Rom Coms - The Female Chauvinists' way of getting even

I've watched a lot of Romantic Comedies(Rom-Coms as they're known) over the years. If I remember correctly the very first i saw would be Pretty Woman. I saw the movie when i was in 9th standard. I saw the movie at a cousin's home. He was an engineering student and had this movie's cassette(yes, VHS cassettes were the norm those days, not CD's) with him.

I loved the movie and fell in love with the too-good-to-believe gentlemanly Richard Gere in the movie and wanted to be like him from that day. He had the charm to get any woman he wanted and yet he didn't want any. I wish one day i could raise myself to such a level and then say NO to my mind when i see someone and my heart says YES.

The greatest surprise in the movie wasn't however Gere, it was the every lovable, innocent-yet-charming in her own way, Julia Roberts. I just couldn't control my laughter at the scenes where she barges into the meetings and then takes him off to shopping and all. But at the same time tears welled up in my eyes when i saw the emotional scene with Roxette's It Must Have Been Love in the background.

Since then i've been a sucker for Rom-Com's and have a huge list of those movies in my collection. The movies in this range from 50 first dates to Zack and Miri make a porno. These movies haven't helped me a bit in anything other than feel good at the end when the guy gets the girl. The movies always have a lopsided hero-heroine composition, be it Pretty Woman with a Ivy-League MBA falling for a Prostitute or 50 first dates with an amazing chick in Drew Barrymore falling for an oaf of a man in Adam Sandler.

Always these movies presented a totally unrealistic view of life(atleast for a guy living in India). They always gave ideas that were stupidest in the best of situations and still the guy ALWAYS got the girl in the end. There was a time when i used to believe that such a situation would happen to me sometime in my life and i'll also get that brown-eyed girl with the most amazing smile in the world.

I think these movies are The Female Chauvinists' way of getting even at the so-callled male dominant world. These movies make the innocent guys (like me) believe in stupid things that would never happen. This makes the girls they fall for behave in the most outrageous ways and then assume that things like that would come out to be all fine and dandy.

But sadly the world, especially this part of the world(also known as India) has people who've never had such experiences in their entire lifetime. Yours truly is a living testimonail of these girls getting rid of guys like me after getting their most essential needs satisfied(may not be the need you've got in mind). But still these experiences have never let me down and am still in search of the brown-eyed-girl.

Hope these movies don't make a mess out of the life some other charming young dude.

Be part of something bigger than yourself

I came across a link some days back while browsing the net. I got the link from a friend in twitter. Its called 1001 rules for my unborn son. Its an awesome source of small tips that a father-to-be is jotting down for his unborn son. The list has reached No. 376 as of today. Each day I've been checking this site for updates. The site has got a tremendous number of rules which many would want their kids to know. Most of these are what one would classify under common-sense. There are some recommended songs for the kid, some wonderful snaps which tell about the world we live in and then there are sprayed in between some lovely quotes; some inspiring, some funny and some outright thought provoking.

Like these

Since the dawn of parking lots, man has sought to fill his gut with food and alcohol in anticipation of watching others exercise. - Homer Simpson

The public has always expected me to be a playboy, and a decent chap never lets his public down. - Errol Flynn

Good clothes open all doors. - Thomas Fuller

You get my point right! One such quote i got from this site was

Be part of something bigger than yourself. - MAJ Doug Zembiec USMC

The quote was from a unheard of Major in the USMC(US Marine Corps). I found it a rather profound statement amidst the funny and comical statements in the list. The link given with the name took me to the website of the Arlington Cemetery which is the burial ground of men killed in action in the US. I was overwhelmed by the writeup given about Maj. Zembiec, which went on to tell about his valour and bravery which earned him the name The Lion of Fallujah a moniker he no doubt earned under fire.

Major Zembiec was killed in action during a Baghdad firefight. He had previously distinguished himself several times on the battlefield – earning a Bronze Star (with the Combat “V”) and two Purple Hearts.H e was, by all accounts, a Marine’s Marine. There are few higher honors one Marine can bestow upon another.



The page had some touching snaps and the write up gave accounts from his subordinates, colleagues and family members.



You can tell a lot about a man by the people who make the effort to attend his funeral. Zembiec was laid to rest in the hallowed grounds of Arlington National Cemetery. Some 40 of Zembiec’s enlisted men were in attendance – some coming from as far away as Camp Pendleton in California. One Marine officer was quoted as saying “Your men have to follow your orders; they don't have to go to your funeral.”

Also in attendance were some 15 generals in addition to several other active-duty and retired Marine officers. Again, nobody is required to attend these ceremonies. One can tell he had the respect of those he served under, and those he commanded. I found a photo essay tribute to Major Zembiec here.

I was touched by some thoughts Zembiec had jotted down in several notebooks – things he wanted to accomplish, things he wanted to impart unto others. Here’s what was shared with the Washington Post’s Dan Morse:

1. Become the greatest husband and father ever.
2. Be a man of principle. Fight for what you believe in. Keep your word. Live with integrity. Be brave. Believe in something bigger than yourself. Serve your country.
3. Teach. Mentor. Give something back to society. Lead from the front. Conquer your fears. Be a good friend. Be humble and be self-confident.
4. Appreciate your friends and family. Be a leader and not a follower. Be valorous on the field of battle. And take responsibility for your actions.
   

Most of the above quoted lines came under the heading “Principles my father taught me.” Would that we had more fathers imparting such wisdom unto their sons and daughters.

I am remembered these lines from history when people speak about him.

“Day by day, fix your eyes upon the greatness of Athens, until you become filled with the love of her; and when you are impressed by the spectacle of her glory, reflect that this empire has been acquired by men who knew their duty and had the courage to do it.”
- Thucydides, The Funeral Speech for Pericles


Another touching set of words that made me truly respect this man was a letter he wrote to the mother of a soldier who was killed.

"Your son was killed in action today. Despite intense enemy machine gun and rocket propelled grenade fire, your son fought like a lion. He remained in his fighting position until all his wounded comrades could be evacuated from the rooftop they were defending. It was during his courageous defense of his comrades that Aaron was hit by enemy fire.... With the exception of the Marines on Security, every man in the company attended the service. Aaron was respected and admired by every Marine in his company. His death brought tears to my eyes, tears that fell in front of my Marines. I am unashamed of that fact."
- Douglas Zembiec, Captain, U.S. Marine Corps, writing to the mother of Aaron C. Austin, included in Operation Homecoming by Andrew Carroll

This shows his respect for those who serve with him and that is what earned him the praise of men around him. May his soul rest in peace and his tale inspire millions to take up this fight against the horrors of terrorism and other forces of evil.

Don't Let The Memory Of The Brave Drift Away

My 1st Radio Interview

Act 1: Floating in the clouds

Yeah things like this also happen! Thanks to Club FM and RJ Teena(a very good friend of mine) I was the Campus Samurai for the day in the programme Kabadi Kabadi from 5 Pm to 8 Pm. I am sorry that i couldn't blog about it before and let the readers know about it.

OK OK! I think i had enough of the cloud thing, lets get back to the ground.

Act 2: Back on Terra Firma

So now that am back on the ground let me tell what actually happened. Its 10 in the morning and i am woken up from my sleep with a call from an unknown number in my cell. I pick it up and have a lady at the other end asking me if am free later in the day. It took me some seconds to register the fact that it was a good friend of mine and I also remembered that she was working as an RJ in the local FM channel Club FM. She has called me previously to take part in some shows as I was a Malayalee working away from Kerala in those days. The occasions included Vishu when I was on my way back to Trivandrum for voting and celebrating vishu and one another occasion when I was in town .

So she calls and reminds me that yesterday was observed as Reading day and i do remember seeing a news related to this in the papers a few days back. So she says as its reading day they are having a segment in their evening show about various facets of reading in the present world and blogging is one such facet. So I was the only person who had a blog for a long long long time amongst her friends and so LUCKY ME was chosen for the task.

So I was asked a few questions about how and why i began my blog, my sources of inspiration for blogging, the ways to make money through a blog and so on. I was quite happy to answer the questions and in particular mentioned about my 1st acclaimed post(I like to believe it that way). Also about comments being the source of inspiration for someone who blogs and how they're a form of recognition(this is for people who read and run without commenting). I was also asked about my favourite blog and it was none other than poomanam. In addition I also mentioned about Kiruba's blog and also about Hari and the way they've bought domains and are RICHER with the experience they got out of just blogging. Plus my monetisation tips were about Google Adsense and also some other ad earning sources.

After this I frantically messaged all my friends about the show and am sure i increased the number of listeners by ATLEAST 30-40 people.

So thanks to the FM channel I had my 1st 5 minutes of fame. If I could get a recording of the interview I'll post it asap.

PS:While researching about reading day I got two lovely blogs about the day. Read this and this.

It happened to me..

I've been not very active in the online world since last week; the reason being I've been going to duty in B Shift since 15th of this month. It was my last request to my boss as I wanted to sleep peacefully(*till 10 AM) during the last fortnight of my life as maintenance engineer. Ofcourse I can't tell him that I wanted to sleep, so my reason was "To enable better transition of knowledge to the guy who's come in to fill my spot, he should come in general duty(8AM-5PM) and I'll assist him in B shift(2-10PM)". So I was going to the office the last few days with books, newspapers, magazines and what not to keep me busy after 7 PM, as most of the jobs are complete by sundown and even if there are jobs continuing they usually don't require my physical presence at the work site. So I just goto my office(if you remember the pics from previous posts you'd know) and pull out the reading material I brought and go over it. In the last few days thanks to B shift I've managed to read half of "Love in the time of Cholera"; a book I've kept with me for so long, but couldn't get to read. I also took my net browsing thingy to the office and used to sit in the planning office and chat with people/read blogs/scrap on orkut and what not.

Coming to the point, today i was supposed to go in General duty because of the reason that am participating in Mahaquizzer 2009 from Bhubaneshwar and so I have to go in the evening train and stay there overnight. I ofcourse didn't tell my boss about this, the reason I presented before him was that both me and my replacement have our weekly-off's on sunday. So if we both take leave on sunday then no one will look after the plant activities on sunday(*you see plant comes first, even if its a BIG quiz). My boss was happy with my dedication to work even on the last weekend I was working and sanctioned the change of shift without much fuss.

So I was to getup and go at 8 AM to duty today. I was watching 27 Dresses, a romantic comedy, yesterday in HBO past midnight and it was 1 AM when I slept. I setup 2 alarms on my phone and 1 more in my roommate's phone. Today morning I got up hearing the hooter which sounds at the beginning and end of each shift. I was stunned to see that the table clock(a digital clock given free by some supplier as a courtesy gift after a long seminar on bearings) was showing the time as 08:02. I jumped out of my bed and ran to the toilet, didn't bother about other things but started brushing my teeth furiously, cursing Nokia company for making incompetent phones which can't even sound an alarm on time.

I finished brushing in record time of 1 minute 30 seconds and then took my clothes from the hangar and started to put them on, when I realised that my phone doesn't have sufficient battery charge to last the day. So I took the phone over to the charger which was on the table when my eye fell on the clock again. It showed 06:05. I was stunned AGAIN and to verify I checked the clock in my phone, then confirmed by checking my roomie's phone as well.

I cursed myself for this stupidity and was having a good laugh. By this time I was fully dressed and was going to wear my socks. I was laughing for a full minute before I started to undress and go back to bed. I called up a friend and was telling her all this. At first she must've thought "Why is this idiot making me getup this early" and it was clearly evident in her tone. But in the end she too had a good laugh about it and she said she's gonna get up and study. Then I tried my sister, but she conveniently ignored my calls and must be sleeping in her dreamy world now(hugging teddy I gifted her this birthday)

So moral of the story:Don't sleep too late and then get up earlier than you want to, it gives a THROBBING headache.

OMG its 7 AM, I need to go now!

Pagal Post

The below post is something i posted in PaGaLGuY.com in the IIFT final converts forum. Here's the original post link. Felt i should put it in my blog as well.

I personally feel good to have worked too the past 18 months. Coz i came to know a lot of things that i never knew as a fresher. One was regarding my knowledge in my subject and the most important was my skill of dealing with people. I worked(still working) in a chemical factory and there i never got the hi-fi life i dreamed. I dealt with people who're having little or no education but still masters in their craft. I feel its more difficult to deal with such people than with educated people. No offence to them, if they had better conditions when they grew up then am sure they'd have had a better career than me. I was more in the role of a facilitator, a sort of bridge between the top management which didn't deal with these workers directly, but used engineers like me to get the job done. I had lot of tough days, days when i thought why i chose this job instead of the software job i had got in Wipro. Each day i lamented about my decision to come here when some crisis happened in the factory. But then this enabled me to deal with crisis, one after the other over the past year i've learnt how to deal with problems that crop up without any notice. I feel the job has helped me know myself better. I feel more confident taking decisions.

Back in my college days the only such experience i had was when i was coordinator for my college's fest. That's the maximum exposure a small town guy like me could get in his college days. Those days i used to deal with people who're like minded, who're educated like me, who're having the same ideology; and i dealt with a few lakhs of rupees and that was a BIG thing for me back then. In my job i dealt with people who never got any extra incentive for doing a job in the night shift, and it was very very tough motivating them. In their eyes i was someone who earned a lot more than they ever will, just cause i did a few more years in college or school, when they were out earning a living. I dealt with equipment worth crores of rupees. I used to make purchases of machinery worth millions of dollars. I signed bills worth lakhs. I was 1st perturbed by the idea of people my dad's age or more calling me SIR. But i slowly gained their respect and they used to discuss with me more than just their factory problems. I became the young-guy-who-helps. I was invited to each and everyone of their functions, weddings, kids' birthdays and what not. But then I had a nagging boss who made me wanna quit this job each day. Even today while coming for lunch I was asked when i will be going by 4 men. They all had a sadness in their eyes when they spoke to me and had a pride in their face when they said "We'll tell the next batch that comes in that someone went for MBA from this office". I feel good about this fact. I feel good that i worked.

My friends in IIM's and other top colleges who got in the 1st time i wrote CAT were telling me how wrong they were to have entered without job-ex. Some of them struggled to get GREAT JOBS inspite of having excellent acad's(i mean 90+ all thru career), awesome extra currics and sports. I didn't say they didn't get jobs. They did get, but they never get the kind of DREAM jobs we hear about in the papers. So i feel good that i didn't get through any tests in my 1st and 2nd attempts and that i made it to IIFT this year. I hope to have a great 2 years ahead of me with batchmates like you.

Looking forward to it.

PS: This post isn't meant to counter anyone's stand or to demoralise anyone. But i thought i should say this out here.