On the lighter side.....

Hmm... This post should have come a long back..., Probably soon after Mumbai Indians were shown the door off IPL, Indian Paisa League.

The city that i have been staying off late was Bangalore!! So unintentionally Bangalore becomes "My team" but, there was a catch. I was staying at a PG and we were 8 in all, Different people across the country and each picked up one, Someone else picked up Mumbai Indians and I was given option between, DC, KKR and Rajasthan Royals.!! I decided to go with Deccan Chargers.

But, now with Mumbai Indians being out of tournament, DC & Bangalore was quite Inn. I decided not to be beaten up or atleast not being stared by the local public at Bangalore, hence never sported a DC T.shirt., But got more used to taking up effort to speak kannada (god knows how it sounded.) Too good, especially when you are using the local BMTC (Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation) buses for commuting to and fro...

Wanted to be a little more open to the "Namma Bengaluru" crowd and this stint took place when i got into the bus from the home to office. To the conductor who tried keeping the crowd away from the door.... "Erudu ITPL..." I said..., Conductor quickly collected Rs. 20 and handed me 2 tickets to ITPL. Wow, the day 1 was amazing, with 1 word spoken out. The next day, it was the same time and hence the same bus and the same conductor, So this time.. me being alone, I showed my voting finger and said ITPL.., Yup!! that was 1 ITPL., The conductor, still gave me a ticket and took Rs. 10 from me and flashed his front 4 teeth !!!

So now that we'd turned friendly.., i asked him " Ennu Saar... Ennu Samachara ?? " (How r u ? or for the dudes, Wass up..) for which he replied something which i barely could understand, but hopefully must have said that he is fine. I smiled back. What if he must have said that his wife is not well, Mother in Law expired last week, and had a loss at his part time business and i replied him by smiling back ?? I would have been a dead meat!!

As the time and road passed by, the man, would have been expecting me to ask for few more questions and discuss something else (maybe the elections) or any damn thing on this earth. He wasn't having much of crowd then and the bus was running empty!! He came back and asked me something in Kannada, now for the champ that i was in kannada, I replied him... " Kannada Swalpa Swalpa Gothu....." (I know a little little kannada...).

"Hindi ??..." I asked him.. He said, Hindi Gotilla saar... "English..??", Gotilla saar.. I had a "I am sorry dude" kinda face towards him... which he accepted quite gleefully. He was aware of the fact that there are many outsiders who come to Bangalore and this guy could be one among them. The next day, me caught in the same bus and same conductor. For the guy he was, He really had a part time business and he handed me a Rs. 5 ticket and charged me only Rs. 8. Gosh isn't that business ? I scratch u're back and u scratch my ass !!

Now, that was allowed in Bangalore, they've a mutual understanding between the bus conductors, If am short of a rupee or so, he may not as well give me a ticket, but can travel with whatever i have!! He would never be running out of pocket money for a peg or two at the end of the day. He had been quite happy trying his business stunt on me and even happy that i never objected to it. The fact was, I could not ask about whats happening in kannada and the guy did not know english or hindi.

He, made it clear about giving extra service to his newly discovered client, Used to walk up often and pass a grin, would often shout out "ITPLaaa" and all that a bus conductor can do to make his client happy. It was one fine day that, I was caught dosing in the bus (Thanks to IPL matches). Our business man came upto me and tried to speak to me, but u know, action speak louder than words and i interpretted his actions as "What ??". He went over and over with his action of "What ??" and when i observed outside, it was a place that i never have been to before and i looked back at him quite inquistively....

He finally managed some english and asked... " Where are you upping...?" I had a (:) look on my face. What did he mean ?? From the surrounding i knew that i had missed the stop and he wanted to ask me where am i alighting ??... Hmm... for the english that he spoke, he seemed to be funny, but then, wasn't that a proper english ? he must have asked, Where are you gonna UP your BOTT.

Cheers...
Dhinu!!

IPL Belongs to the BLUES...

Flashback.. IPL 1.
Rajasthan Royal, being penalised for not spending the qouta of amount on the player's auctions, unargueably, the worst looking team were on No. 8 for everyone, Went to win the honour. Thanks to a legend called Shane Warne. The blues take it away. I was a little disappointed as i missed the finals coz i was travelling.

IPL 2.
Deccan Chargers and Royal Challengers, both at the bottom of the table from IPL 1, makes it to the top, Thanks to dedication from a legend called Gilchrist and the bank balance of Mr. Mallaya, for spending the most on KP. This IPL too clearly belonged to the blues. Say it just a fate or the numerology, Deccan Chargers changed their jersey color and they are now amazingly on the top., the title holders of IPL 2.

IPL 3. (A Vision).
Browse through the table, the No. 7 & 8 belongs to Mumbai and Kolkatta respectively. IPL still belongs to the blue. Mumbai (for the jersey color) is gonna bounce back and be on the top of the list and gonna defeat Kolkatta knight riders (No.8) in the finals (the easiest opponent).

And guess what..., there is a little more irony adding to this. Next year, Mr. SRK would be performing at the closing ceremony, The reason, its the person from the runners-up team who would be putting their best leg forward (Katrina from Royal Challengers this time).

Well, My future's looking bright for the thought that i am putting!!! If not RED, its BLUE...

Lots of Luv, Dhinu!!

Daily funny moments....

Aah..! who doesn't like to have a funny moment going, atleast to make up a day, or if not to make up a day, Only to widen your lips and broaden your cheeks... :-)

Tryst with destiny, The funniest moment when you wake up is you thinking... "Shit.. where is this noice coming from ? where am i lost ?", its just that we dont realise where we are. The snoozing alarm on the cell phone, Thank You!!

When i ride to the office, the security, even though they see me every other day, do have an inquistive look., as if i am human bomb just about to explode. They dont even pass a smile till the time they are done with checking the vechile and the bag that i carry. Thanks to my looks!!

The parking lot has the same people working, but each and everyday, they wish to see my parking lot pass as well as closely inspect the Vechile No. and the Pass exipry date. Makes me feel guilty at times for having opted my own transport. Also for the fact that, i am not a terrorist.

Once in my office cafeteria, I see most common faces, But the best comes, when i visit the restroom, Have got a list of faces, whom i dont meet anywhere else than the rest room area. Luckily, we human still haven't forgotten to say cheese & pass a smile. There is much more than funny things happening here... The reactions are different. A humm that manages to escape the lips when in full song is a real treat to watch. The other kodak moment is when you catch the ugliest staring at the mirror and combing to glory!! Am never visited the HER's room, or i would have a real lot to write in this para.

The next of the funny moment is when i look at people who are senior to me. I somehow, for god damn reason find that they are never intelligent and dig upon stupid stuff to bring out something that may not even be worth looking at. So is that really funny, Nope.. it ain't funny... but frustrating moments..

Now that am no more in chennai, i dont see any clowns and jokers around. But that doesn't mean Bangalore is short of them. Aah.. Except for the last one that i described about the managers., rest all of them, do let me take an off from the normal "thought bag" that i carry.

Cheers!!

Travelogue - Down South!

A sweaty may, Family functions, Friend's functions., all caught up with me travelling.!!

To the amazement, it was all fun-filled memories. The first trip was the usual one. It was not a reply to the question.. "When was the last time, you did something for the first time...", but not late, did i find a reply.

I was brought up outside my hometown, which gave me enough reason not to roam around my place. The far off place that i had been away from home in my state prior to my earlier trip was to a place called Pathanamthitta, the home town of Mr. Lal. That was just for a day, to a friend's place. I was well guided and my friend was along with me. So not much of adventures.

Tell you what, the best comes, when you discover something new everytime, and no wonder why do we s/w people get fed up with our job so soon doing the same job everyday. Make "Changes" constant in life.~~.

The second week of may, was me travelling to a friend's wedding at Trivandrum, which was a good 6 hours journey from my hometown. The best things on earth happen, when you dont have a plan and take it as it comes.!! One needs to be a decision maker of whats going to be next ?

I Could not make it directly to Prasun's wedding from Bangalore as i had to visit few of my friend's place after some family function and also visit a relative who was in the hospital. Saturday Night and i had to head out. Mom threw some tips upon how to go and where to board etc etc. So made a decision to travel night, so that i could reach early morning for the marriage and this was only about a 6 hours drive.

Thrissur isn't a big city, but not too isolated also not to find buses, cabs and auto at 10pm in the night. The city bus stop always had the rush and was in full swing, as it was the weekend. There were people travelling to and fro. The best of things are to see., how lightly or seriously one takes travelling. Without much of hopping around, I decided to board the bus to Trivandrum. Infact, it wasn't trivandrum, it was a place called Attingal, Which is 35kms before Tvm. Thats were i could meet rest of Prasun's friend at the lodge that he had booked and another 10 kms opposite direction to Tvm was the wedding venue. I also had at the back of my mind that i should atleast be able to sleep for 3-4 hours or the next day, i would be dosing to glory or I would have to catch my friend's wedding with a faint eye.

The bus wasn't looking too good to travel in taking the amount of space it had and the seats weren't too comfortable too. Afterall, they were the Kerala Sarkar's Transport Bus. The next option was the train., Thanks to internet and GPRS on the cell phones, Getting information is never tough. Looked out for the next train, it seemed like, There was a train leaving at 11.50pm and it was only an hour away.

So decided to hop on to the train, atleast i would be able to sit & sleep and who travels during the night, it was a train starting from Palakkad to Trivandrum. I'd to spend one good hour of my time, waiting for the train at thrissur railway station, I'd never at that time of hour been to Thrissur. Everytime i tried to dose off, There were Radio FM ads being played..., It used to be like "Ticket Vaangelle?... Enni Radio 105.5 ill ki Tune Cheyyu... Thrissur inte Hit Radio Station.." Whats not commercialized now ? The previous day, when i was watching a friend's wedding DVD, there were representatives from MALABAR JEWELLERY, where the bride picked her ornaments from, with a gift pack. They were dressed in the salesmen's uniform and sported a "Malabar Jewellery" bag. Soon, they would be sponsoring marriages or if not anything, atleast having Ad-Banners in the wedding hall.

11.55pm, and the train arrived. Mine was an open ticket and got into a reserved bogie. I thought of getting in touch with the TC and see if there are any berth's free. After some initial conversations with TC, he said, there were not any vacant seats in that bogie and asked me to try the next bogies. While walking through the inner passages, a policemen halted me. He asked me for my ticket and said, U'll have to alight at the next station and wont be allowed in the reservation bogie as you only have a local open ticket.

I waited till the next station arrives, it was too long since i was standing and had to park my LOT somewhere hence, rested it behind the exit door. You never know where good luck comes from, So this time luck was in the form of another TC, who had 1 empty berth and 3 people, including me waiting to grab it. He seen the other person's ticket and noted that they were together and i was alone. I got the edge and he gave the berth to me. Doesn't that seem to be a story of a slumdog millionaire ? Right from the doors to a berth ? not quite, but had a stint of it.

I tried gathering information from the TC who took to give me the berth, He said, Varkala was the place where i should be getting down to reach this place called Attingal. I put an alarm for 5.00 am and went off to sleep. I never knew how the night passed off.. rather how did the next 4.5 hours pass off.., I opened my eyes to find Quilon and hurried up to get down at the next station.

Varkala came and many like me got down. I had not a clue about what next ? Soon spotted the Exit and was out there. Varkala gave me a warm welcome, a welcome which no places gave me. It was early morning at 5.40 am and there was a temple just outside the railway station. It was playing bhajans, the typical mallu ones. I for a moment wished, i was all clean and dressed in a traditional dhoti, that i could be visiting the temple. On the way out, came across many posters which read about ayurvedic spas and resorts, some resorts sported holiday packages. Just opposite to the temple was a tea stall. A Very very local one. It was an old man running the tea stall and had a buzz of human bees around him pestering him for a tea.

The humans included executives to visitors and policemen. Most of them, looking unfresh from the previous night. But, whatever be the case., I asked him for a light tea, a strong tea would have got my pressure down and i would have really landed up in trouble. The crowd was a little more than than probably he expected, hence there was worry, sense of urgency, all sort of emotions of a human, who sees a well-to-do business. As the buzz was getting harder around his little tea stall, he announced.."Ellareyum, Chaya kodethede vedenollo.." (I shall make sure that everyone gets a tea). While sipping the tea, It was always at the back of mind... "What do i do next... ?", I asked a person beside me, who seemed local to the place and he pointed towards me to the first bus, which was at 6 am to Attingal.

This place was a little more than an half hour drive. The best thing about being on the first bus of the day is... It stops at every temple on the way to give offerings. Thats pretty nice... isn't it ? A good ride, could sometimes sense a cool breeze., probably that was coming from the sea. A good ride, got me to Attingal, where i caught up with Prasun's friends and finally made way to the marriage.

Marriage was superb with the Bride and groom looking amazingly stunning. I dont know if they need to thank me for the lie or their beautician for their artistic job. :P The only surprising thing was., the mantap wasn't facing to the audience but, to the left of the audience. With photographers and relatives covering the view., our Prasun, tied the knot with the consent only of his relatives and close friends and photographers. Thanks to Ansar, We could see the pics clicked by him.

Next came the Sadhya, Be it ocassions or marriages, This pretty afternoon meal is the standout of them all., and that day being no exception. Firstly, its a treat to be between friends and eat teasing and being teased. At some point of time is also when a tension comes in about what to have next ?? The sandya started off with an empty leaves served with different curries to taste and no rice. Once rice comes in, You've to first eat it with Dal, then with Sambar, Then with Curd and then Rasam and then buttermilk. They, then come with different types of Payasams. All in all, a busy 30-45 mins of your life.. :P.

Later, all the friends set back to the lodge, where we were put up and for them, it was the time, where they remembered their old good days and all of them had so much to me tell me. I was listening to many of them first time and till the moment we were done, had an eye of a kid listening to Panchatantra, Sabu & Chacha Chowdary.

All was good, till it was time for me to get to the bus stop to board the bus to Bangalore. Was there only single digit minutes before the departure of the bus or Yes, It would have been me an active part of another "Jab We Met..."

Till next travel....... Dhinu!!

PS : Aps, As i was travelling, I hadn't forgotten to call you, but whenever i tried reaching you, Your cell as usual was unreachable.

Busy May.!!

The post that i last posted was close to a month back., The reason, May was keeping me busy. As busy, that i've never been Courtesy : Marriages.

I wonder what makes people choose MAY as an ideal month for marriage ?. Reason could be many, but i know for sure that i'd been kept busy. The first weekend, was me attending my cousin's wedding. Thankfully, May 1st was an off and was able to make it comfortably. This long weekend reminds me of someone, who had agreed to marry me on a long weekend., But now that she backed away saying May 1st was a working day for her.. I am still open to anyone for another marriage. Dowry matt bhoolna..




So, there we go... A cousin, got married and should say Happily married....



Rajesh Weds Sanitha




Next Weekend came and it was another Marriage...

Prasun Weds Veena

Next weekend too... am travelling, but luckily, there wont be a pic to add under.... Its not for a marriage but for a personal reason.

Happy married life to both the couples...!!!

Till my travelogue comes up!!!!!