Beam me up, Mom. Energise.

Today too i left for home from office at 9:00pm. And as i rose from my seat to go home... my forever wandering mind thought of the 'transporter' aboard the Star Ship Enterprise, the phrase 'beam me up', etc. I guess, i hoped that would have been my mode of transport home! Then i remember watchin on discovery that there was a team some where who were able to achieve this with simple atoms. I came to realise, how much this fictional technology appealed to me... the snazzy vehicals in sci-fi movies didnt seem raise a thougth in my head.. but the
'transporter' did.I came back home and as i had some work to do on my computer, i thought i might indulge in my fav hobby- googling. And here are some links that might interest
you... it explains Teleportaion.
Teleportaion Breakthrough http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3811785.stm
How it will work http://www.howstuffworks.com/teleportation.htm
Explination http://www.its.caltech.edu/~qoptics/teleport.html
Can you imagine a regular house-hold conversation if this is ever possible? here is what i thougth up:
me:mom, beam me up.
(waiting. now doubtful) mom? mo-m?! r u there?
(Now demanding) i am ready!will you beam me home maaaa!
mom: can you learn to wait girl? WHAT all should i have to do at the same time?!!! cook, set the table,... I will HAVE to do everything...
me: OK! then ask someone else to do it! Whats Dad upto?!!!
(mumblin) Comforts of technology! my foot! had i left on one of those 2 wheeled things, i would have been home.
(back to talkin) maaaa, you need to be there till i get there in transportation room. I dont want to see 2 'me's like the other time. you know how much it cost us to get that resolved!

hey this is fun... you can add a few lines to this. Lets see if we can come up with a good story!

Quote Moi

"Being too perfect is in itself an imperfection."- Neets

A Sketch - I am feeling good about

A marinated chicken is the worst comparision I can make... but the prelude to how I got to draw this pic is something close to it.
I had this picture in my mind since a little more than a year( !! yes- >1yr). There are quirky moments where I get ideas out of the blue- to be able to put the scene in prespective... you can simply imagine me getting zapped by lightning on a warm sunny day(ridiculously impossible but ...). A particular corner of my mind is littered with some such pictures, pieces of rhyming lines and other ideas. I hadnt taken the courage to draw them cos I thought I could never draw them well.
Last Friday, I wasnt feeling well, so I decided to come home early from work and rest. I had planned on watchin an Italian movie in the evening with a couple of my friends but the lousy tummy ache foiled my plans. All disappointed and angry at how this ache screwed my evening and my attempts at taking a nap... I felt the urge to draw... and that toooo- this pic thats been lying around in the dusty attic of my intellectual abode. The time had arrived... it was time to bring it out to the material realm. (Thats a lil tooo much of language ... but let me show off a little bit here :D )
May be it was the stomach ache triggering some thing in my head... instead of tellin me to run for a tablet that would relieve me off this pain(I avoid tablets as much as possible), it was telling me to DRAW?!!! - this definitly indicates a wiring problem in my head.
My sketching skills have a tiny problem- I can do a pretty good job of everything but the face. I always have found drawing the face reaaaal difficult. But that evening , something swept over me and pushed me to just do it. And guess what? It turned out not too bad. I liked it. What do you think?

What could I be…

The Karmic cycle is one of my fav concepts… it tries real hard at explaining every aspect that bogs us down in our mortal journey. Its something I don’t believe but would love to believe. To me all that I know is – if I am burnt then I turn to useless ash, if I am buried- then I rot – it would make more sense in doing that, if we could make good use of the rotting process, by growing something over me. That, figuratively, if not literally- is in some way- rebirth.
My idle mind today was in the mood to wander and ponder … may be trying to keep up with the intellectual big shots who visit my blog. How shallow?!!! :P
The theory of Karma, talks of rebirth – you can be reborn to be any other living thing- paramecium, jelly fish, hippo, crow, roach, lizard, upgraded-gorilla etc depending on what karma you carry in your goody bag. All these forms have a life to live out- a life in this big mean world where survival is the game you have to play. But lets go nuts like me, for a moment… what if the Karmic concept would let us take birth as non-living thing? Is there any non-living form that escapes the chance of being abused in the hand of time and ‘life’? Eraser, water, finger-nails, light, monitor, clutch plate, knife, water-purifier… everything is trying to out-live itself despite all the odds it faces. The only difference is that its odds of survival lies in our hands- how we make, design, use them. We steer our own lives and the lives of the ones who don’t have a life of their own. So in more than one way, a product you use or make talks a lot about you- they speak volumes. You give a good life to the non-living around you- it reflects on you. You design something to last longer and something that doesn’t demand its user to repent not being born to Einstein to use it… you have earned your karma- by giving that thing a chance to ‘live’ a better, longer life. But the non-living thing doesnt gather karma! My Karma Theory v 2- what a bummer!!
There is a lioness somewhere in Africa who has got many scientists scratching their heads- they say she is the weirdest example of adoption in Nature, cos she has adopted what she should have had for a nice meal- yes, she has adopted a oryx(related to gazelle). Its quite a sight watchin her nursing her little one. For a moment I wondered whether she was aware of the kind of global attention she is getting for free- glamour can be addictive, we know(if Tom could get to do the monkey-jump on Opera and earn months of mention in newspapers and magazines the world over- why cant she?!). Or was she interested in a homo-sapien-meal … being the weirdo she is, she could get a lot of juicy scientists closer. Or was she trying to gather karma by not washing down this one gazelle? Or is there a bollywood styled explination to this- she is possessed by the ‘aathma’ of the gazelles real mother (producers interested in making the touching movie- get in touch with me- the story is mine)! Or a lil more realistic- does she have a personality disorder? On a serious note- this was a full grown lioness, someone who chose to break away from her pride (herd), who chose to live in isolation to mother a gazelle. What was weird is that she shared the nurturing repsonsibilities with the real mother. It is the only example of adoption that is awe-inspiring. It was not a force of habit, but why?! I thought its humans who can make out-of the way choices since human-nature is so unpredictable and non-standardised(Now, you know the guy who made 6-zigma was smarter than God). But she has proved me wrong. I like to believe that she made a choice- something beyond my comprehension and leave it at that- sometimes somethings are a lot more beautiful when you least understand it.
I started with something…ended up saying something else. Feel like a kitten playing with a ball of wool. I am lost- can someone get me out of this mess? (you pull me through all this crap and now you want me to GET you out?!!!) OK, smart-aleck! I will find MY OWN WAY OUT!

Would you want Cecilia back?

I have been listening to the song, ‘Cecilia’, by Simon and Garfunkle. It’s a song I heard in my PUC years, its brings a lot of good memories back- of the days the F’ing 7 rocked and ruled. We still do rock girls, but only better with time - like Wine.
The song is pretty funny, but after listening… I was wondering… would anyone want Cecilia back? Would you want Cecilia back if she cheated on you and would you be just as happy as the song says when shes back? I don’t think I would.

Where was I...

So... where was I... WHERE WAS I ?!!!*frantic*
It happened on... God, I dont remember!!!!*frantic again* but they came ...I met so many of them, they wanted me to be one of them .... they took me there... The Gia...
This will shatter all the beliefs instilled in us by modern science- its not Venus that shines so bright in the night- its... its The Giant Disco Ball!! Think about it- how can Venus shine?!!- it has nothin shiny on it- does it?!!! And you thought people back on earth didnt know this?! Oooooh... yes they do. And America is behind it.
Rest of the story: They cut me open- I didnt bleed! They switched my brain with my kidney- I survived!!! For the matter of speaking,my stomach were in knots(vitual pain), but that wasnt enough, they tied them into reaaaaaal knots. It stopped hurtin! They dont eat, they only drink some green goo that shines flourocent pink in the dark and reads out the headlines for the hour- IntelliGoo is what they call it. By the end of the ordeal, I was drinkin thru my ears!!! There, they wax their heads!!! I begged them to spare me, it cost me quite a bit on Earth to get it to this stage, instead they could wax my hands and legs- they showed some mercy. They said, I could fly if I would glue their holy shimmering dust to my toe nails... did you know that fevicol had its biggest market there?!!! You wont believe this... the soul of their technical advancement is FEVICOL!! Their space ships are held together by it. Now you know where the export quality fevicol goes!!! I took off but didnt stay afloat for too long, they said I need to tweek my cochlea and signed me up for classes.
The instructor said his class was booked for 10 donkey's years to come. And thank God, they didnt have places to put me up temporatily . The council decided to send me on an assignment to Earth to check how I would fare here with my memory intact- They knew anyway none of you would believe me. But you will, wont you?! Believe me pleeeease! someone... anyone.... this is not 'another' abduction story.

Just in case some of you are dreaming of making millions makin a show on me... allow me to burst the bubble.... on a serious note ... I have changed my employer. Yesterday was my last day at my first job. Will write about it in the next post. I missed the bloggin world the most in this one month. How have you all been doing? whats up? Update me.

Ayyo Paaaapa!

My hands are itching to write this. Its 10:19 pm, 13th Apr. One legend was released from the worldly life -Dr.Rajkumar was buried. Another star was realeased into life- Salman Khan. The cable operators have disconnected all channels except for Kannada and News channels to express respect to the Legend.
Whats pissing me off is what all the news channels have to say about Salman Khan(In my opinion, he is one of the smartest lookin heros we have in Bollywood.)- sounds as though he has been unjustly locked up.
With the recent news coverage on Salman, it was difficult to mistake it for the Indian Laughter Challenge. Why? Salman Khan gets away for running over a human being but gets jailed for shooting down an animal(an endangered specie)! I know life is life- be it man's/animal's but the legal systems around the world does draw a clear line of distinction between both. Living in a time where we have got to see innumerable people slip thru the hands of justice just because they have the weird smelling printed paper in their wallets. I was beginning to feel proud of the legal system when it took this bold step of booking Salman Khan. True that the legal system does try to act too much of a hero the moment a reel hero is on the other side of the law, but still I hoped that he would spend sometime in jail. Celebrities should be punished cos they are far more responsible for their actions as what they do sets an example to people who look up to them. I secretly wanted him to pay up for runnin over the street bum thru this sentence. But yet again influence and money has the final say. Wait and watch, the next thing you know, Abu Salem will be out- completely innocent or cos of failure in gathering concrete evidences against him or simply the 'poor' guy was framed.
U should listen to the compassion in the voices of the news readers and the reporters, "Aap ne theeeen din aur chaaaar raat guzari jail mein. Aap ko kaisa laga?"(you were in jail for threeee days and fooour nights! how did it feel?). Yeah right- it aches to watch a well manicured guy thru bars, what about people who have been waiting for more than decades living in a jail, with the benefit of not having to wear the uniform just cos they are waiting for their day at court that would deciede whether they have to wear the uniform (convict) or live outside a free person (innocent),branded a criminal thanxs to the time spent in jail. Salman was facing the music for somethin he had done in 1999/8. Yet again, this is an example of how slothful is the functioning of our legal system. With this kind of time lapse- people change, situations change, memory changes... what good is that for any investigation, for Pete sake?!!!!
"theen din ke liye Salman ko roti aur dal khani padi, jisme pathar thhe!" (For three days salman had to eat (what the other inmates have to eat)- roti and dal with lil gravel) Oh! how sad- somebody should have ordered him a lasagne! The media isnt still, making the right point there- be it a super star or a real criminal, food is a basic need just as cleanliness. This shows that conditions inside in the jail is absolutely inhumane- the legal system is responsible- they need to set that right. Its not sympathy for Salman you need here, its sympathy for those who might have to eat the same crap for a lifetime.
Dont read me wrong, I am not the kinds who would go out and call capital punishment a breach of human rights. A criminal is a criminal, he is in jail, isolated from society to pay the price for his doing, but that doesnt mean,they dont deserve any of the basic needs.
I dont know...I am in this mood... perhaps...I've been seein the same thing since morning- same scene, same news.
And to top it, all the violence thats been happenining in Bangalore in the name of the death of Dr.Rajkumar seems insane! Rajkumar died a natural death, what are the fans gonna get by destroying public property?! Fellow bangaloreans, do you think its really the fans who carry out these acts? I think its just anti-social elements who are just waiting for such occasions to come out and destroy anything thats not theirs- and how can cops put you behind bars for something that looks like the act of a mad crowd?!!! Sad is the way people find joy in destruction. Real sad.
To lighten up:

Freedom

Its just minutes since I had commented on Vasu’s Douglas story…and I have just done something that makes me feeel soooooooo gooooooooooooood.

Yesterday I was watching some investigative documentary on NG .It was close to midnight when I heard something- it was coming from the dining. My maid, Maadhu and I looked at eachothers faces with contorted facial expressions as if to ask, ‘Did you hear that too?’. I am squintin at the dark dining area to see if I could make out whats making that toy-plane-propeller sound. Maadu too gets into investigative mode, and we discover that there has been an unlikely intruder into our home… a dragon fly.


Poor thing has been trying to release from our unintentional captivity. It would try hard to find a way out. It would try and try and try till it gets tired and rests a while before it starts to try all over again. Maadu opened her mouth to suggest that we kill it since its sittin on my dinin wall- our chance at putting an end to a 'threat'… Maadu was under the impression that it would bite… It reminded me thats what I thought when I saw a dragon fly for the first time when I was a kid. It pretty late for Maadhu to still have this misconception. The dragon fly’s size and unconventional looks, earns it wrong judgment … at least in the eyes of children. It cut Maadu short, just as my Mom did once upon a time, to educate her that it was harmless and that it would find its way out on its own. I get back to watching the program accompanied by the occasional sound of desire for liberation. The program comes to an end at half past 1 and I go to snuggle in bed. I go to wash my face and when I come back what do I see? The dragon fly is shifted the location of its search for freedom to my bedroom right next to the window. Its been able to locate the window in my room but cant get out since my dad has nailed down a net to prevent any mosquito attacks. That’s when I started wondering How did this dragon fly get in, in the first place?!!! My dad had turned this house into a fortress which protects its people from the irritating itchy-scratchy mosquito bites – leaving the windows in the hall, all the rest have immovable nets in place. The one in the hall, can slide to open and close. Though that window is open, the nets haven’t been opened since two days… then how did this big dragon fly get in? I should report this to my dad, to bring to his notice a possible leak in his design! Well any way, if the dragonfly was smart enough to locate my window, it would be smart enough to find the window in the hall… I go to sleep.

Come today morning and guess what?! I am busy checkin my mails and strolling thru the bloggo-vard in the morning, when I hear that familiar propeller sound again. The dragon fly has disappointed me… it hadn’t found its way out and is still trying at my window. This time you could make out that it was real tired trying all night. It must have been baffled at the thought , “There is a breeze hitting me, there is the smell of fruits and flowers, I can hear the call of my loved one… but why cant I get past this opening?”- sweetheart that’s simply cos your too big for it. I feel proud that it tried so hard yet so sorry that it hasn’t attained freedom. I want to see it free. I wonder whether there is a way I could guide it out. My brilliant brain thinks of a news paper. I strategise my plan of action: I would wait till its tired and lies on the floor, then I would scoop it up in the news paper and take it to the window in the sitting room and release it. But there might be a problem, the dragonfly might have the tendance to flutter and fly about if I have to carry her on the newspaper. So I polish the idea a lil further, and decide to roll the newspaper into a cylinder big enough to carry it safely without damaging its wings. But how do I get it into the cylinder? As if on cue, the dragonfly flies up to the window net and clutches on to it. I slowly approach her with my newly invented contraption and slowly and carefully get it to circle around our dragonfly. It feels a lil awkward ar first and refuses to get it, but it fights its apprehensions and decides to trust my design and settles in my dragonfly-carrier. I walk fast to the sitting room, careful not to shake and hoping that any insecurity in her/him wont prompt him/her to fly out of my ingenious design. I open the window with the suave and sophisticated ease of 007, then open up my dragonfly-carrier out to the skies. With no shadow of doubt, wasting no time the dragonfly flies out to settle on a tree nearby. Along with it, something in me found release too, something burst out… I don’t know what it exactly was…joy, relief, pride, but by the time its effects rippled to my face, it formed a smile that would make my orthodontist proud (since that would save him and me the trouble of putting a stent-like thing into my mouth to keep it wide open). But why the hell bother on trying to dissect and bisect the feeling?.. all that matters is that it felt GOOD.
The halo around my horns is eye-blinding, today. :) Bonjour, mes amis!

Any takers for Heaven?

Do you believe in heaven?

yes - do you think you'll get to go there? what do u believe its like?
no - why not?
then what about hell- is it there too?

Aksar hota hai

My thanks to Jaya sweety, Rusty and Vampy, I have revamped my poem, with their help. Thanks guys, u are simply amazing.

Joojhne se thak gaya hai yeh dil
Keh raha hai mujhse
Vahan pahunchna hoga mushkil.
Bujhaa de khwahishein apni,
Haath mein nahi aane wali yeh manzil"

Khuda na khastaa
Yeh meri aakhiri ho

Har kisiko hoti hai taklifein
Uth.Uth ke chal
Kam karde ye doorian, yeh faaslein
Rokta tumhe kaun hai?
Raah teri dekh rahe hai yeh raastein

Khuda na khastaa
Yeh teri aakhiri ho

Himmat de nahi rahi hai mera saath
Akeli hoon, phir bhi
Yeh kaun kar raha hai mujhse baat?
Aur koi nahi ,aks hoon teraa
Maukaa ab hai ,bada raha hu haath.

Khuda na khastaa
Yeh humari aakhiri ho

Darr aur taaqat, sab the mere apne
Ruki main kyun?!!
Be-jhijak dekhungi khoob, ab, sapne
Rokungi nahi khudko,
Jo bhi ho, karoongi uska samna

Khuda na khastaa
Yeh meri aakhiri ho

Ahem ahem... I am brave

Yes I am . Cos I have the audacity to do this. to write a poem ... yeah, I have written one in 6-7 other instances in my life but never ever one in hindi- or is it Urdu! Yes, this is my first ever attempt. *claps with an affirming nod*
How did this happen? My blogroll will tell you that I have been paying a lot of visits to some talented poets and poet-esses . And somehow some of it has rubbed off on me. I cant seem to stop this giggle that bubbling inside me... its ludicrous considering my natural 'talent' in Hindi/urdu ... i know how much of a 'trapeze act' my hindi paper was! I survived it , thanks to the saftey net.
So here goes my dear fellas... feel free to suggest better words, correct me, pour out your opinions ... or else you could overlook it all, labellin it poetic license. hee hee heee he *the halo around my horns glisten*

Joonjne se thak gaya hai yeh dil
Keh raha hai mujse
"Vahan pohonchna hoga mushkil.
Bhujhade khwaishen theri,
Haath mein nahi anewali yeh manzil"

Khuda na khastha
Yeh meri akhri ho

Har kisiko hoti hai thaklifen
Ut.Ut ke chal
Kum karde ye doorian, yeh fasilen
Rukta tumhe kaun hai?
Raah their dekh rahi hai ye raasten

Khuda na khastha
Yeh teri akhri ho

Himmat de nahi rahi hai meri saath
Akeli hoon, phir bhi
Yeh kaun kar raha hai mujhse bath?
Aur koi nahi ,Dimag hoon thera
Moqa ab hai ,badha rahahoo haath.

Khuda na khastha
Yeh humari akhri ho

Dar aur thakat, sub the mere apne
Ruki main kyun?!!
Be jhijak dekoongi khoob, ab, sapne
Rukvaoongi nahi khudko,
Jo bhi ho, karooni uski amne-samne.

Khuda na khastha
Yeh meri akhri ho

to my friends who dont know Hindi- i will soon try to come up with an eng equivalent. or if i fail to do that ... will simple post the translation here :)

Blank Noise Project Blogathon- 7th March

The Blank Noise Project was started by Jasmeen Patheja, an artist from Bangalore, to examine the occurances of non-gender-specific street-harassment -harassed(physical/verbal), pushed around, felt up or assaulted .
I am showing my solidarity, thru this post.
We all have been thru it. I know, I have. I hope I could be as courgeous as the other women takin part in this blogathon and write about all my experiances... but , personally, I find it real difficult. The experiances I've had in my school days, are etched into my mind more than the grown-up years - primarily cos you dont know what that experiance can be called back then but you sense that something isnt right and you want to be home to tell Mom about this. When you've grown up you have learnt to deal with these situations in some way. Its another thing that I have been brave through most of these instances. No matter how difficult it was I have come home and told about it to my Mom and Dad. But no matter how iron gloved you may seem from the outside any kind of harassment you encounter while you least expect it, especially when you are doing somethin or wearin somethin that you would have thought in no way would provoke or call for unwanted attention- walk to your home, wear an old loose salwar - home wear perhaps, jeans and a loose T shirt, waiting for the bus, etc.
You go thru an emotional hurricane at the thought of those instances. They are common experiances that women around the world have had, all my friends have had. The last time I had been thru an experiance about 6 years ago when I had been to an exhibition with my mom. I will try to fight my inhibition and write about this lousy experiance. Some bastard in the crowd was pinching my arm and everytime I turned around I couldnt make out this S.O.B. What was I wearing?- a cotton shirt from fabIndia and a pair of old jeans .Then when I moved to another stall, I pretended to be paying attention to the sales guy, while my attention was all on my back and my eyes was looking thru its corners to corner the bastard. I did. I spotted the asshole, I gave him a face-to-face stare . Showed the scum-bag to my Mom. Thought that should be enough to discourage him. But no. He has all the guts in the world to come get another pinch, this time my Mom gave him a reading in full view of the public... even then you should have seen the nerve he had to say , "What did I do Madam?" but his eyes hung in shame while his filthy mouth did the blabber- watchin those eyes were enough for me. F***in Asshole! I am sorry that there has been a lot of swear words in this para- but I hope you can understand my feelings!
I am with the Blank Noise Prject but have a few differences. Agreed that for these sickos it doesnt mater if your wearing a two-piece bikini or clad in a burkha- they will still letch. But, I strongly support, responsible dressing. You have to dress appropriate for the occasion, for the crowd, for the time. Would you attend aboard meeting in a glamorous night gown? Would you prepare a presentation of the expert-level, while it was to be delivered to a crowd of newbies? Would you go clubbing in formal attire? Just like that we women just cant claim to be victims by leaving the onus on the letcher. There are some cases where the uncomforable situation could have been avoided- avoid DOES NOT MEAN LET THESE CREAPS DO THEIR THING AND LET US, THE VICTIMS, GO SILENTLY PUT UP WITH IT OR TAKE GUILT OF ANY KIND, FOR THE WRONG REASONS. I hope I am commin across very clear. Yes, this does reflect on the mental make up of the society we live in. If a guy has lost the ability to look at a woman as just another person, I believe then his parents and bringing up ,might have had a lapse. I am not supporting or finding reasons to justify such bastards, but I am trying to say that every mother has the responsibility of teaching her son the value of another woman.
Its very evidant with the changin times that people(man/women) dont feel safe around people(man/women). The picture of a woman is synonymous with the word 'vitim'. But how wrong an impression is that today cos victims of such harassment arent just women, there are men too. The same goes for the perpetrators.I would like to know if there are people (men/women) who would like to share their experiances? Is the effect of such an occurace just as damaging on the psych when the victim is a man? People, please speak up- u can chose to remain anonymous... but please do make your selves heard.
Here are some more experiances that I have read.
Bilbo
Megha Krishnan (Thanks to you Megha, I knew about this blogathon )
Find more on Blank Noise Project's site

Tagged:

Been tagged twice. Here are the lists:

Dream partner's traits List (hopefully these traits exist in me too ) tagged by RoadBlogger:
1)A friend, someone I am at ease with. Where I dont have to put up being someone I am not.
2)loves me for the nut I am, and can do that job for a life time.
3)someone who will be there by me for all my endevours, just as i would be, for him .
4)grow to love, understand and respect eachother. acknowledge eachother.
5)someone who will cook and wash the dishes with me, and while we are at it bray a few numbers or discuss news :P
6)someone who believes that each day has all the time you want, to do what you want - paint, sing, dance, go on a trip... all it needs is plannin and the want to do it. i dont have this quality right now, but i am trying to develop it.
7)someone who will be honest and mature enought make a clean breast of any issue that bothers him before the day ends.
8) marriage is a team work and for it to work well, both people should be sensitive to eachother's needs and concerns. just like that, love too needs constant working on it.
9)listening, just lending a ear is a key skill needed in any marriage. someone who is willin to hear you out, when thats just what you need more than anything else.
10)we should be able to enjoy a few common things. in a busy life, its when you can enjoy common things that you can connect.
11) values commitment. and should be able to give eachother our own breathing space. and stands by his beliefs and lemme stand by my own.
i think that kinda covers it.

Here are the people I am gonna tag. so start listing out the qualities you'd like to see in your perfect Lover :
1)Vivek
2)Rusty
3)Stellar
4)Vasu
5)Priyamvadha
6)Enemy of Republic


Hate List tagged by Enemy of the Republic:
1) Hypocrites- no explination needed. They are the superstars in anybody's hate list!
2) Fakers- agreed that u need some amt of acting to survive. But could never understand and like people who are actors from the time they get off their beds till they are back in them. Chameleons.
3) People who want to be heard more than hear others. These are the wrong people to go to when all you want is a willing ear.
4) Dictators
5) Prejudists, judgmental people who think they 'know' the person without giving a chance. Amateur psychics
6) Back stabbing- these are mostly people who come under category 2-Fakers but are pretty well equipped to give you a fatal blow out of the blue.
7) Picturisation of item numbers and movies that are like a 3hr long item number- it makes me wonder, has the censor board been desensitized with all the skin show? They censor and make a ruckus for all the weirdest things and when they need to pay attention and do something… they are paying attention and doing something –DROOLING.
8) People who cant smile- esp Govt. and bank employees. People who’s sloppy muscles can't manage to pull up their sleeves and conjure a smile.
9) Compulsive flirts.
10) Aishwarya is a very graceful woman but i hate all the hype that surrounds here.
11) hate seeing people litter the roads."paper is bio-degradable anyway!".- yeah, so lets dump it in your neighbourhood. it will be one hellufa sight.
12) Hurt my brother- then you're in the hate list too.

here is the other taglist. List out all that you hate... keep it commin:
1)Me too
2)Siri
3)RoadBlogger
4)xFreaKX
5)Malu
6)Kuttichuvaru


Recently I had done the Myer-Brigg's Test after about 2 years. Test tells you what your personality is at that point in time by classifying a person's preferences on a bi polar scales:(1) extraversion/introversion, (2) sensate/intuitive, (3) thinking/feeling, and (4) judging/perceiving. A combination of these scales result in 16 personality profiles. Here is what the test had to say about me, this time : i am ENFP type (Extraverted iNtuitive Feeling Perceiving).
Description 1
Description 2
Ucan go ahead and have some fun doing the test here

Beyond getting tagged

I have been tagged by two people - RoadBlogger asks me to list out what I would like to see in my love interest and EnemyOfRepublic wants me to list out the things I hate. Ironically, both are what would be asked of you when you meet a prospective groom, in the Indian scenario.
I would like to write this post smiling but I am not in the position to. I am experiencing the pressure that a normal Indian girl would. Parents are getting worried. They are hoping that they will find a guy who would match their parameters and that I would like him. When they started their search I wasn't one bit keen on getting married- that has changed a very tiny bit now. From 'I don't want to marry', now, I want to marry only once I am totally convinced that this is the guy I want to spend the rest of my life with and when I know that he likes me the way I am. But in time I have learnt that there never might be a moment where I will enjoy that level of conviction. My problem is perhaps that I am not able to come into terms with the previous statement. And while that bothers me, it doesn't make things any better to know that your poor folks are anxious. Your heart and mind becomes one big mess. In fact its so disturbing that it could screw up your peace of mind for days to come. And as you try hard to forget about it and move on, there will be a moment where your folk's anxiety surfaces on their face or its time for that lecture on, 'you need to settle down'. I haven't cared to know what were the problems my folks were facing while hunting for 'the guy'. And why should I? I am not the one who's dying to marry? And even while I ask these questions in annoyance, I feel sorry for my parents. I understand they have a responsibility as parents and that they are doing their part. Recently in a heart-to-heart talk with my mom, I was oriented towards the problems they faced. I feel worse now. But these are problems that all the groom-searching families are going thru. My parents are firm God believer, but doesn't the stress they put them selves thru, prove that fact wrong? Why worry when you have faith in God? It will happen when and if it needs to. I feel sorry that they got a girl who just can't swallow the marriage pill that easily. I don't know if something's wrong with me… cos I have seen a lot of girls who have been able to take it easy. Sometimes I wish I could push my self to blindly accept a guy they point at. But I really, truly can't! Then that would be a favour I would do for my parents. I could do that favour today but I would have to live with that favour for a lifetime. I know that that's not what my folks want either.
Till 3-4 yrs ago, I didn't really think much about love - the kind that you would feel for someone who is not a part of your family, yet is neither a stranger nor a friend. Frankly, I did not have any regard or appreciation for this emotion. I had looked down upon it, till I passed out of college. Funny, thinking of it now, cos campus is the best place to hear and know of love stories. But somehow I couldn't appreciate what I saw on campus- people faking it, people who were in love cos it was a fad, people who thought of it as a time filler, etc. All thru my campus years, I have relaxed, sat back and laughed at each one of these lovey-dovey couples. After I passed out, I was surrounded with friends both at office and outside who were in love (arranged & love). That's when I was initiated to the inside story of the love scam. I learnt that love is a powerful currency. When two people exchange it, both become rich- rich in confidence, strength, faith, courage, peace and experience. It has the power to transform people to an extent they would have never thought possible before- for good or bad. Today, it gives me joy to see people who enjoy each others company, who are there for each other, who fight like cats and dogs but get over it to be sweet as chocolate-vanilla ice cream, who learn and mature together, who like each other for all the good and bad in them, who are aware that love need to be constantly worked on and that they would have to do it together. That's what I would want to feel when I decide to enter wedlock. Now I am wondering whether that's too much to ask for?
I really hope there are other girls who are going thru the same problem. I want to know how they are faring. I don’t know if its been stupid of me to write this. I don't even know if this post was worth publishing but anyway I am just gonna do it. Or do I need to visit a shrink? Its been a long blabber already. Think I will write the tag-list tomorrow.

KAKABE:And it happened for real !

JUST CHECKIN HOW AN IMG UPLOAD WORKS.AND PLS DONT ASK ME, 'WHO IS THAT?', COS THATS ME
I should have posted this earlier, but life at office and home didn’t let me… so here goes.

So my alter ego- a unrelenting trekker, has finally been unleashed thanks to the joint initiatives of my 3 hard-core adventurists friends. And no shrink in the world can stop me now ! *wicked laugh*
The dude who arranged the trek, Malu, calls me the night before the saturday we were supposed to leave and says,(NOTE: read the dots as seconds of silence)"Nita,..aa.. about the trek on Satureday.....*laughs* is on. we will come somewhere between 6:30 and 7". Needless to say, by the time 3/5 seconds after the 'Satureday' was up, i was mentally prepared to gracefully accept that this TOOOO wasnt gonna happen. This time around i had made up my mind to not get too excited about anything. The packing was over like a breeze. I usually have a habit since child hood to walk a lil faster and to overtake the group with whom i am walking. My mom warned me not to do that and that i should always be with the group no matter what. Now read further to laugh at my gift at 'walking fast'.
To tell you the truth, it was a good thing that I kept my emotions under check. I had prepared to face all possible scenarios that would stop me from going. So unless I and my brother were in the cab and the cab was visibly moving out of bangalore- i wasnt gonna let destiny fool me into thinkin that this was gonna happen.
I was my organised-best on Saturday, 11th Feb. 06 morning. Woke up at 5, had a good warm bath in the chill morning and changed into my 'departure clothes', checked everything one last time. Pestered my brother till he was dressed to leave. the threesome- Malhar,Raksha(Mrs.Malhar) and Vivek landed at our place at about 7-7:30. We soon bid our goodbyes to my parents and left for what would become my and my brother's first trek.
The travel was nice for a couple of reasons:
a)we travelled in an ambassdor after more than a decade. Nostalgia swept over –reminded us of school days when we would comeback to India to meet our cousins. The huge ambassdor was our 'vahan'. It brought back a lot of nice memories.
b)I got to see the south part of bangalore- which I had never seen or visited. It felt like steppin into another town. It seemed nothing like the cosmopolitan half i come from.
c)stopped over at a tiny restaurant where they served 2nd and 3rd generation customers with the same delicious idlies they served the previous generations with. Absolutely heavenly idlies- it makes you wish that the restauranter be blessed with eternal life so that he may be able to give the commin generations the same Yummy ....*sigh*
d)reached virajpet at lunch time. Set out to find a Ragavendra mess... the search turned out to be one big mess thanks to a couple of people who took us out on a tour of a different kind:(1)A generous cop tried to help us and we wanted to dole out some ungrateful swears in return.(2)Then there were some local college kids who would answer in hindi in response to our queries in kannada. As if that wasnt enough, they were eager in sending us on a merry-go-round ride. We filled our tanks else where, anyway.

Around 3/3:30pm we reached our final destination in Kakabe, the residence of Sagar Ganapathy , the generously hospitable host and the Commander and Chief of the Jungle Mount Trekking. New or old to adventure sports -he and his trusted right-hand, the affable- Dr.Topaz(urf Uncle Topaz) will do everything to turn you into a fun loving challenger.
The first thing on our agenda was to dive into the stream that’s just a stone-throw away from Sagar's home. We marched-on guided by two smart dogs to find a tiny lil dock snuggled in a veil of greens .It was a bright and sunny day but the water was sOoOoO IcY! Malu was the first to get into the water. The rest of us did some Kayaking- which I absolutely loved. My brother and I did pretty well together. We wondered it might have had something to do with our place of origin- Allepey/Allapuzha - the Venice of India, the place famous for its gigantic boats, boat races and back waters. Quirky way of thinking- but thats us! :) Shivering, Malu had enough of trying to warm the water, so he decided to join Viv and Raksha on their canoe. They had a great time documenting their zigzag travels thru the stream. After that, Raksha and I dived into the water to have some fun but getting out of it was more than torture. We were a lil short of turning into icicles! The only wise man who wasnt wet was- Vivek.

That night we were to join a team of 16 guys from AOL for a 12 km night trek on the second highest peak in Coorg - our (me,my brother) first ever trek. We were strictly told to carry only the necessary- meds, water, glucose. We were handed a torch each and given instruction to use it to the minimum. By the time I had reached Coorg I had already suffered 2 wheezing attacks. Now, at 7/7:30pm we are about to leave for our adventurous night trek, and I was having my 3rd attack. I prayed things wouldn’t get worse during the hike. It was a beautiful full moon night. We were geared to face the chill winds. Sagar and uncle Topaz shepherded us onto their Mahindra pickup- yes, all 21 of us, and took us on a very slow but exciting ride in complete darkness without the headlights,negotiating the narrow roads and the hair-pin curves to a certain point on the mountain from where we had to start our trek. When we got to the designated spot, we started marching. I hadn’t gone more than 20 steps, I was close to being breathless, plus, my legs started aching. But I went on… I pushed. I couldn’t keep up with my pals and my brother. But I refused to stop. My brother could see that I was not doing so well. Finally my body gave up, I stopped. And my sweet lil brother stopped to be there by my side. I sat for 3-4 min and the moment I felt a lil better, my muscles would get back to charging towards the summit. Every part of my body wanted to get there and I was determined that I would make it no matter what. But it looked like my lungs were the only rebellion. Two muslin bags would have worked better than them! The trail was narrow, just wide enough to keep your feet side-by-side and at times the path would run along the edge of the mountain- meaning you step centimeters off from the unevenly-floored trail, you would save on some funeral money! Our walk to the top was interrupted an umpteen number of times thanks to my under performing lungs. I would take a puff of my inhaler when needed and move on. I was such a slow coach. I felt shitty that I slowed down my lil brother though he so happily stood by me all thru the trying trek. Though he suffered from wheezing too, his lungs were real happy being in Coorg, they ran in top gear. He didn’t suffer a single attack. My poor mom’s admonishments went wasted; I was so slow that at many points on our trek we were the only people on a trail. Finally we were one of the last people to get there – the summit. We met our friends, we sat there dangling our legs from the cliff ledge. No description can beat what you experience on the top… and may be my description will fall short of what my eyes met. Its an amazing site watching the ghostly mountains in the moon light. You feel a oneness with all that’s black and dark, the graceful stillness and the whispering wind. And yes, you can see lots in the darkness…lots. I only hoped I could have enjoyed it better, without the strain I experienced with my wheezing bouts. It took us about 3 hrs to get there and were there for hardly 10 min! I hadn’t had enough of it. I hated having to leave, but we did. My lungs gave-in to my intention and cooperated on my way downhill. This time I made it a lil faster than my travel up and my brother got to do what he enjoyed… moving at his own pace… which is fast. And I hated that cos I was worried what if he slipped – he’d need someone near him to catch him… yeah yeah… I am the old fashioned sister you wouldn’t want to have. We and our friends were the first people to reach the holy pick-up truck. We were dying to dive into food .The rest of the team arrives almost 45 min later. We had a sumptuous dinner and went to bed. It was so bloody cold; I didn’t think I would wake to see my toes still attached to my feet!
That night I was a lil depressed. The trek in some way was like a search for some truth… about your self. A trek can give more ans than you would if you’d go to a place of worship- if the question was about your self and not about the stock market or your mother-in-law. I learnt a lot about my self that night.

Come next day- 12th Feb 2006, we were so dog-tired that we woke up at around 12 pm! We washed down some brunch and decided to go rock climbing to Dandi Falls. We set out at about 1, accompanied by a sweet young chap, Sajjan- a professional rock climber. We had to do some walking before getting to the small yet elegant falls. yes I was slow as ever. And yes my lungs didn’t quite like the idea and expressed it freely. But unlike the last time I didn’t fight, I negotiated. I moved at my own sweet pace… this time I looked around me, admired the sunlight stream down thru the tall trees, the creeping pepper plant, the shorty coffee plants, the pungent cardamom, listening to the gurgling streams as if to say, “Ok. Go ahead do your thing. And I will do mine. I will enjoy.” When we came up to the fall, it was the simple water fall you'd like to have your cottage by. We climbed till what we can call the second level and the only one with the zest to go further was raksha. The rest of us sat leisurely on massive boulders drinking off from the clear tumbling water- the sweetest ever. We were concerned with being able to leave for home by 3/4 pm. I knew if I climbed any further at my pace then we all would have to leave for home the next day! The proficient climber raksha was, she came back soon and then we started our descend. I enjoyed the rock climing more than the trek. Its like poetry or any artistic expression-free to interpretation. You could be short or tall, it wouldn’t matter, the destination is the same but how you get there is up to you, you make your own path. You have to find patterns and follow them. This time on our way back to the ambassador we came in, we – the women ,of course, plucked off what fancied us – pepper, but for two varied reasons. I wanted my mom to make a chutney I love so verrrry much and raksha, to give birth to an artistic creation. I wonder what stage would it be in right now? My mom decided to make a pickle of my pepper. I love that too, so me verrry happy. One of the things I enjoyed watching while walking back was how malu was helping raksha with plucking and carrying the pepper. While he was at it he kept cribbing with a smile and talking big about his generous services- all cos he was carrying pepper for his lady love. Entertainin to watch the lady's retorts too. Nice to see people in love. We got back to the car, drove to Sagar’s place, ate our delicious lunch, packed in a jiffy , thanked and bid our farewells to the Ganapathis and set home ward bound. The travel back home was fun. We entertained our selves with music from our mobiles. When we passed thru the rajiv Gandhi national park we all peered our eyes out into the dark hoping to see some animal.We had no high hopes but raksha- optimistic as ever- hoped to see any one from the big cat family or else at least a massive pachyderm. All we saw was the ghostly figure of a Samba deer, majestically standing by the road. We stopped at a restaurant which supposedly served ‘food’, we left paying an amount as big as our dissatisfaction. When we reached bangalore it was just past midnight, I think. They first dropped us home. It felt good to be back home- not just cos we were back home, but cos we were back home after doing something we so wanted to do. We owe a big one to the threesome and of course our parents who fought with their fears and let us go on this trek. I hope this has prepared them to handle it better the next time ! heehehee yep there is gonna be a next time and Insha-allah very soon. I have left a part of me in coorg and have to go get it back. But I have a feelin that I will end up finding more happiness,wisdom and strength and leave some more of my self there.

Things I feel good about, lessons learnt ,wants:
1) I did that trek despite all discomfort- so I have it in me to go on. Not bad!
2) One photograph I took while liberally clicking away in Vivek’s camera- a tiny stream lined with greens rolling thru lil rocks, while the sun shone thru the leaves- proud of it.
3) The rubber-soled lee cooper formal wear was good only if I was gonna attend a conference on top of a cliff. So get some decent sneakers the next time.
4) Get that lazy ass to exercise!
5) i'd like to do the trek again but in day time. want to see the hills ans green in the day.
6) next time take more pepper home


So that was the story of our first trek- the longest ever post I have written. I will try to limit the length the next time.

In the love of God.

Bangalore is my home. This is where I have my family and friends. This is where I studied. This is where I work. This is where I grew. I am pissed with a lot of things in life and with the way things move here... so,will I blow up or hurt people ? Cant even think of doing something like that!!!
But I personally know a lot of people who would have the same thing to say about bangalore and still be able to say ,"All fair in jihad". Bangalore has been my home for just close to a decade, and these are people who were born here.
My genial demeanor at college and a mouth with an under-developed filter system would promptly pop questions to people(were and still are my friends) who would support Bin Laden, as though i was a reporter who lost her way into an engineering college. It was only an attempt at trying to understand their point of view. Why would people think it was ok to kill others ? In the name of what? Were they feeling left out or something? And the grand finale would arrive with the no-answers-question: "Are you saying that, its ok with you if these guys came and bombed some place near your home or our college? that you would completely understand, their cause and deal with your loss ?". In the end, I felt that even these people wouldnt have thought all too far them selves, they are just emotionally charged, and nothing more- given a chance, I dont think these people could think of anything that could harm the people around them.
But now, since the 28th Dec shoot out at IISc, I am afraid that I'd have to rethink on my opinion, that people couldnt bring any harm to the people they lived with, laughed with, cried with... cos the 2 people caught were both Indians and Key people in LeT's operations in South India- one from Karnataka and the other from Andhra Pradesh. Its the first incident of terrorist activity in Bangalore. We bangaloreans have always thanked our stars that bangalore has always had good tolerance for communal problems. But with this shoot out... its become evident that bangalore will be the focus of terrorist operations. Our lives from now on will change for ever, and the people responsible might (only MIGHT) be someone we know, or someone we might pass by on the road or even worse- someone you hug and wish on Id and wash down delicious biryani and kababs with. This doesnt mean i distrust the people around me but in the back of my mind, there will be a tiny voice that whispers this fear everytime another such incident happens in bangalore- my home.
How can people ever think of standing by somethin so atrocious ? In their homeland? HOW?HOW?HOW?!!! What could make them think like this? Why are these people hell-bent on tarnishing their own image? Islam preaches tolerance. Then why this intolerance, and towards what? this is not just the case with India ... why are they against the whole wide worlds... which part of this world isnt singed by their mindless hatred? Fundamentally what all religions preach are all the same- dont kill, dont steal, dont lie, dont cheat... the path to riteousness. How will Allah, the most Graceous, the most Merciful forgive these blind people for breaching all these basic values in His name?
Man- black, brown, white, super-white, yellow, purple or what ever.... arab, african, finnish, american, afghani, pakistani, scandinavian, indian, british, french, croatian, somalian, japanese... all have basic needs... food, water, shelter, clothing- without which none of these people can survive. its only if people can survive that they can fight for secondary needs- rights and freedom. For which of these reasons are the jihadis fighting the whole world for? Causing such unecessary pain to people who have nothing to do with them? Do they have a clue as to how much their actions impact the lives of innocent muslim brothers who live in the countries they attack? how I wish these emotionally charged men and women could declare jehad(meaning: striving or determined effort) upon them selves and put some thought into what they are doing and for what? how I hope they could see the ulterior motives of the people who key the dolls of destruction?
India is a nation that looses thousands and thousands of people every single year to terrorism more frequently than many of the western nations. So, shall we just order our soldiers to go and bomb the concerned nations and occupy them- i know they would be more than willin to do it, at least their families can have some peace of mind then- a mother wouldnt have to experiance the agony of waiting for her son, a wife wouldnt have TO train her self everyday to deal with a possible news that her husband was tortured and killed? If we did then how different would we be from the jihadis? we would live upto the cliche "Fighting for peace". Leaving innocent people of another nation in more misery and agony.
India's problem now is that these organisations are using Indians against India. There itself,it indirectly points to the fact that people take their freedom for granted and fall prey to jehadi-brain-wash specialists just cos they cant appreciate the freedom they have every right to. This applies to fundamentalist of any community... Hindu, Christian, Sikh, etc.
But why this lack of appreciation for freedom? Cos we are blissfully oblivious to the fact of how many men and women and their families are making compromises day-in & day-out to protect this freedom.
What i am going to tell you now is someting thats been on my mind since years. And i want your views on the topic...
I think compulsory participation in the army should be expected from the people of the nation... could be for a short while 2/3/4/5 years , but it shouldnt be voluntary but compulsory- i feel its only then that people will feel more responsible towards their home. If they understand what it costs them to keep it safe, then they will realise there is nothing in the world that can out-weigh that cost. Its similar in principle to having share in a company- you have right to know and perform in it, cos you have a stake in it. Along with it, will have to change our education system- a system that will support the growth of such responsiblities in young minds along with their academics.
I am not addressing the topic terrorism directly here. And it isnt my intention. I am addressing our disregard for the freedom thats bestowed upon us. I have only used the extreme case of the shoot out, as a means to get to here. Share your views...

Viva BMC!

BMC has been running on top gear , fuelled by all the complaints that we, its proud residents, Bangaloreans have been hurling at them. So rightfully,their asses have been on fire and its challenged them so much, that they woke up and in their sleepy stupor challenged the Bangaloreans back... "We are starting a competetion. If ever, you find a pot hole we will pay you Rs.100". The morning I read that in the papers, I told my dad that I plan on quitting and sitting at home. I had found my route to being a millionare. But my hopes , and as I learnt later, many others' hopes too were crushed when BMP decided to add some clarity to the definition of the competetion, which was, '...this is valid only from a date we will declare, till a specific time.' As you noticed the specific time is not defined.
So I resorted to the only option I had ,breath a heavy sigh, stay employed and then wait to see what the BMC would do.Its been about 1 month since their ultimate challenge.
I should admit, I am impressed with speed at which BMC addressed the issue. Everyday when i ride back home, I am surprised with convex fixtures replacing the old concave one ,esp the 'off-road' road at the trinity circle near the petrol bunk. Do you find some on your way home /work too? Is it a pleasant surprise? Well, I need to ask my back who had to bear the brunt of the fantastic design... mmm, it says that its better than before.
Now picture your favourite junction or circle. Now see the same junction from a bird's eye view. Doesnt it make you proud- the abstract combination of different grays so beautifully woven... what textures,what planning,what colours... it can beat the best quilt-of-the-year any day! I am sure the BMC are proud too. What they have achieved in the last one month is no achievement since its no different from the good old shoddy job they were always good at. The only difference is that this time they were super fast with their lousy job. This is the same bloody patchwork they have always been doing since years- patches that last not more than a couple of months.
Can the BMC declare the duration of the contest as atleast two year?
Can they ever build a road that will last for atleast 2-3 years with no repairs?
Can they build a road and guarantee 'no pot-holes' for 2-3 years?
I am fed up and angry when i see our money being spent so badly in the pretext of serving us. Does it come any where close to serving the purpose it was destined to when we paid our taxes?!!
My dream road is a small stretch of the Golden Quadrangle that I have driven on while travelling to Kerala. I remember my brother telling me that that stretch,which felt like the path to paradise,was built by Larsen and Toubro. I know now that they(L&T) will for sure have a place in heaven- God could use their services. When ever I hit the roads in Bangalore,there is not a day that I dont yearn for a road as heavenly as that one.

I want you people to tell me why do you think that these asses have the audicity to put up such a bad show using our money?!! Please for the sake of your backbone!