Women Smoking!!

That looks like a very interesting topic to blog about(Atleast to me!!). Bangalore is a new place to me. Infact its the first major city i have been. I did my schooling in a place Ambasamudram(Tirunelveli!!! comes in some movies like roja, dum dum dum), then college at Coimbatore. The moment i heard i was going to college at Coimbatore i was jumping with joy!

But that soon died out, a month after i ended up there i found out there is nothing much cool there. Even the "cool" temperature was horribly bad from that year on. I still remember my cousin sister saying "Kanna! Interviewla select aayita varumbothu amma kitta solli, jamakalam ellam eduthundu vandhudu, appadi kulurum". Anga pona appram thane theriyuthu bedsheete theva illainu!!!!

So this place had all the perinaikenpalam, koundenpalam, narasimhanaichenpalayam (Spelling! to Err is human :-), not much of a city approach although my college was much better,it was in the Top ten colleges list some time back. I had a close friend of mine who just wanted to do graduation in a city like Coimbatore and got admission in another well known college for which he says he'll repent until he dies!

So not much of a city exposure, I am not this partying kind so it didnt bother me much. My apprehensions changed the moment i landed here for this internship. My mother usually insists this "6 o'clock bath, 7'o clock sandhyavandhanam, 8 o'clock temple" and then college which i 've never tried doing, but it gave me a feeling that this was life!

Bangalore gave me a different feel about how good life can be (not considering the traffic, the zillion street dogs, the roads after it rains and of course the mutlilingual autowallahs!!). So this is going to be another tale about a flat-mate who is also from Coimbatore and his notions about being in a big city.

We walk back home together usually (both of us are Interns for different companies in the same campus) and we discuss about a wide range of topics. Believe this guy has totally different opinions about most of the things in life. So we were walking near the Domlur signal when a woman wearing Jeans and T-shirt crossed us smoking a cigarette. The moment I saw that it didnt bother me much knowing that most women in our campus smoke. But he could not resist that, he complained "Partheengala, kaliugama pochu. Ponnunga ellam dum adikaranga"(Fate to the society that women are smoking). I didnt want to get into a debate and deliver a judgment if women could smoke. So i just said that its not wrong.

He did not accept that answer. He told me that the Indian tradition will not accept women smoking and drinking. I told him that society neither accepts men smoking. He told me that even during the times of Akbar and Birbal men could smoke pipes (He actually meant the Hookah!!!!), so men are above that law.

So i had to point out that the society neither has a law that bans women from smoking nor one that accepts men smoking. So went on with this discussion. All the while during the conversation i kept telling him to get rid of the "Periyanaickenpalayam" attitude (not that i am from New York, or Jersey city) but i have learnt to like city life.

So he got all the more agitated and asked me a question, "Ungalukku kalyanam aaha pora ponnu, dum thanni adicha avala kalyanam paniipingala?". That was a pretty neat question. I told him "No!". He asked me to give him a clear answer! So i told him that once the engegement is done you dont have much of options! Else i might opt out! I knew i was bowled out completely.

He quickly remarked, "Periya pengal nalan kaakaravaru mathiri pesineenga, ippo mattum en vendam soneenga?" (You spoke as though you were the sole savior of the women's cause, why are you opting out?).

Me with the stubborn **s attitude could not accept defeat easily. so i kept talking non-stop for another fifteen minutes after which he got tired hearing that. Lucky me!!

But when i was alone i just realized how we are. You know that women smoking is quite common nowadays and one cannot judge a female just because she drinks and smokes, but you still cant accept them.
"Minds are like parachutes. They only function when they are open."!

??

The topic says it all. I just dont know what to blog about!! Last Monday was my previous post and since then i have been waiting for this time so that i could blog about something, now i am just staring at the monitor and my manager at the other end is giving me curious looks.

Usually i keep thinking about different things and my thoughts are never blank (reason why i named it Thought's Central. This has got me thinking about re-naming my blog). Last week has been full of activities, but no incident has given me the real urge to write about it!

Last Thursday was one of the best days in my life. I have got this wierdo flat-mate who just loves doing things differently. First, he loves watching SUN-TV after seven. People thats the time when all the "serials' are telecast and this guy misses none! He watches "Manaivi", "Selvi", "kanavarukaga" and plenty more. I just dont remember the names! He does not give a damn if its a nerve wracking match between India and Pakistan or the recently released movie telecast in the "Local Cable"(Dunno how you call it! But this is how they call it here) channel. You 'll be amazed to hear what he has for breakfast. MENU: Half Kilo Tomato and Carrot, six banana's, a biscuit packet and then the usual breakfast at his office cafeteria! You know what, he's been telling his roomies that the vegetables have made him look fresh in the morning and he's planning to add cabbage to that list! (Yheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew, that's goats food).

So on Thursday i had this meeting in the morning and could not miss it. So i get up at 8.10, my roomie Raj(He's an Intern at Intel and he leaves at 8.15 so that he could take the 8.30 company bus) told me that there is no water in the house. Me and Vijay (my other roomie) rushed downstairs to switch the motor "on". The moment we switched it "on", the owner(same old man!!) came downstairs and said "Enna, motor on panniteenga, ungalala tank fill aayiduchu. naanga tank cleannnu panninugurom!" (You guys switched on the Motor? we are cleanin gand the tank is full now, how are we going to complete it). I just wanted to beat the shit outta him. So we raced to the terrace and i was expecting the maid to clean the tank. But there was this wierdo flat-mate who was cleaning the tank. We fought with him even the previous night for watching the serials when there was this interesting show that was going on and now to start it all again i was tired!

There was slight drizzle and this guy was seriously cleaning the tank and the owner and his son-in-law watching him do it. I kept telling him that i had a meeting, he kept saying "naan, azukhu thanniya kudika maten". i asked him to do it on the weekends for which he said he wanted rest then. I soon realised that this all futile and called my manager and informed him that i'll be late.

So the rest of the flat mates including me joined together and gave him a royal screwing. Guys i just loved that time and this guy was literally in tears! We teased so badly that he started throwing the bucket and the mug everywhere, Tried to splash the dirty water on us and it drenched the owner's son-in-law for which the owner was also not spared.

So this guy started cleaning at 7 in the morning and finally at ten we were sitting downstairs when he entered and lifted the treasure that he discovered from the tank. Guys it was his shirt and his u**** ***r(you read it right!!!!) that he lost ten days back. He took the treasured items and left it on the table so that we could take a good look at it and be amazed by his fishing capabilities. Realized what all the “azukhu thanni was about”.


So finally i could blog about something that happened in the past week! And today morning when i was walking to the office through the Wind-Tunnel road on the Airport Road there was this demonstration from the "Kannada Vedike" in the morning. There were slogans like "Beke beku, kannada beku" and "Down down ****(software company)". I passed them and was just nearing the office when there was a road block. There was this guy who was instructing all of us to go through the main road because of the demonstration. There was this massive placard "Down down ****(software company)" and my flat mate is an intern in this company. So i asked him no to reveal his identity and asked him to stay behind while i go and negotiate a truce with him. I told him that my office was just yards away and he let us both walk through that way.

He got serious and yelled at me. I requested him again to let us through. Now he got all cool and asked me to repeat "I know Kannada, I Love Kannada". I was ready to do that but he finally finished his sentence with "Kannada". I was looking at him when he realized that i didnt understand that and told me to say "Kannada theriyu, kannada romba pidiku" in KANNADA. You know what? i preferred to walk the 4 kilometers instead without any further deliberations!!!!!!

Right to Write

Lately i have been wondering why writing some post/Blog(Dunno! the right word. Hope Hawkeye & CO will come to a consensus) is more interesting than creating a personal diary with all the everyday thoughts! I tried creating a personal diary where i recorded interesting events, facts etc. But then the enthusiasm did not last, first two-three days i was just writing about what i have been doing all day, when i sat in the weekends to see the interesting stuff i was shocked to see my pathetic life with the so-called interesting events. It had only "i woke at six in the morning, brushed teeth, had to bathe, breakfast.... back to bed at eleven after writing this diary" and stuff like this!!! I have been doing this ever since my childhood only that i had to do all this alone being in college at Coimbatore!

Slowly i lost interest in it and it died away completely! But after i came to Bangalore for this Internship, i had time to reason out everything, guess i was into this mental maturity stuff! One day i was too bored to sit and type some java code, compile and run it, that’s what i have been doing all these months, i went to Google and typed something. I still dont remember how I landed up in blogspot, i read some blogs and then was amazed by the way guys/gals could express their thoughts. Even then i didnt think of creating a space for me and writing about stuff that few people care about!

In a week or so, i was completely wrong about people being disinterested about others opinions! That was it! Eureka! Eureka! It was always about others expressing their opinions on my views that my personal diary lacked. It was getting monotonous about me scribbling something on my diary, me reading that again over the weekend and flattering myself at the way i express my thoughts.

The very same day i got into Blogspot and became blogger. If you are reading this, you might not see much of comments on my posts, but then it gives me a satisfaction that some one might get to read all these someday. Others opinions might not be similar to my views, but it helps me in a second thought process to reason out my view and if i am confident of being right then,
"My opinions may have changed, but not the fact that I'm right!".

An act of Difference

Most of you might not know that i am a summer Intern at a reputed American Investment Bank called Goldman Sachs. Life everyday means learning new stuff. For the first few weeks i was amazed at the way the employees conduct themselves with ease. They seem to be very cordial with "Hello! How are you Doing?", "Hi! Have a nice day". Every single person is on that good manners list and I having entered the organization as part of the curriculum made every effort to look normal when i come across people in the floors of the office only that i end up being clumsy. The moment there is a "Hi Haarish! Good morning. How was the day yesterday?" .."Grrr!! hmmm. yeee.. Great...Sorry but i have a meeting at 9 with John and i am already late" is my reply when the whole office knows that John resigned aeons ago! But could not help that for quite some time. I eventually realised not to venture out when some one's in the coffee station because i could be confronted with these "Hi" "Hello" etc stuff, the coffee place being the only place i frequent in the whole office.
Things started getting better after a month and i got comfortable with the new place and surroundings. Now back to my topic("An act of Difference"). The office in India was started a year ago and we have considerable American and British employees with us to help us with the transition. One of them is the CEO David Simons, a energetic, athletic and quite interesting personality who commands a lot of respect among all the divisions of GS.
It so happened that over the weekend we had our inaugural David Simons Cricket Tournament at the St. Johns Cricket Grounds, the first of any entertainment event in GS.
Our CEO is a person who travels executive class in flights, advices all the employees to use both sides of the paper for print- outs etc. They are other instances that i have heard about him being the real driving force for most of the accomplishments in GS elsewhere.
So we turned up in hundreds for the match and me not being much of a sporting freak was there to support my team(App Dev) who eventually turned out to be the Runners! The matches were on by the time i got there at 10 having woken up at 9.20 and making every effort to look good taking into account the number of girls who come there to cheer their respective teams. The moment i get there, my team is warming up for their next match. There i saw this gentleman in a red T-Shirt, hat and really long camera(the lens i guess). You would have guessed who that person is by now, but i didnt for the slightest chance realise it could be my CEO, the official photographer for the cricket tournament named after him!
He was supposed to play his first match against our App Dev 'A' team that was not as strong as the runners up team but that team had my manager in it and i was praying the zillion Hindu gods so that a miracle could help my managers team win the tournament. The first match started at 12 and my managers team was bowling first. The opening batsmen for the CEO's team were already in their positions and one of them was the CEO himself.
He being American knows nothing about cricket and we had this opinion that the match might be just easy. We were in for a surprise. He held the bat out side the body just like the way cartoons depict cave-men with a club. Off came the first ball and he swung the bat. Phew, the ball raced past him to the keeper! It was from the next ball that we were brought to our senses. Most of us didnt realise that the most of the Americans could play BASEBALL. The next ball was a short length delivery and off she went out of the stadium. No foot movement, just one swing and that did it. The first two overs cost us 46 runs and this being a three over match something had to be done. My manager was on one of the fielders and he kept staring at me for the "Rip them Apart Buddy!!" that i told just before he went to play! Finally in the last ball of the last over we got him out and i jumped like one "George of the Jungle" as though it did us great in getting him out in the last ball of the match.
Facing their bowling was next in our minds when one of the team mates popped up this question "Guys, What do we do if David bowls?". Me in the usual spirits of impressing my manager exclaimed "Hey, that should not be a problem! I dont think he bowls. But then we have have Mathew(My Manager) with us who can infiltrate that!". Neither did Matt answer that not was i waiting for an answer!
To our joy David donned the wicket keepers role and that was our first relief ! Their Bowling lacked the consistency that we did! One or two balls that batmen could chase and hit got us the maximum runs. In the end we won and Extras was the top scorer for us, David was the man of the match as expected!
We were having lunch and it was Chicken Biriyani, Chicken Sandwich for non-vegetarians and veg biriyani and sandwich for the vegetarians. The food was good and me being strictly vegetarian (Guys, my Parents might read this!), was content with all this and ofcourse the endless amount of coke.
The food was served in paper plates and coke in paper cups and as usual the Indian mentality caught up with me(rest of us too!!). The plates and the cups were thrown all over the ground and i personally contributed to ten such cups! The rest of the matches were going on when suddenly David was off everybody's screen. His camera was on the table but he was not to be found. To everybody's surprise David re-appeared with three empty card-board boxes and two empty tins, placed it on the pavement and started collecting all the plates near him and put it in the boxes and the cups in the tins. I was shocked to see this man doing this job and so was everyone else. The next moment i was chasing all the plates and cups flying like a mad man(gave me a feeling like i was chasing chickens) and personally went to the bin near David and dropped it there! In just over ten minutes that place was clear of any plates/cups. Just then David turned to me and said "It just takes one man to make a difference". Just so true!!!