Gobbledygook

Tata Chennai

2007-09-02T21:20:00.000+05:30

Chennai- the land of the Marina;the land of the Coovam...
Chennai- Hot and sweet filter coffee;Hot and humid and sweaty days!
Chennai- The new IT hub spawning glass and stone mammoths everyday; The quaint land of the temples and kancheevarams steeped in culture...

I can go on and on about the great diversities of this city.

Chennai means so much to me... loved ones, friends, birthdays, sleepovers, happy times, pondy bazaar shopping, arguing with auto drivers, dance classes, being excited that inox finally has come to town, spending hours at spencers, bliss of getting last minute tickets at Satyam, driving down ecr, long beach walks, temple trips, strands of jasmine, tangy rasam n appalam, golden brown dosai n sambhar, cups of piping hot filter coffee, muruku, soaps on sun tv :) , bumpy college bus rides, cursing the mount road traffic,cursing the pot hole ridden roads, yet another jayalalitha vs karunanidhi election, thalaivar movies... Images just flit across my mind as I weave a tapestry of memories...

Despite her many quirks, Chennai is the only place that I will call home. I know for a fact that I'd rather be here than anywhere else in the world. Having lived here for all the 21 years of my life, I feel numbed to say goodbye...

For no Rhyme or Reason

2007-03-19T20:36:00.000+05:30

It's a very long time since my last post. I know I have been very erratic. I am not going to offer excuses- I dont have any for that matter...

Just cant think of writing anything now. So thought i'll post some of my fav poems. Do read them! Hope they move you and make you reflect, just a bit atleast :)

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now; put out every one,
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun,
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the woods;
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

(This is a part of an elegy by W.H.Auden)

Ithaca

When you set out on your journey to Ithaca,
pray that the road is long,
full of adventure, full of knowledge.
The Lestrygonians and the Cyclops,
the angry Poseidon -- do not fear them:
You will never find such as these on your path,
if your thoughts remain lofty, if a fine
emotion touches your spirit and your body.
The Lestrygonians and the Cyclops,
the fierce Poseidon you will never encounter,
if you do not carry them within your soul,
if your soul does not set them up before you.

Pray that the road is long.
That the summer mornings are many,
when,with such pleasure, with such joy
you will enter ports seen for the first time;
stop at Phoenician markets,
and purchase fine merchandise,
mother-of-pearl and coral,
amber and ebony,
and sensual perfumes of all kinds,
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
visit many Egyptian cities,
to learn and learn from scholars.

Always keep Ithaca in your mind.
To arrive there is your ultimate goal.
But do not hurry the voyage at all.
It is better to let it last for many years;
and to anchor at the island when you are old,
rich with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting that Ithaca will offer you riches.

Ithaca has given you the beautiful voyage.
Without her you would have never set out on the road.
She has nothing more to give you.
And if you find her poor,

Ithaca has not deceived you.
Wise as you have become, with so much experience,
you must already have understood what Ithacas mean.

Constantine P. Cavafy

Love Not Me for Comely Grace

Love not me for comely grace,
For my pleasing eye or face;
Nor for any outward part,
No, nor for my constant heart:
For those may fail or turn to ill,
So thou and I shall sever.
Keep therefore a true woman's eye,
And love me still, but know not why;
So hast thou the same reason still
To doat upon me ever.

John Wilbye

Whatchamacallit?

2006-12-19T17:57:00.000+05:30

Have you ever felt pain? pain so searing, naked and all-consuming? Pain in its purest, strongest, most potent form? So pure and white that it obliterates all the other feelings and senses...?

What happens when the objects around you take on new dimensions? The muffled sounds of traffic, the low purr of a car engine, the canned laughter of a comedy sitcom and even silence- all a mocking reminder...to make sure you dont forget...to make sure you feel a fresh wave of pain yet again.

Have you ever felt that there is nothing left to live for; nothing to look forward to...? What happens when life becomes a meaningless existence- every breath you draw in is more painful than the previous, so much so that it's cruel to be alive? How will you feel when all your dreams, hopes and aspirations are broken by a swift stroke of fate? Will you have the will to gather up the shards of your life and make a feeble attempt to rebuild it? But, how can you? Cause, the very will, courage and self worth you need to rebuild your life lie among the shattered debris; broken beyond recognition, beyond repair.

Some wounds never heal with time; they just get worse...

Mera Desh Mahaan!

2006-03-13T15:20:00.000+05:30

I received a post from the Election Commissioner's office yesterday to secure my voter-identification card. Religiously, I set out today morning to the mentioned place to get my picture taken and complete other formalities for obtaining the card.
I armed myslef with a couple of big books, my ipod and of course my cell (stop looking incredulously! Yes, I did take along a mini entertainment station with me cause I expected that I will be spending almost the whole day there!)

The venue was a Corporation Community centre which I never knew existed. As expected, the building was located in a seedy part of the town with a musty, stale air about it, replete with pan-stained walls and piles of rotting garbage nearby.

Resigning myself to fate and muttering a hundred curses about the government, the people and their civic sense, I walked in...

Surprise! Surprise! No chaos. No jostling and screaming people. No indifferent, half sleeping officers. Instead an efficient and controlled calm greeted me. I was guided to one of the many counters and joined the tail of a long but brisk-moving queue. Computers, web cams, printers and other paraphanelia were set up behind each counter. The modern computers looked totally out of place in the rundown building...but nevertheless, isn't this what India is all about?!! The 'yo generation' of yuppies who wean directly from mother's milk to coke and pepsi co exist with the doe-eyed gaun ki kudi. The filthy rich who flaunt their 24 carat rocks to the miserably poor whose lives are down the rocks. The highly educated babus to the illiterate. The sky scrapers to the slums. This is the only place where a sleek BMW will feel completely at ease standing next to a bullock cart waiting for the signal.

Ok, enough of digression, back to the point...I found it hard to come to terms with the fact that officers manning the counters were wide wake, efficient and pleasant to the junta!!! In 20 mins flat, I had my documents verified, picture taken, card printed and laminated! Can you believe that?!!!

India is truly shining :-)

Of Life, Twilight and more...

2006-02-26T08:19:00.000+05:30

The sky was azure blue with pillows of clouds strewn all over. A mild, gentle breeze was blowing, in no apparant hurry to reach its home...

It was me, up in my terrace( the terrace was as-far-out-of-home that I was allowed to go today owing to a fever!) bearing witness to yet another wonderful symphony conducted by Nature - yes, the Sunset!!( ok, stop rolling your eyes...believe me, there is a lot more rolling of eyes to be done by the time you are done with this post. At this juncture, I am obliged to put up this disclaimer...

/* DISCLAIMER*/

The author shall bear no liability whatsoever in case of any opthamological/neural defect arising in the reader due to the overtly sentimental content of this post.

My dear readers, you have been warned...At the risk of being cock-eyed and mentally challenged for the rest of your lives, read on...)

This Saturday evening, being highly vetti( vetti: vet-tee; n/adj; origin-unknown,presumed to be from certain ancient dravidian language that rhymes with nil; meaning-describes accurately the state yours truly is in most of the time, roughly translates to jobless) and exhausting all other means of killing time, I walked up to my terrace. I'm glad I did that.

I was treated to a veritable treat for the eyes and the ears. I witnessed the sunset in blissful solitude( damn! ;)) with my hands tucked away in my pyjama pockets . The fiery yellow ball that made us all scamper away to shadier places, was now a very much timid orange-red blob. Bidding the world goodbye for the day, it slowly sank into the horizon. One last time, the sun playfully peeked out from amidst the clouds, making the sky blush a deep scarlet. The sky then turned an inky blue; a silver orb being the silent sentinel of the universe. Slowly, millions of tiny twinkling stars seemed to appear out of nowhere. They grinned cheekily at me, as if they are the custodians of a sceret, mocking at my ignorance!

I just stood there in a kind of a trance...thinking about everything;thinking about nothing.

How often have we taken time off to stop and admire the small things in life; the sweet-nothings? Rarely? Never? We just amble along mindlessly in mad pursuit of what the person next to us is in mad pursuit of.

What does your life mean to you? Isn't life all about doing stuff that you want to do? My dad's friend used to say " Experience is a comb that nature gives to you when you are bald. "

Think about it and let me know your opinions...( that translates to COMMENT COMMENT COMMENT!!!)

P.S: If you read this post and fail to comment, your soul will forever rot in I-didn't-comment-in-arch's wonderful blog hell. :-D

Dial M for Murder

2005-12-04T09:06:00.000+05:30

The phone call left me grinning like an idiot; a grin so wide that it introduced my one ear to the other.
Slowly, slowly, the grin faded; to be replaced by a scorn and then a frown. My heart began to beat faster and faster. As reality sunk on me with the force of a hundred tsunami waves, I was left benumbed.
A feeling of hapless weariness overtook me. Soon, anger...pure, white anger seared through me; like a heated knife through butter. My eyes became blood shot and my very veins throbbed. Like a hunted hound, i paced back and forth...
This wrath in me was growing like a virus, feeding on itself; threatening to completely overtake me...

Before, you begin to get any ideas, the reason for my above state is solely due to Anna University...yes, they have postponed my exams; not once, not twice, but THREE times...

UPDATE: I have now turned into a serial killer. This is the only solution to channelise my wrath. With great planning and precision, I zeroed in on my first kill. With unparalleled skill( that is sure to go down in the annals of homicidal maniacs) I delivered the fatal blow...My dear readers, under the oath of secrecy, I will reveal to you, the name of my victim....Mr.Periplanata Americana( umm...yes the tiny cockroach that dared to walk into the portals of my room :)) Aah..I'm feeling so much better already! Muhahahaha (evil laugh)

LATEST UPDATE: I'm in the search of a worthy second victim. Muhahahaha.

Ok, I just cant resist this... Why do I have oats for breakfast, cornflakes for lunch and more oats for dinner???

Well, that's because, I'm a serial killer. Muhahahaha.

Tagged!

2005-11-27T21:08:00.000+05:30

I have been tagged by Sagaro...so, here goes...

7 things that I plan to( rather, I will) do:

*Win the Nobel prize in Physics and Literature! ( Ya right!)
*Travel all around the world
*Learn to play a musical instrument
*Give up being short tempered and sensitive
*Get admission into Princeton as well as all the IIMs and go crazy choosing!
*Learn to drive the car
*Publish my book of poems

7 things that I can do:

*Write/talk on any topic under the sun, or even above it!
*Drive people crazy with my "Why is this universe created?" fundaes and theories
*Read any number of books(strictly non-college stuff) endlessly
*Dance decently( atleast, i think so!)
*Motivate people and organize things
*Wear bright skirts and funky accessories
*Eat any amount of chocolate ( Who wants to fall in love? I wanna fall in chocolate ! ;-) )

7 things that I can't do:

*Stop wearing bright colours, however much my friends rag me
*Watch TV for more than half an hour
*Get up later than 7 AM however hard I try
*Study something sans understanding
*Watch a horror movie without closing my eyes and muting the volume!
*Tolerate Male chauvenism
*Cross a road alone

7 Words I use most Often:

*Cool
*Super Cool
*Hmmmm...
*Duh
*Ya right!
*Watever
*Tadaaaaa

7 blogs(untagged ones) that I wish to tag:

*Gauky
*Aditya
*Rampee
*Abhishek
*Songi
*Nirmal
*Juju

Ok folks...You are tagged. You have to put up a similar post, where u can tag seven more people...
(Failing which, the Hairy Scary monster will get u!!! Be Warned!)

Horrorscopes?!

2005-11-07T15:37:00.000+05:30

The spotless-white dhoti clad elderly man sat cross legged in front of a low wooden desk. He was immersed in a document with complicated charts and diagrams. His viboothi-smeared forehead creased in immense concentration. His twitching fingers and lips revealed the abstruse calculations that his neural networks were engaged in. After what seemed like eternity he let out a deep sigh, folded the paper and shook his head. In an ominous tone he said " Illa ma, neram rombha mosama iruku"( I'm sorry madam, the "time" is really bad)

The gravity of his words were revealed clearly in the panic-stricken face of the woman seated across him. He continued," Aana oru vazhi iruku. Naan solaratha apdiye seiyanum"( But, there is a way out. You have to do exactly as I say. He goes on to elaborate the complex list of rituals that should be done to escape from the "clutches of time" and the "evil influence of Saturn" . The lady, eyes widened in an attempt to grasp all that he says, nods feverishly...

You can find them everywhere-in all shapes,sizes and colours;from the kili josiyam on Radio mirchi to the reputed honchos sitting in palatial mansions-they all claim to forsee your future. Why this fascination to learn about one's future? I think it stems from man's inherent desire to know all that is hidden.

Astrology, they say is a Science, a divine science. Your time and date of birth determines your horoscope, which is the precise location of the various planets at that instant. This is enough to chart out your entire life. Some others claim that the lines on your palm reveal everything about you and your future. Hold your breath, there is still more to come...Tarot, Divination, Runes, Aura reading; each a field unto itself declared by their loyalists that it is the most accurate ever!

Well, I'm really befuddled. Is there even a grain of truth in what these people claim? It terrifies me to think that these obscure planets, millions of light years away in the cosmos can influence and decide the way I think and live. It terrifies met to come to terms with the fact that my life has been pre-determined and that I'm, just acting out my role. Please let it not be so...

All that I can say now is- I thank my lucky stars ,I dont believe in astrology; make that asstrology!...

I'm Back!

2005-10-29T17:58:00.000+05:30

" And so at last the beast fell and the unbelievers rejoiced.
But all was not lost, for from the ash rose a great bird.
The bird gazed down upon the unbelievers and cast fire and thunder upon them
For, the beast has been reborn with strength renewed
And the followers of Mammon covered in horror." -The Book of Zoraster

I'M BACK

Seldom in the history of Mankind has a couple of words evoked such profound and intense happiness amidst the masses. Never before has six ordinary letters of the English alphabet invoked such delerious ecstacy...

What an agonising wait it has been for my readers(Damn, I'm not even sure if I could use plural here!) The excrutiating pain...the pain of disappointment they must have experienced several times a day, when they eagerly visited my blog ; only to discover that I had not updated.
The anguish, the bitterness...Aah

To my millions of readers( Yes, my counter on the right corner counts in millions:-p)and fans: I apologise for my unexplained hiatus. But, be cheered and consider yourselves very fortunate...I'm all revved up and raring to go...!

"...And the beast shall be made legion
It's numbers shall increase a thousand fold.
The din of a million keyboards like unto a great storm shall cover the Earth
And the followers of mammon shall tremble."

Monday mornings

2005-04-12T17:31:00.000+05:30

I hate Monday mornings. And this Monday morning was no exception. I hated it. No, I’m not stating the obvious. You see, there was no college that day (or at least we all planned to mass-bunk) So, I had other reasons to hate this otherwise beautiful, fresh, sun-kissed Monday Morning. I had been down with fever for the past two days which stuck onto me with such a dogged determination that it positively freaked out the folks around me. This Monday morning was very much the same, except that my head felt as if it was being smashed against a boulder every half a nano-second ( Wow! Speaking of thick-headedness) This fever, which I was talking to you about was dangerously hovering just above 104 degree Fahrenheit, resisting all the innumerable Dolos, Calpols and Crocins that I was swallowing.

So, with nothing much to do to improve the above-mentioned state of affairs, my mother called up the evil-satanic-filthy-nincompoop-scumbag ( read my doctor). He immediately advised to get me admitted in the hospital. ( May all the hell’s choicest curses befall him. Amen)

All my protests and threats fell on deaf ears as I was rushed to St. Isabel’s. There I was, stretched on a hospital bed, feeling absolutely sorry for myself. ( By the way, my loathing for Monday mornings grew manifold.)

The next five days that I spent in this hell-hole ( Room 180, Ward E, St.Isabel Hospital, Chennai) were the worst five days of my life. I was reduced to a lowly pin-cushion-of-sorts with nurses sticking injections into me to draw blood several times a day. Injections were stuck in to deliver medicine to my body. There were pain-killer injections too-only that they were very painful and seemed to have forgotten their job altogether. And, there was this eternal injection stuck into my left palm for the intravenous fluids.

Heavy antibiotics notwithstanding, the fever and the crushing head ache persisted. Now, I must make a mention of the weather here. In the middle of a very hot spell of Chennai summer, The sky turned grey and it started to rain heavily! Well! That provided me with a little solace…It almost seemed as if Mother Nature was weeping for me ( lol! egomaniac indeed :-) )

I am( and I’m sure my friends will vouch for this) not a very fussy person. I mean, I don’t drop off into a fit of tears every time something pokes me or some stuff like that…But this reduced me to a bundle of nerves, fried up my circuits and made me feel utterly helpless. In fact, several times I consoled myself by recalling my favorite line from Calvin and Hobbes:

I am put into this world to achieve a certain amount of things. Right now, I’m so far behind that I’m sure I’ll never die!
( So I had my laziness to thank for being alive still!)

Finally fever tamed, head ache tempted out, ordeal over, I was allowed to go home on Saturday. I let out a war cry of happiness. As my car went out of the hospital, into the streets, I felt like I was given a new lease of life. I was filled with love and good-will and wanted to spread it to the whole wide world. ( Such emotions were quickly tamed when I thought about my impending semester exams!)

Those five days of my life taught me a lot of things, which I’ll never forget in a hurry. It has indelibly changed me in several ways. I have realized that you can’t take anything for granted. Life is too short and precious to be spent worrying or hating each other. Spread cheer, warmth and happiness in other’s lives and in your life too. Hug somebody today, give somebody a compliment-that’ll make it their day. Light up somebody’s face. Make somebody feel loved and wanted. You would have then led a meaningful life…

(And yes, most importantly, it taught me to hate Monday mornings with a renewed, deep hatred.)

Things that count, can't be counted...

2005-03-27T21:10:00.000+05:30

It was my b'day today. I turned 19. The day started normally enough at 12 am with friends calling up to wish me...It was a Sunday, I decided to laze around the whole day doing nothing( this comes very easily to me. I have perfected the fine art of procrastination and aimless squandering away of the hours) I infact congratulated myself for not giving in to the constant nagging of friends to take them out for a b'day bash!
I was, as I said, busy 'doing nothing'... got tired of that..reflected seriously on the nature of our universe for exactly 42 nanoseconds...gave up on that and went back to my business of 'doing nothing'.
Just then, the door bell rang interrupting my train of thoughts.(which had run out of steam)
I heard canniballistic yells and roars of excited voices screaming "Surprise". I dashed out of my room to find all my friends with wide smirks on their faces...and (more importantly ;-)) with an enormous chocolate cake! I was absolutely taken aback.These adorable people had plotted with my mom for over a week and arranged this surprise party for me. I really did not know how to react. My face was a mixture of disbelief,amazement,estacy and more disbelief. I wanted to laugh and cry at the same time( But ended having a silly grin which introduced my one ear to the other) I was really touched by their gesture. These people made me feel so special and so on top of the world. I'm so damn lucky to have you people in my life. Thanks very much for everything... Things which really count can't be counted and those which can be counted, don't really count.
Hey folks, here's a toast to all of you and also to that absolutely fab chocolate cake!

Toast

Hmmm....

2005-03-25T22:12:00.000+05:30

At last, I have overcome my inertia and have decided to enter the blog-o-sphere...

Into blog-o-sphere floated my blog nameless-

What shall I christen him...i'm clueless.

What's in a name? you might say,

But, 'nameless' is not a very nice tag any day.

So, I set out in search of a name for my blog-

Thought long and hard till my neural networks developed a clog.

Thus ended my futile quest for my blog's identity,

And with it, my nonsense verse-isn't it a pity?

The only thing that fits here is a brook;

Oh! yes, I'll name him Gobbledygook!

The above is the exact thought process which went into deciding a name for my blog. ( I know what you are thinking... yes, people can be this dumb!) As Einstein said, "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe."