There's no place like home

Part Uno:Delhi
It is 16th and “All my Bags are packed and am ready to go” this was my status message as the clock struck 12 on 16th September. I have the huge load of all my 1st year textbook’s with me(if anyone has any doubts regarding their sizes kindly check the last pic in the album named 3rd trimester @ IIFT in my Facebook A/C and you’ll know). With that mighty load on my back I took the Auto from IIFT gates to Hauz Khas Metro Station, that’s right baby, now the metro drops you off till New Delhi Station from Hauz Khas :) . Post the luggage screening and opening and closing of the bags for the CISF’s most honest x-ray scanning inspector, I move into the awesome Bombardier coaches which are waiting for me as I reach the platform.

I’m at NDLS within 20 minutes and I'm ready to board the Kerala Express from Delhi once again to Trivandrum. The last time I took Kerala Express from NDLS to TVC was in 2007 when I came to attend my job interview with IFFCO. That was in Second class sleeper, but this time I had an A/C seat, but still things don't change much as you'll see.

The 1st thing I do once I've stowed all my bags under the seats is to look at the passenger list chipkaoed beside one of the doors. Not to make sure if I'm on the list, but, to check out who else is there. M's of any age don't interest me at all unless there's an F of a reasonably acceptable age sitting beside them. But, that's for later. For now I mentally make a note of all the F-16s to F25s mentioned on the reservation list so that I'll walk pass their seats and check them out when my back starts paining sitting on the rock hard seats. Not much luck in there. My bogie was full of M30-M45 range. Well, okay. I don't want to travel among the hottest possible angels every time, but, what's the deal with so many M30 to M45s.

They say LUCK is Labour Under Correct Knowledge, but, the "Knowledge" part is something that makes me come back to square one every single time. But boy do you read what was in store for me.

I bet you know I am pretty pissed off because this post is being written after 1 am. I can't shake off the feeling that the Indian Railways with its offering of "the mo*^%&#-f$%^#ing AC-3 tier coach", along with my co-passengers, is out to screw me, have a smoke, then come back to screw me again. I present the following evidences:

1. The compartment, including the side berths, is meant to seat eight. However the passengers in my compartment have approximately 287 people to see them off. And they all squeeze in or stand in the aisle, leaving no room for genuine passengers. All of them wait till the last millisecond before getting off the train. This is accompanied by shrieks of "arey train chal padi!!", as if we paid all that money to go sit in a stationary claustrophobic cell.
2. Atleast one person attempts to swap seats. He offers a seat, usually a middle berth (Murphy's law) in a compartment 20 coaches away, or sometimes in the adjacent train. "Travelling together" is a big deal even in the night trains. If there is no such person, nocturnal predators with wait-listed tickets are usually on the prowl for confirmed ticket holders who can "adjust" for a few hours. Since I am a bachelor with the innocent face of a sucker, I can't escape being gang-adjusted repeatedly by a series of wait-listers. My medical results reveal that I may never recover from this severe trauma.
3. Atleast one of the co-passengers carries luggage that will put an Antarctic expedition to shame. Consequently, the entire floor space plus halves of two berths and the aisle become full, allowing only someone with the skill-level of Bob Beamon to make it across to the bathroom. Oh! and needless to say, all that hunk of luggage will not have a single book to read on the way, except "Stardust" which will be over by the time the train pulls out of the platform.
4. The presence of atleast one baby in my compartment is mandatory. And if the baby's bawling and howling is insufficient, the parents make repairs by throwing in some brain-dead baby talk. The baby talk comprises of atmost three sentences of the kind "Ale Ale Ale baby kyon lo laha hai...", "deko deko bahar doggie hai cow hai pigeon hai...aley waah aley waah" and "chalo mamma paas chalenge, abhi beta soyega, raaja beta soyega" and so forth. These three sentences will be repeated in an infinite loop until the mother dies of dehydration or I puncture my ear drums, whichever happens first. If the baby talk does not suffice, the dad usually initiates a suave and sophisticated game, like pulling a coin out of the baby's ass, thus cementing his skills as a magician, and the kid becomes all wonder-eyed thinking "Holy Shit! My ass did that ??" With all this talk of babies, I'm tempted to use the pun "berth control" here but I am sure it has been used a million times already.
5. The person on the lower berth feels "sleepy" at 8:30pm, just two seconds after s/he finishes dinner, forcing the others to retire. Unless I am the lower berth owner, in which case, I won't be allowed to sleep before 2:30am. Even then, a group of wait-listers will suddenly materialize to sleep in the aisle, thereby giving a new meaning to "sleepovers".
6. The person on the middle berth will sleep the longest, turning the rest of us into Hunchbacks of Notre Dame. On being woken up, he/she will generally give an Oscar winning "oh am I causing any trouble" look. The rest of us have, ofcourse, already been woken up by the obnoxious tea seller at 5:45am, who usually passes on secret information of the kind "abhi Aligarh cross kiya hai" along with the freaking mud water that passes for tea.
7. All the bathrooms will be occupied till 2pm, so the elderly uncle will lose all pretense of good manners, and will let loose the dogs of hell, otherwise known as the farting guns of Navarone. While the more adventurous of us can start guessing which pickle did uncleji have with aalo and rajma last night, I prefer to lean outside the door, looking for the next electric pole to bang my head into.
8. Needless to say, a delay by a few hours is to be expected. For example, my "prestigious superfast express train" took 53 instead of 50 hrs, and this was a good day I was told. The last 200 kms took more than 5 hours. Hell! I could have run faster than that. Shameless self-advertising ends here.

Next time, I am travelling in the cargo hold of the first airplane that I see.

Some people never learn, right? Yeah, they don't. And that's what makes this world funny. I'm honoured to be contributing positively to the Gross Happiness Index of the planet. I repeat, as I often do: If you don't have the balls to hold your breath for half an hour or so, you shouldn't be boarding the Indian Railways. Also applies to people with breathing ailments like asthma. Enough Bitching about Train Journeys. Now the good part:

As soon as the Train entered Kerala, the rain gods started their job and what a scene it was :), the picture below pretty much describes the entire scene which unfolded:

Photo credit: Train in the rains by Bramha.

Part Deux: Trivandrum
Out of the railway station and it's a different world every time I come here. Small city, now developing into a bigger one, some changes are nice; like wider roads, some are not; like cutting down trees for the same; nice, easy climate(not for all), and lots and lots of places to visit, especially the three beaches. But, it's my home I'm longing for. Now, just because it's your city doesn't mean you own it. 3 dozen taxi and auto rickshaw owners around me, asking me, no, telling me to board their vehicle. Then I find dad amongst the crowd and he gets me away from these buggers.

As much as you want to spend more and more time with your girlfriends and boyfriends, there's nothing that is remotely as inexplicably touching as a long and silent hug from your mom.

Now, it has been an unwritten rule in my family for the last 3 years since I've started living outside my house, the first thing my mom asks me is "What would you eat?". I remind her that I'd love the Chicken Curry which I had told her when we talked while in the train. Turns out the question was asked just as a continuation of the tradition and Chicken Curry is ready. I only have to take a bath and be at the table. I don't take a bath and no one insists me to have one. After all I'm the son. I have the best Chicken Curry and wipe off the last bits from the plate. I could’ve even licked the plate, coz it is my home and I can bloody do that here :)

My sister and her husband (I should get used to that more now) come at 7:00 in the evening. Hellos, hugs and we're out of the house to the temple near my home. Post this we have dinner together and then off she goes to her home and me and parents go off to watch the new Mammootty movie which has him playing a typical Trichur guy. While reaching the theatre for the night show, I felt like the whole car owning population in Trivandrum City has come down to watch the movie and I pick up an argument with a cop over the parking of the car and it went on to become a pretty heated one and that tells you about the status message. After a 15 minute verbal duel, finally when the cop threatened that he’ll get the tow truck and get my car pulled away I moved my car to another spot and got inside the movie. We had the very last row of seats and the kids rules that were mentioned above apply here also. There was a big family consisting of four couples all having multiple kids in the 0-5 age group out to ruin my movie. But surprisingly all of them slept off within minutes of the movie starting and I could have a good time watching the movie. I just loved the movie and all this reminded me on my trip back home that:

There's no place like home...

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.

Nurturing the Entrepreneur in you

Being an Entrepreneur isn't a small thing. For one thing all the people applying for the various MBA entrance tests want to become entrepreneurs and start a firm of their own. It's a good thing for a country like India where we have a huge population in the working age group. So if many individuals start their ventures it'll be a great burden off the shoulders of the already overburdened government. But then jumping onto the entrepreneurship bandwagon without knowing its consequences is a foolish decision. So one should know all the risks and benefits of being a entrepreneur. Unlike many states, Kerala in spite of its high literacy rates still is a place where we don't see many individuals becoming employers. Always one is interested in doing job for someone or getting into a government agency. Its sad that even professionally educated people like engineers and doctors would go and follow this path. Maybe it's the way we are brought up, maybe its the low risk low pay remuneration route that's being traditional followed by our forefathers that's being followed by us.

Nobody tells us the bad things about being in a govt job, the endless routines, the stupid system of time bound promotions, the hierarchy system where one always is a junior even if he's intellectually superior to his seniors, a system where he's always supposed to follow while his brain loses all its creativity and he too gets into the system and becomes unproductive.

All parents want their kids to take up some good paying job with a cushy chair in the home town. Nobody wants their kids to venture the dark street all alone and get to the heights from which you can't see the bottom. I don't completely blame the parents, our educational system, our society as a whole has made it so. I came to realise this because most of the Keralites i know don't actually think in Money terms, we think in value terms. But if you've ever met a Gujju or a Marathi, they'll teach you to think in terms of the money. I happen to know this coz the head of the plant where i work is a Gujju and he always tells me the cost to the company due to some fault in my department. At the same time a Mallu would've fired me for the bad policies and the faulty maintenance practises, but never in terms of the money.

There are many reasons why one takes up the Entrepreneurship route, some are dejected with their present jobs(hell am one of them), some are having that one idea in their minds that'll revolutionise the way the world works(or so they think), some are doing it for proving that they're not part of the herd, some do it just for the heck of it; not knowing why they actually did it.

So i'll say first identify why you want to do it, why you want to start a company and have something run in your name. This is important because we can't have more Raju's running around with 50000 employees in the fray. So think of all this and then choose the route. The route will be MBA/Non-MBA, Technical/Generic, Small/Big etc etc. Then the next thing will be to look out for funds, if it's a small startup there are many banks out there to provide the moolah. But if you're going to go full steam then the fire will have to come from some venture capitalists, which unfortunately isn't that easy to come by. That's where contacts come to play a crucial role. If you're sure that you'll be an employer, then make contacts with anyone and everyone you come across. That'll help you in some way or the other when you're gonna need the funds. It helps in having more people say "Hey i know this guy, he's good"; rather than having people say "Who the F*** are you?".

So now you've the route, the money; what next. Well what next, find the right time to launch yourself. The time is the crucial factor, coz if someone launches the same thing before you did or even on the same time as you did, then you lose a BIG thing in the marketing world. Something starting with I called as IDEA. People will not trust you and will think you're a thief and then that's the last we'll hear of the Start up @ Technopark.

So time's right, money's there, idea's there. Now what we need is constant work to keep the thing running and the NEVER SAY DIE attitude, because some statistics say that 95% of all startup's die in the initial 2 years of their start-up :). So we need to cross that HUGE hurdle and then make ourselves good.

So now you've got my two cents, what're you waiting for? Join the Herd of Entrepreneurs or the Herd of Employees, or choose something totally different and own the world and enjoy your small time on god's sweet earth.


PS: This post had been under draft for a long long long long time and it was the pathetic state of the blog with no posts for a long long long long long long long long long time that made me publish it. More to come up soon how i was abducted by aliens(yeah that's my alibi) and where i get to write this post from :)

Onam 2008

Onam 2008 was the best Onam of my life. Period!

I'd never had a onam like this for a long long long time. Only when i was a kid did i get to enjoy the onam like this. You're always special when you visit home after living outside for a few months. Maybe it's because the people think you're a GUEST and behave nicely to please you, or maybe some genuinely missed me being around. But whatever it maybe i really loved this break away from my monotonous work life.

I'd not really planned to come home for onam. But then my company was sending all new trainee engineers on a pan India trip in september-october and hence i'd to use all my spare leaves or else they'd lapse and go away free. So i thought of surprising my parents and freinds. But then cash shortage made me ask money from dad for the tickets, so that surprise was done with. Then i'd tried to hide my visit from my girlfriend and had hoped to surprise her. Again failed miserably. She seems to read my mind and i couldn't help but confess. :)

Then i didn't hide this fact and posted on our college batch community. Then the posts that followed were really NICE.

So coming to the point. Why i liked this onam was the fact that i spent more time with my family than with friends and i LOVED it. Usually i hated spending time with my family, especially on vacations. Almost all my breaks used to be spent with friends @ Kovalam or veli or some place like that, but miles away from home. Now being away from home has made me miss home and my family a lot and hence this time i was determined to give them some quality time. I loved it.
Spending time with friends also was fun, but this time everyone had time only to discuss their tight work schedules, bad bosses and horrible working hours :). Then the usual vayinottam @ Kanakakunnu palace grounds in the name of Onaghosha paripaadikal :). Went to Uni-Y for a great onam programme. This time i knew a lot less people than before, but then it was fun. Sheer fun.

Then the major thing i loved about this trip home is getting to meet my love. I'd missed her a lot and seems she also did so. I'd hoped to spend 2-3 days at the max with her, but then we made up for the lost 4 months with 4 meets in 8 days :D. That was totally awesome for me. She did manage to surprise me with a gift - A shirt. It seems she's good at picking nice shirts. She'd given me a shirt when i'd first joined for this job, but this time she'd the help of another common friend, and they both managed to WOW me with their selection.

Now i'm at the Chennai Central railway station while posting this, waiting for my connecting train to Cuttack and then back to hell. :) This might be my last onam spent with my family, or maybe the first in the series of onam's @ home. Only god knows.

Some snaps from my visit home.

This is where i started from

Catching a train. But where are the bogies?

A Kerala landscape pic on my way home.

Uni-Yans posin for Snaps - I relived my Uni-Y days once again.

Posing alongside the newbies @ Uni-Y

A kodak moment- Winning the Vadamvali @ Uni-Y

Onaghosham @ Kanakakunnu. Had a great time there.

With the Kalip pose-Atop the Lighthouse @ Kovalam

" Kovalam" or what's left of it

Had this snap taken @ Kovalam. Never seen foriegn kids playing on Indian soil like this :)

Trainil vere pani onnum illathathu kondu engene okke samayam kalanju

Before the theeta malsaram with friends :)

After the Theeta malsaram :)

Ona sadya was great @ home. Mom you're the best :D

Birthday blues

Today i celebrated my 22nd birthday. Well it'll be wrong to say that i CELEBRATED, plainly because i didn't celebrate anything. Not because i don't like the idea of celebrating myself getting old or because i'm a snob who hates such celebrations. But then there were two main reasons why i didn't like the idea of CELEBRATING my birthday. One being that i'm not in the best of financial conditions to celebrate anything, let alone give my friends at work a decent party. Second being i'm not in the best of mental conditions for any kind of celebration. The financial conditions got so bad mainly due to my bad management of my salary. I ended up spending a lot more than i'd planned when i went to Kolkata. I more than 3k for the books i bought. I'd planned to buy around 1000 bucks worth of books and save the rest for my birthday and also for my now-cancelled leave to go home. But after getting back happily from Kolkata i'd a really bad week. It started with me being down on one day because of the extreme heat in the plant. The temperature in the town in around 40 deg and due to the conditions in the plant it's 5 deg more inside the plant. All this took a toll on me and i had a real bad time on tuesday evening and on wednesday morning i'd so much pain in my body that i couldn't get up from my bed. I decided to have a day off from work and just sleep thru th day. After spending half the day sleeping, i just got up and had some water. Slept again till evening and then went to see the doc. I'd told my problems and she first asked me if i'd fever. When i said no, she asked if i'd been out too much in the sun. When i replied positively, she said that i was suffering from sun stroke. WOW. Now that's something that you only get to hear in hi-fi fashion mags. I was elated bt at the same time worried too. She said i'll be ok in a day and it was good on my part to take rest. After this i had an ok kind of week. Only the usual pump getting a vibration problem and some gearbox getting oil leaks i had a tension free week. Now while typing this post from my mobile i'm watching Lakshya, the Hritik starring action picture about the transformation of a young man from a carefree guy to a military man with responsibilities. I don't know why but i felt i'm also getting the same kind of transformation. Not that i'm in a war front, but this will be the closest i'll get to a war front. These scorching temperatures, the squabbling workers, being far from home, missing my friends. All this. I know i'm comparing somethings that are far far apart. But then why do i feel so, i don't know. I got up today to my girlfriend calling me at 5 AM. She'd set a 12midnight alarm to wish me but it ended up waking her at 5. So i got my first wish of the day from her. That was a great thing for me. I just don't how to explain but i think guys and gals in love would understand. Actually it wasn't the first wish, I got a few wishes at midnight. But then i slept at 1 in the night after watching the film 'Shooter' in a senior's room. I saw a lot of scraps in my orkut scrapbook and also got a few messages in my phone. All these make me happy, but then now the boredom hits back. The day is going on and i don't know how i'll celebrate in the middle of all this. It's just another boring day in orissa :)

New Meaning of Indian Flag

Entammooooooooooooooooooooooooo.....Apaaaram
Enthaaaaaaa budhiii.............enthaa oru upaamaaaaa...fayankaramm iyal okke farikaan keriyirunne........... oooh aalochikaan kooodi vayya!

I see so many small kids listening to this and clapping along with their parents! Kashtam thanne! Indian children being exposed to this kinda idiotic speeches.

This post is only for my friends who understand Malayalam! Am sorry that i can't produce a version with subtitles or give the entire translation here! I couldn't help but post this AWESOME explanation from a guy about the Indian National Flag. No offence to any of the religious sects that preach and practise this type of CRAP! But its high time someone SHOT these @$$holes! Nothing but a head shot from the back! They don't deserve a clean death!

Should doctors strike work?

Strike is a legitimate form of collective protest in a democracy. At the same time, the guiding principle of medicine is the alleviation of suffering. Thus the issue of whether doctors should ever strike work is contentious. Some have preached from an ivory tower and advocated against this form of protest for doctors. Opinions have been expressed that the suffering caused by a strike of doctors violates the ‘raison d’etre’ of the medical profession.

I was appalled by the sight of people being forced to go to private medical institutions when the government hospitals closed doors for all- the rich, the poor, the needy and the dying! The reality of this hit me quite hard when i heard yesterday that a friends' dad died last week because he was denied care at the Govt. Medical College Hospital and the doctors in the private hospital, where he was taken, couldn't understand what was wrong with him.

I've always believed that Altruism is the basis for practising medicine. The care and welfare of patients are the primary considerations of the medical profession. Seldom do you see a doctor who prioritises his interests before those of his patients. If patient care is the issue, he will disregard any amount of inconvenience caused to his self and go to any lengths to give his best efforts. This altruistic instinct should be innate, it is not thrust upon the medical student during their curriculum. That is one reason why it is among the most respected professions in the world. Even now with the rise in number of medical colleges and seats being sold, we have a majority of students taking up medicine courses because of their love for helping people.

Of course one cannot deny that patient care suffers during a strike by doctors. The scale of harm caused depends upon the role played by doctors in that particular health set- up, the type of cases under treatment, and, of course, the duration of the strike. Now what is it that drives an otherwise selfless, self- effacing doctor to strike work? Are the values and commitments so shallow that they are discarded the moment a question of personal gains looms up? What goes on in the psyche of the person who is driven to stop the very work and values that he cherishes? How is it that a person commended for his service towards others by elders and the authorities is, at a given point of time, suddenly accused of selfishness and criminal negligence?

The issues which precipitate a doctors’ strike are generally forgotten in the vociferous reactions and threats of the authorities. The lay public is aghast at the very idea of a strike. The general feeling is that a member of this noble profession should never indulge in any such activity. This very cross of ‘noble profession’ has been the bane of the healers over the past millennia. The moment a person has been elevated to a demi- god status by the people, he loses all his rights and aspirations towards a life of reasonable contentment and comfort. There are other essential services which, when stopped, bring society to a grinding halt. But striking doctors presents a whole new scenario, one which the govt. should handle with care.

I believe the reason why the doctors struck wordk is a legitimate one and should have been addressed long before the doctors resorted to the worst-Strike. The pay scale for a doctor is Rs 8000-275-13500 which comes to about 17,000 with all the allowances(If the govt doesn't hold them back). This is same as the starting salary for any professional degree holder. That's the disparity of the pay structure that exists in our nation. I feel that for a person who's putting in about 5-6 years in studies and then joining service to humans, should be paid more considering the current consumerist way of living. The govt always makes PROMISES and they should have considered the striking doctors with a bit more sensibility rather than treating them like any other govt. employee. For the govt they may be just another section of employees striking for their demands, but to the scores of people they save each day, they are next to GOD.

I feel doctors should also come to the striking lines only after careful consideration of what all harm they would cause to the world they serve!

1st Drive

Driving is one of my passions and i just can't have enough of it. To make sure that my driving doesn't cause any discomfort to the government and also to my finances i took my driving test yesterday. It wasn't much trouble and i passed without a single mistake.

I was beaming with pride and my mind was filled with happy thoughts of me zipping through the city roads with ease at pretty high speeds and heavy metal coming through the speakers. But all these thoughts were put to rest when i took the car out for a small drive to the city yesterday itself. It seems people all across the town are on the roads and no one's home. I had gone to a few temples and to my surprise all seem to have even ignored the god's. There were hardly 20 people in the heavenly houses.

Then when i reached east fort i found where all the people have been. I wish i had a mobile with a cam and could capture people jostling for space on a 10 foot wide road and hitting each other with their elbows for space and bargaining for goods ranging from handkerchiefs to shirts and sari's on the roadsides.

When i tried to park the car near the pazhavangadi ganapathi temple i had a real tough time. A retail GIANT had opened its store( i wont' call it a store, its a mega structure) and coz of that parking was something that you couldn't do, to top it off the designated bike parking spot was taken over by a party leader and his honchos and they used the spot to have a PUBLIC meeting to which no one was giving two hoots. The guy was going on about the injustice meted out to the people by the ruling govt and the ignorance to the critical affairs of the people like flood relief and the like. Who has time to listen to all this, the only thing people will have in mind is the 30% off @ ramachandran's or the buy 2 get one free offer @ parthas or the buy a mixer, get a pan @ Ibrahims.

Now one can't blame the people for taking up consumerism to the heart. But what else to do when the shops and establishments are wooing in customers with hitherto unheard of offers and prices. We have offers for things ranging from inner wear to plasma televisions. Is this a good way to go for our economy? I say its a great way to go for our economy. But is this the way to go for our country? I disagree. We've deviated from the principles of socialism that were instilled in us by the founding fathers. We've given up the idea of Aam Aadmi as the UPA says. They've forgotten the Aadmi in their slogan and gone ahead to help develop(or exploit) our country to get more Microsoft's and IBM's to open shop here.

Now am not saying its a bad thing. Its a great thing to happen. Because of the rapidly growing IT sector thousands of engineers and graduates like me are getting jobs and much better salaries than our seniors got as freshers 2-3 years ago! I feel great that an engineer is paid a salary 1/2 that of a guy with same qualification gets in th US. But its better than getting nothing and sitting @ home sending in applications to the PSC tests and waiting for the red tape to cut through you until you've nothing else to do but go for a job for which your hefty degree wasn't of any use.

Now we hear about IIMites giving up 7 figure salaries and going to start NGO's and their own ventures. For this reason i feel the move from the govt to start more IIT's n IIM's is in the right direction. Just hope that their's something left of humanity in the scores of graduates coming outta the elite institutes and colleges.

With this hope i leave the rest to thee, dear god!

God's own news!

Before reading on 1st go through this piece of news that i got from a friend
Sreesanth's food habits

You'll need mallu fonts and ofcourse be a mallu to read it. But for those who think this is too much, please do that small bit and am sure you'll be happy about what you did. Get the font from here. If you're still not able to check here.

This is the level to which India's largest circulated "regional newspaper" has stooped to. I can't understand such a stupid piece of NEWS will come from a publisher which also runs the Manorama Yearbook, one of the trusted books in my list till now! They publish more than 20 major and minor journals and this is what they came up with?

Even their ad nowadays in national channels about their much touted readership of over 15 million was funny to watch, where they have shown INDIAN's fighting over stupid reasons like the the readership of their language's newspapers. My 1st thoughts when i saw that ad was, why the hell isn't any nationalist group or individual coming in strength to force a ban on this piece of crap. Where is the so called SPIRIT of National Integration now? But then who would like to make the paper with the largest readership unhappy?

Coming to think its not just this paper that has been in news in Kerala. Recently Kairali channel, run by a party so well known for having great spirit of unity among themselves, stabbed one of their own leaders in the back. In fact they did this to the CM who's ruling the state. Wonder what they'd do to the lesser mortals.

The program was an interview with a RISING STAR in the business scenario in Kerala, Mr Faris Aboobaker. The interview was conducted by none other than Kairali TV MD John Brittas. I had regarded him as among the best news persons' ever to be born from the Malayalam News channel world. He used to handle heated discussions with ease and had been an impartial face in a channel that has come up with some good name till now. I still remember a debate where he had snubbed a sitting MP from Kerala for their silence in the Parliament about the Salem Railway zone.

In this particular interview, which i missed to see, he appeared very meek and was allowing Faris to show his full arrogance and was particularly silent when Faris kept on making remarks about the CM as if the CM was someone who worked under him. Now the whole of Kerala knows that the program was just another brick in the wall that's coming up between the two stalwarts in the CPI(M) Mr Pinarayi and CM Achudananthan. The interview was ended abruptly and Brittas says that Kairali did only what any normal channel would do and also that the whole interview was NOT scripted. But seeing the way in which one after another accusations were made against the CM and nothing was done to stop it, one can hardly agree with that line.

Media coming up with stupid news is the rule nowadays, but when it becomes a weapon in the hands of LEADERS trying to achieve their personal gains, the whole scenario changes. We've seen how media has 1st written off and then gone to praise Rakhi Sawant's, Shilpa Shetty's and even Sanjay Dutt now. We see national debates on the rising hemlines of Bollywood actresses and stars dating other stars. God only can help when matters come to this stage. But then where is GOD? Why is he silent? When will we see ACTUAL NEWS in the so called news channels?

Kerala - God's own country!

No this is not a post which is going to describe how beautiful my native state is, i just needed something to put in my blog and this was the best that i could think of!


This video captures the true essence of what Kerala is, it's culture, heritage and yada yada yada.




A Snapshot view of what Kerala's Culture is all about!




This is what REAL Kerala looks like, unclean streets, loads of fresh fish, Kathakali, Theyyam, Backwaters with what else .....water and, yada yada yada.





What is Kerala without the RAINS, and believe me the expression "When it rains, it pours" was quoted by someone who had seen Kerala. Don't know if 50 Cent came to Kerala to get the lyrics of the song "When It Rains It Pours"





This 1's about the RICH natural heritage the State has, the vast unexplored paths of the Western ghats, the silent valley's and yada yada yada.





When did Kerala be Kerala without the Spot that made it appear on the map - KOVALAM. This video show's the beautiful( errr) beach with all the things that make it unique including the stray dogs!





This show's one of THE best Hill stations in Kerala - Munnar. It's a real kool place to be in and i guess blessed are the souls who study in the College of Engg @ Munnar and the B-School that's there. Heard that the B-School is in the midst of a Tea-estate. Some setting for a MBA eh?? This is a handycam version, where i think the user was stupid enough to hold the cam at odd angles making the video really jerky. But the place is beautiful; with it's tea estates, county houses, winding roads and yada yada yada. I gotta tell you, I am loving this yada yada thingy.

So that's it for now! Waiting for the damn exams to get over! After that a post about how i PREPARED this time for my exams!

Caught in the Traffic

A DIFFERENT LESSON: A motorist who jumped the signal reading the pamphlet on traffic rules at Pattom junction in the city on Friday.

I guess the image says it all.........

For those dumbo's who haven't figured out what this picture is doing in my blog, here goes. The guy wearing check shirt and having the paper in the hand is ME. I had been reminded about this picture, which came in The Hindu a few years ago, when i was caught for the same crime that landed me on the 3rd page of The Hindu and made me a celebrity in my batch @ college.

The Crime : Jumping RED signal @ rush hour in the busy Pattom Junction..

The Criminal(i guess there's no harm in this usage) : your's truly

The Punishment: No fine's, no reprimands, but being made to read a checklist of precautions that one must go through while riding in RUSH hour! This was followed by the CI showing me a few photos of accident victims, i couldn't make out the faces and in some the face was so mutilated that i felt like i would puke there itself.

Seeing this the CI had a wicked laugh(the kind that we see in mythology serials and old films). He made me swear that i will NEVER jump the lights in future. If he had his way i would have spent a day in the Sub-Jail @ Attakulangara and would have been a full fledged GOONDA by now, rather than what i am now(now don't say ther's no difference).

The incident occured when i was in s4, i still remember being called at 6 AM the next day by Simon and his words were not that good to hear, especially when i am trying to catch some sleep. "Aliya ninte padom Hindu 3rd pagil adichu vannirikunnu". Next to call was Aparna who made it a point to 1st inform my mom about the INCIDENT. By the time i came downstairs to get my hands on the paper, it was already being read ALOUD by my sister. I thought that was the end of it. But no, god has a funny way of playing games on me.

When i reached college, the story's cutout was PASTED on the classroom's walls by my very good friends and even teacher's came to know about the INCIDENT (although my FRIENDS had another story and a different caption for the picture). Anyways this incident opened my eyes to the dangers of driving. The pictures that i had seen in the album of the CI are still fresh in my mind. They are the kind that would be censored in any violent movie, mainly coz most of them lacked what made up a face. Some had just gash's in place of eyes, while some were so bloody that it was hard to make out how the person might have looked. To know that such things happen due to the adrenalin rush in most cases is a sad thing. Why risk it, when we can save our life by being slow??

But then all this philosophy goes out of the loop once i get on my bike. The rush of air against my face when going at 80-90kmph is something that can only be felt. To know why guys get killed by speeding, try riding the bike at those speeds.

Believe me you would never feel like slowing down!

PS: For the detailed story on my Traffic Escapade go to: http://www.hindu.com/2005/06/25/stories/2005062516730300.htm