It was a very good year...ergo, i remember :)






Sometimes we remember, sometimes we forget....but sometimes it always stays for reasons special. Maybe that's why memories of my first job remain deeply etched.

I entered 'The Hindu' office for the first time....Anusha led me through passages and stairs and tall glass doors.The first thought that struck me was, " this is so intimidating." From then on till my last day there, the place has never failed to overwhelm me!

Making things clear- i was working for an IT tabloid published by the hindu - ergo - hence :)

The blue floor and a healthy boss welcomed me. Karthik was the name, editor was the post...he kept it short, he kept it simple...he asked me to join the coming week. Five minutes it lasted and i left....good times ahead i felt.

I was not too good at my job, nor was i confident. The first few months went well job-wise...but i hardly spoke to anyone except the 'student reporters' gang. All of them were my classmates from college. The creative (anusha), the quirky (vipasha), the go-getter(lokpria), the wise one (monisha) and the lost (me :))- pretty much sums us all. Even as i write this i realise how easy it is to judge others while you can't judge your own self...yes i'm still kinda lost in my quest to find myself.

It was a quest that began when i was in ergo. A few bumps, a few interviews and events, it was all too good to be true. Business cards all of my own, by this time i was pretty comfortable smiling and making minimal conversations with my boss. Now it makes me smile, of course like i said it's all deeply etched. I was happy, i was cheerful but i never let loose. A year went by. It was a conflict, i struggled, i had pretty much made up my mind it's not working. I've said it before, i say it now, "I don't think am cut out for it." Maybe i was wrong or maybe i was right, i don't think i ever will find out. But my heart was elsewhere...i had lost.

Reliving the memories now, i don't think i've lost, i've only gained confidence, friendship, glimpses into journalistic minds, lessons in writing, and of course a little weight thanks to the hindu canteen :).

Having said all this, it's a frontier i couldn't conquer but nevertheless respect and love for all it gave me!

P.S: This one's for Karthik - the ex boss, now a good friend :)

oh yea it's diwali again

Ages and ages later am back to typing a blog :)
It's diwali time, just a day more to go. today someone was asking me if I bought crackers, and it made me walk down the past with nostalgia for a few minutes and I started ranting out to the someone how great diwalis used to be when i was a kid.
Even back then I was an insomniac so I would stay up the whole night instead of waking up early for the oil bath. And crackers, whoa, total fun. Used to love the thrill of starting the day with the 1000 wala. I still remember how we had the say no to crackers campaign at school (I was in fifth grade then) and i didn’t sign up coz I knew I wouldn't put it to practice. the standard contest among us flat friends- who wakes up first on diwali, lighting lakshmi vedi in hand and throwing it, running up and down for oodhuvathis, the evening get together at uncles house, new clothes, sweets, lights and sound, treat to all the senses.
Gradually things changed as I grew up, we shifted to another locality, no more flat friends, late mornings, crashing up in front of tv to catch the star interviews and tv premieres, no crackers, less sweets ( somewhere down the line I stopped liking sweets as much), but the new clothes still remained an important entity. But today even that has vanished. My definition of the festival has become - a once upon a time fun fest, now just another day. Yes totally and truthfully. The tv premieres are crap, star interviews- plz stay away, crackers- good from far with the sparks giving a rare warm peace, the get together-the only festive thing I do the whole day.
It’s just a few days back my cousin was voicing the same thoughts to me. he made a valid point, in those days diwali was the time for new clothes and festivity, these days we all shop at the drop of the hat, no company to burst crackers with, no big deal about waking up early- waking up as late as possible defying the parents has become the in thing :P to sum it up, oh diwali, good we get an off and that's all there is to it.
Me a self confessed kill joy i say!! Anyways happy diwali to one and all :)

An MRTS ride finally

I have lived in Chennai for 19 years and have not even been to most parts of the city! ignorance is not bliss especially when you are like me( read: love the city and want to explore but bad with directions to the extent that my bro says I cant find my way out of a phone booth!!)
However today was a different day! My aunt and I had plans to go to fabindia, midway we changed our mind and headed to the beach station! like I said I’m ignorant, so I thought the beach station will be near the beach....only after 20 mins on the bike, passing the port, the war memorial and the reserve bank office( I never knew this existed in Chennai until today!) , I realized the beach station is near Burma bazaar. Now this is a bazaar where people get export duty stuff and cds (ahem!). But all the shops were closed today, don't ask me why (is it because it is a sunday?) Anyways coming back to the amused and excited me, we parked the vehicle outside the station and walked in. Damn it was crowded, I hate crowds, but even this did not dampen my spirits.
The next phase of our adventure was to wait in the long queue to purchase tickets. The catch was that we didn’t know which queue to stand in. We chose the shortest and stood there blinking with question marks in our faces (yahoo smiley kinds!) a lady with two kids dressed identically, though not twins, was standing in front of us. My aunt asked her, “mrts velachery station ku ticket vaanga indha queue la nikalaama?" The lady answered, " ela edathukum same queue dhan". So the system is such that thirunelveli or triplicane you are bound to stand with hundred others in the 'general queue'. It didn’t make even an iota of sense to me. This is when we found out a short cut; apparently they were vending machines available. As I stood back saving our places in the long queue, my aunt went and checked out the machine. Few minutes later she returned with a dejected look. The expression was for two reasons 1) only the Hindi machine was working and neither of us know to read Hindi. 2) No money, only swiping cards. Confident of having brought my debit card, I asked her to wait and walked towards the machine. Two minutes later, I too walked back dejected. Reason? The machine has ego issues with debit cards and accepts only smart cards which are being issued by the railways. So our wait in the queue continued.
As we egged on to the counter slowly, I was getting bored and needed some entertainment. This came in the form of a lady who wanted to join the 'Q'(i hence forth shall use only Q and not queue as I’m lazy to type and that’s the way the railways spell it anyways!) in between and get a ticket. This sparked off a quarrel, and even we tried to join in ( after all we are Indians by birth)
Sometime later a man with a kid in hand tried forming a separate Q, this sparked off a bigger quarrel, which we kept out of( after all we are Indians!!). Finally we bought the ticket and walked off with a 'perumoochu' (translated as sighing victoriously).
The ticket cost us 28 rs and that's for the entire journey too and fro. Buying a cone ice cream at a nearby softie stall, we walked onto the platform. The train stood there empty and welcoming :)
We got in and found comfortable seats by the window. The train chugged on and we sat there enjoying the breeze and the view. Our primary job was done, as we called our other relatives (read: my mom, another aunt and cousin) to inform about our escapade and the unanimous result was that we were nuts! The first few stations are lined parallel to the beach and hence we got to see a different view of the beach, the people and the slums. The Ayodhi Kuppam stretch along the beach road and the like looked crowded and dirty but nevertheless beautiful in a quaint sort of a way. After this, we passed the Mylai station of the busy Mylapore area. And Luz (a shopping stretch) reminded me of all of those times I used to go shopping and get amused when a train passed in the track above. A couple of stops later, we were in the Kotturpuram area where we could spot a water body(tick the correct answer as I’m not sure: Coovam, or a lake, or the Adyar river). As we got to the IT hub of the city, the stations started seeming corporate (or was it my imagination?!) we finally reached Perungudi and then on the train got slow and we finally bumped off at Velacheri.
We then shifted compartments in the same train (we actually got off thinking we had to board a different train only to find we were wrong) and waited for it to start the return journey. Few minutes later the TTR came and checked our ticket. The guy had a good memory and was so amused to see the same faces. Muttering something to himself, he left making us wonder if he thought we were crazy!
The return journey was faster, and we were back in the beach station right in time for hot tiffin at the station’s Saravana Bhavan hotel. Like true Chennaiites, we licked off the hot and lip smacking sambar and the yum idlis and washed our hands to get some cold juice. Content of having fulfilled our long wished for agenda, we got back to the bike hitting the roads back to our original shopping plan, grumbling about the traffic jams and how great the mrts ride was.

P.S: 966 words, a real long post, dedicated to my aunt. And damn I dint take my digicam to click shots which I could have uploaded :(

Bidding goodbye to wet clothes

Dawdling up the stairs to my room, i push open the door unsuspecting. Plonk! on my head my wet jeans. Throwing it aside, I walk into my room which has been converted into a drying area for clothes thanks to the rain. The balcony looks welcoming without the usual array of clothes lined up in the sun, but my usually cozy room?...not quite so :(

This is a plea to my mom:
five reasons why my room should not be made the makeshift clothes- balcony
1. I have wetclothesophobia. (Hope this exaggeration works!)
2. I am a klutz, chances are that your off- white bengal cotton gets stained with ketchup, noodles or gravies...or any such condiments I smuggle up for my late night meal :P
3. I have a history of slipping and falling episodes (which I’m not going to mention here) and wet floors don't help. 9/10 times I’m sure to create a ruckus and you don't want your poor baby hurt ( puppy face), I’m actually helping you avoid a fat hospital bill!
4. I have short term memory loss, I might end up mixing used wet clothes with the washed wet clothes and that adds up to a whole bunch of wet smelly clothes. Need I say more?!
5. "Journalism is an in depth research oriented field ma"- Unknown.
I learnt this in college. According to my in depth analysis,

• Bro's room is a few inches more spacious.

• Content analysis of both the rooms say that his room is ideal to accommodate wet clothes as he is not there most of the time.

Hence, i conclude that no clothes, especially those which are wet, shall be left hanging in my room taking into account all of our safety and the clothes!

Way to go Amit!

Dhoni stumped Peter Sibble and there ended the Aussies' first innings in the Mohali test, but there began the dream test debut of Amit Mishra. A five wicket haul against the mighty Aussies, pretty impressive eh?!Like most Indians, I too praise the men in blue only when they play welland hence this post :P !

So I quickly googled up on Mishra to find out that he is a 25 year old Delhiite and has taken 303 wickets in first class cricket.His odi debut was at the TVS cup,2003,against south africa. He took a single wicket for 29 runs. Now, five years hence he is back making his test debut, courtesy Kumble's shoulder injury. He was a part of the delhi dare devils team in IPL. Of the 15 matches he played in IPL he took 26 wickets, an average performance I should say, but decent enough for the selectors to take notice of perhaps! Anyways here he is and has made the news for today, and will hopefully continue the same( for good performance of course!)

With Saurav Ganguly retiring and the rest of the fab four growing old and grey, it's refreshing to see debutants and raw talents. With due respect to all the senior players, I wish they pass on the torch to the deserving and the talented. After all we are a country of 100 crores and someday somewhere cricketing stars akin will surface :)

Of exams and bliss!

Finally the damn exams are over and done with! college has made me a grumbler, a whiner, an insomniac, and a big time procrastinator! education has indeed spoilt me ;P being in my penultimate sem, the number of pointless pursuits i have indulged in and the wild goose chases are too many!phew...not to mention today's exam (which i screwed up by the way)...why have a syllabus, why make us xerox notes, why make us study, when the question paper is not going be to anywhere close to all that covered in 4 months?! the only good thing that came out of it was to motivate friends of mine to blog about our exam woes...you see it is a collective responsibility taken up by us, exam bashing on blogger!

But let me tell what is bliss!

Knowing you are just hours away from escaping the education hum –drum to get back home and drop dead in the bed for hours together to make up for the lost sleep(over pointless pursuits, i repeat!), or to roam around in the mall knowing you have time to kill(thats what i did today:D bliss i say!)rainy weekends to curl up and catch up on the reading habit( currently reading michael moore's stupid white men - i pity Bush!!)oh ya and getting wet, how could i miss that! sleepin through the mornings( best way to avoid morning blues! never heard of afternoon blues, have u?!)the occasional family vacation which i doubt will happen anytime soon at my place!and catching up will life at my own pace:)

Bliss bliss bliss...looking forward to all this and more:D..finally!

One night @ the Eiffel Tower

After spending two hours at the eiffel tower's summit, awestruck with the paris skyline and enjoying the strong wind across my face, i realised it was time to get back to my hotel suite. A long yet an amazing day i had spent a la Paris. I love this place. Tomo have to wake up a little early, to visit a friend's farm house at the french countryside. Images of yummy farm food, the likes ive only read about in enid blyton are already fogging my head. i realize am hungry. Walked across the suite lazily to the refridgerator! Only days ago, back home i was complaining about how only in foreign countries the fridge is stuffed with all that you could only dream of eating, the perfectly set jelly, ginger beer, cakes, a bucket of ice cream....and the list goes on(ok all this appears only in the indian tv ad for refridgerators!!)...where was i? oh ya spellbound at the chocolatious spread of fine swiss chocs to choose from. Filling my stomach i return back to the cosy bed...yawn...what a lovely room...wish i could stay here forever and ever.. yawn yawn yawn...goodnight folks!

12 pm: my mobile rings...damn i'm late i realise. I pick the call and hear my mom's voice: are you kumbhakarnan's sister? wake up it's noon already! how many times do i try waking you up? called you up from down stairs. get dressed and come down for lunch..i have work to do!!

screw...there goes another one of my Paris vacation dreams!:(

Walking down the lane...looking back

Memories...oh yeah they are significant!!and powerful! sometimes i wish i had an eraser to rub it all off. imagine a person close to you performing a vanishing act forever, scary? sad? unimaginable? but it is a reality...a reality we all must have faced at some point of time with the loss of a precious one...there are times when i wish a time machine would be a great present, to go back relive and rejoice....is it such a great idea? maybe not coz once you return to the present it will only hurt more. i guess that's why there is a plan, sketched in heaven, unknown and shielded with mystery, spiced up with surprises- both pleasant and horrid, to make life a little more than what we understand of it. blindfolded we move on.... looking forward to smile...to face life....as we know it, hoping for the best. no wonder human race has survived this long!

You Are a Dash

Your life is fast paced and varied. You are realistic, down to earth, and very honest. You're often busy doing something interesting, and what you do changes quickly. You have many facets to your personality, and you connect them together well. You have a ton of interests. While some of them are a bit offbeat, they all tie together well. You friends rely on you to bring novelty and excitement to their lives. (And while you're the most interesting person they know, they can't help feeling like they don't know you well.) You excel in: Anything to do with money You get along best with: the Exclamation Point

What Punctuation Mark Are You?

Your Personality is Very Rare (INFP)

Your personality type is dreamy, romantic, elegant, and expressive. Only about 5% of all people have your personality, including 6% of all women and 4% of all men You are Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, and Perceiving.

How Rare Is Your Personality?

I'm fed up...

I bet we all often bump into ‘characters’, who are so irritating, every other day. But some of these people definitely possess an uncanny ability to get under your skin. Like the other day when I was riding my bike, there was this cyclist guy riding in front of me. This guy was seriously nuts! He simply couldn’t make up his mind whether to go left or right or simply go straight! Gosh… I didn’t know that people could be so indecisive! And then there are these people who simply can’t keep their hands off the horn. “Dude if I had space I’d move myself, I have eyes you know”. Yesterday, I was home alone. Aah…finally the remote to myself and some peace…no…but that’s not how my obsessive compulsive neighbor wanted me to spend the evening. He chose to park his car…not once but five times. Rrrrrrrrrrrr……….I hate engines….that too engines of old cars. Seriously being OC over that old wreck is worthless….don’t understand why my neighbor wastes precious time over it…..wonder to what extent his obsession would multiply if he had a new car!! Not to forget those promotional offer calls, girls who dawdle on the stairs when I’m in a hurry to make it to class, men who drive cars with one hand coz of the cigar in the other, middle aged women who keep asking me if I know how to cook, the so called help desk staff who keep hovering around you while you shop to the extent that you actually ask them to stay away (Yup, I did that once…. No twice!), people who mislead you when you ask address… you know one should accept that one doesn’t know….its not a crime! The list is never ending!

What Nandhini Means

You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people. You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts. You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals. You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection. You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive. You have the classic "Type A" personality. You are balanced, orderly, and organized. You like your ducks in a row. You are powerful and competent, especially in the workplace. People can see you as stubborn and headstrong. You definitely have a dominant personality. You are truly an original person. You have amazing ideas, and the power to carry them out. Success comes rather easily for you... especially in business and academia. Some people find you to be selfish and a bit overbearing. You're a strong person. You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It's easy to get you excited... which can be a good or bad thing. You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don't stick with any one thing for very long. You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start.

What's Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

Your EQ is 87

You've got more emotional intelligence than the average frat boy. Barely. You're quite moody, and sometimes you find yourself feeling upset without knowing what really caused it. Your emotions can overtake you at times, and you do tend to become preoccupied with your negative thoughts. Remember that your emotions don't have to rule your life, and take it easy when you deal with other people. The world is a difficult enough place - no need to make life any harder for yourself!

What's Your EQ (Emotional Intelligence Quotient)?

Your Personality Is

Guardian (SJ) You are sensible, down to earth, and goal oriented. Bottom line, you are good at playing by the rules. You tend to be dominant - and you are a natural leader. You are interested in rules and order. Morals are important to you. A hard worker, you give your all at whatever you do. You're very serious, and people often tell you to lighten up. In love, you tend to take things carefully and slowly. At work, you are suited to almost any career - but you excel in leadership positions. With others, you tend to be polite and formal. As far as looks go, you are traditionally attractive. You take good care of yourself. On weekends, you tend to like to do organized activities. In fact, you often organize them!

The Three Question Personality Test

10 wishes for '08

1) more rain!!yes i need it coz i luv it!!
2) more victories for team india!! even if not for me they definitely need it!!!!!!!
3) less remakes...gosh i'm fed up of it!!!
4) academy award for the best foreign language film....1957 was a loooooooong way back!!! ya i know this is a far fetched one!!!! but the news channels would get something to chew on for the entire year!!!!!
5) no double action flicks from vijay or surya!!and i really wish that they dont release their films at the same time!!!
6)a justin timberlake album....bringing sexy back!!!!!!!
7) less of SRK!!!!
8) a typically KJo senti flick!!!...but tats not poss without SRK.....thats ok let him replace SRK wit AB Jr!!:D
9) retirement of sachin!!!puhleez!!!v all know ur great but ters life beyond cricket u know!!!!
10)my final wish....someone sponsor me a world tour.......ive been wishing tis like forever!!!!!

PS: i just found out tat the shankar flick 'jeans' was india's 98 entry for the oscars!!!!omg what were they even thinking??!!!!???!!!!!!

Christmas time...mistletoe and wine...

Yes...its that time of the year when people sing carols, put up Christmas trees, spread the spirit of Christmas, make merry and be happy!and then there's Santa...the big, round ol man who goes around giving gifts!!

The sad part is that I know all this coz I read Archie’s (I still do!!)
Why is it missing here in Chennai? Yes you have the pizza delivery guys wearing the Santa hood and cafes decorated with Christmas tree…. But…..something seems amiss…. Or is it really an illusion created in me thanks to Archie’s, Home alone, miracle on 34^th st… jingle all the way and all those typically Christmas flicks!!…. Does the spirit really exist …or is it missing coz its Chennai ….and not Riverdale!!...and coz there’s no snow!!! I have a doubt here….when Santa goes to Australia…he wouldn’t require reindeers…coz obviously there wont be snow....so what is his mode of transport?.....Whatever.. coming back to the point… maybe I’m feeling that the spirit is missing coz I’m not a Christian?....(but its another thing I miss the diwali spirit too these days!!)

Uhhhhhhhhh………!!!!!! Now this blog is getting as confusing as me!!!! I really don’t know!!! The point is ….where’s the warmth and love and the goodness and all that which is supposed to be the essence of 25^th dec??.....or is it there and I’ve not discovered it yet?.... I doubt if I’ll ever find out…..

Roger rocks!!!!

Federer won!!!!!yet again!!!!he is awesoooommmmmmeeeee!!!!!i luuuuuvvvvvv him!!!!!his smile is great!!!!!omg!!!it was a tight match!and Nadal was tough and aggressive but then this is not clay so his efforts were in vain!!!!so basically yet again Federer embraced the trophy and i was so happy for him and the game!!:)!!!:D!!

So how have I been spending all those rainy days in Chennai?... There weren't many though :(... I finally got to read Malgudi Days!... Beautifully natural and realistic is what I felt! And oh ya I saw Shivaji twice!!!:D!!bad comedy...a moderately ok first half...good second half...i felt it to be more of a Shankar flick than a Rajini flick...nevertheless I’m watching it for the third time day after!!:D!!!!!Apart from this I’ve also been following the final rounds of super singer junior (ya m that jobless!!) and I’m awestruck by this kid Krishnamoorthy who is now in the finals...great voice and his finals performance was amazing! and he reminds me a lot of one of my cousin so I’m gonna vote for this guy online(omg!!I’m actually voting right now!!)!And Venus Williams won the Wimbledon finals for the 4th time today and England lost yet another ODI to the Windies!!!!:D!!! I am well fed today (courtesy dhaba)!!But my mom is a great cook and I am well fed most of the days!!!! Am basically in this whacky mood typing out things of no relevance! And oh ya I’d like to mention that I hate Prathiba Patil...not like that's gonna make a difference...but I really believe that she doesn't deserve to be a president of India! And India’s victory against South Africa...it's too late a victory and doesn't really make a difference(ya these are words from a died hard Indian cricket fan!!) and tata to Nimitz!!

Supporting Kalaignar for once!

Which is worse? Waking up late on the first day of college? Or skidding off the bike on the way to college? Have no clue though this is exactly what happened to me today!!! All my ‘first day of college’ spirits were dampened thanks to the wet roads......! but then… all this while I used to think wearing helmet is a dumb thing to do as it just adds on to the weight!!!! But then I’m actually glad that I was wearing it today when I was driving coz I would have actually had an head injury if I hadn’t!!! so I really guess people should wear helmet. During my internship, one day I was editing the ‘vent your anger’ letters and this one person had actually sent a letter with a slogan “hair loss is better than head loss”!!!!! But on a serious note (lol!!! my friends and I laughed like hell when we read it!!) buying helmets is really worth it…n these days you actually get really cool helmets. If you don’t believe me hit General Patters road!!!

PC games ....not my cuppa...

I seriously don't understand what's gotten into the kids of this generation!!!!!! the only videogames (we didn't have a pc 8 years ago) i remember playing when I was young are Sega sonic....Mario bros....Super hangover(bike race)....and Brian Lara’s cricket(I sucked at it big time!)....and all these kids are interested in are shooting, blood, action, theft, building empires(game with bad graphics...guess it's called age of empires)and if it's none of these then it's Harry potter(the only one I like)!few days back I went in search of Mario bros... but couldn't find it anywhere....all that was available were Spiderman..GTA 1,2,3,vice city...a billion other action games(names which I basically don't remember)......and FIFA 2007, cricket, golf, billiards....god damn Dexter’s laboratory,....powerpuff girls (I do like these cartoons...but games?!?!!)...but not Mario bros!!!!And I thought it was pretty much in demand though it has been so many years...I realized my level of ignorance! I even went to extent of asking my friend's cousin......and of course my cousin's friend...but it vain...seems like all of them have even forgotten 'bout Mario and the poor princess...finally my cousin got me a cd with Mario...copied from my nephew's comp(yes I’m an aunt...yes I’m 18!!)...and it wasn't the full version! Basically I’m just frustrated 'bout the whole thing!!!!!And my brother says I have to grow up! Maybe I do…..but I just feel that it’s my first encounter with what is called 'generation gap'!!