Nothing serious abt it

In reverie..

2011-03-06T03:38:00.005+05:30

The faint notes of an old bygone song, were borne by the light breeze into my room. A father’s desperation to spend as many precious golden hours with his daughter as he could, before he had to take leave of her, was singing by itself in those notes that reached me. The father would be leaving his beloved child soon, to pursue an important phase in his career, which was only a foresight to secure her future. The child bawled on.

It was late in the night, with a slight chill in the air. The kind that is the best to make you enter into a reverie, and I was trying to get the better of a book, that I had to return to its rightful owner as soon as I could. And as I sat there on the arm chair, in my room, listening to him sing, slowly my thoughts wandered away to what inexplicable creatures we are.

The weird nature of bondage and the harsh crudeness of loneliness have always been a thing of wonder to me. We are, as adults, but for some unfortunate few, quite capable of living our lives independently. But again, we are due to some unknown strength, known to crave for acceptance, and bondage, making ourselves dependent on those that we love. We are as free as our bonds are, and as caged as the strength of those bonds turns out to be. You might argue that, we are as free as our bonds are, and only the freer, as the strength of the bonds remain intact. I agree! This is but a side of looking at it. In that view, do we intentionally make ourselves the prisoner of our emotions?

Perhaps we do. And then again, perhaps not. We can only fathom so much as that the complex set of criss-crossing wiring in our cranium can wish to explain. But the psychological nature of that also has always been an enigma, hasn’t it? The mysterious working of the so-called heart - which should not be confused with the heart that in terms of science , has been well studied, and has the main function of pumping blood to all parts of the body - is all the more of a wonder to me. They say the heart pains, and it bleeds. They say, the heart rejoices. Well! Well!

It is no wonder that we are, is what our heart makes us. Tender, timid, strong, practical, hard, cold and so the list goes on in the hundred ways that we describe people. The same adjectives also apply to the heart of that person don’t they? During the process of growing up, and becoming cognizant of the various wonderful things around us, we slowly get entangled amidst the bonds that come our way, while we move hither and thither. And we love, and we hate. Hate, being a negative and undesirable emotion, has been proved by all the legends and epics behind us, to be a meeker competitor when compared to love. For love is that wonderful medicine that even the specialists in the medical profession have been unable to synthesize.

"The greatest science in the world; in heaven and on earth; is love."

Said Mother Teresa. Who else will know more about that beautiful jewel, than her, who devoted her life to spread her love to all she met.

For some priceless hours of staying with our loved ones, we are even ready to part them for a length of time. Strange are the ways that the heart makes us act. Stranger are the ways, how we all listen to that heart, while the pragmatic point always shows how that is quite unnecessary. The strangest is the fact that we are but humans with a mix of emotions, and thoughts, which we let our own people rule, and still remain happy about it.

The child had gone to a restful slumber, as the crying had stopped, but the notes kept wafting into my room, singing by itself the fantastic ways of Nature and the unknown!

The Tale of the Mole under the Sole

2011-02-26T07:09:00.007+05:30

"You know, when I grow big, I'll go to Australia"
"Bah! When I grow big, I'll go to Antartica!"
"Silly gals, When I grow big I'll go to Bermuda Triangle"
And so we went on, when we were about 2 ft high, knitting dreams in the air, about far flung places, as though we were just talking about going to the Periyar street behind our house.

Then one day, while removing the shoes and socks for the computer science class, when the Preethi saw the mole that I have on the sole, she pulled me aside, with eyes as big as saucers. While I was wondering, if the reaction was due to the fact that she was accidentally in the vicinity of Varun, when he was removing his shoes & socks-that-were-rumoured-to-be-the-reason-for-computer-ma'ms-frequent-fainting-episodes, she was regarding me with something in the terms of a venerable expression. While I was searching for something to hit her head with, to get her out of the trance, and decided that James's shoes were not the right option, she opened her mouth at last to throw some light on the matter.
"Hey Aishu, you have a mole on your sole of your right foot. You know what that means?!!"
Must say, I never realized that a mole could actually 'mean' anything. But apparently it did to her.
"I don't know what it means. Err.. do you?"
"Hey.. u know.. that means 'payanam' (travel). You are really going to travel to a lot of places. Only very lucky few have a mole right in the center of the right foot. My god! What a luck!"
And so she went on until the computer science teacher at last told us, that she might ask us both to make a short trip to the principal's room if we didn't stop chattering right away. So much for traveling! :O

Well, somehow that thought registered itself in my brain, and whenever my eyes fell on the mole, my thoughts would wander among the monuments that Discovery channel would show. Sigh!!!
Little did I know, how true Preethi was. Travel I did.To far flung places, you ask.. oh sure!
College itself was a good six hours of bus travel from the place that I lived. Though this is common and many even travel longer and have tougher journeys, I'm just highlighting upon the fact, to stress on the effect of the mole. The journey though only of 6 hrs, made me change 4 buses and a van/car to get me to the house. As you can imagine, by the end of the journey, any beggars in the vicinity would look at me, as though welcoming me to join their gang. (The best part was that they wouldn't hound me for money.. Pheww!)
Ok.. let me not digress. After those dreary college days when I started working, I thought the mole's luck would take me away from the Tamil Nadu and I would get to work in other cities too. But no, I got a job in Chennai itself, and the only mole-effect was dreary bus journeys to the Siruseri. While in 2 hrs you can make a trip to Madurai from Karaikudi, I would be waiting for more than that time, sitting in a bus, looking at vehicles honking for no reason.

But the mole-effect didn't stop there. My toothy problems, had me going to the dentist, who for some god-forsaken reason, felt Perambur to be the best place to pratice. Sitting in a bus for more than 2 hrs, all to have a doctor tighten some nuts and bolts in your mouth in 10 mins, then ask you to come after 2 weeks, also reminding you not to eat anything solid, was really not my idea of travel! During all those longer bus journeys, Preethi's fateful prophecy kept rewinding in my head. Mole-ki-to-aisi-ki-taisi!!! $@%$#@($#!!

And then happened the fateful US trip very recently, after quite a bit of fate and luck played their parts. So when I thought, "Hmm..after all Preethi's prophecy ka kuch to hua" I was boarding a plane to Denver. Happy that in the end, the mole decided to do something true to it's dubious reputation, I was quite happily going about my way.

But looks like, the mole is not very happy to have obliged it's role. For now, another mole has sprang up on my left foot's sole. Though not as big as the other one, this one now seems to be more like those fresher kids who join work, right out of college. The kind you know, who are all eager to prove themselves.. and come and ask your permission even to go to restrooms? I know.. really amusing lot! But not this teeny-weeny mole, I tell you!

Next month again, I'm moving to West Chester, PA. I hope this small travel on my part will abate the pangs of this new mole, and I can at last stay there for while. By the way, do anyone of you know, how to prevent moles, especially on the soles?
(Quite rhyming eh? :P)

And I'm back!!

2011-02-06T09:43:00.006+05:30

Whoa! I haven't been writing for ages! Hmm.. I need to do some justice to this space that dear own blogspot has allocated to me, thinking that I would scribble now and then, but what am I doing? Reading dready documents all day and your night, trying to exercise the top bean into a hit shape. Well, in any case, jolly old bean liked to be left alone, and I wanted to do some scribbling. So am back! :P

So amidst doubts of 'Tera Kya hoga re Aishu' I was flung into this far away land of Denver, sometime last month. I must tell that, when the weather outside is like -5 C, it is a very bad time to be caught by the worst form of cold. But it had already caught sight of me, and while I was sneezing the bejesus out of all and sundry, I had to travel to this land of 'Mile High city'. 34 hours of solid travel, in a trance like state, nose all clogged up, almost wheezing, sounding like a baby-elephant learning to bleat, I somehow reached this city. The best thing about the travel was that, I was able to watch 'Zabaan Sambhaalke' on the flight. Now this used to be the TV show that brought many a laughter with it, when I was in school. Those days of simple unadulterated laughter, the kind that is really rare now. Simple easy old days! Sigh! :)

Ah.. well, where was I? Oh.. yeah.. so now it has been more than a month here, and I've seen the snow, the rain, and sun too (thankfully). It is a quiet place, with rabbits and geese having a stroll on the roads as they like. I even saw a deer jolly well crossing the road in 2 long leaps, while my mouth was left hanging by itself. Err..By all this don't you guys go into any thoughts in the rein of "Iva entha vandalur zoo le irukka?" There are enough people around, and though the place is a far cry from the honks, loud whirring bikes, and other noises that keep company all the time in India, it has a peace about it, that quietens the soul. Take a peek.. go on!

Now does the peace part of my talk make sense? :) *Smiling benignly* I knew it is difficult to expect so much of the grey cells residing in the cranium without giving some of the tough work to the photoreceptors on the top of the head. Ah.. well, now that you got it, the most part of what I wanted to scribble here has been conveyed successfully.

While I go on, to enjoy a little more of the solitude of the place, you all have a jolly good time! Pip Pip!

A week that just wasn't

2010-09-30T22:30:00.006+05:30

The whole week has been one draining, hopeless, hell of a week. Some observations below

I run behind a bus, huffing and puffing with a handbag full of junk in one hand and a loaded lunch bag in the other, and the bus keeps moving, ignoring me. I decide enough is enough and board it running, and it behaves like a lazy buffalo and comes to a stop! What the....

A review meeting gets scheduled at 8.30 AM for which I've to start from home by 7.30 AM. This being the worst punishment anyone can meet out to me, I take it sportingly and accomplish the worst task of waking up and getting ready on time. 7.15 AM. Message comes that the same has been pushed to Friday. Translates to - 1.Vetti, it is not today. The whole big thing about waking up is one big waste. 2. Try the same again on Friday.

How stupid can I get?
Well, to the point of trying to book tickets, without even checking the date. To the point of not realizing it after I've spent some 500 bucks for a movie which neither I can't go to, nor can make others go. To the point of making funny 'adhu' gestures at my bro, who was unable to book tickets using his card earlier. :S To the point of being hopeful that I can actually cancel them. Sighhhh!

Well, life is all about it, right? [All of you better say yes!!!! I can't take any more of this :(]

Nagala - A whole new world - Part 1

2010-09-18T22:23:00.005+05:30

Amidst the mundane routine of work-home-whiling-away-a-weekend-work-home and the same on and on, when I saw the mail for the Nagala trek, I actually didn’t give it much thought. It was an irritating day at work that made me decide to go for it, to take a chance. And I must say, it was one of the most memorable experiences in my lifetime (not that I’m an 80 yr old, but still :P).

When we started in an undefined group, with smiling strangers, who seemed eager to help and were enjoying themselves, in the beginning I felt as though I was in a strange place. And me being a person who takes time to really open up felt even more alien. But after a while, it got to me. I also enjoyed when they laughed, be it a joke I shared or not. Slowly we reached the first pool, after having lost the people who were moving ahead of us. Once there, we got the message that we had to wait until further updates from the rest of the group. We were around 10 of us with a cute kiddo (Achantya) among us. While Achu found imaginary squids and jelly fish in the pool while swimming and found new ways of sliding down the small waterfall at the pool, the lost group met us there. And we quickly resumed out journey to the next pool – The crystal clear pool.

Everything around was in varying shades of green, and brown. Clear water went gushing around us, trickling and moving between rocks with a purpose, while we walked around or sometimes through it to make our way ahead. After sometime of climbing and trekking, we reached a scenic pool that was so beautiful, I’m so happy, the movie people haven’t found it yet. The crystal clear water, through which you could see the pebbles below, the fish moving around, was so pure, that anyone who comes back from another country claiming to have seen the best beach / lake in the world is going to get a sorry nod from me.

In less than 2 minutes, the whole group was busy thrashing around like kids in the water. The hesitation, inhibition all lost, fun seemed to be some gas that was being inhaled all over. After a while, it was time to move on – to pool 3 for the Level 1 camping site, and ahead for the others. Again after some climbing, some heaving and puffing, we had reached pool 3. A jade colored pool with shades of deeper green in the ends, it seemed like the water just decided to rest a while before it continued on its journey. As it happened each time we reached any water source, the swimmers dived headlong into the water, while the non-swimmers did everything else they could. Some wistfully watched the graceful swimmers having fun (That’s me! Scared to even keep my feet 2 ft into water) while some tried the floating technique with the tubes around them. Some others just relaxed, chatting and relaxing their muscles.

And that’s when fate decided to give this happy little gang a little more to think about. In other words, most of the gang decided to test themselves more, and go on to the next level. But for that we had to climb across a rock, clinging to the formations on it. And it was no simple rock. This one had rough, sharp edges, and turned at right angles in the midway. So there was no way to know what lay beyond that, unless we scaled that and went ahead. Well, anything looks scary until you do it. So saying, all the enthusiastic 70 or so, slowly edged their way across. No one dared to look down, because down, it was all rocks, and a pool that was quite a few feet deep. One wrong move and it could be dangerous. Brrr!!

Enter the Trekking Tigers! Till now, this happy band of Merry men, were not so much in focus, as no one’s life was clinging on a cliff. But when the tough terrain came up, these guys quickly moved and positioned themselves in such strategic points, encouraging scaredy-cats like me. And surely in a few minutes we had all crossed the dangerous-looking rock. And next we moved over the rocks to reach a small natural water slide. While two nice people helped us to cross over the slide, lots of enthusiasts were sliding below to the mouth of the waterfall. Once that was over, we started the real trek! You are wondering, what that ‘real trek’ means? Well, picture toh, abhi shuru hua hai! Now the terrain was not easy at all. It was all steep and slippery. The previous day’s rain had made the mud give away at a lot of places. When we kept our legs on some rock, thinking that it could carry our weight, it mostly came away, having been loosened by the sloppy mud. So we all clung on to the plants and roots of the trees. It was only after a while that we realized we were in a wrong trail. But by then I had already slipped twice, barely missing a fall, clinging to a small plant, which seemed too frail to withstand my weight. I got scared. This minute I had my hands around a plant, right feet on a rock jutting out under the mud, and the left trying to fix itself at the base of a plant, and the next minute, the rock gave away, while the plant snapped and I was hanging in mid air clinging to the frail plant. Thankfully, Jagan came over and passed along a root to steady myself.

It is a weird kind of rush that happens, when fear grips you. Suddenly the heart stops, voice seems forgotten (at least in my case) and adrenalin kicks in. But once you are safe, and the brain relieved that it is in no danger, all that adrenalin left out in the system, starts to act. After those two near-miss falls, by the time we reached the fourth pool, I was in a very bad shape. My muscles were trembling, and each breath was heavy. It felt like the muscles had given up. Both my hands and legs were trembling. At the fourth pool, where there was a waterfall, while others tried to refresh themselves in the water, I was taking stock of myself. There was a rock which had to be climbed to move further. Doubt, was setting in on my mind as to how I would do it. How I would move over that rock, which was angled in a way that we had to propel ourselves with our hands firmly on the dents in the rock. But when you have to do it, you just do it. While my mind tried that, my hands gave away. There it was Vandana, who caught me. It would not have been a fatal fall, but enough to injure me badly. And given that I’m sand-blind without my specs, if I had fallen, I would’ve fallen on my face, which means goodbye specs and goodbye vision. That thought was going in circles over my head, by which time, somehow I was pulled up on the rock and I quietly sat trying to calm myself. I knew I had to stop here, if I wanted to be alive. The next pool was 2 hours away, and the climb was going to be tougher. It was only common-sense to stay back. I said so to Biju the leader of Level 2. But logic was out, how could I be left alone? A first-time-trekker at a pool which was no camping site; all by herself? I had to somehow cling on, till the 5th pool. But again, going till there was going to be no easy task, and so the tigers came to my help. While one of them carried my bag, along with their own bags and other stuff like tarpaulin, rope etc., the others agreed to take care of me. Slowly motivating me, and the others, we moved forward. One step at a time, we kept going forward, until we reached the place.

I still can’t remember what place it was. Maybe it is because I automatically erase the worst memories from my head. All I can remember is, there was some rock like formation, where again I had to grip the rock and propel myself upwards to climb up. And when I tried, my both hands slipped! There was nothing below, only trees and rocks which are at an 80 degree angle to the horizontal. Where I would’ve fallen, I have no idea. But it would not have been nice at all. Two hands grabbed me at the right time, while lot of gasps escaped others’ mouths. I have no memory of how I reached on the top. But in seconds I was safe. I didn’t realize how much I valued my life until then. I couldn’t speak a word. I didn’t want to look below. I knew how bad it was. I knew how lucky I was. It would have been a major mishap, but those awesome guys saved me. From then on, there were always two people ahead and behind me. There was no saying where my next stunt would be. Abishek, Rinku, Vijay, Kaushik, RJ, Ganga, Nithya, and the other tigers, took the big burden called ‘yours truly’ into their heads. I was so embarrassed that I was such a trouble. I couldn’t even mumble thanks to those guys. Jitters were going over my hands and legs like some shock. But at the same time, I knew there was no way out. The only words, going over and over in my head were, “One big mistake. If I reach the pool in one piece, I’m not doing any more of this. From where did I get the idea that I can trek? How stupid can I get?” All this while, these guys kept at it. Encouraging, and motivating. Though they were all exhausted, being themselves new to this trail, plus having to take care of us, they did not show any signs of giving in. My mind was so scared that I would not move until Abishek was in the front leading the way. My only hope was that my fear was not rubbing on to the others. I was terrified, but I tried to keep it within me. Not sure, if that was working, but anyone who was near by, when I almost fell, were already looking at me like some sort of miracle.

It slowly became dark, and we used our torches to light our ways. Midway, we found Vaishu and her gang coming back from another false trail. The darkness was making it trickier than it actually was. After some more stops and careful climbing, we reached the pool. But by then, everyone had already slept. Where would I sleep? I didn’t have even a sleeping mat. God knows who had it, and where that person was. Ganga lent me a mat, and Archana helped me out. I was wet, exhausted and still jittery. Strange are the ways were you find real friends, and good human beings. Which stranger will go to the extent of applying a balm and rubbing the tired muscles, when that person was also in a similar state? While all the kindness and generosity of those really sweet people was weighing like a ton on me, Archana erased away all boundaries to that. That night, she was there, and that was all I had to know. In her face, I saw the care, the fact that she would not let me feel left out or insecure.

‘Thanks’ at that point seemed like a word that was too silly, too mild, to even convey 10% of the gratitude that I felt. I cannot repay any of those people in any way. I cannot ever thank them enough. But I can also never forget them and those moments. (If I go on, this will turn into the climax of any Karan Johar movie, and we wouldn’t have to go all the way to Nagala to enjoy a pool.)
There is more to write, about the fun I had. About why inspite of all this, I’m still going to trek more. But if I write this here, no one is going to read it. It has already been a very long post.

So sit tight, while the next part is on the way. :)

Inception

2010-08-08T12:43:00.002+05:30

Sanity is when what you believe is what is real, and is what most others, who are sane, also do. It is when your dreams are your own, but your reality is the same as it is, for all. But what if what you see is what all others also see, but it isn’t so? Are you dreaming? Are you sane?

Until Inception, this was not possible. Nolan made it happen, though.

An intricate, mesmerizing maze, of mind games, that leave you undecided about yourself and shake your opinions of reality itself. A husband not able to let go of his dead wife, ridden with guilt, trying to make amends to a lost life. Others, adept in the craft of stealing ideas, who do it for a living - to help him. And the target, a vulnerable heir to an industrial empire.

The story keeps you hooked till the end. Makes you sit without batting an eyelid, lest you miss that one small action that takes you to another level of a dream. Dreams – That word which helped to explain the innermost wishes of a complex mind. Here the whole world of dreams in shown in a completely different dimension, you never ‘dreamt’ of.

The twists in the movie are explained before they actually happen, in case you get lost in the labyrinth of the ideas and dreams taking form on screen. The emotional fabric throughout keeps it taut, and gives a soul to it. In all the scenes where Marion Cotillard enters, ravishing, reeking of some mystery - which you feel you can never place your finger on - you feel like delving straight into it, and wanting to know every bit of this puzzle. And then there is the performance of the DiCaprio exuding charm and intelligence into every scene. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, is surely going to go places. He has carried that smart, suave character so easily. Especially, the scene in which he tricks Ellen Page to kiss him, makes you go.. Aaaah! Also the subtle rivalry between his character, Arthur and that of Mr. Eames played by Tom Hardy is a delight to watch. The dialogues in any Nolan movie, have been its life, and so it is again in this one. There is humour, sarcasm, pain, fear, sheer thrill and a myriad of other emotions that flow out to you in each scene.

While Christopher Nolan delved into the thin line between a hero and a villain in his last venture, this time, he plays with dreams and reality, shaking the very foundations that make our lives normal.

The special effects used throughout the movie, are just so perfect, you can literally feel it, when the water just blasts through the dream of Cobb, when he gets dunked, right in the beginning. The other scene where Ariadne, (Ellen page) plays with the architecture, trying out different things, like folding the whole place on top of itself, or shattering a glass partition to make a whole new way, just scream of technical brilliance.

This movie is going to join the other brilliant works of this great director, and many other greats who didn’t just give us movies to watch, but gave us things to chew on and to contemplate. I so badly wish some of our own directors are given a resounding ‘kick’ and woken up from the dream they have been living so long. Sigh! So long guys!

Directionally Handicapped!

2010-07-24T22:46:00.005+05:30

"Right a left a ma?" asked the auto driver
Uh oh! Now which is right? Eeeeks.. I was almost hyper ventilating!
"Enna ma.. right-a left-a?"
"umm.. err.. adu.. adu.."I stammered, while the auto driver tried to slow down in a extremely busy Anna street in Thiruvanmiyur. If I didn't come up with the right way soon, we were going to be hit, either physically or verbally. Twenty pairs of eyes were trained on the auto, framing the choicest abuses in the worst possible way, while the auto-driver himself was glaring at me, a little baffled. He might be thinking what happened to me, since I looked perfectly normal when I got into it. Little does he know my problem! Sigh!
Tension rising every minute, I quickly kept the bags in the auto seat, and took out my hands, identified the right, right hand and pointed to the driver.
"Idu anna. Right" Phewwwwwww! At last!

Yeah.. that is me! I'm the most directionally handicapped person you can ever meet in your lifetime. (Pray to god, he never produces any more specimens like me, even after your lifetime). I've always found it difficult to point out right / left when someone asks me. I have to use my hands all the time. I take out my hands, look at them, mentally figure out the one used mostly, the right one, then take the other one, which obviously has to the left one,(How lucky, we have only two hands!!) and then point out to the person who asked me the fated question, only to find them in a half-slumber already. So I simply wake them up, and tell them the right way. :D
Thats why I call myself directionally handicapped, coz without my hands I'm lost! :P

Now, not only this. I have another problem. I cannot remember any routes, even if I've been through that route 100 times. Say, even if it is a simple, straight, then this way and that way and again this way(Oops, I was again using my hands to point out.. Wait, till I figure out which way...2 mins later.. yeah, so where we we..) So even if it is a simple straight, then right, and left and again right, I need to ask at least three people, keep track of their hands, and memorize the way they move pointing directions, to find my way there. It is such a sorry state of affairs, that my friends know I can get lost soon. :|

I'll tell you one such incident that happened. I and my friend were off to Ega theatre to watch 'Jab we met' and were on our way back at around 9 or so in the night. Now we had to reach our hostel before 10, else had to be ready to face a 2-hr long torture from our hostel-owner who was always on the lookout to murder people with his supposedly 'intelligent lectures'. (Rumour was that he used to be a favorite of the torture chamber wardens in some unknown country until he killed one of their own with his favorite topic.. Brrr. Scary na! I know!)So coming back to the story, we were trying hard to find our way through the traffic and reach on time. Suddenly my friend remembered another way (she still says it is the same route we used while going to the theatre, though I'm not so sure), and we raced towards it. We reached a junction pretty soon, and my friend asked me, which way we had to take now. (Blunder! I tell ya, the worst she could make.. err.. she knows that now though). In the hurry and tension, I blurted out something, and she took it for 'Right'. She again asked me if she was sure, and I was!! I was soo sure it was 'Right'. But after a few more turns, at around 9.40, we were back at the same junction. And then we realized, we were wrong. (I was obviously wrong, and she was wrong, coz she trusted me with such an important info :P). Now, this time she took the decision, and in no time, we reached another junction, and then she said.'From here only, we took right, not that one. Guess, you were confused"
To which I replied. "Oh.. so this is not the same one? It is another junction?"
Her eyes popped out to such a worst extent, that I had already trained my glasses to check the roads if they had popped out of the eyeballs. Recovering from the shock, she raced to our hostel, and we reached in record time, barely missing the torture chamber. Pheww!

And after that day, never has anyone trusted me to know any way or any direction.
I'm pretty sure this is no silly thing, and is a very rare disease that only the best minds get, but still my friends do not seem to believe me. So, this is my request to you all, if you find any information about this disease, please feel free to contact me.

Note: Nami you are a dudette! :D :D

Gender Stereotype and me?!! Kabhi nahi

2010-07-17T22:32:00.005+05:30

Megz tagged me, of all people for this one. And I'm not letting down the only person who feels I'm not extinct here :P.
Before you all let ur gray cells working on what the hell I'm rambling about let me help you save the energy of those poor cells on your first floor.
I have been tagged for ‘My Sins against Gender-Stereotypes.’ This tag says, list at least ten things you have ever wanted or done which your gender is not supposed to.

So I'm trying here to scratch and squeeze my own gray matter to help me find 10 of these. Well, to be frank I never looked at myself as a girl when I was doing something to think that since I'm a girl, I should not be doing this. Sigh! Still to do this tag, I should think of 10 such things. So here goes..

1. Umm.. Err.. I walk fast
2. I like to talk about cars and politics
3. I can board running buses with ease.
4. I love to trek and climb trees
5. I have no idea what is a mascara or err.. whatever.
6. I don't paint my toenails or my fingernails for that matter.
7. I HATE shopping. I hate it so much the very thought of T. Nagar makes me nauseous.
8. I can whistle well, and sometimes it is very involuntary.
9. I cannot stand soaps.
10. And I can cook. ( Given that more guys know cooking when compared to girls, I think this fits into this tag. :P)

Phewww.. With that I've completed this tag. YES!! YESSS!!!
And I hereby tag Himanshu and PSM errr.. Sow and Prabodh to carry on this tag. :D :D

This day :)

2010-07-09T23:42:00.004+05:30

It is a weird thing. This day called your birthday!

It is just the same as any other day, but not really so. It is a day when anyone who really cares for you, knows you, likes you, does not know you, has just seen you, all of them, try to do that thing, however small it may be, in whichever way they possibly can, to make it a little more special for you. :) To make it a day you'll remember for sometime, and have a quiet laugh shaking your head at those memories of cheer and laughter you shared with all of them :)

And it is a heady feeling to know, that there are people out there, who care, who want to make it extra-special for you. Who are basically there for you.

Thanks a lot guys! :)

[55 Fiction] GULP

2010-06-07T22:40:00.001+05:30

Another one for the same contest.

--------
“Whiskey, rum or vodka?” Sam asked.
“Vod-ka ille stupid. It is ‘Vaud-ka’” Prabhu corrected him.
“Oh!.. I got it. What ka?” Mokka-Venkat couldn’t resist passing the opportunity.
“Hmm… Avarekka!” quipped a voice from behind them. They turned in unison.
The class teacher was tapping her feet, eye glowering.
----------------

[55 Fiction] The Other half

2010-06-07T22:37:00.003+05:30

This was written for a contest in our internal blogging site. The total number of words is not supposed to go beyond 55 words, and must convey a story.So here goes..

----------------------------

She was asking me to join her. She was so very near, but I couldn’t reach her. It seemed like she would go farther away, if I passed this opportunity. The distance would be too great.
“Come. We’ll be together again” She said, smiling as ever.
--
The wails began. Father was a great man.

---------------------------

One unforgettable evening!

2010-05-15T01:07:00.007+05:30

Innocence is one thing you can never ignore. It is like that wild flower in a desert. You see it, and a smile flashes across your face! :D

So it was one lovely evening when I went up to the Pantaloons to get a shirt for my dad. (I know, I know, I know as much about shirts as Thala Vijay does about acting.. just read on.. plz) I had my brother along with me, who helped me find the right shirt. Whenever he felt like throwing up, I knew the shirt in my hands was a disaster. So well, after quite a bit of almost-throwing-up-stashing-the-disater-away, my bro took up the job on himself, while I,... err.. like any other species of my kind went up to the ladies department. While I was there I spotted this bright kid. (Pssst..Now I'll let u on a secret of mine. I can do that Kathakali thing with my eyebrows, where they just keep dancing their eyebrows up and down). Now like most involuntary reactions, as soon as I see a kid, my eyebrows start dancing right away, and I must tell you, they love it! Or so I thought!

This kid promptly turned to his father, who was waiting for his wife to come out of the trail room, and started pointing at me.Yikes! I knew I was in trouble! I quickly ducked under some clothes rack, and was pretending to be absorbed in a plain gray t-shirt, when I felt a tug. It was the same kid!
"Ello, Ow-er-u" [hello, how are you]
"Oh.. I'm fine.. how are you?"
"You go to play-shhcool a?"
Now when a cute little 3 yr old, dressed in those over-sized shorts, sneakers and shirts with all big designs asks you some buzzer round questions in a kiddo voice that went 'shhhcool', you get all tongue-tied. Well, I did. Err.. you see that last question was a real bumper!!
"Err.. no-"
"I go to one. Ajay can jump like this only thee tiimes. I jump fiiiive times. And my shhhcool is there only..."
So on.. and on.. for another 15 mins it was like a new language that I learnt from him. Since I'm quite a fast learner, I was somehow able to reply back. Sample this.
"you terra kitnera?"
"ya..terri ponsalaa"
Well, he was satisfied with that answer. Right then, I got a call from my bro, asking me to get going as he had found a good shirt at last. Sadly when I turned to my new friend to bid goodbye, he went "You going? ok Shee you" with a resounding kick aimed right at my ahem-ahem.
His father's "No fighting or beating" apparently didn't include kicking. Owww!

We were at the billing counter though, when we discovered that that shirt was apparently a defective piece, and my bro has to resume his 'search-for-the-right-shirt'. But there was somebody right there to give me company.
"Hey.. nee polaya? Inge vaa" (Hey.. you didn't go yet? Come here]
(Apparently he had included me into his friends list, since we started conversing in Tamil and English there on. :hude-grin-plastered-on-my-face-now:)

We played hide and seek, among the clothes racks, looked at each mannequin there in detail, as to what each was wearing, and why there were no shoes on. There was another insight too from my little friend, as to how tall those mannequins really were! Brilliant I tell ya, my buddy was going places. Well, but by this time, since all the store-assistants had become his thick friends, anywhere I hid, the little sonny found me out in no time, with this HUGE grin that just lit up my day.

But you know what? Even these little fellas fall for a girl. Guess what happened? At the billing section this guy met a new kid (girl), and forgot all about our hide-and-seek. He was so overjoyed. He introduced her to me, and showed her all those mannequins we had so sincerely studied. But well, he tried this big fighter hug thing, and ended up falling over her and hitting their heads. Well, being the superman my little buddy was, he moved on like the Rajdhani and we were back to our little games.

After a while, his parents found us, informing that it was time to leave. My buddy, was perched up at the billing counter, lest he ran off somewhere. We kept signaling to each other, since I was standing just 2 places behind them.
"Bye bye"
"Bye bye"
"Shee you"
"See you"
"Shvuit deems"
Eh?
Oh
"Sweet dreams :D"
And then the best part.. he blew me a flying kiss!!! :D :D. (I so resembled my profile pic then. :P :P)

That little kid's innonence had spread its warmth all over. It was the best evening I had in a long time, and I'll never forget that little bugger! :)

Of Men that laugh and children who cry!

2010-03-07T22:25:00.000+05:30

It was a tranquil night. The moon was silently whispering to the barren lands that swished pass by. A lone tree or few bushes,looked on serenely now and then. It was around 10.00 and I was on my way home. Almost all had retired to their berths and when the last light was put out, I had decided to take in the beauty of the countryside in the moonlight, sitting in the dark train. But then, there was this family, to the right of my compartment, with two small kids who found the idea of traveling in a train, a little discomforting. This hunch of mine was confirmed by the kid suffering from wailisirenotopia.( This is a syndrome when the afflicted keeps wailing like a siren every 4 mins and 53 secs.) This one was unique though, coz the wailing was in a different tune each time. And then, there were this group of men to the left of my compartment, who definitely were trying to prove Darwin right, in that we evolved from monkeys. From the time they had boarded the train, they were behaving like a bunch of excited teens out on a trip for the first time. Every 10 mins, it was like a bunch of Narakasuras from Om Namah Shivai had descended on the train, booming at the hapless devi who had fallen victim to them. It was like 10 gorillas roaring in pain (well, it really couldn't be counted in as laughter, you know, so I didn't want the good old hyenas somersaulting in their graves, if I used them as metaphors here)

Now this was not bothering me much, coz staying awake was my idea. I had to get down in an hour or so, and did not want to snore all the way to Trichy, missing my station. Now by around 10.15 or so, this kid with the wailisirenotopia had got into this pretty drab tune, which was certainly not music to the ears. But of course (no sarcasm here) everyone understands how difficult it is to manage kids, and so all patiently waited for the kids to go back to sleep. That was when one of the men from the gorilla gang, wearing his 10-yr old son's shorts, crossed my compartment to the next and kind of gave a look , that was surely meant to be a warning to the parents.

How insensitive could people get! At 10.30, those people never had the sense to pipe down a bit, but the man in shorts had the gall to remind others to quieten down, a kid at that! Appalled, I went back to the barren lands, wondering about the manufacturing defect that Lord Brahma had made while dishing out this particular specimen.

After about 15 mins, the kid had gone to sleep and the whole train was softly sighing in sleep when these men - on a apparently rib-tickling one, went into this ritual of slapping thighs and making sounds that was like 5 old Bajaj scooters + 8 gorillas + 7 Narakkasuras and 11 buffalos on a high!!! The compartment almost jerked, when some 60 (remember a sleeper has 72 berths and a good 8 were occupied by these ppl, one by me, and 3 were unoccupied yet - I'm good at my math, you see :P )people were jostled from their sleep. The ones sleeping in the middle and lower berths banged their heads on the top of their berths, when they were woken up with a start! And our child with the wailisirenotopia, poor thing, also seemed to find a new tune to kick off now!! :(

Now, I decided something had to be done. But what? Hmm... yeah.. there was one thing. But, I had my own doubts. What if they went into another of these thigh-slapping, and guffawing rituals, if I did that?? I couldn't even imagine me being the cause for another of those!!! :O

But well, given that I take approximately some 53.9 seconds to make up my mind, before these thoughts could even play out in my mind, I was already on the way to their cabin. (Remember it was dark everywhere except in their cabin)I went and stood at the entrance of their cabin, and gave them all a bewildered look. I looked at each of those specimens for a good length of time,especially the one in his 10-yr old's shorts, all the time not letting go of the blank expression. There was silence. The guffawing gorillas now closely resembled dumb buffalos basking in the sun, open mouthed. I returned back to my seat, with such of sense of satisfaction, I had never felt before. That had done the trick. Within seconds, the lights went out, and the train went back to it's sleeping mode. I had not actually expected such a quick response, so to say, I was actually scared, if they would start off on another laughing spree, seeing my dumb look. Phew! :D :D Luckily the child also seemed to get tired of wailing, and had quietened down.

The tranquility returned and I went back to the moonlight barren lands, and in all that silence, barely missed snoring all the way to Trichy!

Note: I know the title is grammatically wrong. But it is intentional, which I hope you understand better after reading this post. :)

An Unnamed End!

2010-02-21T23:54:00.000+05:30

Every day goes in the fear that the nights will not end.
Nights remain still and sleepless
Dreams and nightmares waltz by
The labyrinth only seems to go bigger and bigger

Groping in the light is even tougher
But the mountains now seem so small
Choking breath erases the mirage
Is there still something at large?

The crescendo keeps building
The sands are getting blown away
Can u hear the howling?
Rushing waters forming a whirlpool

Aching sounds keep calling out the time
Lost in a way that seems the end!
Now it is, not then
Not then!

A Cockroachish day!

2010-02-17T23:18:00.000+05:30

To hell with micro-blogging! Right when you need it, the site won’t work!

Sigh! Well, if your day starts by trampling a poor cockroach mercilessly, you know it is not going to be your day. The sin will follow you wherever you go! And it did!

It started with this. My brother leaves early in the day, and when I wake up, it is only these cockroaches or ants that give me company. (No, no, don’t even think that this is coz I keep the house dirty, ours in on the ground floor, and so, even Hit and Baygon have become ineffective to their innovative ways of finding a place into the house). After hearing a sound like ‘htttt’, I half-yawning moved my foot aside to see that it was the exoskeleton of a cockroach that I had very effectively broken, and therefore killed. After paying my last respects to the poor creature by throwing it away for good, I proceeded to the wash basin to brush my teeth, when another sound caught my attention. This time it seemed to come from the kitchen where the water can is usually kept. Though my eye sight is poor, I could figure out that the water in the can has been disturbed and the can itself was swinging this way and that, as if it has been something had pushed it. I wore my specs to investigate the incident. Ok, I’m no Madam Marple or Nancy Drew, but I can surely figure out any rat’s or cat’s tail, if it had been hiding somewhere after mischievously playing with the water can. But nope, nothing there!

Some thoughts about the recent Paranormal activity, and other horror movies did come to my mind, but then, when I thought of my steely teeth, confidence did a hulu dance and proceeded to encourage me. After about one hour I reached the bus-stand to find no M1s in sight. That was the only bus that ensured a no-sandwich-or-burger smashing, squeezing journey till Velechery. The hulu dance being forgotten, I couldn’t even think of the word confidence then. Mustering all the courage I could at that time, I stepped foot onto the M70 that was in sight. Oops… then I saw it was another lady’s foot that I had stepped on, and quickly apologized to stop the steady flow of expletives that were raining from her red-stained mouth. So much for my confidence’s hulu dance! Sigh!

Like they say, there is light at the end of a tunnel, a seat in the crowded bus emptied up for me, and I taking it as an opportunity to breathe, happily lunged into it. The day did seem to be getting better. I guess in so much I had somehow washed myself off the sin of killing a poor bubbly flying cockroach. So smiling to myself, I was about to forget all worries, when this stupid man caught my eye. After about 10 mins, it was evident he was surely not smirking to himself and the obscene gestures were directed at me. In this world, there is nothing as irritating and annoying as something that is done to you indirectly. You can’t even fight back or shout or react in any possible way, lest you be called an idiot for imagining things. For that stupid smirk of his, I felt like baring my steel reinforced teeth at him, which I was sure, would make him the twin brother of the scarecrow that you see in the Thanjavur rice fields. But my dignity and the care for my fellow-travellers made me change my mind. Also my stop was near. I had by then decided to take my silent revenge on Mr.Smirking-Beauty by stamping his feet when I was getting down. Imagine my chagrin when he grinned at me, and got down on the stop that was just before the one where I get down. I felt like chasing him right then, and trampling his feet like I had done the poor cockroach! Ahh… now I knew why my day had begun on such a great note!

So sighing I entered my office to find the same boring tasks staring out of my mailbox like some demented dragons keen on making me lose my already half-insane mind. End of day was nearing, after a wearisome boring day. Only the onsite call was remaining which we had calculated to last exactly 18 mins and 23 secs. But damn all sanity, we had to hear a whole lecture on an already known issue for a whole hour with bits if Telugu in between! Mr. Cockroach was flying around my head in circles reminding me of the sin I had committed early morning! So much for ghosts! :|

If my day could’ve ended better the internal site where I had to upload some documents refused to oblige, making me raise tickets, only to suddenly start working so promptly that the documents got uploaded twice. How nice! And then there was this traffic that snailed all the way home, creating an opportunity for me to scare the driver with my loud yawns. (He was lucky I don’t snore!)

And so after a whole tiring day when I have to eat dinner cooked by myself (What worse misery can strike you! :’( ), I tried to tweet something, only to find the site not-responding at all. Now you know the reason for this mindless rant. Well, I can only hope that I paid for all my sins!

Hmm..now where did I leave my mobile phone.. (Author scratching her head, looking for some bulb to glow, and show her the quickest path to her mobile phone). OMG! How did a cockroach’s leg find its way to my head!!!! :|

Avatar - Some thoughts!

2010-02-06T19:17:00.000+05:30

Avatar is no new release, I know. But well, I got the tickets to watch that very recently and so here are some of my views on it. This might be a very very late review (if you can call it so), but I felt like writing about it.. so here goes. :)

Just when you thought that the greatest movies were those with the most complicated scripts, or story lines with layers and layers behind each frame, here is one to trash all that!

You go in there expecting grandeur, but what hits you is simplicity! It is not a wonderfully fresh story line, or refreshingly brilliant characters, it is the sincere and simple narrative. Everything is simply put there, point blank for all. But very few always get it, so instead of the usual narrative; James Cameron uses 3D, to make you feel one with an imaginary world, in parallel with the one we are already living in. He uses a new species The Na’vis. And unfolds a brand new Avatar of cinema!

All this while, we expected twists and turns, something spectacular that made those bucks you spend in the cinema hall worthwhile. In Avatar, except for the new technology that has been used to make the film, for a layman it is as lucid as it is for a 4-yr old. Good vs Bad, where the Good ultimately wins.

Here we also get to see how things work when there are a bunch of individuals who work for themselves, for their own motives. How their interests take precedence over everything, over lives, over peace, over The Right!! There is an irony that is brought out, when the tiny humans try to overcome the giant Na’vis, using the machines and technology that is far too superior and powerful for the native people of Pandora. How arrogance and greed overcome us humans, how we get blinded for our s
selfish motives!

But as in any film, there are a few things that linger unexplained. Why this perfection in everything in the Pandora? Pandora.. the name itself seems ironical. The people, if they were meant to be of another world, are more like us. The same two eyes, one nose and one mouth. I forgot the two ears! :P

Why is the stretch of imagination never going beyond that part of it? I’ve been waiting to watch a movie that depicts aliens in a different way, but somehow, they always get to what we have already seen or experienced. Speaking in the physical terms, of course.

Coming back, really, why the perfection? The Navis have perfect bodies, the old, the children everyone! Living in harmony with nature makes you perfect!? Is that what James Cameron wants us to believe? Even in the tribes there are fat people. But nope not here! Now that was one thing that made me wonder, what message this is actually sending out. But there is good, bad and ugly in Pandora. The dog-kind-of hunters that almost hunt Jake Sully, predators, herbivores that are almost equivalent to goats, monkey-like creatures. But there were exceptions. The lizard like creature that flies with its own wings that spread out like a spiral fan, the spiral plants that withdraw into themselves when they are threatened. The luminescent forest itself. It has taken many a creative mind to come up with all these things!!!

There is a never-say-die villain here. He is the right match for our ‘It is not over until it is over’ hero of course. But is it right to call him the Hero? Doesn’t Neytiri actually save him twice? Isn’t she the one who has the real guts to go against her own people for an outsider?

There is a deviation though. The money-guy who never understands any other language other than money, is for a change right on the site of action. He is along with the people who are working for him. Quite odd! Coz usually u find these guys teeing off with a Bluetooth on. Maybe that is the reason, Bluetooth doesn’t work across planets.(I know that was a really bad one.. sorry couldn’t help :P)

The indigenous communication devices, technology that brings images in thin air, (though falls short of providing an automatic wheelchair for Jake Sully) could make you scratch your head. But again you are diverted from these by the magnificence of the world. The hanging mountains is one such. Every frame in the movie is significant, and you’ll know that each creature has a role to play in the end by the time you are 15 minutes into the movie. They surely can’t waste their time sketching and creating such creatures just for a 1 minute scene! And sure enough you get to see all of them in the end doing justice to their part, pulling at your heartstrings right when you could let your mind wander about.

Good against evil. Acceptance vs alienation. Man vs woman. Nature vs humans. Navi’s vs humans. In the end you learn love triumphs. Love for everything around you. Even the smallest dandelion seed (fluffy things in the air, whatever they actually are), even the tiniest blade of grass, loves you. If you love it back, you win! Seems absurd doesn’t it? :) Well, that is the toughest thing James Cameron tries to convey. Very few take it back along with them though. The message could get overshadowed by the expectation for special effects and 3D, cinema like never before experience.

A Neurotic Soul!

2010-01-08T21:31:00.000+05:30

I blinded my eyes, so I would not see it
I cut off my ears, so I would not hear it
I ran away as fast as I could
But it would only catch up with me just as fast!!

I raced against it.
I just would not accept it.
I never even existed. Period.
But all it did, was stare right into my face!!

I could smell it.
Feel its ugly breath on me.
Every sense of mine revolted against it.
It had almost engulfed me!!

How far could I run?
It just has to eventually catch up
Am I rotting?
Why all this melancholy?

IS THIS THE END?!!!!

I'm an actor! (Short story)

2009-09-21T00:21:00.000+05:30

Sometimes life is strange! I just can't understand it. You feel you'll never make it anywhere, and suddenly you get an opportunity to make it big. Right there, out of nowhere that faint ray of hope enlarges into a big tunnel to your ambitions. And then when you have travelled a long way, with a lot of hope and happiness, you find out that the tunnel actually ends in a cliff! A very deep cliff! That is where I'm right now! At the edge, on the verge of falling into this abyss! All my hard work and effort are going to go down the drain. Aaaaargh! I can't believe it! How can this happen to me! And why should it happen to me at all?

In the beginning I wasn't making it. I knew that. I was nowhere in this wide ocean, and was swimming against the tide. I was a mere drop in the vast ocean. But you have to agree, I worked on it. I worked like hell on everything, right from my face, to my body language, accent, on every damn part of me, till I got it right! Till I could be called a decent actor! And I did make it big, didn't I! Weren't there papers that called me the next face of cinema?!

But now.. now that my fourth movie didn't make money, they want to blame it on me? What about the faulty script? The drab screenplay? Who the hell is that critic to blame it on me? What the hell does he know about acting, anyway??Does he know the grueling practice sessions, the acting school hardships? All he knows is to watch movies for free, happily sitting in a special couch and write the crap that he is asked to, depending on the amount he is paid by you-know-who! Critic he calls himself! Bah!

Acting! Acting is an art! I know.. I know it is the most clichéd line, but you have to accept it, that it is a fact! Acting Is an Art! Period!!

It is not just wearing the grease paint and going there and enacting the part given to you. You have to understand the soul of the character. You have to get under the skin of the character. Understand the layers of role. The emotions, the reactions.. everything. You have to keep digging into it, until.. until you just become the character! Yes! That is it! You just start living the role! If he laughs, you feel happy, if he is sad, you cry! If he has OCD, you wash your hands 5 times. If he gets hurt, it pains you. Yes, it is no longer him. He is you! An actor lives so many lives in his lifetime, people don't understand. It is difficult for others to understand. You stand on the stage with the limelight on you, hundreds of faces turned towards you, looking at each move, and then you understand what it is to be an actor!

What do people know?

And now.. now it pains. It is like some acid that is trickling down my throat. I can feel it burning every cell that it comes in contact with. My whole body is aching. It is like some poison running through my veins. I can feel its course over my body. Slowly it is spreading all over. Slowly.. very slowly. My eyes.. they are getting hazy. Eyelids are heavy.... My whole body is on fire. I cannot.. cannot take it anymore..

******

"Hey! Where is Vaibhav?"
"That weirdo? He said he was going to do a final rehearsal. Look in that room, he must be mumbling to himself.. it was a monologue."
"Ah.. there he is! Some rehearsal lying on the floor! Idiot!"

Paradise!

2009-09-14T10:32:00.000+05:30

Green.. green.. green.. That is the only colour that i'm seeing everywhere right now. How ever did God make this place sooooooo green? Uh.. I'm being so abrupt .. I'm talking about God's own country here! Reached here on Saturday and I'm in awe right from the moment I stepped out of the train. Whoa!

Pure air. When I breathe, I feel as though I'm breathing for the first time in my life! It is so refreshing. All around the place is so flush with greenery, I can hardly see brown earth under it. And RAINS! It is like God is watering his plants. It just leaves the whole place so clean, pure, and again greener. To think that I was born in such a paradise and I'm having to stay in a concrete jungle faaar away from here, really disheartens me! :(

Everytime we were driving somewhere I felt I was going into some paradise. There were canals after every 200ms. And the water seemed to flow like some melody, softly gushing below the bridges, whispering to the nature, the secret of their beauty! It was magic! :D

There was a peace about the whole place that beheld me.There was the usual pace, but it didn't seem like anyone was as preoccupied and in a hurry. I could just go to the next room and experience solitude like I've never felt before. It was bliss.

Sigh! I want to go there again now.

Fill it!

2009-09-06T20:31:00.000+05:30

You never give any serious thought to what is going to happen next. Take life as it comes, have fun, or at least try to, and then suddenly the whole world seems dull! There is a void. A big vacuum that just seems to grow bigger and bigger. At first, you turn away, and ignore it. But at one point it is right in your face staring at you, with it's vicious hunger to pull you also into it. Then it is left to you to decide!

You are either in it, or you don't let it grow anymore. You just fill it. Fill every inch of it!

Rant Karo Ji Rant!

2009-08-23T18:28:00.000+05:30

How is it that some things happen only to me? Like on a Friday I leave early.. which is 7PM from office only to find that the bus to my place is late. And also that I'm the only one waiting for that bus that day, which usually is brimming with ppl by 6.55. :

What does the Rain god have against me? I really need to know. Saturday I dont wash anything and the Sun shines down on my head trying to sap out all energy out of me. Sunday I wash all clothes, including a jean and it gets cloudy even before I finish washing. Worse, if God Varuna forgets his job when I wash, the crows are already there with their stomachs full and waiting for me to dry my clothes! Aaargh! Are there any crow-repellent washing powders here?

How in the hell did my dentist find a place in Perambur, all the way down in Perambur, I mean.. so damn far in Perambur. No wait, how the hell, did I find a dentist who is soooo damn far away in Perambur? Wait.. who found out this place called Perambur? No wait.. who ever found out braces? or better dentists? or bad teeth?.. I can go on and on... (gaye kaam se.. is baar sachi mein pagal ban gayi :'( )

Tomorrow is Monday! Sigh!

Just a moment!

2009-08-02T18:44:00.000+05:30

It is early in the morning, with a low mist hanging all around. The sun lazily peeps through the clouds, while the dew drops glisten on the leaves. Flowers are slowly opening their petals welcoming the morning. It seems as though they are stretching themselves after a restful sleep. The sky is painted in a number of hues, as the Sun starts its journey for the day. And you sit there with a steaming cup of coffee, admiring the works of nature. A moment of absolute bliss, wouldn’t you say?

There are so many such moments that we come across in our lives. Some moments just pass by like a fraction of a second, while some linger on as though they are forever. Some are happy, some are sad, some embarassing, some light, some heavy, some unforgettable, some most-forgettable. Some completely unimaginable. But our whole existense itself is a confluence of these umpteen moments that we experience unaware of its significance.

Ever thought of the moment when you first balanced yourself on the bicycle, and rode with no-worries on the empty road, without hitting any cows, with the wind in your hair, and a song on your lips? Ever thought of that moment when you were able to blow ‘the biggest’ bubble among your friends, though the bubble burst all over your face, and you were left trying to figure out your nose under the sticky gum? Think back for a second, the moment when you stayed late night just to see India win against Pakistan, and you got a nice piece of lecture from your father for shouting in the middle of the night? That moment when the grandma you helped cross the road gave you a smile that could lit up the darkest streets? That moment in school when the guy/girl you had a crush on smiled at you, inspite of that pimple on your cheek? That moment when you scored the highest in the class when you thought you were going to fail in that subject? That moment when it rained and the exams got cancelled when you were not well prepared and it was your weakest subject?… Such moments are what it is all about!

In this journey of life, we have had some of the best moments we ever had. Most of them are so magical, they’ll remain etched in our hearts forever. I’m sure each of you have had at least one such moment that took your breath away, amde your heart skip a beat, amd made you feel like you were on the top of the world! Of course we all had sad moments, but those pass by. We don’t let them linger long, and spoil the rest of the enchanting moments that are waiting for us to be e
experienced.

So live each moment like it is a gift, it is a surprise waiting to be revealed, like an expression that needs to be expressed. Live it! It is just a moment!

Philosophers of my life!

2009-07-19T22:38:00.001+05:30

Looooong ago, so long that it was like 200 BC, Revs had tagged me with a meme, ‘Philosphers of my life meme’. This was so long back that everyone nearly forgot what it was all about, but I’m here to refresh ur memories and bring this great meme back(This also proves how good my memory is, coz I didn’t forget abt the meme, and also how I make it a point, not to disappoint ppl who tag me.. :P.. small hints are not my forte at all)

Okie, so coming to the point, who are the philosophers of my life? Umm…err.. now that is quite a good question! I’ve not completed even a quarter century in my life to say that these people have helped me and guided my throughout my life, and hence they are the real philosophers of my life, but then, heck, all that I did live till now was a life wasn’t it. So there have to be some people who taught me some things, right? So here goes the list of ppl who tried to put some substance in those grey cells up in my cranium.

My Dentist:
Now, he came in really late in my life, just about one year back, but I’ve learnt quite a number of things by visiting him once in 3-4 weeks, sometimes even twice a month. He taught me the advantages of keeping quiet, and shutting up, when he put the dratted bite-plate in my mouth. From an incessant chatter box, I turned into an apostle of silence. My understandng and respect for sign-languages increased exponentially, and I must say I could’ve won any Dumb-C competition at that period of time, coz I was just a champion in sign-languages then. So, though he incapacitated me verbally, he was the main reason behind my effective utilization of my motor controls.(Gee, I didn’t know I could make this seem so nice.. sigh!) And coming to the next wonderful aspect of my dentist is that he taught me the concept of endurance and patience. Now these are ‘The’ most important traits anyone should have. Every time I opened my mouth wide and let him hammer/pluck/whatever my teeth, knowing very well, how bady it was going to pain, I was slowly improving my patience and endurance. I’ve become soo damn patient now, that even if even Mr. Advani tries to sing ‘Aadiye kollude’ or say ‘Om-Shanti-Om’ I would just sit there quietly letting him finish, without a sound, smiling throughout the ordeal.

My Shuttle driver:
Now this guy has always awed me. Even if there is just an inch of space between two MTC buses, he has always managed to get our shuttle through it with all of us alive! Now that is quite an achivement according to me. Another interesting aspect of this man, is that he just cannot let other vehicles ride in peace if they are infront of him. He effectively utilises the horn, and the accelator and sees to it, that there is no one who can race with our shuttle. Now, that takes the competetive spirit, I tell ya. The fact that towards the end of the journey all of us inside the vehicles are all disheveled, dizzy, and goggle-eyed is no letting-down for him. I personally think he should be in some racing sport rather than waste his talents as a shuttle-driver . Maybe he could even teach Narain Karthikeyan a thing or two. Well, now tell me has anyone ever been able to teach you how precious life is, and how every moment is a great experience? You might’ve heard many sermons and lectures on this, but I tell ya, no one better than our shuttle driver can teach you this essential lesson of life. As for all those who ask me what happened, or where did you hit urself, when I come out of the shuttle, Hmph! you’d never know what it is to be on a roller-coaster shuttle, even if you went to Veega land/Queensland/Whatever-land!

EB People:
They really have taught me that life is never a bed of roses. Heck! Life is never a bed-with-a-working-fan-on-top-of-it, forget roses! Whenever I felt like just dropping onto the bed, and relieving my tired self, that had worked itself to the maximum, the EB people see to it, that the power goes of, only in our house. Now how this dratted piece of luck, works for me, I’ve no idea. But again, endurance and patience and also the art of staying awake the whole night, were precious lessons I learnt from these connoisseurs of electricity. They have also been the inspiration for learning the most-difficult art of tackling mosquitoes.Other than that one, there is this art of listening-to-barking-dogs in the silence of the night(silence, except for buzzing of mosquitoes), and deciphering what great concept of life they are discussing in the middle of the night! Such great lessons were taught only by these great people, and I’ll be forever indebted to them.

The Crow (now I’m presuming there is no hard-and-fast rule that philosophers must be humans):
Now if there is a non-human who has always held my attention other than ‘kozhi’s obviously, it is The Crow. Perserverance is one thig, but being able to make me wash all my white or light-coloured clothes at least twice, has been the main aim of this bird. Not sure if it is the same one that always manages to ruin my dresses by doing you-know-what on them, or is it a whole gang which take turns to teach me the virtue of perseverance. But they do make a good job of it. Even if it is just a chiffon dupatta that takes something like 30 mins to get dried, they manage to ruin it before I take it off the clothes-line. Maybe they just want my clothes to be extra-white, and want me on the Rin-supreme ad next, whatever, but yeah.. I’ve learnt this, that however well you wash your clothes, there is always some way you can wash them better. Really Mr. Crow, if not for you, I really wouldn’t have learnt this invaluable lesson.

Okie, there was the mock-list to make this post a little humourous, but seriously I have no particular list of people who are the philosophers of my life. Everyone I’ve come across has taught me some invaluable lesson, be it humility, courage, sensibleness or just being nice. I feel each and everyone out there has something special and so good that we can take away, and I’ve always made it a point to learn something from everyone I’ve come across. So all of them, whom I know, are Philosophers of my life!

Work! nahiiiiiiiiii !!!

2009-06-24T20:32:00.000+05:30

I've been working like a dog for the last 2 months( ok.. guys who know me, might say.. this fool says this all the time, but hey.. this time it really is like a dog!!! Believe me.. ), and today when "the work" is getting over, and I've planned the best weeekend after some 2 - 3 months, comes the .. the worst statement.. work this weekend tooo!!!!!!!!!!!! How outrageous!! Do those supposedly high-and-mighty clients even think that it is human beings who work here??? They just like that advance or postpone the release dates with the flick of an eye, and we idiots here are the scapegoats! Hmph! Just wish I could make one of those clients face the Chennai heat for once! Or probably make him watch some Vijay's movie.. He sure won't survive that!! Ha!

One good thing about the work was that I splurged.. well.. to be more exact I splurged on books :D And so, whenever I get into those cranky moods I read one of those precious gems and I'm back to form. But hey, my account also has a limit! I can't just go on book-buying sprees like this!

One of my team mates has this cute little girl's photo on his desk, and whenever he calls me to ask a doubt I get so absorbed staring at the cute girl, I mostly miss out on the doubt. :P Well, good books and little children lift my spirits high! They are the most innocent creatures on earth, and spread so much happiness, that my best idea of heaven would be where no one is an adult! Everyone is a kid full of innocence, unblemished with any of the vices that rule this material world!

Worst part, very soon, I'm going to left with just 2 ppl whom I can ping any crap I feel like.. earlier there were four, recently one quit, and now so is the other. I used to feel so relieved talking to these ppl, but sigh! they have their own careers to take care of, not everyone is an idiot like me. Umm.. coming to think of it, I never really know if they did mind me pinging all kinds of nonsense, which is mostly ranting like now. Err.. what do i say.. __________

Well, i gotta go now, so much for ranting.. lately my blog has become such a stress-reliever space, I feel so much like a character in those soaps, where the bahu using like one galloon of glycerine!

Ciao!

Levels of Privacy!

2009-05-12T14:18:00.000+05:30

I never thought that levels of privacy were low in my office, till I found these two ladies, who find the rest room the best place to talk. And talk, they do alright! They talk irrespective of whether they are inside or outside! : Now when you are in dire need to go to the restroom, trust me, it is quite unsettling to see, one lady shouting at the top of her voice at a restroom.. even worse to see that someone answers her back from inside it! :O And when they are not inside ( both of them ofcourse), you better not be in the vicinity, coz they keep enacting whatever just happened in their teams, and once almost mauled me in the vigour of it all! So much for going to rest rooms!!!

Coming to levels of privacy. Some people just overdo it! There is this one guy who sits next to our team, who feels it is everyones' basic right to know what is going on in his life. Right from when his wife got pregnant, and what stage the baby is, to why his wife thinks he is flirting with some girl( who that loony is, I've no idea. But believe me, she should be featured in AXN's Believe it or not, as soon as she is found!!) nothing is hidden from us. Perhaps he thinks he is really great that he is such a happening person! : The worst part is when he gets up from his seat, and takes in a 180 degree view of the whole module, to check if everyone got it all in, and then walks of with a smirk on his face!! : :O But trust me, he did make me go HA HA HA, when I saw my manager cringe after one of his monologues on the phone! :P I wonder if there is someone on the other end of the line. Hmm.. maybe next time we should check that out!

The team that sits nearby is quite a find, for it has one guy who laughs exactly like a 'Rakshas'-with-a-stomach-ache. He has no work for sure, coz he always has a group of equally jobless folks, and starts narrating his best lectures (mostly politics, or his previous manager, or how his 'periyamma and chittappa eloped.. bleaah). Worst part comes when he starts laughing though! He goes 'HUAHAAHAHAHA HUAAHAHA' and we all go covering behind our desks, evading the thermacol and other stuff that starts to fall on us! Must say, if ever Ramanand or B.R Films saw this guy, they'll pack him up for their next mythological serial/soap. He will sure do Kamsa/ Ravana proud. Maybe he'll even start a training class later for all the other 'rakshas' actors. Phew! Avenues of growth have never been any better, so has never been my imagination ! :P :P

Rant again! read at ur own risk

2009-05-12T11:57:00.000+05:30

I just don't understand what is so appealing about marriage for parents!
For one, they have to shell out loads of money. And then, there are the relatives whose never-appeasing set of problems have to be solved. They know, their kids may not be around them anymore, it is like ripping apart a family. They know it means the end of the liberty you had with your kids. But still they just want to get their kids married off!

They don't care, if all the recent marriages they attended are breaking off like mad around them! They don't care if their nieces are sitting at home after divorce. They just want their kids married off!

I just don't understand!

Rantathon :D

2009-04-23T10:56:00.000+05:30

Well, there is supposed to be a strike today, and we are not supposed to be working. But we are! Though, there is a good thing about it, we don't work this Saturday like others who will be compensating the day off! Yipeeee! It feels so good when you can sleep like hours together while all your room mates shuffle to work. hehe.. :P :P

Yikes! I'm forgetting something! :'( I gotta go to the dentist on Saturday! Now how could I forget this . And here I'm gloating about sleeping till 11. Sigh! I just hate going to the dentist. And thinking of the pain, I already can feel my gums shrinking in terror. 8O

But the best part is, if I meet the dentist on Saturday, the pain will be less on Sunday, which means I can attend the team mates treat! ha ha.. so this really proves Mr. Dunno-Who's theory that Good things and bad things come hand in hand.. :P

Yesterday I met a friend after a long time, and we had a good chat. It is so refreshing and nice, to talk to a close friend, share everything and come back home satisfied. :D

But my Mom can really blow it up, you know! She took the topic that I just hate to even think of.. Marriage! Sheesh.. here i'm thinking, how nice it is to work on a holiday when the whole office is empty, but you still got the A/C, and all other facilities, and Mom hurls a grenade at me.. talking of the yucky topic. :( When I hear about that, i just feel like running away. I know it is escapism, blah-blah, well.. what do you do, when you are not ready for it? and your people just don't understand it! :( Dunno.. but the next few weeks are going to be a little tricky.

Sometimes I wish I also had loved someone like my friends who have. Atleast they don't have to think of some stranger who tries to get close to you, just because that is what he is supposed to to! Blech! But then, some voice from deep inside starts sniggering and says.. "Look who is talking about falling in love! Ha ha" Now it is true that whoever tried to as much as try to make a pass at me, have gone back saying it is easier to make a donkey fall for them than me.. but I just can't help it! I'm like that. :
Now i start thinking so what is it that I want to do? What is it that I expect from life? Hmmm.... Fun and some feeling of achieving something in life before I allow myself to get caught in the spider-web of marriage. Maybe that is why i enroll in all chess matches. Coz, that is the only thing I feel confident about winning. Sigh! I know what a stupid idea that is! But maybe i'll think more on this, and get somewhere!
Wow! Now that seems so good.. :D :D

Okies.. so next post is when I find out something about it.. (Well to whom am I saying all this.. for all the posts I've written I've got some 4 comments in total.. hehe.. I'm just plain pathetic!! )

What do I say here?

2009-03-25T14:29:00.000+05:30

I wonder why I'm like this many times. Not that I have some ailment that needs special care, or that I'm the kind of person who sits quietly like a statue and is asumed to be dead most of the time. But this is about something else.

Whenever I get acquainted with somebody, I don't know how, but after the first few times that I meet them, I unconsciously start observing them. Observing them so well, that next time when anybody asks me to say something about them, I end up imitating their small small gestures (obviously sending the others around me laughing like hyenas) and saying more about their actions than themselves. Anytime I see a similar action being done by someone, I always associate it that somebody I know. Phew!.. This is sounds so ridiculous to me, I wonder how anybody will read it.. well.. WTH!

Like last time, when I went onsite, I had perfectly great people around me, who never made me feel, I was in a different country. They were so nice to me that I can't explain how happy I was there. But when I come back someone asks me, what kind of person is '---' and i go this.. oh.. he is a great guy.. you say something funny, and he goes like this ( laughing hysterically all the while shrugging at the shoulders and shaking my whole body) :O . They are laugh real hard.. But I didn't mean them to burst out like that. It is just that that was the single thing that remained with me, and will remind me of him. That laughter.

Is it like that with anyone? I don't know. But I know that small small gestures speak more about us than the real show that we put up all around us, pretending that we are also 'sane' homo sapiens walking and talking the way that is 'accepted'. Sigh! But in all this commotion and pretension, most of us forget ourselves. Those who laugh that way. Talk the way they do, and just be the way they are, demand more respect from me.

Now after all this rant, I'm sure no one is going to come by themselves and talk to me, lest their small actions get imitated next. Sigh! But trust me, I do this even to strangers.. lolz.. :P

Meeting at 2.00 PM : An analysis

2009-03-23T13:22:00.000+05:30

First the presenter of the session , grudgingly comes into the conference room cursing his superior for having punished him so severely. He tests the computer and the projector system in the room, trying his best to break them in some way that he may be able to cancel the session with that as a reason.

Right at that time, some sincere, always on-time employees trickle in, with sombre faces (They are mostly called rhinos in their team according to the team nomenclature, though the fact that they do not know the name is kept a secret – This is one genre of species who can be easily be mistaken for some wax statues or the well-dressed expressionless person who stands in front of the VGP, while all the others around him try their best to make him laugh). The new junior who joins them has just had a heavy lunch and is ready to resume the next journey to the heaven of slumber. He thinks this is a brilliant opportunity which should never be missed. The sullen experienced worker, having been pushed by his superior just wishes the projector falls on top of the presenter, as he checks if it is working.

Then a group of people half talking, half laughing come in after 10 mins. They are already 10 mins late, but then, they are the superiors if you don’t mind. They are supposed be late. Ya, you guessed right. They are the Chief guests in this case. They come there dawdling, trying hard to remember what the topic for the session is. The presenter smiles at the Chief of all, wincing in his mind and cursing him, while the group of solemn people, just look on. All this while the Chief in the group is racking his brains, to find who this stupid guy is, who is smiling so benevolently at him. Most of the people other than the juniors there recognize that glazed expression very well, but do not offer to help him in any way. All they feel like doing is throwing him out of the window, for sending out an invite for this dratted session and then forgetting all about it, though he never seems to forget the name of the new attractive new joinee in the team.

After all these pleasantries are over, the session starts and then like a tube light, the light comes on in the Chief’s brain, and he remembers the session and the presenter when he sees the first slide. He surely does not miss the opportunity to show that he found out all about this just by himself, by making such a poor joke on the topic that even the wax structures sitting there, make one of their eyebrows twitch for a second, appalled at his ability to make such a poor joke. And then the presenter starts rambling on the topic, God-knows-what, with a few words in English and a lot of jargon in the quintessential geek language, for which the wax statues alone nod their heads while the Chief tries hard to keep his head from falling off. The new junior is already into his second stage of REM and leaves a short series of snores that the wax statues assume are different ways of showing approval for the session. The superiors try to make most of the time, by watching all the fun, though two of them also slowly get lured by the irresistible temptation of disturbance-less slumber. By around 2.30 all the blood in their body rushes to their stomach trying to digest the big load of food that each of them had taken, and slowly and after yawing heavily, each one succumbs to the sleep that engulfs them. All this while the presenter rambles on and on, until the whole team is but falling off their seats and the wax statue’s heads are almost on the verge of falling off their heads due to excessive nodding for each jargon the presenter uses.

At last, after about an hour the presenter reaches the last slide that has the most dangerous missile in the techy world. ‘? Questions’. He says, ‘Ya. So any questions?’ . That becomes the wake-up call for all the team members who slowly arise from the deep slumber praising the presenter for doing a good job in the lullaby a.k.a session he just took. But at the fourth word they all gawk at each other, like hens trapped inside a basket. In the meantime, somebody nudges the Chief and he awakes to find a whole team gaping at him. He slowly turns his head to the white board and finds that terrifying symbol ‘?’ staring at him. But being a person who has met many such odds in the long sloppy journey to the present position, he faces the challenge by talking about something which not even remotely related to the topic the way Harbhajan is of hugging Andrew Symonds, or Aishwarya Rai is to acting. Everyone just continues to gape at him awe-struck at his foolishness, while he revels in all the attention. After a few more minutes of extreme torture the group slowly starts shifting their positions to indicate that they have had enough. The new junior now awake and alert is also ready to move on. The wax statues are on the verge of becoming human. Sensing danger the Chief formally declares the end of the session. And the group slowly disperses. The wax statues eagerly move on to continue their interrupted work, the chief to continue his ogling.

And so a session comes to an end!

What do you think?

2009-02-21T11:00:00.000+05:30

Disclaimer: This post is an absolute ridiculous rant. Readers discretion is advised. (Read at your own risk)

...... Sometimes you just sit there staring into the space with unseeing eyes. (Ofcourse there is always going to be someone who waves infront of you, and brings you out of whatever train of thought was going on.. ). But believe me, then is when we really start thinking, in between the short pauses and sudden lulls in the conversation. In a noisy bus with one guy leaning over you, and 3 other fat ladies trying to make a sandwich-burger combination. You just let go, and you stare straight into the space.

At exactly that moment, you might think about what you really were aiming at, but slowly you move into the state, when you start thinking what you really are.. what you really mean here.. what you would want yourselves to be.

Of course, these are the most difficult answers and yes, just when you try to understand yourselves, the lady who tried to be the topmost bread in the sandwich shouts something to the lady in the far end of the bus, jerking the 10 ppl around her out of their sleep. And there goes the train of thought, to the next station leaving you right there..

Then, it all starts all over again.

But then, when you have a great chat with some of your friends and share everything you ever wanted to, it seems more clear. But, even then.. you just never get there.. never get it..

That is the real mystery of Life..

I never knew..

2009-02-17T09:01:00.000+05:30

I never knew leaves fall
I never knew a breeze can turn into a blizzard
I never knew rains could be acidic
I never knew every breath could be a struggle
I never knew the earth could tremble
I never knew the sands always get washed away
I never knew the lonely worm gets picked anyway

I never knew what was coming
I never knew when it went
I never knew what I would be
I never knew what I am

Ah,
I never knew sun shines through clouds
I never knew trees danced with the breeze
I never knew the sea whispers secrets of life
I never knew that panacea was a child's smile
I never knew a grandma's touch was the softest that you longed for
I never knew that the birds sing the sweetest song
I never knew a butterfly was so colourful

Until I did.

A New Beginning

2009-01-02T10:33:00.000+05:30

A new year, a new place, and a new blog!

I must say this is the first time so many news things are happening to me. Well.. so what was I going to write about? Ah.. yes! Nope! This is not about the philosophy of the newness of a new year or if a new thing is really new or just a perception. Just read on.. if you are really patient or really jobless.

Well, on the first day of the new year I shifted into a house, after some 8 odd years of hostel life!
And I already feel as though I'm free, free of cramped spaces in hostels, free from looking at 10-50 odd faces ( depending on the hostel) which keep changing when those faces find new places or new faces find this hostel; free from having to get up early for a glass of milk ( Now if you have completely perforated finger-nails, and teeth that seem to get washed away even as u drink water, you really need that source of calcium); free from eating the same idly-dosa-pongal-idly-dosa routine; free from having to put up with noisy roommates, free, free... free!

Now I know you must be thinking, this girl acts as though she just ran away from a jail! Hostel can be fun too! I agree with you completely on that. But on one point I hate to differ. It is no fun at all, if you have to stay in hostel for 8 odd years of your life. And if by fate all the hostels were not so much fun, if all the hostel wardens you encountered had just been reincarnated from the Jurassic Park, if the TVs in all these hostels were junk where you'd just get the same sun TV-Jaya TV-Kalaignar TV and the like and nothing more. (Till when can you watch the same song or movie again and again?).

One thing that I really missed all these years in a hostel was solitude! There are times when you want to stay away from all the hubbub and have some time alone with you and your thoughts. But in hostels in exactly those times, there will always be a gaggle of girls ( yeah, I meant 'gaggle') bursting in , chatting (more like shouting) about some crap which means a lot only for them. There goes that great effort to find some peace of mind!

So after all these long years in hostels, now that i've moved into a house, I hope I enjoy this change for the better (I hope)!

For those of you who are still here to read this line! Thankee! :D

The Cliffside lawn

2008-12-29T19:38:00.000+05:30

“I’m sorry!”
Sniffing and between sobs “It’s okay. Thank you!”
“Is there something you want to tell us? Something that comes to your mind now, that you did not think of before?”
“No, Inspector. I’m really sorry. I just can’t think of anything now.”
Inspector Lankins was baffled. This was the fourth one now. The stories that his Native gardener had been spreading were starting to make more sense that the investigation. He had nothing even this time. Nothing at all!

Mrs. Lindersworth was seventy two, crippled and only had a German Shepherd for company. She lived alone in her seaside villa. It was picturesque with a breathtaking view of the sea from the Cliffside lawn. The lawn was the main attraction of the villa, and the main reason that Mr.Lindersworth bought it. There were no barriers and barricades at the Cliffside lawn that opened out to a rocky cliff opening out to the sea at 300ft above sea level. Mr.Lindersworth had wanted it that way. And that is where four people lost their lives! One of them just yesterday!

Their only son had died of a car accident two years ago and they had no relatives. At least, none that the Inspector could find. He said it reminded him of the mystery of life.

The sweet old lady who used to sing to her dog everyday while the maid cleaned about the house, would never have thought that her house was going to be the site for four deaths. The strangest thing about the deaths were that each was completely different. Each of the victims was of a different age, differently built and sane in all respects! The only link was that they were linked to the crippled lady in one way or another. Miss Evangeline was like a second child to Mrs. Lindersworth. She had been the shoulder and ears to this old woman after she lost her husband and son. Cute little Madeline was almost like a grandchild to her. The little neighbor kept her company when Miss Evangeline was away. Mr. Kimberly, her lawyer and long-lasting friend. And now it was Mr. Smith, her tea-time mate. Each of the families of the victims sure had problems at home, yes! But none that would send them, jumping off cliffs. But if it was to be counted as murders, there was no motive, no eye-witnesses and the worst no evidence at all! Exasperating was not even beginning to describe it.

***
Suspect I : The maid
Eccentric. Never liked people around the house, especially those close to the old lady. Snobbish at most times. Said to be rude on the day of the death also.

Suspect II: The gardener
Had mowed the lawn on each of the days that the deaths occurred. Was known to be a drunkard. Abused his wife when drunk. Had been convicted twice for drunken driving.

Suspect III: The Old lady
Crippled. Moved on a wheelchair. Spent the time in the house only. Was known to be a very sweet lady. Very attached to each of the victims.

***
I sat curled up near her feet. She was sobbing quietly. The police had left long back. Maria left after she cleaned up after dinner. Slowly she stopped sobbing and started talking to me. What she talked I could not comprehend, but she felt better when she talked to me, I knew that and that was all I wanted. I also felt sad when she was upset. I whined when she fell asleep and licked her feet when she wept. The previous day the old chap and she were having a great time. I thought she would fall off her chair laughing. Grrr..
After laughing and chatting and having tea, they both went to the lawn. I followed her. They didn’t seem to want to stop at all. She was going in wide circles in the wheelchair laughing like a small child, while the old man laughed along. A rabbit was trying to grab my attention as well. But I was alert for different reasons. She was always like this when ... Then suddenly she looked at me and cried “Timmy, lick him!” That did it!
I lost it. I growled, snarled bared all my teeth and charged towards him. He was already on the edge of the cliff. He lost balance and fell into the depths of the cliff. I still couldn’t control myself and bounded to the woods nearby. She always did that to those she liked a lot. I’m happy she kicks me sometimes with her spare legs.
***