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...)