Embryo.

In August, 1991, a Finnish graduate student named Linus Torvalds made a modest posting announcing a new Unix-like operating system kernel:

From: torvalds@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Linus Benedict Torvalds)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: What would you like to see most in minix?
Summary: small poll for my new operating system
Date: 25 Aug 91 20:57:08 GMT

Hello everybody out there using minix -
I’m doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won’t be big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones. This has been brewing since April, and is starting to get ready. I’d like any feedback on things people like/dislike in minix, as my OS resembles it somewhat (same physical layout of the file-system (due to practical reasons) among other things). I’ve currently ported bash(1.08) and gcc(1.40), and things seem to work. This implies that I’ll get something practical within a few months, and I’d like to know what features most people would want. Any suggestions are welcome, but I won’t promise I’ll implement them :-)

Linus (torvalds@kruuna.helsinki.fi)

The rest, as they say, is history.

- Normandy Makkal.

Good old Madras.

As my Hindi-speaking north-Indian friends often point out, Madras is a lazy, hyper-conservative boring city. Before you nod your head in agreement; beware!! I will say whatever I want to say about 'my' city. If 'you' utter one wrong word about Madras, prepare to get your ass whipped!!
Ha ha, I am just kidding. I will take any comment about Madras. Good or Bad.

As I write this post, I have completed one year in the United States. Also, I am 24 hours away from going back to my Madras!! In this post I hope to pen some of my thoughts about this city.

Comparing Madras with other Indian cities like Bombay or Delhi is difficult. But I hope that the following hypothetical situation will give you an idea.

Scenario:
Imagine a busy Indian road at 9 am in the morning. Peak hour traffic. A man in a car drives rashly and bangs into a scooter riding in front. Traffic comes to a stand-still. Till this point, the story could have happened in any Indian city. But what follows cannot be more different.
Delhi
If this had happens in Delhi, the car driver would bash the biker to death. Then, he and his friends would proceed to gang-rape the bike's pillion rider (biker's wife). Of course NDTV will be complete coverage.
Mumbai:
As stated previously traffic would NOT have come to a stand still. The biker will just get up, dust his shirt and proceed to his office. The car driver would have already been long gone. Frankly, I don't understand this city. Even if a series of bomb-blasts rip through Mumbai, people will still be in their offices by 9am.
Calcutta
It would so happen that the biker is a daily wages labourer in a near-by factory. The Leftist will promptly call for a 3-day state wide bundh. Everyone will then sit at home, eat gulob jamun and watch Sourav Ganguly play.
Banglore:
The biker will be a software developer working in TCS. He will just wipe his shirt, smile and say sorry (for no fault of his). The car driver will turn out to be a 'true' kanadiga. He will get a bunch of friends from Mysore; smash all shops in Brigade road. Then they will proceed to shout some random slogans like "all non-kanadigas get out of Bangaluru" and "don't give water to Tamil Nadu".
Chennai
The car driver will ask the biker if he has 'informed-his-house-before-embarking-on-this-journey'. (u need to know Tamil to understand that).
The biker will get really angry. He will call up his office; ask for half-a-day leave. Then he will write an angry letter to the editor of 'The Hindu' and sign it off as the 'Indignant Tax-Payer'. (Of course, if he belongs to one of the 2394 backward castes, all hell will break loose!! Then our hero Dr. Ramdoss with come into picture).

From the above comparison, I am NOT trying to say Madras is any better than the other cities. Each city has its pros and cons. (Except of course Delhi which is a land of rapist!!)

Moving on, I will share two unforgettable images of Madras that I have.

1) It was the December of 1992. 'Hindutva' emotions were running high across the country. A bunch of goons demolished Babri Masjid on the 6th. Thousands of innocent people (both Hindus and Muslims) were massacred. All of India was burning. Except our Madras. Here, people were busy with the December 'Kutcheri' season. (Of course some people were shouting slogans. But they were asking for increase in reservation.)

2) I forgot the year. It was the fifth day of India-Pak test match at Chepauk stadium, Chennai. India required 272 runs to win (fourth innings). Sachin, fighting Wasim Akram and a stiff back, scored a masterful century. I was there. In the stadium. A tiny dot amongst 40 thousand Sachin fans. Totally against run or play, HE got out. Within the next 10 minutes the whole Indian batting collapsed and Pakistan had won the test match. What followed has been too well documented. The Chepauk crowd gave a 'standing ovation' to Pakistan. As I was physically present in the stadium, I think I know better. There were three sets of people in the stadium after India lost the match. The first set, like yours truly, stood up merely to strech our cramped legs. The second set of people, like my father, stood up in a hurry hoping to beat the crowd to the parking lot. The third set stood up to applaud Sachin NOT to Pakistan. We were wrongly perceived to be a sporting crowd giving the Pakistanis' a standing ovation. And we happily accepted that image.
To cut a long story short, whatever be our motive for standing up, it never struck any of us to boo at the Indian team or throw stuff at the Pakistani team. We had just enjoyed a great game of Cricket.

And I end this post like this. Quite abruptly. Without proclaiming that Madras is the best. For, being the true Madrasi, I will never be so arrogant as to proclaim my city to be better than yours.

~RV

Me, Myself and TR

The following blog post is a little complicated and abstract (Read: Badly written). Hence it needs your utmost attention for full understanding.

If you have ever seen K Balachandar films you will know that we all have an 'athma' or 'alter ego' who shows up in the mirror whenever we go through mental trauma. Ok. It also comes in spiderman movies. As I start this blog, I am going through such severe mental crisis and depression. For the sake of this blog, whatever is written INSIDE BRACKET is what my 'alter ego' is telling me. Everything else is what I am saying.
OK. Now that we have got the intro out of the way, lets get down to the sad happening of my life in the past two days.

Things that you need to know to understand this blog:
1) In orkut, on top of every profile there are three sets of symbols.The first set (smileys) says how trustworthy you are. The second set (ice cubes) says how cool you are. And the third set (hearts) says how sexy you are. These ratings are what your friends, co-orkut-users, give you. (Dei vetti naye, except you I don't think even the most ardent Orkut user would have noticed these things. Seri what about those....)
2) Here is a picture of T Rajender, fondly referred to as 'Teddy' Rajender by his fans. He is a Tamil film hero. He is especially good in youthful, romantic roles.
(Dei RV, it is this sarcasm that has caused you so much pain and sadness. Tell them what you really think of Teddy Rajender... go on). OK, alter ego. I really think T Rajender is the result of a 'human-chimpanzee cross evolution' experiment that went horribly wrong. If I ever get a time machine, I would go back and give his parents some contraceptives. (Oh common. He is not that bad. Due to the happenings of the last two days, you have become very cruel in your comments about T Rajender.)

Alright. As on most days, last tuesday I was feeling completely bored in office. After staring at a blank wall for a couple of hours I decided to revamp my orkut profile and give it 'my character'. My friends will tell you that I am sarcastic and that (I think) I have a dry sense of humor. So I wrote an extremely sarcastic 'about me'. The motif of the 'about me' was to take a dig at all those 'random' call center and BPO guys who were bombarding my sister's scrap book with friend requests. I also thought that my photo should match my 'about me'. So I put a close-up picture of 'Teddy' Rajender. Before putting the pic, my 'peer ratings' (Read: sexy rating) was a modest 60% (dei nayee, poi soladha) ok 50% (deeeiiii) ok.. it was a pathetic 40%. Anyways, after putting Teddy's Pic it zoomed up to a not-so-bad 70%.
This is atleast OK. I would have conveniently blamed it on Orkut errors. But I lost all enthu to live when a long lost friend scrapped me the following message: "Hey RV. How are you man? Long time. I see that you have started growing a beard. It really suits you. You look a lot better with the beard."
What the hell!! Enna koduma saravana!!
This leeds us to our 'Question Of The Day'. Type QOTD, space, and '1' OR '2' OR '3'. And sent the message to any convenient 4-digit number of you choice.

Which of the following statement is most accurate and closest to the truth.
1) T Rajender is chooo chweet!!
2) RV!! You are the handsome dude. You rock. (Alter ego: Krrrr..thuuu)
3) T Rajender looks like 'Taar Road' in a second world war battlefield. But RV, you are even more ugly....
4) What the f**k!! I dont care. (Dei manga. Dont you think that this is the winning choice?? )

Makkale (dear friends). Please vote immediately. Based on your answer, I have to decide between
(a) continuing to love Genelia and Shriya
(b) commiting suicide.

Nandri Hai.
RV

Margazhi pookal - kadaisi baagam

Almost a week passed by and vijay was still looking for the right time to make his move. It was an usual start of day at
office, but Nalini looked more beautiful than ever. Her yellow saree and sandhana pottu, accentuated her already golden color.
She was smiling more than usual and her face revealed that it was a big day for her. 'Is it her birthday... No that is a good
six months away... Probably her dad or moms birthday, or probably their anniversary... ', vijay thought. His mind was trying to
figure out what was running through nalini's mind, after all he wanted her to be his better-half. Making every effort to not
appear overly inquisitive, he decided to ask nalini during lunch. She gave a naughty smile in reply and told him, 'Innaikku
enga veetula oru mukkiyamana function, its a very big day for me, Neenga kandippa evening 7'0 clock veetukku varanum... And
varumpothu unga shirt-tie scenu ellam venam... Nalla veshti sattai pottutu vaanga...'.


Nalini had left vijay in a state of complete disarray, not only was he unable to gather her words but he was clueless as to
what was happening around him. He turned to his usual source of information - Nalini's manager. 'Nalini veetula innaikku avala
ponnu paaka varrangannu sonna... She has actually decided to takeoff early'. Vijay was completely devastated by these words. 'I
have been such a fool to have waited so long... Timinga open panrenu solli, matteraye kottai vittutaen... Kozhaikku ellam
ethukku kaadhal...', he despised himself. Feeling like a total sucker, he saw that the whole world was spinning around him
while he couldn't even move. He went into the restroom and cried his heart out. Finally after all these excitements, Ups and
downs, nalini was leaving his life for good. A ton of ice was just crushing on his heart, which was trying in vain to console
his feelings. Deciding not to show his sorrow face to his colleagues and raise unnecessary questions, he decided to leave to
home.


A huge battle was waging in his mind, on whether or not to go to nalini's house that evening. 'She had been such a good friend
to him and not going to her house now would just hurt her feeling', he thought. It would be very hard for him to control his
feelings and watch her move ahead into the next phase of life. He wanted to joine her on the beautiful journey of life but now
she would doing it with someone else. 'What about her questions... I cannot give lame excuses and not show up at a best friends
big moment... It would simply raise more suspicion and she would just think low of me... No... I must save her friendship
atleast... True love lies in watching your lover lead a happy life', he gathered all his courage and decided to go to her
house. After managing to get into his long lost veshti-sattai, he washed his face and tried very hard to put up a sporty look.


Sambasivam house looked like it was dressed for the occasion. The kozham outside his house was unusually large and
extraordinarily beautiful. Nalini's handy-work could be seen all over the floor. Peacocks were dancing, fishes were flaunting
their beauty and flowers were blooming to mark the occasion. There it was, in the middle of the kozham, the same margazhi poo
that had led to his first meeting with nalini. Things were rolling over and over in his mind. He felt like his mind was going
crazy. He closed eyes and he was about to return back to his house. 'Vijay...Ingaye ninnuta eppadi...Ulla vaanga...Ungalukka
thaan naan ivalo alangaram panni irukken...Ithukkey asanthu poi thirumbeetingana eppadi?', nalini smiled at him mischeviously.
'Enakku ellam theriyum vijay... Neenga enna ithey idathula first meet panninathu.... Appuram antha transformer orathula ninu
yetti yetti paathathu... ellam theriyum'. 'Ungala first day naan officela paatha appo enakku entha feelingsum illa, ungaloda
pazhaga pazhaga thaan unga mela enakku oru nalla abiprayam vanthathu..', she smiled again. 'I could gauge that you wanted to express your love to me, at taj the other day... But I couldn't make it that day... It was my best friend's marriage and I had to go...', she continued. Vijay was unable to find out whether he was in a dream or in reality. Pinching his hands dint seem to make him believe that it was real. 'Nethu unga friend nandhu kitta naan pesitu irunthen... Appo thaan we decided to give this surprise.... Ulla vaanga enga appavum ammavum kaathitu irrupaanga... Varungaala maapilaya introduce panrenu solli irukken... avangalukku evalo tensiona irukkumnu sollave venam', she smiled again and vanished into her house.


Naatkal kadanthana....


It was a beautiful december morning, vijay walked out of the front portico and sat on his bike. Athey beautiful kozham was smiling at his face. How great it would be if someone could kick-start your battery every now and then....He smiled at nalini, who climbed on to the pillon seat and curled her hands around him.

Margazhi Pookal - Baagam 4

'Time is the best medicine for a broken heart', as days passed by vijay slowly recovered from his trauma. He was trying very hard to get back to normal. Life without nalini was not what he had started planning for. All his hopes seemed to have been shattered by his haste. He no longer felt the usual excitement on reaching office. It seeemed like a monster that constantly reminded him of his gone forever good old days.

In no great mood for lunch, he decided to go for a walk to stretch his legs and get back to boring work. He got back from his walk and noticed that nalini's handbag was sitting on her desk. Instinctively, his eyes started searching for her and found her engaged in a deep conversation with her manager. All his excitement died down, when memories of the past week just rolled through his mind. Silence is the best path to resolving wounded relationships he thought. Settling down on his chair, he was concentrating his thoughts on work that never even existed. 'Hey vijay... Enna neenga phone panna pick up panna maateengala...', nalini's mellifluous voice was enough to disengage him from his dreams. He turned and gave her a puzzled look. ' Etho tajla meet panni treat tharatha mail ellam anupitu.... Oru phone call kooda attend panna mudiyatha alavukku busy ayiteengala... Unga voice maila evalo thadava thaan kekkurathu.... ', she continued. It took some time for vijay to come to terms with reality and manage to open his mouth. 'Illa... annikku konjam busyaa irunthutaen...., What happened...Why dint you come that night? And whats with the sudden break from office?', his mind was firing questions faster than he could imagine, but he broke it off waiting for her reply. 'Ennoda friend Poojavukku thideerunu kalyanam... Love marriage... Rendu peru veetilayum sammthikkala, so thideerunu kalyanam fix panni invitation anuppita.. Rameswarathula marriage.. Had to leave by Sethu express that evening, so couldnt make it to taj... Athukku thaan call pannitey irunthen, neenga enna da phoney edukkala...'.

Vijay's heart felt like it had suddenly come to life again. Feelings of joy and relief started gushing through his veins. 'Neenga en kitta irunthu escape aaka mudiyathu.....', nalini laughed. 'I wish for the same too....', vijay said to himself. 'Sollunga... enakku eppo antha treata thara porenga...', she demanded. 'Kandippa...Koodiya seekuram...', smiled vijay.Feeling as if he had just recovered from a bungee jump, vijay called nandhu and asked him to be at 'Cafe Coffee Day' by 6 in the evening. Nandhu was puzzled over the sudden invitation and managed to wrap up his work by 6. He was relieved to see that vijay was in all smiles and greeted him with a cup of cappuccino.'Enna da matteru.. vara vara surprise calla kudukkurey...', nandhu asked. Vijay explained everything about nalini, like a school boy narrating his first trip to principal's office. Nandhu smiled, 'Naan thaan appove sonnenla.. thevayillama manasa pottu kuzhappikuttu... Seri seri... delay pannama seekuram mattera ava kitta open pannu.. Unakku oru kalyanam panna thaan intha untime phone callskku ellam oru mudivi varum'.

Nandhu's last words had left an impression on vijay's mind. He was wide awake in his bed, debating whether or not to make the second call and invite her over again. He had never made such a difficult choice in his life, things almost always automagically happened correctly for him. 'It is too precious a relationship to lose due to a bad decision', he thought and decided to postpone the big moment.

तू Good

Hello Makkale!!!

Sorry to interrupt 'Margazhi Pookal'. But this was just irresistable. For all those Harry Potter fans out there, dont worry, someone is writing a tamil screeplay for the story...go check this out..
http://pravunplugged.blogspot.com/2007/07/new-film-poojai_27.html

PS: You need to know (1) Harry Potter story (2) Proper Chennai tamil to understand this blog :) yenna soldu pereedha...

Have fun,
Arjun

Margazhi Pookal - Baagam 3

'Minutes spent with a pretty woman are like seconds, Minutes spent waiting for her are like years'. Vijay was in an highly excited and nervous state. Images of every encounter with Nalini, started rolling through his mind. 'How great it would be, If she said yes', he thought. Minutes turned into hours and time shot past the midnight. The bearer and manager started giving uneasy looks at his table. After convincing himself that he was too hasty in his approach, vijay decided to leave home. He felt like his heart had been shattered to pieces. 'What have I done, She wont even consider me as her friend anymore.. I have lost a wonderful person's relationship', he blamed himself. He was in no state to control where his bike was going. The streets of same old singara chennai, seemed to him like hell and everywhere he turned, he saw her angry face. Being not able to take it anymore, he drove straight to the beach. Parking his bike near the gandhi statue, without even bothering to take his keys, he walked straight to the shore.


Vijay wanted to cry his feelings out loud. He had after all, not spoken to anyone about his feelings for her. It was this day that he had chosen to express himself to nalini. He laid down flat, with his back on the stand and started gazing at the stars. Love is an expression of heart that need not necessarily be reciprocated, he assuaged himself. 'It was not her fault that she did not develop a feeling of love in her heart towards him.' This also doesnt mean that his love for her is going to diminish. He closed his eyes and nalini's face appeared in a flash. 'Eh...Yaarura anga... Enna thanniya, vera ethavatha...', vijay woke up to a coarse voice. The shimmering moon light revealed a dark man with a white moustache and lathi in his hand. Vijay's explanations were not enough to convince the police constable, who decided to book him in a 'sandheha case'. It was the month end and obviously there were some numbers to be tallied in the ledgers. Vijay did not have his company ID card with him, so he decided to call his friend nandhu.


Nandhu was half-asleep when his cell-phone rang. 'Yaarunga athu...intha nerathula.. Unga officela ungala vitta vera izhicha vayane illaya...', nandhu's wife started her usual puzhambal. Nandhu was a team lead and such late night phone calls were a usual phenomenon. Putting on his glasses, he reached for the cell phone. 'Vijay Calling...' , at this time.. he was puzzled. 'Sorry to disturb you at this moment da...One small problem..I am at the marina beach, near gandhi statue.. Can u meet me here? I forgot my ID card and I need to prove my identity to the constable'. Nandhu drove his car to the beach and got the issue settled.


'Any problem?', nandhu asked vijay. 'Sorry to disturb you at this late in the night da... Manasu seri illa athu thaan beachkku vanthen'. Nandhu was a smart person and he sensed that vijay was terribly upset over something. 'Ethuva irunthalum... Naalu peru kitta share pannina... Baaram kurayum', he advice vijay. It was already a very hectic night for nandhu and these words were enough to trigger his outburst. He explained everything, from the day he met nalini, to his painful wait at the taj. 'Ivalo thaan mattera... Ethachum avasara velai irunthurukkum da... Nee vena paaru nalaikku unna meet panni pesuva paaru...', nandhu consoled vijay. Deciding that it was unwise to leave vijay alone, he escorted him to his house.


Next day at office, vijay could not help staring at the empty seat behind his back. Nalini had not turned up for work that day. Vijay could not help thinking that she was so angry with him, that she had decided to stay back at home. He couldn't do any work that day and his mind was completely occupied by nalini. At lunch, he started a 'casual' conversation with nalini's manager and asked her about nalini. She told him that nalini had called her up yesterday and asked leave for three days. This news seemed to worsen his already humongous guilt.


After a long time, he was spending day without nalini by his side. It was hard for him to spend every minute. Her face kept throbbing his mind all day. He realized that he had grown so used to her company in so little time, that he couldnt do without her. 'I was an idiot to have ruined such a wonderful relationship...', he said to himself. His mind was already thinking of ways to mend their friendship, but he had nagging doubt at the back of his mind that it was going to be impossible.

Margazhi pookkal...... Paagam - 2

Vijay woke up to the sound of his neighbors tv. He was not sure what time it was or whether he had gotten any sleep. Feeling lazy, he pulled the sheet over his head but he could still clearly hear the title song of 'kozhangal'. The sudden realization that it was late-evening made him spring up on his bed. What a waste of a day..He thought. The gurgling sound in his tummy, seemed to jeer at him for oversleeping...or oversleeplessness..watever. He slowly moved into the kitchen and raided the shelves. There was nothing but a single packet of maggi, he humored himself into thinking bachelor lifela ithellam sakajamappa.... After slurping down the hot bowl of maggi, he turned on his tv to watch some random serial. He knew that his entire schedule had been overly skewed now, he will not be able to get any sleep that night either. He was still in the formal shirt and pant, that he wore to the office yesterday. After changing into something more comfortable, he decided to take a walk and probably roll his bike back home.

As he was rolling back his bike home, the morning memories started rushing through his mind. He couldnt prevent himself from stopping at the place where he met her. The house looked a bit old and the paint had worn off. The name plate outside the house seemed to proudly boast its owners name as M.Sambasivam. The iron gate was locked with a padlock and the light inside the hall revealed a small TV. He took some time admiring the nice kozham that adorned the entrance to the iron gate. It portrayed four peacocks, one in each direction, in colors of red, blue, green and yellow. The proud kozham seemed to torture him into guilt and made him feel all the more bad.

It happened in a split second, she came out to her balcony probably searching for some fresh night air. His eyes met hers and she rushed back inside. He could not control staring at the empty balcony. Suddenly he came back to his senses and rolled his bike back home. He was sure that he was not going that night, partly due to his skewed schedule and mostly due to her. After browsing for god knows how many hours, he fell asleep on his chair. He woke up to a distant melody which sounded like suprabhadam. He got up from his chair and walked towards the wash basin.

He looked at the wall-clock and realized that it was 6 in the morning. He was Puzzled by the fact that he had woken up so early. It was a long time since he woke up this early. Probably since his high school days, he had never woken to the sound of suprabhadam and had to turned into a night owl. His IT job dint help him either. It felt really good to wake up early in the morning. After washing his face, he felt the urge to go out for a walk. He was drawn by some unknown force towards the same house. It seemed to him like the only house in the street. It was an odd feeling of guilt that he had never felt before. He had not done something bad, it was just an accident but yet he was continually getting drawn to the same house.

After stealthily hiding behind a tree trunk, he watched the house with keen intent. She came out of her house in a few minutes, holding the same silver bowl, dressed in a beautiful white saree with a small sandhana keetru in her head. He couldnt control his eyes from looking in her direction. Her beautiful strokes were imbibing life into fishes of different colors. After what seemed like hours to vijay, she finished her kozham and went back inside her house. Vijay came back to his senses and it triggered a mental war within him. He was not so cheap, he cannot fall in love with a girl without even talking to her. Besides he did not even know If she was married already. Although he tried very hard, he could not convince himself to stay away from her house.

Vijay walked back to his house and took a nice cool shower to calm down his senses. He tried to come to grips with the fact that it was just impractical to have love at first sight. Besides, he had hurt her feelings the other day. There was no way that she was going to fall for him. Pushing it deep down into the bottom of his heart, he got dressed up and hung his laptop bag on the back. He had forgotten completely about his busted bike until he leapt on its seat. Ridiculing himself for being so dreamy,he pushed his bike to the mechanic shop next street and caught an auto rickshaw to reach his office.

As usual vijay started checking his emails, there were mails from nandhu, varun and his manager. The subject of the manager's email said "SURPRISE", he opened it hurriedly and glanced through its contents to get the gist of it. He was being sent on-site for the deployment of the final release.

(one year later......)
Chennai airport was bustling as usual. Relative and friends bidding farewell to their loved ones. Parents eagerly awaiting to see their kids after a long time. Vijay's flight reached chennai international airport on the dot. After collecting his luggage and making his way through the customs, he was greeted by his friend nandhu. It was so beautiful to back at home sweet home. Singara chennai seemed to him like heaven on earth. He directly went to the new apartment that nandhu had booked for him and freshened up. There was an auto stand right opposite to the apartment, taking an auto he reached his office and walked straightly to his old cubicle. It was like visiting an old friend, this cubicle had witnessed his sleepless nights and victory celebrations. As soon as he sat on his chair, sweet memories of his chennai life strolled through his mind one by one. 'Hi...', he turned back and there she was, standing right next to him. 'Hi' she repeated, expecting him to reply. He was startled, he never expected her to be there. More than startled, vijay was completely confused. 'Hi..', he replied in a puzzled voice. She extended her hand and he shook it. 'I am Nalini, your new cubicle mate... I was told that you will be reaching today and moving into your office tommorrow...'. Vijay could not stop the thunderstorm of thoughts that were going through his mind, 'Had to do finish some last minute work for the release', he replied. She smiled and it accentuated her already beautiful face. Pulling her chair, she settled down before her computer.

Probably his eyes were playing tricks on him. He pinched his arm, just to be sure. No this is real, she must have probably joined the company when he had gone onsite. Was god playing tricks on him, Is this the girl with whom he is going to spend the rest of his life... Too many questions, too much excitement.. He decided to calm himself down, If she was the girl in his life then things will automatically happen.

She accompanied him during the lunch break. In a 'CASUAL' discussion, he gathered that Nalini was 23, D/o Sambasivam (a retired bank manager) and more importantly 'Single'. It seemed to him that she did not recognize him from their previous encounter. Or probably she did not make that big a deal out of it. He was relieved that she did not appear to recollect his face.

It was the best december in his entire life, he felt recharged everyday on seeing her smiling face. She seemed to never have a dull day and was always excited about her work. Lunch meetings extended for almost an hour and coffee breaks became his most important work in the evening. He spent every weekend waiting to see her blooming face again.

Christmas was fast approaching and his team-mates had already made plans to go to munnar for the vacation. They were persuading him to join the tour party, but he avoided the trip by giving some mundane excuse. He thought that it was time for him to express his feelings towards nalini. What If she says no? He would not be able to digest that answer. She was the first girl that he had ever wanted to talk about something other than work. It would be too precious a loss for him. Mustering every bit of courage, he dropped in an email inviting her for a dinner at Taj that night. He hoped that the venue would convey his intent and that she would be ready for the occasion. 'If only she would say Yes', he repeated to himself.

E-mails were convenient, he could just type it out and send it across. He was not brave enough to pick-up her calls the whole day, 'I am a coward' he said to himself. His heart seemed to beating so loud that he couldn't hear anything else. Reaching Taj an hour earlier, he started his long painful wait for her.

Margazhi pookkal......

Vijay washed his face with cold water and reached for the paper napkins. The splash of cold water was not enough to wipe out the sleeplessness from his face, but he felt better. He looked at his brand new titan watch and realized that it was 6 in the morning. The watch was a birthday gift from his team, the same team with which he had spent the whole of last night banging away on the final release. Without bothering to get back to his cube to collect his backpack, he slowly made his way towards the parking lot. He was so tired that he could vaguely recognize his own bike. He hopped on his black hero honda-splendor and kick-started its engine to life. How great it would be if someone could kick-start your battery every now and then......


As he made his way out of the parking lot, he saw the security sipping a cup of tea. The security smiled at him, he was too tired to smile back. It was cool december morning and the sun was just about to buzz the city into its everyday life. After whizzing along the IT highway, vijay exitted into his more quieter residential neighborhood. A sudden blast woke him up from his half-sleep and he quickly realized that he was losing control of his bike. He managed to apply the brakes on time and bring his vehicle to a stop. The back wheel tire of his splendor had burst and it couldn't have been on a worser time. He was really really tired and more than a kilometer separated him from his sleep. He decided to park and walk. He thought he would come back and pick it up later.


He started walking and the fresh breeze seemed to slowly rejuvenate him. He closed his eyes to feel the wind and enjoy the cold air. Suddenly he felt something slushy on his feet. He had stepped on something that seemed like wet-clay. As he lifted his leg to examine his show, he heard the iron gate next to him creaking. Impulsively he looked in the direction of the noise and saw a girl standing with a silver bowl in her hand. She seemed to be in her early twenties and was wearing a green saree. Her face looked as if, she had just taken a bath and her hair was tied to her back in a red cotton towel. Her beautiful face had a vacant expression, on seeing which vijay realized that he had probably ruined her art-work. He felt really really bad and did not know how to react. After muttering a feeble sorry (The human mind was just not engineered to admit its mistakes!!!), he half-sprinted towards his house. He washed his legs on the tap outside his house and went to his one-bedroom apartment in the first floor. Barely removing his shoes, he crashed into the comfort of his bed.


Sleep for some reason seemed to be a distant thing of the past. He couldn't close his eyes for even a moment because he couldn't get her face out of his mind. The human mind is a mean machine, the harder it tries to forget, the harder it gets to forget. He cursed himself for having stepped on her maragazhi kozham. Even consoling himself saying that "it was just a bad morning, first the bike...then this...," did not seem to help assuage his feelings. The more he tried to cuddle into deep sleep, the more sharper her image in his mind seemed to get. He just thought he could go and apologize to her once more... It wasn't her fault that he was sleepless the night before but she suffered...However it sure seemed like it was her fault that he was sleepless now and he was suffering. If only she has scolded him, he would have never felt bad... It was her vacant face that bothered his trip to slumberland.

Thank you Kalki. Thank you Rowling.

Do you love reading books? Otherwise I might as well have writen this post in Greek!

We have all had those moments. Moments that only truly gifted authors can give us. Moments that make us pause reading the book and make us dream. Moments that transport us to that world described in the book and give us goosebump.
This post is my 'attempt' to pay tribute to these great authors. Thank them for those moments.

It was late 70s. Venue: Nanguneri government library. A few other than some retired men would dare to venture into that dimly lit library. Even those old men would confine themselves to the daily news paper section. But my mom knew not; these social norms. She found the cover of a thick novel quite intruiging. A novel that opened a whole new world for her. A novel that is solely responsible for her reading glasses. A novel named Ponniyin Selvan. Ponniyin Selvan is a 2400 page Tamil historical novel. Many feel that its the greatest literary work in Tamil history. That is saying something!! Anyways, as my mom vividly recollects, till she finished those 2400 pages, she was possessed. For she was transported to 10th century Chozha Nadu. When Vandiyathevan gallantly rode a horse along Kaveri in Woraiyur, my mom could feel the cold breeze carressing her hair. It was not a book anymore. The characters had come to life and she was on too. Today, I reaffirm my promise to her; I will read Ponniyin Selvan one day (in Tamil).

It was July 2005, exactly two years ago. I clearly recollect it as if it all happened yesterday. I had 5 days to go for my GRE. Harry Potter book 6, "The half Blood Prince" had just released. I knew my GRE would go for a toss if I started reading the book. Nevertheless the irresistable craving to read it was.... well, what can i say.. irresistable! My all-knowing mom warned me against starting the book. Nevertheless I started. Thirty hours later I had a splitting headache and a terrible feeling in the pit of my stomach. It had nothing to do with my impending GRE doomsday. Nor was it due to 30 hours of constant staring at the computer screen (the book was an e-copy). Dumbledore was killed. How could he be dead? Isnt he the greatest wizard that ever lived? Isnt he the only one that the Dark Lord ever feared? How could he be dead? Suddenly Barron's word list did'nt seem to matter so much.

Back then I knew that this wait; the wait for the seventh and final book would be long and painful. Now as I finish this post, we are 3 days, 9 hours and 57 minutes away from the release of "Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows" (HP). Like all other Potter-maniacs I have pre-ordered a copy. Recently a survey showed that 27% of HP readers will first go to the final chapter and read the ending. I am not one of those. To me knowing the story is just part of the fun. I like to dream it. Live it.
I dont know who is going to die. I have no clue about the story. But I do know for sure that when I finish the book, I will be bereft of my dream school. Bereft of my good friends. Then, I will look back with nostalgia at the 11 years I have grown with Harry.

Well, the purpose of this blog is to thank these blessed authors. For they have the ability to create a new world for us. A world to which we so willingly transport outselves, when the going on Earth gets tough.

Thank you Kalki. Thank you Rowling.

Sinnnng in the rain!!!! I am Sinnnnnng in the rain!!! I want Mooooore in the rain!!! I want Moooore in the rain!!!!

In my last post, I mentioned how hot July has been with temperatures soaring in high 30s. The Jillenu oru July concept seemed to have paid off and now Pittsburgh looks like what its supposed to look like. Its raining super joree here. It was an unusual Friday here. I was the only person in my lab. Maybe, the other labbies knew abt the rain or knew about my proffs absense..:( ..

Anyways, back to my favorite pastime - rain. I started from my lab to home in the evening. Then, suddenly i could hear a bang bang and a rumble. Then it was just Ganana ganana gana.. My favorite sport as a child was to play in rain (ofcourse!!! dont tell my mom). I felt like just doing the same and walked in the rain without waiting. I felt a sense of joy, a sense of freedom and looked haughtily at the people standing under a shelter afraid of rain, afraid of water, afraid to be happy!!! I always wondered why do people get under umbrella afraid of mere droplets of water always with no particular reason.

So, what was suppossed to be a dull and boring day became an exciting day for me in the end. And now I am waiting for a call to get out in the rain and go to watch our favorite sattikaran..(lol..Arjun, once again u rock!!!!) .. Harry Potter. Await patiently for our reviews of the movie in the next post.

once again.."Sinnnng in the rain, I am sinnng in the rain!!!!
I want mooooore in the rain, I want mooore in the rain!!! "...

Jillenu oru July..!!!!

Welcome to the Normandy news channel dated the 12th of July 2007. We bring to you the latest happenings in Normandy in the month of July representing a fortnight full of events. As you all know how exciting June was, July has been less adventurous and time just flew by. The notorious gang of 4 became a gang of 5 with the intoduction of Dr.Balaji, a well known scientist from Singapore!!! We wanted to have people who work to show off that we Normandiers are really busy unlike some of us(including the person writing this blog) who invent new ways to kill time. And that too imagine.. how much the cost will go down.. all divisions by 4 are complicated and were replaced by divisons by 5 ( it is easy!!! believe me.. 5 is prime.. :) ) ..

To follow up for the exciting June, we started thinking "what next?? " . Sivaji is done n dusted, Merc is no-longer new,... Then, as we had people who definitely had to kill time to survive, we suddenly had a strange thought that "of course we are swimmers" .. Since the Olympics is less than 400 days away, we made a busy schedule which includes atleast a hour in the pool , and another one at the gym. We are going to make a strong contingency to get the sole gold medal which India is lacking for som many decades.. 2 weeks of intense practice has created within us Divers at 12 feet (dunno how Arjun managed to do this feat without hurting others!!!) and has made the pool look smaller. Beware!!! now we are the Rajas of the pool.. Nobody dare to swim in the lane we are doing.. or else.. u know what happens...

But we kept on asking ourselves " Is one gold medal enough for India??? ".. of course we can participate in all the disciplines in swimming, but then... we r indians, we need to be good at everything.. This strong sense of patriotism brought within us the sleeping Federers and Agassis (Pardon me: these two are my favorites) .. So we included Tennis in our already busy schedule.. and we became the busiest creatures in CMU... So that makes atleast 2 gold medals guaranteed for India next year.

But then as usual Nature plays spoilsport against Indian dreams. Our hope of living to the expectations of our millions of supporters is being taunted by the extreme heat and humidity of July. We become tired easily but our passion is sustained.

With nothing else to really boast off during July, apart from the usual 1 movie a day policy, Harry Potter revisions and experiments in cooking, we look forward for an exciting weekend when our 'Bhakti Brother' Siva visits us with another ride in Merc, another trip to meet our dear old relative Perumal and maybe a night out with our non-muggle family.

Heyyy... ooops, i forgot.. we also work in labs.. so work goes on..

Meet you in the next edition of Normandy news. Until then Vanakkam..Vanakkam.. Vanakkam...

kokkarako gummango..

" Netru illai Naalai illai, eppanume naanga Raja,
Kottai illai, Kodiyum illai, Appavum naanga Raja.."

"Pliss... I also the President"

Recently, I had the previlege of interviewing Dr. Kiswanath. (For the ignorant junta: Dr. Kiswanath is the vice-chancellor of Thambi University which has 3629 colleges under its wings)

Moi: Sir, Is it true that you have nominated yourself as an independent candidate for the President's post?

Dr.Kishy is in a pink colored full sleeve shirt. Dr. Kamadoss photo in the background. Ofcourse, no cellphones allowed

Dr. Kishy: Yes, thats true. I want to be India's 14th president.

Moi: But sir, India has only had 11 presidents so far!!

Dr. Kishy (in a self-explanatory tone): So, that will make me the 14th president right?

Moi: Ofcourse sir. Can you explain the reasons behind your decision to stand for presidents post?

Dr K: Sure. First of all, I belong to the mostly-backward-but-moderately-forward caste. And this year its the turn of someone from our caste to be the president. Moreover, there are only two people in my caste (me and my wife) I want to become president.

Moi: Bur sir, what about your wife?

Dr.K: She will become stand-in president if I go to jail.

Moi: Ok sir. What are the other reasons for your decision?

Dr.K: The other day, I was reading about Prathiba Patil. What is her qualification, I ask you? She is a woman. Ok. Here brother has killed somebody. Ok. She has defaulted a bank loan. Ok. Now you tell me boy; Is this enough to become a president of this whole state?

Moi (comtemplating if India had become a state in the recent past): Ahem... sir...hmm...

Dr. K: On the other hand, look at my qualifications. My career started as a tea-boy in CEG's mechanical engineering department. Now, I have grown so much through sheer hardwork (and some help from my Anna Dr. Kamadoss). If you think a first woman president would be great for India, imagine how great it will be if an enuich like me becomes president. This has never happened in world politics.

Moi: Thats very true sir.

Dr.K: Moreover, that lady is stupid to take bank loans in the first place, I say. Look at me. I never take bank loans. Whenever I need some money, I just get it from my students as retotalling and re-correction fee.

Moi: Wow. Thats so inspiring, But how do you manage to do that sir?

Dr.K: Simple logic. When I first pulish the results, I just release one digit in the students' score. Only after they submit Rs.200 for retotalling do I release the other digit. How is it??

Moi: Super. Sir, that leads us to my next question. I would like to question you about some policies that you have implemented in Thambi university. I am, ofcourse talking about the cellphone, T-shirt and jeans ban. Could you explain the reasoning behind these decisions?

Dr.K (sits up, licking his lips): Sure. Apart from the obvious monetary motive (we collect inordinate sums of money in the name of fine), I also have other reasons which are too complicated for you to understand. Let me just say that my measures are starting to pay rich dividents. My students are geting PhD admissions into top universities like Google and Europe.

At this point, my cursed cell phone starts ringing.

Dr.K (half getting up): This is highly un-responsible I say!!! How can you bring a cell phone into my office?

Moi: Sir, but I am not a student. I am a reporter and I work for NDTV.

Dr. K (now furious): How does that matter man!! Who is your CEO. Yes, Aishwarya Roy . Call him up. I will talk to that fellow!!!!

Moi (running out of his office): Aala vidu da saami....

CNN IBN - Whatever it takes (to improve viewership)

Hi all,

If you this the recent blog about Sivaji the crap (by Anuradha Senguptha) was rather uncalled for; wait till u read this latest blog at ibnlive.com.
Honestly I was shocked to read it.
http://www.ibnlive.com/blogs/sanjeebmukherjea/262/2126/rajini-the-blogbuster.html

What do u think?

Potter...Potter...Potter everywhere..Not a single book to read....

If you are a HP buff, you know what July 2007 means...... Yes its the release month of HPATDH, the grand finale of the harry potter series....

Speculations and theories are on an all time high. Media frenzy is also on an all time high. Potter mania is ubiquitous and there is no escaping it. Amazon homepage reports that it has received 17million preorders for HPATDH. A Reuters news feed describes how JKRowling broke into tears when she wrote the last chapter. Apparently she had to gobble down a bottle champagne to calm herself down (Kuduthu vachavanga...).

6 ku appuram 7 da...Sivajikku appuram evan da? appadinu feel pannitu irunthu makkalukku adutha fever HP. Lots of interesting parallels can be drawn....Long gaps (intended????) between each release, secretive story-lines and brand-name...Formula for success in the mass-media is simple, Its just getting the ingredients on -time thats difficult.

As usual there are a lot of spoofs of HPATDH making rounds in the internet... It is quite interesting to note that there are so many aspiring authors, who would spend so much time on making a spoof...Some of them are really hilarious, there are even spoofs in which harry gets married to ginny and they have a kid (OMG....cant imagine rowling finishing the story on such a happy note)

JK Rowling can be compared to tamil director bala... Both of them had bad experiences in their life, trigger creative ideas... They love finishing their stories with a really really sad note..Somehow they feel that the hero should always be alone at the end or should be killed himself... The formula seems to work though, both of them have been really successful in wooing the deepest human emotions

Anyways, HP is out for the grabs already....Thanks to mass marketing campaigns by amazon and barnes & nobles, you can get a original copy online for dirt cheap prices, so have fun HP buffs the stage is all yours for the grabs!!!!

(Inside scoop for JKR...Apparently two main characters are going to die in the last book and the last word in the book was changed from 'scar' to something else at the last moment... Watch out spoofs the real-deal is here!!!)

What do u think?

Anuradha Sengupta is a popular journalist working for CNN-IBN. Here is her latest blog. I have always had a lot of respect for her....

http://www.ibnlive.com/blogs/anuradhasengupta/164/2061/sivaji-the-boss-of-crap.html

Leave ur comments.

June barabar Jhoom ........

Yes folks !!! July has arrived on-time at normandy apartments.
Wat was special about June, well...it was the first month with 4 letters, first month to start with J and marks the beginning of the second half of the year...Naaaaah..June spelled SUMMER all over it....
We had a wonderful weekend after a long long time...

Siva bought a new black MerC this week, after months of monetary analysis and quest for good deals. Deciding that pittsburgh is the best place to drive his first car, he drove from his hometown (although his still calls pittsburgh his hometown) to pittsburgh yesterday... I just cant resist some rambling about this amazing machine so here it goes....

MerC is an amazing vehicle... An amazing icon of engineering...Spacious and Stylish...Classy is one word to describe it...The vehicle is really really reallllllllllly smooth and you can feel it...Siva's merc was fitted with a six-speaker bose sound system...We had the out-of-the-world experience of listening to some 'Thiruda Thiruda' songs on our way to the temple...

Car Puja at the temple was a nice experience...Perumal kitta car first kaatinathula siva-vukku alaathi santhosam...There was a lot of the crowd at the temple..Being grad students we couldn't even vaguely recollect the date forget the occasion...After some sincere saami darisanam (for the first time...minds were not filled with dreams of puliyogare thanks to sivas afternoon treat at orchid), we packed some food for dinner and left to see the jain temple....

It was our first experience at the jain temple...It was really serene and well-maintained too...There was not much crowd in the temple and the priest did a special puja when we arrived (no..it was not for us..it was for some old north indian couple who entered exactly at the same time...)...A comment at the temple from an ABCD girl, "Indian parties are nothing but drink, dance and gossip" ...Seriously wat else do u expect in a party ???? (Now why are we journalling this in our blog....none of us know).


Siva is an executive member of 'Bhakti Brothers' , so he took us directly to the sai-baba temple from there...We reached just before the temple closing time and had a good dharsan...We even got some apples as prasadham (buddhi pokutha paaru...aiyee....)....It was quite interesting to see the same people from the jain temple here....(I guess there is only one route to bhakti....)

Just in case you were wondering, YES ALL THESE TEMPLES ARE THERE IN PITTSBURGH..

After all that fun, we decided to take the car for a ride...And wat better way than to open up the moon-roof (sun-roof..watever...), open all windows and play some blasting music..Yes we did that...The fun part is that no one else understood any of the songs besides us and we attracted a LOTTT of puzzled looks...Arjun was so flattered that he decided that his new car should atleast have bose speakers...else its not worth buying one..

The best way to enjoy a new car is to have a nite-out ...So we decided to drive to schenley park and spend the night at the golf course...It was a really cold summer night and we had a pretty good chat....We thought we were the only loones to be sitting that late in the night at the park, we were startled when we saw a men (hopefully....) walked past us when we were busy discussing chennai corporate life (or probably it was wen we were talking about the indian economy...). We came to a consensus that we were not the craziest people on earth and decided to get back home...

Sunday dawned (or dusked...watever) a bit early on siva and he left early in the morning to his hometown....We had a wonderful time as usual....

It all started with some swimming fun...We totally rocked the pool (in case u have any doubts..plz imagine prashanth diving into the pool...). After having a really great time...Arjun has decided that swimming is going to definitely be a part of his every day schedule (We have decided to go swimming early morning tomorrow..lets see how that goes....)...After hours of swimming the lifeguard blew the whistle and it was time to go...

Swimming makes you really really hungry....We were starving (not for the first time though....) and decided to go to kohlis to get some samosas...There was an amazing vintage car rally happening at craig street...As usual our patelism kicked-in and we took some photos with the classic cars...

Being the jobless juntas that we are..We decided to play SCRABBLE at the CS department lounge...After some serious gaming and few cups of hot chocolate, we decided to get back to our normal life...Just when we thought the weekend was over...Someone had the amazing idea of playing tennis ( Maybe it was arjun...) and we decided to conquer the court...

After some superb cycling and jogging, we were at the UC equipment desk...As if we had not had enough action for one day, arjun had forgot his ID card..He cycled back home and rushed back to campus, only to find that the courts were not empty...After some waiting and under-arm cricket with tennis racquets, we finally got a court and played some really physical tennis (Prashanth adicha ball-aa innum kaanala...)..A great way to end an awesome weekend...

This long blog completes our perfect weekend... (Now lets hope that my sensor network stress test is still standing up to the challenge....Yaarange..Nodes ellam vela seyuthanu check pannunga...)

On saturday - 23rd of june. Part II

Did you read part 1?
Cool.
Note: The following events happened; exactly as described. No exaggeration.

We started from our house bright and early as planned (at 11am). We boarded a bus to the airport and were on our way; looking forward to renting a nice car. Perfect. One little hitch. Siva forgot his IDP (international drivers permit) without which renting is car is complicated; to say the least. After some debating we concluded that it is most logical for Enterprise rental to give their car to a complete stranger who has a drivers license that's valid in a small state in a country named India.
Anyways we reach the airport. Walk up to this blond standing at the Enterprise counter.
ASIDE: Exactly a month back, 3 of us took a car from the same enterprise outlet and went to niagara. We paid for two additional drivers and a GPS navigation package. The total bill was $65. We got a BRAND NEW Suzuki Forenza. Awesome!!
Back to reality:
The blonde chick punches her calculator for a couple of minutes. I, in the mean time, am busy doing some mental calculation. Will it be $60? Nah. This time we have just 1 additional driver. Should be less.
Chick: It will cost you 140 dollars, sir.
Me: : I am sorry. Was that 40?
Chick: $140 sir.
At this point Siva tactfully reminds her to include ALL possible insurance cover (stressing on the word 'all').
Chick: Yes, I have done that sir.
Me: But clearly there is something wrong. We have rented car from this very office many times. Its never more than 70 dollars.
Chick: For the GPS it costs $8 and for the additional driver it costs an extra $7.
Siva: But CMU covers for our insurance. So you should not be billing us for that.
Now the chick digs up a big document and quotes "CMU will cover only CMU employees who travel for official purpose" and she looks up triampantly.
After some scuffling we manage to bring the rate down to $100. This means that only siva can drive the car. We choose not to add me on as an additional driver. (I love driving and the combination of 100 dollars and not driving has sent me into a state of depression). Also Siva hates to drive.

On the way to the temple from airport, we all agree that the day couldnt have started any worse. At exactly this point, Karthik tells us that the GPS is not working. Shoot me!!!
Interstate 376 is closed for maintenance. This means (a) it is going to take much longer to reach the temple since we have to negotiate thru obscure neighbourhoods. (b) we don't know the route to the temple really well and have to depend on the GPS (which is still not working)!!

Judging by the standards we had set so far, the next two hour was quite event less. We some home reached the temple in one piece. Thank God!!
Oh forgot.... Siva jumped a red signal in a busy intersection. We were honked at. I am thanking my stars for being still alive and Siva chooses this moment to say the most unbelievable sentence I have ever heard in my life....
Siva: : Yes, the signal was red so I went straight. Whats wrong in that??
Me, Karthik and Saketh (in chorus): Exactly, the signal was RED. You cannot go straight.
Siva: : Oh, is it? So far I have been thinking that if it is red we cannot turn right but can go straight.
Me, Saketh and Karthik take turns to look at each other with a sense of disbelief. At this point I realise that I should be driving the car. It does not matter if I dont have insurance. It does not matter that even if I cause so much as a small scrach in the car I have to pay a few thousand dollars. The only thing that matters in that all of us have to be alive. (ok I am over reacting a bit here. But hey, a red signal is a STOP!!)

Finally we reach the temple, have darshan and buy 3 packets of Puliodharai, 3 packets of sambar rice and 2 packets of curd rice (most important!!). We are on our way.... from temple to cinema theatre. The distance is supposed to be abt 30 miles. One hour easy.
Btw, inside the temple a few important decision were taken,
(1) There is no time to go home and change into veshti, lungi. :(
(2) I convince Siva to let me drive the car.
(3) By an act of God, the GPS starts working.

ON ROAD: (4pm):
Target time to reach destination is 5pm: Movie starts at 6pm. Perfect.
We are all very very hungry. So, while I am driving the other 3 decide to feast on the temple food. I can only watch them eat. The puliodharai smell is driving (pun unintended) me nuts. Now that the GPS is working, we key in the theatre address and start following it blindly.

4:20pm :
I somehow beg, plead, coax the others into letting me eat n drive at the same time. Anyway since the interstate is closed we are stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic in some unknown neighbourhood. So I have plenty of time to eat. In the meant time we have become completely dependent on the GPS. We have no idea where we are going.

4:40pm :
We have just cleared a 20 minute stretch of start-stop driving. The worst traffic is behind us. Man, that was a terrible stretch. GPS tells us that we will reach the destination at 5:15pm. Thats ok. We should still have enough time.

4:50pm :
At the exact same time, me and Karthik get the same sinking feeling in the pit of our stomach. "Didnt we just cross this point sometime back?" We look at each other and let out a "oh-my-god" (a la Chandler's GF in Friends). Karthik quickly grabs the GPS and checks. Our worst fears are true. Somehow the destination had not changed. Instead of going to the theatre, the GPS was still trying to take us to the temple!!!!!

5:10pm :
Now GPS says that we should reach the destination by 6:10pm - correct destination
Me (polamb'ing): Gone, Ballelaka song gone. Superstar entry gone. **** it!!!
Some other friends of ours are supposed to have reached the theatre by now.
Siva does some smart thinking and calls them up. He requests them to put kerchief on 4 seats. Thamizhan thamizhan than!!

6:30pm :
Traffic is terrible. We have still not reached the theatre. The movie must have started by now.
The day cannot get any worse!!!

6:45pm :
We finally reach the theatre. Ah, what a sight. Summa jay-jay nu oru kootum. Americans are staring at the spectacle with their jaws dropped.
A long queue is standing outside the theatre.
All the mamas, mamis, their hot ABCD daughter, F1 junta, H1 junta... all are assembled.
It turns out that even the previous show has not yet finished.

Cool.
Thaaaalllllllaaaaaiiivvvaaaaaa !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PS:
The trouble is surely worth it. For the next 3 hours we had great fun.

On saturday - 23rd of june. Part I

Ever felt that gazillions of little events in our everyday life are chance happenings? That there is some force above; that makes sure that everything goes according to 'our' plan? That there are invisible strings attached to us and we are mere puppets? And if God looks away, even momentarily, it is complete chaos. . If you haven't felt so, you probably need a day like the one we had on the 23rd of June.

Yes, if had read the last post you might remember that 23rd June (Saturday) was the D-day. The day we were supposed to watch 'Sivaji - The bass' at 6pm. For one whole week before D-day there was a sense of restlessness amongst us. For us it was not just a trip to the theatre. It was a festival. It was a chance to revitalise our identity as a desi and as a tam. Sivaparamesh was coming all the way from Harrisburg to watch the movie with us. From one week before the D-day, every single day I would call Siva and remind him to come early on Saturday morning. I bugged him so much that he ended up being at our place on Friday night itself !!

At this point I would like to digress a little to emphasize the sense of restlessness that was growing amongst us. Do you remember the days when you were a little kid and your parents were taking you on a summer vacation to some hill station. I remember those golden days with great nostalgia. I used to derive greater pleasure from the sense of expectation on the days leading up to the vacation than the vacation itself !!
We felt the same way now. We told every friend who cared to listen that we were going to watch THE MOVIE on saturday. On friday, we felt www.behindwoods.com and www.sulekha.com should quicken their autorefresh rate!

Coming back to the main story:

So, we woke up bright and early on Saturday. The plan was to go to airport, rent a car, then visit SV temple, come back home to change costumes and reach the theatre at 5pm itself (one hour before the movie begins).

At this point, it is very important that you realise why we HAD to strictly go by the plan. We had the go all the way to airport for renting the car because only in airport we get the insurance covered by cmu. Consequently the rate gets very low ($50 for a day). We were very sure about the whole 'going-to-airport-renting-car' thing as we have done it many time before.
Why go to SV temple? Being the true desi s that we are, we felt that we would not be utilising the rented car enuf if we just went the theatre and did nothing else with the car. So we had to go somewhere else. And Pittsburgh is not exactly popular for its tourist spots. We could either go to valmart and buy stuff or go to the temple. We decided on temple.
Alrite, I get the airport and the temple part; but change costumes??
Yes, we wanted to do something that could be called "veri thanam" (sorry, translation impossible). So we decided on wearing lungi and going to the theatre. So we had to go back home from the temple before going to the theatre.
Ok, but why go to theatre at 5pm itself (a whole one hour before the show timing)?? Unlike India, cinema theatres here do not have seat numbering system. So the very first row costs the same as the last row. As one enters the theatre, he/she can she can seat himself/herself anywhere he/she wants. (aaah.. being gender-neutral is a pain in the *** ). Knowing desi mentality, every 'uncle' will be there with his family well before the show timing. So we had to beat them!

Alright; so this was THE PLAN. What actually happened? Hmm... if everything went according to plan life would be sooo boring. :)

(to be continued...)

Yet Another Sivaji Review.................................

Last week, the whole world was shaken by the rise of a new super power - sivaji (the boss). Orkut was flooded with messages like "Did u watch the movie", "Dude I did it", "The movie rocks" (Sivaji became so popular that no one uses the name anymore...Its simply the MOVIE now). The MOVIE was screened in pittsburgh yesterday and almost every tamy hit the theatres. Fearing a threat to our tamy status, we decided to watch the movie and booked the tickets a week in advance. This post as the title suggests, is going to be yet another frank (read as completely biased) review of THE MOVIE.

I know that sivaji is a rajini movie..Not to be reviewed and all that... Blah..Blah..Blah...
But nobody is perfect and we must accept that...
On that great note lets look at some things that I personally felt bad about...

The comedy scene with angavai and sangavai is disgusting.......It was not so great of rajini and shankar to make fun with the color of the skin ...Yet another male chauvinistic rajini scene i guess...

Certain contradicting rajiniisms can be seen throughout the movie (is shankar to be blamed....???). Dialogues like nammala aasai paduravangala vida naama aasai paduravangala kaatikitta life nalla irukkum seems like a direct opposite to previous rajini punches....

It seems like certain silly scenes were taken just to showcase splendid shreya(shriya..watever..), for example the scene where she runs with her red saree waving to stop the electric train seems to be right out of a fourth standard textbook...Amazing how the electric train could stop so soon and the driver saw shreyas red saree while he couldnt see super star shivering with fear (Probably the driver was designed to be like me )

The technique to convert black money to white money seems to be intriguing. (I mean to me it appears that the better way would be to make a movie like sivaji.. ). Wont that money become black money in the US??? or maybe is that the whole idea?

The rich get richer..The poor get poorer...Obviously deud...With sivaji the producers get richer by a few hundred crores..And the audience get poorer by a few hundred bucks...

Well anyways, I am not trying to be cynical but the whole idea is that we should try to treat the movie as any other movie..I know its a super star movie..Meant to be enjoyed..Like a super hero (superman, batman and all that...) but certain ideas should be clearer at this level because as we all know the superstar has a super fan following and good morals will lead them to good ways (no not BABA...but something more nice like a MGR movie...)

In order to balance me bad karma with the better karma, I should definitely mention what I liked about the movie...
The way in which medical colleges were portrayed was as real as it gets...The last time I heard a medical college seat is 40lakhs (No wonder we hear cases of patients being donated extra-organs like knivers, scissors and watches for operations and guiness records for youngest surgeries...). Shankar seems to constantly showcase this sad situation right from gentleman and he does it realistically....
The songs were just too good...Wonderful art work and music (rahman rocks..as usual)...Shankar has literally created a lot more world-wonders than those that exist...The glass houses and colossal constructions just drive me nuts...The other thing about the songs is that shreya and nayanthara have been portrayed more beautifully than ever...Shankar has also used rajini style to the max, "athiradi kaala machan machan ..." song is perfect for rajini...Thala thalai thaan...style style thaan...

Interesting statistic that india has more than 20 Lakh Crores in black money...Nice to know that atleast the CBI is still the more straight-forward department in the country...
Rajini must have been really really brave to show this movie to his political friends...The movie doesnt portray a pretty image of politics but it does show the truth (yeah...we cant help it..If the truth is ugly).

The movie is high-tech in lots of areas (in stark contrast to low-tech funda like red sarees stopping trains....) like the voice-based encryption scheme to save important files...
Good intentions like free education for the masses and making everybody pay taxes definitely stand out in the movie...
The movie is an all-in-all entertainer...I guess from a business point of view it is important.

The climax with mottai boss rajini is just awesome..Sama style...Sama scenu...The last few minutes of the movie will make it a mega hit for sure...And ofcourse there is the rajini brand name to make the success even more monumental)


More about our wonderfully worsssssssst day in the next post..So stay tuned....

Desire Lasts a Dozen Days...Passion Prolongs a Few More...

This is my vain attempt at translating the tamizh saying "Aasai Arubathu Naal Mogham Muppathu Naal". Now that the initial enthu has died and the despo guys have gotten back to their work, life in this part of blogosphere returns back to normal.

If you pay special interest, you will notice that this saying applies to almost everything in life. Take internship or grad school for an example, you initially think that it is the most exciting thing in your life. You put in lots of applications, attend strenuous interviews and make tough decisions. Life is exciting for the first few days, you see new people and work on new things. Once the "Honeymoon" is over, its time to send your Honey to the Moon (HeHe..just some spice). You feel the monotonicity setting in, you do the same things everyday, meet the same people, work on the same thing and feel like a machine. In fact you may even retrace the steps that you take every day and find that the standard deviation is epsilon.

Some people take solace in weekends, they spend their weekends differently and break the shackles of their boring life. For the not so fortunate, there are not many options for weekends. Some of them spend the whole day on the net, some sleep all day and many go to work (I am not kidding !!!...Talk to a grad student and you will know). People think that having a great weekend will rejuvenate them for facing the next week. Its like the initial enthu, it pushes them through the first couple of days and they spend the rest of the week waiting for the weekend. In fact If you step back and look at this from a higher altitude, you will notice that this is again a cycle that continues for ever and is as monotonous as anything else.

This brings up an interesting question, Is it ok to have a monotonous life? In my personal opinion :Yes. Everything has been statically scheduled to some extent in this world. Life has the same cycle, birth, youth and death (Atleast in most cases...). Animals have the same life literally every day. Although we may work on different things, we have a simple cycle of sleep, breakfast, lunch, dinner, sleep (Grad students excluded...). I think the reason that we have started cribbing about monotonicity in life is because of our desire for different things in life. Self-content may be the greatest way to feel happy in life. The lone-farmer may be the happiest man on earth though he does the same things in solitude every day, just because he is contented with his life.

Its friday and I guess I am looking for my weekend already....How different is my weekend from my weekly monotone? Well I have plans for saturday and back to work on sunday....
So see you next time....Until then....This is gumbalagumbalak signing off....

zzzzzz... Why's the grp sleeping???

As I was bored of running the same code again and again, and also to get rid of my drowsiness in lab, I thought I will visit and check new blogs. I was surprised to see that no one had. So, I wonder whether the initial fuzz has evaporated ?? whats the so-called office goers doing?? even mr.too fast too furious hasnt mailed today. So yesterday was just a off day, where everyone wanted to make their presence felt.

I was wondering why no one mailed. Maybe their bosses suddenly woke from a long slumber and seeing that when he had slept everyone had too, started giving them death sentences..(work.. work.. work.. till i leave...) ... or maybe they thought lets go back to the usual orkutting or chatting as blogs are boring.. whatever is the reason, moral is slow and steady wins.. so dont be tootie fruitie, and no despos too..

lets start something useful to discuss.. what abt the war in ramallah ??? (zzzzzz....) or what abt new look indian cricket team?? (chi thu..!!!) or what abt sivaji ??? (podhum da saami.. )..

oops.. my code over ran now.. have to start all over again.. :( .. guess this is gonna be t only post for the day.. so enssoy the weather.. its lovely.. i got drenched completely.. couldnt have asked for more..

vanakkam..vanakkam..vanakkam.

Naan LATE (last) a vandhalum LATEST a varuven..!!!!!

This is my 1st blog in this page and I form the 4th member of this notorious gang. People who are wondering why this guy is the last in posting dont mistake that i was busy in office (unlike others) or i am not a blogger..!!!! Its just that I wanted to show off that I wasnt too fast too furious. My post comes as the lucky 7 .. so its all the more significant.

And like others had mentioned, this blogpage is created by 4 vetti grad students who had no better jobs in life and who want to get out of the tortures of boredom created by their proffs.

So, what do we want to achieve by blogging ??

We definitely are harmless as mentioned. So, we want to show the world that how creatively can a grad student use his free time and make his proff proud. I do hope at some time in the future, all our proffs read the blogs and congratulate our efforts in depicting the grad life in their labs in a positive way. ( Beware guyz : we speak truth n only truth . We have ppl in our grp who are regular readers of Bhagwad Gita !!! ) ...

And ya, we r expecting some fan following as well to increase our popularity. Pitts is getting hotter, so having more fans would help.. :D ... already we have comments n encouragements pouring in from outsiders on the very 1st day.. plus the blogs hav attained a log phase without a lag phase.(no. of blogs..) ..

People who read our blogs regularly will be amply rewarded.. by maybe a dose of our cooking..:) .. seri.. vanakkam.. vanakkam.. vanakkam...

kokkarako gummango...
- saki..!!!!

The otherz zzzzzzz....

The most recent post was more intellectual & indicates that one of the two despo's ( refers to crazy people who alwayz seem to have some studying to do) on our blog. Now, we will try to use our inductive skills(mathematical induction!!!!!) to zero down on the right guy. The case @ hand is one between Mr. Cell fone sigamani (Cenema) & Mr.Danuku naka tana (Danta) (This is a desperate attempt @ naming & I request someone to come up with something nicer (There goes my f.... e.. :( ) Anyway, let us get down to solving this one. Cenema is most probably jobless & from recent (confidential: what he does best) evidence seems to be sinking some ships on the shores of some famous beach (hmmm That was a definite "boo" statement but I'm gonna leave it. Goes well with my 'crazy' theory). Danta on the other hand is probably working hard ( on his website or on orkut) & could be considered too busy for the same. Upon closer examination of the text, one realizes the text is probably form one who is more a local fellow(Chennai makkal). This biases us towards Danta. On the other hand, the text also uses too many smilies indicating a Cenema like character. What clinces it though is the use of the text 'asai arubathu naal mogham muppathu naal', a text exhibiting a more philosophical person & of course someone good @ quoting tamil adages (Is that one?) .

Based on the above analysis, we(I) conclude this was a work of Danta. Danta is instrumental in setting up this crazy page (bcoz the otherz are too rustic or lazy to do the same) & we thank him for the same. Of course, we would like to add that he must correct his knowledge with regards to the definition of despo as suggested above.......

Chaos Theory

While we all agreed on the beauty of 'Chaos Theory', this is a little too much. Looks like the butterfly is flapping its wings furiously.
From now on,
please sign yout post

lemme start it,

--Tootie Frootie

Flurry of Posts on the First Day

By now you should have got a clear picture of who we are...Let me try enumerating what you have in mind
1. vetti... (Ofcourse...that should have been ur first impression...flurry of blogs on the first day)
2. uncoordinated... (We still dont know who wrote the first blog..[:)])
3. enthu... (As always the aasai arubathu naal mogham muppathu naal... First day blog count / 60th day blog count = infinity ...thats my guess)
4. harmless... (You can see that we have not mentioned any political view, religious beliefs or cinema reviews so far in our blog...we are the most harmless creatures ever to have set foot on planet earth)
5. despo... (The desperation of our solitude has obviously forced us into expressing our crap in this blog..as you can see we still remain despos as not many people are interested in our nonsense)

Anyways if you are reading this blog still...Thank you!!! [:D]
(PS: I keep refering to some anonymous you in this post...Lets just hope that its someone else and not just gumbalagumbalaka)

Damn, didn't I say crazy!!!

You probably just realized how much I understated our craziness(crazyness maybe). I post a welcome message & while I'm typing that out, one crazy guy, letz call him Mr. Too Fast too furious (2F2T: Better as frootie tootie. How about Tootie Frooti. .Hell, I can't find a way to convince you. Yet we'll have it my way. Tootie Frootie it is.) posts about his complete joblessness @ his office ( as if we were any worse). Crazy it is & will alwayz be......

How to name it?

Well, lets take stock of the situation: I am at office. Manager is not here. MSP debugger is bugging the crap out of me. www.news.google.com has not added ANY new article in ANY of its 126 languages within the last 3 minutes! What can I do??
Well, I can write the inaugural post of our team blog: NORMANDY NAATKAL.



I shall devote the next few keystrokes to some of the most pressing (rather perplexing) issues facing mankind today.
Why is our blog named: NORMANDY NAATKAL ? (should it be 'normandy nakkals')
Why is our username GumbalaGumbalaka@yahoo.com ?

If you understand tamil and know that we live in Normandy Apartments and still can't figure out the meaning of our blog name, please lift your keyboard with both hands and bang it on your head for 6 times before proceeding. If your answer is in the negative for any of the above clauses you can skip the aforementioned physical activity. Naatkal in tamil means days. So our blog is meant to be a place to deposit our memories of the wonderful days we are ensoying at Normandy apartments.
Could we have called it Norman-days? Well yes, but we choose not to.

Next
Username: Gumbalagumbalaka@yahoo.com
For the linguistically ignorant: No, gumbalagumbalaka is not the name of the next UN general secretary (a la Buetrose Buetrose Galle). Rather it is a beautiful word in tamil literature steeped with history. Unconfirmed sources claim the etymology of this word from one Mr. Chinni Jayanth.
For those curious cats out there: The password is also equally poetic (hint: think chinni jayanth)

I think my manager is coming... c u later .. taatttaaaaaa

Arjun R V

Crazy world, crazy people

Vanakkam, vandanam, namaskaram, bonjour, guten tag, merhaba, shalom, saluton, hola, hello, hi ............................ whatever. Welcome to this crazy blog where five err six jobless people thrown together by mere chance (could it be otherwise?) share their (obviously crazy) experiences with (hmmmm who? Of course, yet another crazy person) you.