On a cold December night...

A question of life,

Thoughts swirling in strife,

Arriving upon a difficult decision,

To end all the confusion.

To confront or negotiate,

Without having to be considerate.

Both will cause considerable pain.

But maybe, the former will have some gain.

With the mind made up,

Upon a horse's stirrup.

The message sent across,

With a die on the toss.

Fire was met with ice,

Without a hint of war cries.

The bidder losing contact,

To keep the mind intact.

The path ahead lay clear,

With the heart devoid of fear.

Cried the sky with all its might,

On this cold December night...

-Irah

A dedication to Ravi and Priya...

There dawned a beautiful day
Shining bright through every single ray
To signal a new beginning
That is important to every human being

The day that marks this union,
Also makes way for a family reunion.
Friends from both near and far
Also make their presence at par.

With hearts full of expectation,
And months and months of preparation,
Here you stand in Holy matrimony
Ready to embark upon this wonderful journey

So, here we, cousins, all gather
On this day, the sixth of December
To wish you and your newly wed wife
The best and a happy married life

-Irah

One down, several more to go..

After a couple of games of latenight scrabble and a not-so-deep-sleep, I was woken up by my mom screaming at me to drop her off at the Central Station for an early departure. Still yawning and cursing in my head I freshened myself up, donned a tracks and sweatshirt and geared up for the drive. The plan was to drop mom off and go for jogging as is my usual morning custom (that is, obviously if I getup that early).

It was still dark outside. So with my bike's headlights on and the speedometer hardly going below 40kmph, my first half of the plan was done in ten minutes. Then a sudden intuition struck me. I was wide awake after the ten minute drive and was all for it. So I drove on to my destination without further ado. The morning breeze was just too awesome. For all you know, I could have gone on and on until I ran out of fuel. Alas! I had other plans.

I parked my vehicle and started walking. Walking along the place that was the greatest of company to even the most loneliest of all. The source of inspiration for many. The never say die attitude. The calmness and stubbornness. The rise and fall. The charge and retreat. The sight that held me was truly mesmerising. A vastness of the silvery gold colour. The sound of gushing water. The calls of the early birds. Wow!! I was really happy that I woke up so early.

Being in Chennai, somethings always irk me. One such is the fact that in spite of having my hometown as one of the best places to watch the SUNRISE, I've never had the pleasure. What is ironical is I've watched the sunrise at Pondicherry and Kanyakumari, but not here!! Twenty one years, six months and ten days its taken me to fulfil this one small wish. And when it finally happened today, i simply loved it.

Fifteen minutes of pure joy at seeing our dear old sun comeout all serene and beautiful. I felt like saluting (which I did) to a dear old friend whom I am seeing after a long long time. And this is what I thought:

Dear Sun, you maybe hot at noon
But now, you are more beautiful than the moon.

Thank you mom!

Those 24 hours...

There came a day never to be forgotten, 

When he was feeling totally downtrodden. 

To lift his spirits, his heart and soul 

And thus achieve his ultimate goal. 

 The dawn neither special nor important 

The afternoon, as always, dry and despondent. 

Came the evening to hold his sway, 

Making his heart go completely astray. 

 Words unspoken, looks unexchanged, 

Conversation blossomed, as if arranged. 

The plan was made, the clock was set.

 Tomorrow was never to be an upset. 

 Dawned the night, past twilight, 

His thoughts on getting everything right. 

Leapt his heart in excitement and joy, 

Slept his mind in peace, to enjoy.

-Irah

-Irah

A Story to tell...

DISCLAIMER: Any resemblance to real life characters is purely coincidental.

He saw them after a very long time. He lost it all then. He blinked as a bat, for the first few minutes. Even if he had opened his mouth, nothing would have come out. They just took everything away from him. He had lost his world. Lost the world which he lived. Lost the world that would have been his, otherwise. He was simply dumbfounded. He couldn't move nor could he turn away. He couldn't sit watching them nor could run away. He couldn't stop thinking about them. They simply seemed to be the only things alive in the world. Everything else was a farce for him.

What was most surprising was that they seemed to be asking him so many questions. Questions starting from his origin to his current well being. Questions that probed him like a X-Ray scanner. Questions he thought will never arise. Questions he never wanted to think an answer for. Questions he never thought he would ask himself. Questions that tortured him day in and day out. They just kept coming on and on. Never to stop.

Was it heaven? Was it hell? Was it pain? Was it gain? Was it life? Or Was it death? He never knew. They hit him like the sea that hits the shore. Whenever he thought they left him, they came back again and again and again. They gave him everything. They gave him peace. They gave him happiness. They made him sad. They made him grieve. They were like a vicious circle from which he could never escape.

He then realised. He then awoke to the fact that something was missing. Missing from him. Missing within him. What was it? His heart. His heart was never his from the moment her 'eyes' met his.

P.S: The writer disclaims the disclaimer.

My First Day at Work...

After innumerable number of delays (starting from a slow computer at home until purchasing a season ticket) I finally caught my train, the connecting train and reached office with a five minute delay on the reporting time of 10:30 a.m. Another 6 people joined today along with me. The day started as predicted with the now familiar HR guy. He briefed us upon the agenda for the day and had a few forms for us to fill. Then he embarked upon the origin of the company and dutifully explained its vision and mission.

From then on, it was as informal as if I had gone to a friend's place for a gettogether(pardon me for a bit of exaggeration). The HR took us first for a tour of the office, introducing us to most of the the existing staff (which numbers upto only 56 including 2 Americans, a Mr. Workaholic and a Ms. Workaholic). Then we headed for a sumptuous lunch (free of cost at the company pantry). After lunch, the company's Chennai head had an interaction with us. We got bugged away from the original rendezvous by constant drilling upstairs (RMZ Millenia II is yet to be fully furnished) and again ended up in the pantry (no food this time).

Then we had a 'no nonsense' presentation given to us by the maintenance guys who clearly mentioned that there are no restrictions on internet usage as far as we do our work. We should be getting our terminals in a day or two. It was 4 in the evening and we guys were chit chatting around. The HR made a reappearance and accompanied us in pairs to our cabins (nice and clean). Then came our senior staff with something looking similar to a telephone directory. She told us that we'll need to familiarise with the book(Perl language manual) within four weeks. That is to be the training part.

Around 5, all the new joinees headed for a late tea at the pantry (milk, tea, coffee, biscuits etc etc). We were just discussing about when to leave, when someone carried in a cake, samosas, soft drinks etc into the pantry. We were told to wait for sometime there as there was a regular end-of-month party to celebrate the birthdays of people born in August!! One among the new joinees was also August born (cake had his name too!!) Almost everyone turned up and it was nice to interact with them again.

My first impression: A very friendly, work while you work and play while you play, workplace. A very nice place to start working.

My Costliest Suburban Experience

The past few days have seen a lot of trips to the Chennai Central Railway Station and the Chennai Airport for those fortunate and unfortunate few of us who are still in this heavenly home. It was one such send off that was before me today. Today the difference being it was in broad daylight rather than the not so chilling night. The plan was to be at the Airport by 4 p.m. As is the case, when I normally go out these days, I take along my mobile's earphones along wherever I go. But today, I was forced to go without them in spite of turning my room upside down in search of it. Later I found out to my astonishment that my mum had mistaken it for her own and hence put it inside her handbag for safekeeping. Anyways, I normally prefer to take my bike, or rather a humble scooty pep, all the way to Airport with the earphones plugged in just to attend calls. But, like the timing, my mind also was thinking something different today. As I am to start working from September 1st, I planned to check out the parking system available at the Chetput station and hence use the suburban services to reach my destination. Whenever my mind works that way, my mobile steps in to break the loneliness and keep me company during the journey. But with no earphones, that trip seemed to be uninviting. After much contemplation, I preferred the suburban locals over my beloved bike for the trip. Then, I hardly knew that how much it was going to cost me!! The plan went on smoothly and I purchased a return ticket from Chetput to the airport and was on time for the send off. After the send off, we were pondering the possibilities of further time pass. But as fate would have it, we all headed back home. With a return ticket and more plans already made for the evening I was happy to head back home. The moment I reached the platform, a local was coming in. I was careful to skip the vendors and head into a normal coach. The scene unfolded as the train started. I turn into the compartment to see a child performing some 'kutikaranais' and moving like a rubber in and out of a small hoop. I couldn't stand watching it. I tried to stand near the exit, but my way was blocked by some guys who were too engrossed in the performance. Luckily, the next station came and I chose to get down and find a compartment further down the train. I found a relatively much emptier compartment with nice cushioned seats and hardly any of them occupied. My heart leapt with joy and I took a window seat wondering how this compartment was so empty. I looked around and was unnerved to see LADIES written in bold across the inner sides of the compartment. But, there were other gentlemen in the compartment, which is why I got on in the first place. So seeking further explanation, I looked around and saw that I had unwittingly chosen a first class compartment. My instincts told me to get down at the next station and find another compartment. But my mind was debating that being a sunday, there will not be any checkers to corner me. I gave in to my mind and I persevered. Meanwhile, the train had reached Saidapet, and an unassuming character got on the train and asked me for my ticket. I knew then, I was cornered. After I handed in my ticket, he told me 'This is first class' and moved away to check others grabbing my ticket. I went behind him and he told me the fine is Rs 295/-. I dont know if he expected anything else, but I conceded it was my mistake and I'll pay. He was slightly taken aback and told me to sit down. Then I guess he expected me to try and reduce the fine, but I took out 300 bucks and he slowly started writing my first fine ticket. By then, Mambalam had passed. I offered to get down in the next station and change compartments. I know it was too little too late, but always better late than never. To my surprise, the checker stalled me saying you can continue travelling in this compartment. I was slightly taken aback, but I had no reason to complain. He chased down a slightly physically challenged couple down to the platform on the next station and moved out of sight. Just as the train was about to move a new checker had come aboard and asked me for the ticket. I explained to him that I just paid the fine and that the guy who fined me told me I can sit here and complete my journey. His immediate retort was 'Still you continue to sit here' not hearing my second part. Now that was really worrying because I couldn't have managed to pay the to be coming fine. Thankfully, my co passenger came to my rescue and told him that I was tellling the truth. The checker accepted it and left me in peace. I was utterly bemused after the second checking and in my confused state I got down at the place I started and headed for the parking lot. On my way home, the first signal I was to pass was changing from green to orange and was to change red in a second. I would have stopped for the signal anyways, but today being special, I was proud to be the first to stall at the STOP line and while I waited I wondered how true was the saying 'Once bitten Twice Shy'....

Kart Attack

The day began as lazily as the past few days. A shout from mum at around nine in the morning woke me up partly. A grumble, a close of door and another crash with a lazy hand on the fan switch. Ah! back again to my precious sleep! I wake up again to a series of irritating buzzes from the calling bell to find that the servant maid is waiting outside my door. Oh! its that time already? I pull myself to the bathroom and finally after half an hour was clean and dry. After a quick brunch at about 2.p.m and an hour or so on the idiot box, I walked upto the new McD outlet nearby to meet my friends.

From there the journey began. I was first introduced to the luxuries of having a WagonR and its surprising capabilities of easily accommodating eight boys who've just about reached the age of 21 (actually one still has not). We chattered our way through the hustle and bustle of a normal Chennai evening traffic (special mention about the Chamier's Road, Cenatoph Road Junction leading to Kotturpuram). And finally we hit the ECR at about 5:30 p.m. After another 20 minutes of ECR traffic we reached our destination outside the city near Sholinganallur.

First Impression: Why the hell did I drive with 7 crazy boys all the way to this place for 5 minutes on track at the cost of 150 bucks? We enter the track and it was a pleasant sight, atleast for the mechies with me (6 out of the 8). The track was probably around 450 metres in length with U-bend and the regular S curve of a normal racing circuit. The entire track was bordered with stacks of tyres for the obvious and appropriate reasons. We had to wait quite a bit because of a corporate crowd that seemed to be spending its day off there. It was worthwhile because the day was into twilight and added to our excitement. The only dampener being the mechies showing off their technical knowledge on a test model.

We split ourselves into groups of four. The first four was a pure mechies race which was incident free. The only notable happening was that one of the unfortunate four was lapped by the rest atleast once with the race leader doing it twice to earn a extra lap! I was pitted with two other mechis and a tricalite. They let me start the race and the first lap was probably my best. I didn't have any problems. The track basically consisted of a high speed straight with a slight curve on one side of the U and another high speed straight with a S in between. My second lap started with a disaster. Two of the other three flanked me at the beginning of the straight and all three with the accelerator to the floor headed for the slightly narrower curve. And before I know what happened the other two were right in front of me without a gap for me to move ahead. When they did pull ahead I went BAM! on to the chicane. A track man pulled my car out of the misery and I continued my race. After several more laps, a hit onto another chicane, I was chased by the race leader again. I fended him off for the two laps until the chequered flag. It was an amazing experience.

We were all (except for one) for another go on the track. Unfortunately, rain played spoilsport and we had to get going. We headed for the relatively new Foodcourt at Acendas for dinner and hit the road home. It was fun to be part of an injury free accident. And it was a nice change from the dull life at home that has become a regularity for the past two months.

Ghajini (Hindi) vs Ghajini (Tamil)

The storyline was pretty much the same in both except the ending. The Hindi version, I felt, was crisper and better. The Tamil one had dragged a twin of the villian and blah, blah... into the story.

The emotional scenes in the Hindi version had more stress and rightly so. The song 'Kaise Mujhe' was a well added entity.

The Hindi version also cut down on the length of certain songs and totally did away with 'Ranghola' song in the tamil version. But I felt the Hindi version sorely missed a duet. Both films' numbers will be remembered for a long time.

The Hindi version was slightly more coherent and consistent. The fight scenes in the Tamil version seem to forget the passage of time.

As far as acting is concerned, Surya slightly scores over Aamir. Surya in the flashbacks is more convincing than his counterpart, though I should say I hardly kept an eye on them during that time. Otherwise they were equal to their tasks.

Jiah Khan's role was more sensible than that of Nayantara's, though I am sure quite a few will disagree.

Pradeep Rawat as villain was similar in both, though I am not sure if he lived upto to the expectations of Bollywood followers. I couldn't find anything wrong.

And Asin was ever vivacious and at her best. In the tamil version, I felt the flashbacks were the best part. As in those parts really lighted up the theatre. It was an equally brilliant potrayal in the Hindi version as well.

These were some points which I could compare in the two versions. I would rate the Hindi version slightly higher than the Tamil version taking into account the above arguments. What about you?

And So, It Began...

One fine morning, the student president came to the campus and we decided that today would be the day.

The past few days had been one of the most irritating days in college. You know, those times when you are full enthu about something and ready to put into action all those ideas into perspective, but are hampered by few people higher up the hierarchy. It is not that they are determined to be road blocks, but they worry about the most trivial of matters, which we students hardly worry about. It was one such time.

Towards the end of the semester in April, when we had those 'so called' study holidays, we made our first attempt to infuse some of our ideas into our convener. We were rebuffed within minutes siting the fact that 'our career determining' exams were round the corner and whatever we had to say could wait. 'Yeah right, we would love to stay back and have a chat with you after exams' I thought. But sadly, we had to. I had decided ages ago that I will stay back, come what may, with a project to fill my time. But my chairman, poor fellow, had an arrangement made in his hometown and had to postpone his plans to accommodate this meeting.

So the 'crucial' exams got over and within hours we were back in his office.

He made us sit down and inquired about our exams and our plans for the holidays. We answered his queries and at the end of the next ten minutes, we were slightly impatient to get on with our job in hand. Alas!, that was just the beginning. The following two hours we were discussing some of the most obscure topics peppered with some unwelcome interventions by a variety of people. And finally when we came to the topic of our interest he was too tired to listen and we were too tired to explain. And at the end of a brief try he tells us that he is going on vacation for fifteen days. God save us. My chairman left home immediately and I was resigned to my project.

Today, he returned bringing with him the good news that 'The Man' is back. We decided that a presentation in print would be our best solution to avoid the diversions. And so we sat down after breakfast at about noon time and incorporated our thoughts, ideas, possible difficulties and their solutions in a forty three page ppt. We fixed an appointment late in the evening. Both of us were hungry and half emptied our pockets at samfox and dhabba one. Unfortunately we couldn't procure the print in campus and had to go to Thiru. We got a mixture of high quality and low quality prints summing up to four copies of the original.

We were already late and hurried to catch the local bus to return and to our utter dismay we found out that all we had was a torn tattered ten rupee note which the conductor duly rejected. After all the delays we had so far, this was the most unexpected and hilarious. But fortunately, one kind young man on the bus offered to buy the tickets for us. I regret that I never asked him his name, but without him we probably would have had to leg three thousand five hundred metres not to mention yet another delay in the process. Thank you dear friend. We rushed to the convener's room and he took our presentation and went through it straight away. And So, it Began...