here comes the least expected twist. The reporter who was supposed to come to Anoop's house had fallen ill and couldn't make it. Adding on to the drama, a Vet Specialist reporter wrongly enters into Anoop's house thinking that he was the Vet Doctor whom he is supposed to be interviewing. Budu has no clue that this is not the expected reporter and the reporter has no clue that Anoop is not a Vet Doctor. However, Budu has all the answers, corresponding to the real reporter's questions, memorized in that order. Little did he know that he was about to create History. The interview Kicks off !! ( The questions in bracket are the actual ones )

Reporter(Rep) : Good Morning. Shall we start off with our business ?
Budu : Good Morning, I was waiting for you. We could start off.

Rep : Do u believe in Darwin's theory ? Do humans resemble monkeys ? ( Do u think people from rural areas with a moderate economical background can shine in this competition rich world ?? )
Budu : Im totally shocked and surprised that u r asking such a question even after
seeing me. If I can, then why can't every other human being in this world ?

Rep : What shud be done for acute constipation in Chimps? ( What about a overall best performance award next year? . Will dat change things in u ? )
Budu : I myself am very confident to get one in the near future. At that time, I'll try being the
same Anoop as I'm now and try not making it obvious to people around me.
See me now, Don't I look like I have got one already ?

Rep : And how will u feel once the treatment is done ? ( That is for others, but how will the true Anoop take the award ? )
Budu : I'll feel like flying. There's no better satisfaction than that. But I'll say to myself
that I have done a great job and will start working towards repeating the
performance.

Rep : I read in some article that animals get scared because of human
intervention. What do u think is the primary reason behind that ? ( What in Anoop is so captivating that can attract people towards u ? )
Budu : Itz all about my smile. If they dont show any reaction after seeing me smile,
then there are no words to explain their plight.

Rep : Adding a philosophical face to this interview, just a cranky last question;
Speaking about relationship between animals and humans, One being so
faithful to the friends in this life, is it possible that one could have been a
dog in the previous life ? ( Do u think regularity in our daily routine is very crucial for our success ?? )
Budu : Hmmm.... may be, I believe I am one such guy. I'm saying this basically because
of my eating and sleeping habbits.

The reporter could take no more of this. Neither do I !! ;)

I would like to reiterate my indelible love to my roomie.. !! ;)
Hope I'll still be allowed to enter into the house ;)
What say " SWEET ROOMIE " ??

Cheers,
Prad

Amchi Coimbatore !!

Dis is something which I wanted to do for a long time now; especially after joining my company and found myself doing nothing but browsing for the majority of time. Till now, you might have read so many illustrations about my City written by various people and websites. But this is my 22 years in the City.

A Blog dedicated to the place where I come from.

Blogging as a proud Coimbatorean !! [Pic1: Find me in White]

Little did I know dat the sweet chill City of Coimbatore had sooooooo much in store, dat after moving to Pune, I have started missing every single road there. How much did I hate the place coz of my dust allergy?? - Thanks to the suspended cotton particles !! But did I even know that it was the same cotton that had helped India to get a place in the world map of Textile hubs ? Coimbatore, being the leading producer of Textile Yarn and machineries, I could very modestly say that Manchester could be called as the Coimbatore of England !! remba overungalanna ?? ;)


Sir Robert Stanes, P.S.G & Sons, G.D. Naidu, Nachimuthu Gounder are some of the great people responsible for the industrial revolution in Kovai. Yet I would say that these people were primarily responsible for me screwing 12th std. Studying in Carmel Garden for 14 years [ Boys' School :( :(....... ] , the only respite for me was during the tuitions where I could meet the damsels from Stanes and GD schools ;) !! If someone says that I did very badly in my 12th std, I will dedicate it completely to these schools and obviously to dese gr8 people who did
"Revolutionalize" education in Coimbatore !!!
Speaking about health care, without K.G. Hospital and Ganga Nursing Home, I wouldn't have survived 7 bike accidents and still be typing this blog. Aparently, it is in K.G. Hospital where I was born. Unfortunately I was too young then and I could not give an account of that. Duh !! Obviously !! But my Mom keeps saying that when I was born, I was the only Male child to have born in the entire hospital. Born exactly at 12 midnight, surrounded only with girls, everyone thought I've got all the traits of Lord Krishna. But as far as I can remember, that was the only time when something like dis has happened to me :( Grrr. Digressing from the topic.. !! Probably I'l write something more on that in a new Blog as The Curse Of Coimbatore ;) !!! Apart from these hospitals, there are so many other specialized homes with some of the best surgeons in the world. This can be cross-checked by the number of people coming from other cities and states to my city for treatment of chronical illness and fatal casualities. So from next time, if U find ur health is in dire straits," Come To Coimbatore " ... I cannot promise that U'l survive, but U'll definitely feel more than happy to die in the cozy and warm hands of a beautiful Kerala Nurse ;) !! [ Pic 2 : Top Slip ]

Coming to some of the famous personalities that Coimbatore has given to Our Nation :

Adam Sinclair - Olympic Hockey Player.. If I'm not wrong, I think this guy is from Stanes
Nirupama Vaidyanathan - National Tennis Champion
Narain Karthikeyan - Do I need to intro dis guy too ?

If u r a tamil movie buff, then I need not say that Sivakumar, Surya, Sathyaraj, Raghuvaran, Nizhalgal Ravi, Bakyaraj, Sundarajan, Manivannan..... are all from Coimbatore!! Can u imagine our tamil cinema industry without these people ?? I should rather say that we managed to give so many people to the cinema industry because of Mr. Sriramulu Naidu - The founder of Film Studio !!

As far as I'm concerned, my tourism starts at DB Road and ends at Saibaba Colony ;) A pleasant Sunday evening can be usefully wasted at these places. !!! ... But there are places like Siruvani, which has the Kovai Kutralam Waterfalls, Conoor [ A long ride on ur bike to this place from Coimbatore is a rocking experience ] , Top Slip - Wild Life Santuary, Vellingiri Hills which has Dyanalinga Isha Centre, ThiruMoorthy hills and a lotta temples as well... Well I should say that the all Famous Ooty and Black Thunder are also at ur disposal. [Pic3: Valparai]

The city may not be as "HAPPENING" as Mumbai or Bangalore, but it is definitely happening in itz own ways. The right blend of Northies, westies, Chinkies and ofcourse Southies gives, the city a cosmopolitan outlook, and people like me - A LOTTA HOPE ;) !!! I personally like the Naiduz for ur info ;) !!

All in all, whatever said and done,

Sare Jahan Se Acha, Coimbatore Hamara !!!

Really missing the sweet sound of Kongu Tamizh !!

Will write more later!!

Til Then

Cheers,

Prad