nothingness

staring at darkness
spitting in the eye of adversity
facing nothingness
I walk alone
shadows

The first steps

Yesterday was my nephew's first day at play school. Actually the first day was three days earlier. But the lil guy slept off 5 mins into class (sounds familiar ?!).
My sister tells me its his stress control mechanism. He goes to sleep when the environment seems unfamiliar/hostile and wakes up later, maybe the bad dream will go away.

Yesterday he tried running out back with my sis. Apparently this guy refuses to give in with out a fight. Thankfully he is past his "doubts and distrust" period. He likes the teacher and calls her Jo or Jani as it pleases him. He is friendly with the other kids (roughly his age). My nephew is 2 years and a few months. He is learning new things. All's well.

Almost everybody in the family went through a period of anxiety. Especially my sister.

I don't think I could ever handle all this.
I am also learning. Next time when my inability to manage finances, my marriage or other extreme cases are discussed I will sleep it through.

Thankathalikayil ponkalumaay vanna Thaimaasa tamizh penne..

Thankathalikayil ponkalumaay vanna
Thaimaasa thamizh penne.. ninte

Today as I was channel surfing, on Asianet I came across this little boy who sang this song (for Munch Star Singer Junior 2009)
He sang well, not perfect (according to the judges). His attempt was nevertheless appreciated. But I enjoyed the way he sang. He pronounced wrongly, his missed the that and this...(Somewhat like how I would sing, only that this kid was a thousand times better). He sang about emotions his age wouldn't know yet. And he seemed at ease, singing because he enjoyed it

There were flaws,
I think flaws are fine.
Flaws make people.
Flaws keep it honest.

I don't know who said this >
I honor my personality flaws, for without them I would have no personality at all.

I agree completely.

Thanks to that talented kid, I found this jewel of a song! Thank you kid, whose name I could not catch. Good luck for your stuff.
------------------------------------------
Movie- Gayathri (1973)
Musician - G Devarajan
Lyrics - Vayalar
Singer - KJ Yesudas

Thankathalikayil ponkalumaay vanna
Thaimaasa thamizh penne ninte
Aranjaana charadile elassinullil
Aareyum mayakkunna manthramundo
Anangamanthramundo….(thanka)

Mungippizhiyaatha chelayum chuti nee
Mudiyulambikkondu ninnappolinnu
Mukhamonnuyarthaathe mungumbol
Pathmatheerthathile paathi virinjoru
Pavizhathaamarayaayirunnu
Kadavil vannoru nullu tharaanete
kai tharichu (thanka)

Pularipoomukha mutathu kaalathu
Puram thirinjonnu nee ninnappol nee
Arippodi kolangalezhuthumbol
Agrahaarathile aarum kothikkunnorazhakin
vigrahamaayirunnu
Arikil vannoru pottu kuthaan njaan aagrahichu

Thulumbum paalkkudam arayil vachu nee
Thodiyilekaakiyaay vannappol ninte
Chodikalil kumkumam kuthirumbol
Nithya romaanchangal kuthunna kumbilil
Niraye dhahangalaayirunnu
Oru poonoolaay patikidakkaan
njaan kothichu ninnu (thanka)

Mannathu Padmanabhan is not my Grandfather

Yesterday my friend F was home. As he was looking around, a framed pic of an old man caught his eye. In all innocence he looked at me and asked if it was my Grandfather. It was a pepsi through the nose moment.

The picture was that of Mannathu Padhmanabhan.

I laughed! Damn right I did.. funny.. a couple of years back I didnt know better :))

Source of Stamp above: http://hubpages.com/hub/STAMP-COLLECTING-POST-INDEPENDENCE-INDIA-38. Thankyou Subamenu.

Stranger in the Mirror

It finally happened. Last saturday, I cut my hair.. made it regular size.
If that wasnt bad, I uploaded a pic of it and my friends said its good... watttt???!!!!
Damn.. when I went to get it cut, forget me, even the barber was upset!!!

advantages
- 30 minutes not required to towel, dry, cream, tie every morning
- no more hair fall like that!

disadvantages
- I see a stranger in my mirror; he shows me the finger n laughs!!!

Dinner

My parents like eating at X restaurant.

I dislike eating at X restaurant.

Yesterday we had dinner at X restaurant.

I am nice

Mohanlal in Dubai- Lal Salam

Guess who is going :)
Lalettan in Dubai.
Program tonight at Sheikh Rashid Hall. Dubai World Trade Center
Gates Open at 7.00 pm
Showtime 8.00 pm
more info - www.lal.ae

Tickets available at: Calicut Paragon Restaurant, Sunrise Supermarket - Karama, Dubai. More places probably, cant recall.

I wish the organisers had marketed the event better. So many people don't even know.

here's to the crazy ones

Here's to the crazy ones.
The misfits. The rebels.
The troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square hole.
The ones who see things differently.
They're not fond of rules.
And they have no respect for the status quo.
You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can't do is ignore them.
Because they change things.

They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do

-- Apple computers (?)

Changes

pic of white tiger at singapore zoo, clicked by me. got an SLR by the way :)

This is a random (asinine) post, I was pondering over how much things have changed, or rather was trying to analyze the trails of that evolution.. my progress.

An idea of what adorned the walls I lived within over time:


School:

One cut out pic of "the best there is, the best there was and the best there ever will be"- Bret the Hitman Hart- Poster of Razor Ramon (with his chains, tooth pick etc), The Undertaker (both wrestler posters from Young Times mag ), Some cricketer pictures cut out from the newspapers, Lot of wrestler stickers, Lots of comic hero stickers, Lots of UAE flag stickers, some Indian flag stickers.


High School: My first proper room of my own:

Some obsession with the silly tattoos, that came with alpenliebe toffees. One wall was partially covered with that. Behind the door I had a list of 'To study' that covered the entire syllabus and changed from 10th standard to 12th standard in between.

Also One nice picture of Goddess Saraswati, one of Ayyappa Swamy. Cricket world cup schedule. Calendars. Etc.


College: College hostel - shared room with two equally crazy batch mates.

Hehe, Thirteen topless females on one wall (The one I woke up looking at most days). Katrina Kaif, Trisha Krishnan, some other models actresses on cupboards. There were some actors too I guess, but about Katrina and Trisha I am pretty sure.
Thermocol cut out that said "WAKE UP' and was colored red, right on the ceiling, to act as an inspiration.
Art work, in the form of slogans all over the room.

Totally remember a friend's parent who accidentally walked into the room, go red in face, say "er, ok.. see you then…" and leave.


Work: Here I stick to what's around me at work place.

Telephone numbers of some of our clients.
Extension numbers of colleagues.
On a post it note, some PC names and passwords, some file names.. Another post it note with Dubai Int'l Film Fest enquiry contact details. I didn’t go for anything, that’s a different matter J

A small bit of paper on which, I made a drawing of my Manager's dog. (poodle- easy to draw).Another small bit of paper on which, I drew a long haired guy, to mark my territory. Ha!


..........How much have I changed along with everything else. Hmmm.....

How NOT to How TO

Bored/frustrated cat seen watching the world passing by. The world took a pic and uploaded it. Looks like the world is bored and frustrated aswell. hmm.. does that count as a metaphor?

The earlier post
How not to ask her phone number, if I am honest is supposed to be followed up with other lessons like:
How not to call her up
How not to email her and
How to avoid lame jokes in emails.

But NO, the posts wont be coming anytime soon. Because after each goof up I am still trying. And I am hell bent on writing something positive ONLY.
Something appreciable as iam known to give up pretty quick in certain areas ;) This is a social experiment afterall :))

Have had a rather interesting past few weeks, one being the disco dandiya 2008. music sure is the purest form of the drug. enjoyable evening. Sightings include Guys who seem to have spent their life savings on Hair Gel, Hair colors, Hair clips and piercings. Girls.. well, pretty girls ;). Families, children, a fine day where iam sure all ages enjoyed.
Was the show a bit disorganised. Yes.
Was there booze at the venue. No.

Other recent developments is that my long held belief that bollywood produces only trash has changed a bit. Saw Mumbai meri jaan and Rock On. Very good movies. About TZP going to Oscars , sad. we can do better than that! I mean TZP was good, but not so good.

Trying to take a week off to visit India soon. Hope it happens.

Hero Honda - Harley tie up Mock Posters

more lame posters!...

Posters for a Health Club Equipments Co

These are kind of lame!! i know...

Posters created for propsed rally at Bangalore

How NOT to ask her number

conversation

her : hi, whats your telephone number, we need it for the...xyz
me : its ***-*******.
her : ok, whats the name of your.... we are making a list.
me : well, we havent confirmed it yet, why don't you give me your number, I will let you know when we have decided.
her : er.. no its ok, I will call you and then you can tell me.

what the hell! why are Indian femmes so paranoid ?! :)

Holy Month, Learning Samskritam!

a quick word blog,
sorry for neglecting you for so long. Was busy for quite sometime.. finished 5 projects this year.. yea.. work... sh*t! Had clicked Aug 15 celebrations pics at IHS, but didnt upload. Had clicked Onam celebrations, didnt upload...
k, enough of the useless ranting.

Since Mom is not here, Onam wasn't exciting enough. Still, got to eat the best ada pradhaman in dubai, thanks to a cousin's exceptional skills!(not as good as Amma's ofcourse) but thats not whats 'Happening' now! the happening is mentioned below!!

Its Ramadan, the holy month, I have been skipping lunch everyday! more important: Have been attending Sanskrit classes.. right here in Dubai! (Samskritam :) for almost a week now, well it can also be described as a beginner's workshop. Thanks to the Samskrita Bharati people, the volunteers etc. Its fantastic.
Mama Achaarasya Naama Vasuvaj! and he is a fantastic guy! Till now he has spoken only in Sanskrit and we understand everything. One thing is how well he expresses, other i believe is as he mentioned, Sanskrit is in our blood. I agree completely. The classes are interesting, with students being asked to write scripts, act it out etc. and did I mention the pretty girls? yup.. Swami Saranam ;)
The occult has always fascinated me, maybe this would be a stepping stone, plus now all the shlokas would mean something more!! One thing i learnt today that Maarjaara means cat, that explains "meesha maarjaaran" in that comic! wow hehehe!!!

cannot finish this post without a reference to Oppenheimer, that one quote from the Gita,

If the radiance of a thousand suns were
to burst at once into the sky,
that would be like the splendor of the mighty one.
Now I am become Death,
the destroyer of worlds.

Not a perfect translation, a good one though. If you want to read more about this particular part of his life, whether he did say it etc.. here's a good link. for more about him, wiki is good enough.
Its interesting that this man was proficient in Sanskrit, but then.. arent they all? its just the Indians who dont get it!!!.. and yes i have an obsession with both WWs esp the Germans in WW2.

meanwhile, ba$tards struck in Delhi yesterday, many many people died, I will not give space to that in the blog. prayers.

meanwhile, Aham Samskritam Padaami ... :)

_________________________________________________________________
useful link : http://www.samskritabharati.org/sb/

santosh madhavan - amritachaitanya

This guy is rocking Kerala right now.

Story unfolds like an old superhit movie. infact the swami here too has taken enough pictures of himself ala Dr.Narendra Prasad. Taking things few steps further, our guy sits on tigerskin at puja time. bravo!

Unlike the movie though there is no super hero police officer. Last heard the swami has managed to escape.

3 cheers for amritachaitanya !!

the lady who speaks from dubai against the swami sounds equally fraud! enough spice for the malayali to discuss over tea. someday if the truth unfurls, its going to be very very interesting.

meanwhile

innathe chintha vishayam -

a saint can be a rascal but a rascal can never be a saint !!!

save tibet- making a T shirt

trying to do my part. It wasnt very difficult. If it would make atleast one person think about the issue, thats good enough.
peace.

Seen in Satwa- bed space available

seen in satwa. roadside poster for a "bed space" available. this picture effectively removes having to write "keralite" preferred.
usual ads seen are specific about which nationality, region, language, religion and occasionally caste of people preferred.

cats

seen outside workplace!!

truth does not triumph

"Democracy and liberalism are not a sufficient defence and this is a fact that the ideologues of ‘freedom’ need, equally, to comprehend. There is a fatal flaw in the liberal mind. Having established, in structure and form [though seldom in substance], a system of governance that corresponds to its conception of democracy, it feels that nothing more needs to be done. The ‘Truths’ of the liberal ideology are, as the American Declaration on the Rights of Man expresses it, ‘Self Evident’. They require no proof, no reiteration, and no defence - certainly no defence by force of arms. Once democracy [or even the ritual of quinquinneal elections] is established, according to liberal mythology, the mystical ‘invisible hand’ keeps everything in place; the ‘superior wisdom of the masses’ ensures order and justice...

This is just so much rubbish. As we should know after living with falsehoods for fifty years now. Truth does not triumph; unless it has champions to propound it, unless it has armies to defend it."

K P S Gill

Punjab: The Knights of Falsehood