5 Reasons why you should celebrate your birthday?

1. A reason to indulge yourself in the best of the best things in the world
Buy clothes, eat good food, yummie cake, chocolates ...

2. Feel good about yourself and the things you have achieved in life
So many years on this planet, we can go back and see (only) the good things we have done, some proud achievements ...

3. Just sit back and enjoy the day without doing any work
We don't need to wait for Friday of the week to come to stop working and relax :)

4. Friends and relatives to shower you with wishes and gifts
This is the most lovely thing. At least for this we should have as many friends and relatives (only those who would gift :) )

5. At least on that one day, no one will try to get into a fight with you or upset you:)
How would such a day be...lovely, isn't it?

Am sure you can add many many more to it. But these are the ones i could just think of.
Anyways, here goes a birthday wish to one of my very good friend.

Happy Birthday Dear.

Library Thing

As i was looking into someone's blog (now, don't ask whose and why), i stumbled on something called Library Thing. I liked the concept of having a catalog of books one likes, one has read and so and so.

One of my resolutions for this year is/was to read more books. Well, there is a reason behind this and also a motivating factor :).

I have started reading books a lot this year. And sometimes keep wondering how to keep track of the books i have read. This is when i found Library thing very useful.

Now, i have a catalog of books i have read so far and also managed to write review for one.

Suttum Vizhi Chudar daan kannamma

I found the translation of 'Suttum Vizhi chudar' from somone's blog. சுட்டும் விழி சுடர் தான

Thanks to that person who has taken some pains to translate it. Hope there is no copyright for it :)

One hour power cut a day - i am loving it :)

Are you not able to believe that power cuts might be a boon ?? Let me explain ..
With summer fast approaching and an acute power shortage in Bangalore, there is a compulsory one hour load shedding across the city every day.

It was a Saturday night and i was at home with mom. I was busy doing nothing with my laptop connected to the internet and she was in the kitchen preparing dinner. Suddenly, it was dark everywhere, yep - power cut...

Both of us get seated in the balcony and i promptly took the ipod in my hand. I switched it on and we shared the ear phones, like the ones you normally see in movies :). I was selecting my fav numbers to play. First i chose 'mandram vanda thendralukku manjam vara nenjam illayo anbe en anbe' from mouna ragam. Such a wonderful song with emotions blended in the lyrics, tune and the voice of the singer.

Now i should tell you something - am this born and brought up in chennai who hardly studied tamil as a language in school. Though i speak fluent tamil (atleast the chennai tamil), i really do not understand the meaning of some wonderful poetry. So, i started pestering my mom to translate those lyrics for me. She helped me a bit and then got back to the song... I managed to understand most of the song afterwards..

The next one i chose was this wonderful piece by the Mahakavi Bharatiar 'Suttum Vizhi Chudar daan Kannamma ...'. It such a wonderful composition and i heard it rendered in the voice of Hariharan from the movie Kandukoden Kandukonden. God salute to all those who were a part of making this song.

It played, i rewind(ed) and played it again and again to get the lyrics to the minutest detail possible. The whole piece is so much of poetic beauty, truly fantastic. I wish i could get the whole thing translated into more understandable language. However be it, this one is truly awesome.. no words to describe ...

The day before i heard this in such detail, i was also moved by the lyrics of the 'She..' sound track from Notting Hill. The lines are just too good and if you happen to relate to the part of the movie when it is played, you will enjoy it even more.

After listening to few of these, me and mom had the same thought (one of those rare moments) - there are so many songs sung in the praise of the girl or for the girl and so less songs that are sung for a guy. A small discussion and we concluded that guys are more romantic and would like to sing such songs for girls and hence such songs are many in number. May be even girls love to listen to these sung by guys :)

Just as we wrapped our conversation, there was a new light in our lives, the power came back. Thanks to BESCOM, but for them i would not have heard these songs in such depths.
So, the next time there is a power cut, i have my ipod and many more songs to listen to. Power cuts - am loving it :)

Lyrics of suttum vizhi chudar daan kannamma...

Suttum vizhi chudar dhaan - kaNNammaa
Sooriya chandiraro

Vatta kariya vizhi - kaNNammaa
Vaanak karumai koLLo

Pattu karuneela - pudavai
Padhitha nalvayiram

Natta nadunisiyil - theriyum
NatshathirangaLadi

Solai malar oLiyo - unadhu
Sundharapunnagai dhaan

Neela kadalalaye - unadhu
Nenjin alaigaLadi

Kolak kuyil oasai - unadhu
Kuralin inimayadi

Vaalai kumariyadi - kaNNammaa
Maruvak kaadhal koNdaen

Saathiram pesugiraai - kaNNammaa
Saathiram yedhukkadi

Aathiram kondavarke - kaNNammaa
Saathiram undoadi

Moothavar sammadhiyil - vadhuvai
Muraigal pinbu seivom

Kaathiruppenoadi - idhu paar
Kannaththu muththam ondRu

Where are we heading towards??

An interesting conversation with friends in Garuda Mall had made me think about a lot of things happening to me, you and a whole lot of us.

After a long time, we there got together to buy a wedding gift for one of my friends. It was a record breaking event - 3 girls managed to buy 2 gifts in a matter of 30 minutes!!! Isn't that great?? Well, at least the quickest purchase i have ever made. I go to the counter and pay the bill where the sales women tries to lure me in the usual conversation of being a member of the shop ... ahem!! paid membership. My pre-processed brain tells me that i am buying for a few thousands worth and they can't even give me a free membership. But then, i decide to push my thoughts to some remote corner and get the receipt.

I pass it on to my friend who is standing in the jewelery counter to collect the gift by showing the receipt. It is all over, the gift is neatly packed and we move. Suddenly, it strikes me that they have not put the warranty certificate (Oh yea!! If you did not know, there are warranty certificates even for jewelery.). I go back to the lady in the counter asking if they still give warranty, poor innocent ignorant me (ok, at least in this case) thought they stopped giving those certificates. Then the lady reluctantly pulls one and signs it for us.

Now, why should someone do that? Where is all the consumer friendly talk which we had while choosing the gift. The moment someone buys your product, do they become 'was a customer' whom you no longer care about?? I do not understand, i had to ask for my right. Come on!! I paid the entire bill, why am i not entitled to my right by default? Why does someone want me to fight for it?

For a while these thoughts were going on and soon i got distracted by some conversation my friends had. Then comes the real joke of the day. After this big feat, we decide to treat ourselves. I preferred juice, it was a hot summer evening. However, the real reason was mom wanted me to take only juice instead of some junk food (the obedient me pops up). We soon approached a fruit junction, it was crowded. After a while we settled on what we wanted to drink. '2 anar, 1 orange' my friend told and gave a hundred rupee note. We were surprised rather shocked to hear that 2 anar juice costs 100 and one orange was 35 bucks. Immediately walking out, we only thought of our dear ganesh fruit juice where one could get real orange juice for 7 bucks...5 times lesser. Then we voted for corn and bought one cup each.

Sitting in the sides of the mall, we were actually discussing how rapidly the purchasing power has grown. There are people waiting in the queue to buy that worthless expensive juice knowing that they are over-priced. Hmm, blessed with a IT job, anyone can buy anything without worry. But what about people who can't afford all this? Do we ever care for them, to see how they manage to live in this city where a 5'*8' area would cost around 2000 bucks a month, where tomato and potato prices change with places, malls would soon come in place of small shops?? We are slowly losing track of the value of money. Aren't we??

The long discussion covering a range of topics comes to a halt with the phone call. Time to go home - we walk to the pre-paid auto stand. There is a group of 6-7 people crowded in the booth and the person there asks everyone to stand in a line, like a teacher tells the kids while distributing chocolates. There i stand in front of a girl. Immediately i see 2 girls barge into the queue. This is not the first time this is happening to me, and as usual i get irritated, but decide not to speak as i stand third and will soon get my work done. And in another few seconds, there comes a mother who pushes her child just in front of me in the line. This is the heights, i get irritated and turn to my friend who stands beside me. Her smile asks me to keep quiet. And i silently wait for my turn.

It was disgusting to see well educated people behaving this way. If we behave like this in front of children, how can we ever expect them to be good citizens? What are we indirectly teaching our children? The queue hardly had 7 people, the mother and the other 2 girls could have waited, but they chose not to. They would not have had any guilt barging in. There are lot of people like this who are just bothered about their work and want to get it done as soon as they can. With people like me who don't even tell them that there is a queue and one is supposed to follow some rules, they happily get their job done.

I felt really bad for having kept quiet in a place where i could have made a difference. If i had told the 2 girls in the beginning, the mother would not have pushed her child. The 5 people behind me would have not waited for 2 more minutes.

We are all thought the good habits, how to behave in the society on our schools, but where is it gone? Has it all evaporated in the scorching summer? With so many questions still to be answered, here comes a huge one -- Where are we heading towards??

Chromepet on Wikimapia

Wooohh!!! I found my home town on Wikimapia...I could also locate the Raja ram street - the lane where our house is :) Amazing technology... Here is the link

http://www.wikimapia.org/#y=12952315&x=80148037&z=18&l=0&m=s&v=2

Science appeals me more when it helps me find things closer to my heart.

A ride down the memory lane

The front page article on Krishna Menon in the Sunday Magazine took me a lovely nostalgic ride. Those childhood days i spent in the small little town of chennai called Chromepet. It was such an unassuming place which became famous after the 'pettarap' song in one of Prabhu Deva's movies. Wait..they have not shot the song here, its just that the first few lines of the song has the place name..it goes like this, 'Saidapettai Rainpettai Chrompettai pettarap ... '.

Chromepet holds a special place in my heart more because of the lovely times i spent there with the most wonderful people of my life - my grandparents. The evenings used to be so much fun, when i spend time with nature - the lovely neem tree i could see from the huge balcony of our house. There would be 2 chairs facing each other just close to the balcony grill. Grandpa used to sit there eternally with the news paper or a book in hand and sometimes listening to a bhajan on the Walkman. My favourite place is the chair opposite to him. As soon as i come home from school, i would happily go and sit there, remove my shoes and keep telling my grandpa what all happened at school. I never bothered to check if i was boring him, i was always so excited to keep sharing my experiences. My grandma would soon come with a some tiffin - dosa or idli or upma. And if it was not my favourite there always a second choice at least for me :)

Grandparents are a treasure. They always had time for me no matter what. They crossed the seas of generation gap trying to connect to the present. A walking talking library, no matter what question i had on history or philosophy - my grandpa used to have an answer which he used to put in the form of a good story. And those lovely stories my grandma had to put me off to sleep :)

Having got to spent close to 20 years of my life with them has been the best gifts which will always be very close to my heart.

Treasured are the times i spent with you both
Amazing are the values i imbibed from you both
Love you hameshaa...

Happy new Year

Wish you all happy new year!

Is this going to be my last year of spinsterhood?

It is 11:24pm and just few more minutes for the new year to come. Though am pretty excited and happy to embrace the year in front of me, am little sad.
Looks like am going to miss some things that have been very close to me as 2006 will rest as a fond memory in our minds.

Hmm, this year I witnessed a lot of marriages. Best friends, good friends, friends, acquaintances and the list grows.. Seeing so many people tying knots, I felt for the first time that I was growing old. Man!! Why does one get this feeling when a friend gets married? May be because we did so many things together - did the most silliest of things, watched movies all night, bunked classes, slept in some lecture sessions, shared clothes, talked for hours over stupid things, discussed boy friends (oops..it was boys who were friends) and went on and on about everything under the sky….and now suddenly one realizes that this person will not have such time for you. Well, this is the same feeling that struck me when my best friend's got engaged (not even married :) ).

'It is a lovely time of life - the one after engagement and before marriage', says one of my best friend. Though I did not get much of it, I could really see what they were going through, the new joy they were experiencing. Not to blame this, this is part of everyone's life provided this phase is little long to enjoy :). Well, why am I getting lost, I wanted to talk about something else.

So, as I attended various marriages over the year, hold on, let me count the how many I attended. Beginning in May 2006, one in July, then in Aug and finally in Dec, it was 4 grand ones. Had loads of fun in each of them. In each marriage, the most fav topic of discussion would be to guess who would be the next. Mostly. It would be fun pulling each other's leg. How much ever we tried to rightly guess, there would be someone unexpected always entering the list.

The worst part of the marriages would be the maami's who come there just to find eligible grooms and brides. How sad!! Without your knowledge, you get noticed by those detective eyes waiting to spot the most eligible. I guess I was the bakra in the last marriage I attended :( And then, some maami's whom you know well ask some important details - 'specimen identification details' natchatram and gotram. Well, exactly here is where begins the worry that one is growing old. And with this growing old thingy in me and the new year eve makes me fear if this is the last year of my spinsterhood!

Though as my mom and many others say this is the right age to get married, I feel I might miss so many things. Right from the late morning waking up, ready made breakfast (courtesy - mom), just in time planning for the entire day, no worries life, anything for lunch or no lunch, no sticking to one guy - talk to as many as u can :), come home when you wish, evenings free for myself, no dinner plans, my lonely lovely walk from office to home, no late night calls and many many more…to top it all - free to decide and to do what I want. Hmm…loss of a sense of freedom and in short my spinsterhood.

How I wish I enjoy all these for a little more while. Well, lets see how long or short it takes. Till then, I shall enjoy this wonderful life.

Hail spinsterhood !!
11:56 PM Dec 31st 2006

Gone are those days...

This was written when i was down with fever and had to stay at home for 2 consecutive days. The following came out of boredom and frustration. So, please bear with me :)

There are times when i used to wait for friday right from Monday, now i have started waiting for monday even before my friday could come to an end :) sad state...

How times change when I fall sick – My inspiration for this piece of poetry. I call it poetry as it does not sound like a normal prose, not that it is one really :)

Gone are those days ….

How I wish it would never be time for dawn,
To be lost in dreams with every yawn.
I would pull myself away from the bed,
Only to get ready and dressed.
How I would just crawl my way to work,
While half the world already at work.
Gone are those days …

How I wish it would always be time for lunch,
To talk about the world with every munch.
Guilt would knock my door at three past noon,
Before I realize it would be teatime soon.
How I would start my work late in the evening,
Sitting there to see half the office leaving.
Gone are those days …

How I wish time would halt for work to be done,
Winding up at ten I have some work undone.
Sleepily mom would wait for me as if she was fine,
With eyes open wide I love to whine and dine.
How I would stare into space trying to find my land,
Lost in my world with the TV on and a book in hand,
As I go to bed, how I wish it would never dawn :)
Gone are those days …

Conceptualized on 16 Dec 2006 at 5:30 AM when I would normally be sound asleep.

My first one...

What do i write??