And I keep on waiting!!!

Its 8:15 a.m. and I stand here in the bus stop waiting for the office bus to arrive. I stand here in the same manner as I did a few years back waiting for my college bus. Little did I know then that things would change so much in 2 years; the sky under which I am standing seems to be looking at me and smiling .. It is perhaps the only thing that has acted as a witness .. watching the transformation of a loud and bubbly person into a quiet professional.

I wouldn't blame the professionalism for the change though. It is destiny, or may be you could call it life. Yes Life, esoteric in the true sense, for one does not understand why you meet hundreds of people everyday, work with so many, and still remain lonely.

I am now in one of the corner seats in the bus, looking out of the window watching people trying to catch up with "life" .. It's an hour's journey and the only company that I generally have is the chatter of the RJ. I seldom notice the person sitting next to me, for its going to be yet another stranger or may be you could say another acquaintance. It is annoying at times when the radio is switched off, not because I am cut off from the melody but because I would now be thrust with thoughts
of the solitary journey ahead.

I can't help thinking about the short bus journeys to college ... well it's a paradox to call a distance of 30 KMs "short", but that is how it always seemed. A typical college day always begins in the bus with all the familiar faces; you look forward for all your friends to get in from the various stops, the reasonless giggles, the loud laughter that were stifled to avert the eyes of the lecturers and professors who would watch on us as if we were their prospective prey for the day ... well as I said it was a different life then. The pleasant memories of college are in itself good enough to save me from the misery of the bus journey.
I notice that it is time for me to get down and flash my smile of acknowledgement to all the known strangers that I see as I approach my cubicle. A few of my colleagues greet me with their morning wishes and as always, we exchange our pleasantries. Discussions jump to the weekend plans and I wonder what I'd do over the weekend.
It would be just another day staring at the mobile, wishing it would ring and bring back some wonderful moments that are now missing in life or maybe the safer option would be to come to office, for it's my new founded asylum these days. A few years back, weekends or weekdays didn't matter to me, I was always busy. I always stood doubting the authenticity of the wall clock that seemed to be in running too fast t
perceive its movement. Alas, now it seems as though my clock is suffering from some kind of paralytic attack.

There is a time in life, where one needs to go ahead, leaving behind your friends and carrying along only memories. You do make new friends, but then you never get the old close ones ... you do meet people who'd be so good to you that you could tell them anything and everything, but you do not find a person to whom you needn't say things ... friends who just know you. Occasional calls from such
friends, have been the only thing that I seem to look forward to ...However,I cant help but notice the uneasy pause that lingers around the conversation ..A pause not because of the relationship, but because it is too short a duration to say everything, and of course you cannot completely rule out the paucity of words!

As I sip coffee from the ubiquitous coffee mug, watching the drops of rain, trickling down the tinted glass panes, veiling the scenic beauty outside, I tell myself, may be there will be a day when things will change, when life will offer a rewind, a recap of all the events and I just have to wait.

Capricious are the ways of life, for I know there would be many who'd be able to empathize with me, ironically, even the dear ones that I miss this moment, waiting perhaps...!!

And I keep on waiting.....

Maar daala...!!!

Its time to reveal the crazy ideas that our luttapi has. She is my roomie and hence there is no way that I will miss any of her pranks. And she is also very ‘intelligent’ that she comes and tells me all her bloopers. She loves animals very much that if she is offered a job in a zoo she will surely quit this job (but my only doubt is whether the animals will quit )
Here comes the story that she herself revealed (poor thing, may not have thought that it was to “ME’ that she was telling). She used to visit her grandparents during every vacation with her cousins . During their stay there (which was a joy for her and obviously a terror for her grandparents!!!)they used to play with the kitten which was the uninvited guest there for the past few days. She usually fought with her cousins on the ownership of the kitten (just imagine the pathetic situation of it..to have luttapi as the mistress..Oh ..no!!!) Finally it was time to go back as her vacation was getting over..” If I go home, my cousins will get the kitten for themselves..Hmm..what should I do ? “She spend hours thinking of what to do with the kitten..and…”Idea! I’ll hide the kitten so that when I come back for next vacation I can play with it”. Yes, it is a good idea, isn’t it? (Who said she doesn’t have brains? Hmm…lets wait till the end to finalise)
It was time for her to search for a good hiding place for the kitten. In a big house like that it wasn’t a difficulty to find an appropriate location. Eureka!! The cellar was the best option which was filled with large airtight earthern jars. She carefully took a jar and opened its lid and told the cat a bye (eithout knowing that it was their final bye) and led the kitten into it. She closed the lid tightly and put 2-3 bricks on the lid wih a great satisfaction that now no one will find the kitten (Hope you have finalized about her brains..)

Now going into office days:- She went and collected her first coffee mug on a fine Friday afternoon. On the same day even without using that mug atleast once, she bought it to the hostel and kept it carefully in her shelf. On Monday morning on the way to office the mug fell down and broke. Poor luttapi, she was very gloomy for the whole day coz the mug broke even before she used it once. Then on the next day, when she went to attend a meeting in the conference hall she spotted a coffee mug on the table. The thief in her had arose but the angel in her subsided it; just then her teammate told her “Hey, u lost ur cup, right? So take that cup. There is no probs” Hearing this the naughty thief in her won the battle between the right and wrong. She took the cup and kept it in her drawer. Now the old gloomy luttapi was gone forever and the cheerful luttapi returned. “Now, I have to drink coffee in it before anything happens to this cup” ..she thought at the coffee time. While taking the coffee she heard two people talking
First person : Mera cup missing hai yaar
Second : wo missing nahi hai na, chori ho gaya hai na?
First: ha, wo bhi thik hai, chori ho gaya hai
Hearing this fear began to creep up our luttapi. She quickly walked away from there. So friends, if your coffee mug is missing then BEWARE !!! She has come there before you..

Maine Print kyun kiya

Sid - One of the jovial persons of the batch- who loves to imitate others( you may not have forgotten the way he used to imitate the famous quotes of FLP “I’ll report to Saji” and Jonlo’s “Nooo”, always having two wires connected to him (hey! It’s the earphone). In 1 sec, u see him very seriously doing something and the next moment he may be bursting into laughter.
And yeah, he taught us the most wanted Hindi word “Esaan faramosh!!” that we now use necessarily and unnecessarily which also gave us the confidence (read over confidence) that we have mastered 50% of Hindi.
It once happened that Sid wanted to take a printout of certain documents. As all the computers are connected to the same printer on the respective floors, Sid gave “PRINT” command as all usually does. He gave it once – no printout came. ‘Of course, may not have given “PRINT” properly’, he thought.
So gave again – No reponse. Hmm, why have we learned “Try, try, try again” if at all we never use it when there is a great chance. Sid also did the same. But not thrice – 42 times. Still nothing changed.
Hey, there may be some serious problem!! He checked the name of the printer given on the system – One in Canada. What???? Did he see CANADA????? (If at all he had remembered about RDC (Remote Desktop Connectivity) in which his system was also a part of, 42 copies of a large set of document may not be popping out in CANADA one after the other in the front of perplexed Associates)

Worries of a FLP member!!

I had promised my brother a digital camera in my final year of college when I get a job. He finally upgraded his request to an iPod when I got my first salary. I gifted him with his dream gift as it was the first thing that he had requested me. But today I got my brother’s mail. If you have any elder ones at home, this letter may be very handy. But then I am not at all responsible for the after effects from your siblings.

Dear sister,
I am studying very hard and hope to get a first class in the exam. I am keeping fine. Hope you are also fine there. Hope this letter would find you in good health. I am writing this letter to inform that my s5 tour has been fixed to be in September and also to offer you a help. I heard from many underground sources that you have got so much money and is trying very hard to get rid of it and also it has come to my notice that you are planning to take loan too. Since it is not safe nowadays to put in banks also since if somebody else put their money over yours, then it would be difficult to take yours. So I would suggest materialisation of money so that efficient usage of money results. I also remember how I had helped you earlier by converting your money to iPOD. Now I have a new idea. It would be nice and more resourceful if you could convert your money to a Sony/Panasonic Camcoder thereby reducing all your worries to ground level where to invest money. Thus you can live a peaceful life with no tensions and headaches. And don’t worry I will come with more innovative ideas when you again become in tension.
Your own brother

Thalaivar's tryst with destiny

We had been waiting for thalaivar and sannata to return from kerala, as we all knew they would bring a lot of things from there. Thalaivar had borrowed luttapi’s airbag so naturally luttapi expected a full bag of things exclusively for kerala products. But he claims that on his way to kerala, the airhostess didn’t allow him to keep his bag with him as it consumed a lot of space and hence it was kept in the bathroom!
But then the interesting part of their air travel was this: Both sannata and thalaivar have been relaxing on their respective seats. But then the airhostess was walking desperately from one end to other as if she was searching for something, even though the departure time was 10 minutes back, the pilot didn’t seem to get in. Everyone was frantically walking here and there. No one knew y?
Finally the airhostess came and stood in front of thalaivar with such a relaxed expression as if she had found out what she was searching. “Sir, can you please go and wash your shoes as the cow dung under it is causing trouble for the passengers. Sorry for the inconvenience caused.” Thalaivar stood up and looked around, of course his face beaming with his embarrassed grin.
It was known that the airhostess didn’t allow him to wash it in the bathroom of the plane, instead he had to go to the airport again….No wonder the flight was 20 minutes late!!

Moral: So next time if the flight doesn’t take off in time, just check below your shoes…

Arrey bhai !!

I sincerly thank kerala_smile for helping me out with the introduction about Valyettan, to whom this blog is dedicated..And also our Company who has still left both of us without much work so that we could " work hard" on this.Here comes the intro from kerala_smile and the story from myself..i keep on repeating this because if any diaster happens after the blog comes out, i'll have kerala_smile also to share the after-effects.
2day our forever-blushing editorji has decided to target her guns on 1 of the quieter persons of the FLP batch.. the 1 n only vallyettan.. I remember the 1st time I met him.. it was the day v all landed in pune.. going by the principle of safety in numbers, v were reigning in the mallus of our group, as n wen they checked in the hotel.. so there were 4 of us and we were watching the spectacle of a pretty swanky baaraat in its full swing.. there we were.. passing comments abt the over-made up ladies, the cute chicks n the obese but spirited old men.. all of them dancing merrily away.. then this lanky guy comes up2 us n hesitantly ask us.. “ u hav joined kanbay now.. rite..? “ n then saving us further embarrassment he comes straight 2 the point..” malayalees..?” btw, that was the last time I heard him speak in English 4 some time.. like any self respecting mallu, he 2 doesnt use English much no matter hw much he's well versed in it.. he has as much knowledge of hindi as I have of my project.. and he isn’t hesitant 2 admit it.. but his tamil is as fluent as his malayalam . but I suppose that’s expected of any1 from palakkad.. so much 4 his linguistic skills..
Quite a jovial character, he tends 2 open up within his group only.. he is hardworking and focussed though he tries 2 put up a façade of not being so.. just like our hyd_mallu does.. I seriously dont remember how he earned his vallyettan nickname.. but I think theres no1 who seems fitter 2 wear it.. he is very dedicated and i'm sure his FLP project team mates would vouch 4 it.. esp. bluffmaster-ki-maa who often sought refuge with regular truants like maama n kerala-smile( who happened 2 b a contact point himself.. some lead.uh..?yes..he was my project lead...where I was the only girl..surrouonded by maama, karate,bluffmaster and kerala_smile).. so much so that by the 3rd day she was given restraining orders by valyettan.. not 2 b seen in the above said people's vicinity. She claims 2 this day that she actually did some work and it was just bad company that got her in trouble.

You ask in any language to him he will answer, except HINDI. For him Chinese would be easier than our national language. All his trials to master it had been in vain. But his honest effort to give a try on using Hindi wherever possible has to be appreciated. There was one incident that goes like this : He was on his way back from kerala after attending his sister's marriage. He reached Pune and hired a taxi to reach his flat. On reaching the destination, he got down and asked the fare. the taxi driver replied "500, sir". Valyettan was astonished to hear such a large amount for a short distance and was going to ask him why so and to reduce it. yes, he started speaking.....that too in Hindi !!!!! "Arrey bhaiii"...then there was a full stop, (he didn't know how to ask about the rate, in Hindi..) Finally he took out Rs.500 from his purse and decently gave it to the confused driver, who was waiting for the remaining sentence..

One day Valyettan and hyd_mallu went to the canteen for their 4 'o' clock snacks. While hyd_mallu ate a samosa, valyettan preferred vada. They had their snacks and hyd_mallu approached to pay for it. He took the money and handed it over to the canteen person saying " samosa aur vada"...Suddenly Valyettan came running saying " not 'or' , its 'and'..samosa and vada"

I also take this space to ask anyone to lend me some money for the hospital charges because I dont know whether he will spare me after reading this!!!!

Sorry..wrong number!!

Its quite a long time since i wrote anything on my blog. So here comes the true story about our one and only kerala_smile (thanks to our wonderful tutor, Pranal who named him so!! ) The joke is that it was he alone who told luttapi these stories....and hence i owe luttapi for providing me with the data needed for my next blog!!!

Once kerala_smile and his friends went to the beach on one fine evening. they roamed around here and there and finally he parted for buying pop-corn for all of them. He had his fill of popcorn and was back on his way to his friends. By that time his friends had already found a neat place on the sand and had started relaxing. They didnt see kerala_smile coming towards them. Suddenly a trick popped up in his mind - why cant i jump over them so that i'll land safely and hence shock them for a second?? The thought itself made him very confident (or overconfident ?) that he followed all the above steps without flaw...and there he landed in front of his friends, splashing sand all over their faces and body...He turned to them with a cool air that he succeeded in almost taking the life out of them (and more importantly covering them with the golden sand)....and ALAS!!!! it was he who was dismayed..its true that he had jumped as he planned, but what went against was that he didnt jump in front of his friends, it was another group of people who was enjoying the beauty of the sunset :)
( he said sorry with his typical kerala_smile and walked away.....He occasionally turned back to check whether they were coming after him so that he could get ready to run away...after all who willl forgive being given a mud bath without request.....)

From this incident itself, you all can guess that his imaginations become too weird that he assumes one thing for the other.Here is another incident that substantiates this : He was waiting for his friends(yeah, i guess its the same ol' group ) in the bus stop to go for a film. His friend had a grey colour car and kerala_smile was anxiously expecting them to come at any moment. Wow! atlast there comes the car he had been anticipating for long. He jumped into the front seat of the car, while someone else got into the back seat..Kerala_smile didnt mind it and he turned to the driver and asked "hey! why were u late, man? " . To his astonishment, it was not his friend who sat on the driver's seat (and obviously it was not his friend's car ) yeah! again .....
He just saw a gray car and got into it...
His kerala smile appeared once again and he told the driver " oh no..err...sorry... my friend looked just exactly like you..thats y..i...." ( hmm, the driver was around 60 years old while kerala_smile's friend was around 20 years old :) )

well, this is not the end of the story....Im sure that he will come up with more, as often as his kerala_smile appears on his face..lets wait for more!!!!

Secret of hyd_mallu's voice??

On popular demand and special requests from kerala_smile and luttapi, this blog is dedicated to the lanky hyd_mallu - the thoroughbred 'gosai' who claims 2 b a mallu.. He is definitely one of the more colorful characters of our FLP batch. Though he is fluent in 4 languages, he is modest n doesnt show off( remember the phrases of kerala_smile like " boss, vaha se nere jayiyega.." put up with his limited knowledge in hindi n english..). however its exactly this that makes our hero the ridicule of his mallu frnz..

hwever he makes up 4 his talent in languages with his natural absentmindedness.. his roommates claim that his absentmindedness is legendary.. theres a story doing the rounds that is often repeated by thalaivar.. now it so happened that 2 of his engg collegemates had come-a-visiting.. now as is common knowledge, thalaivar n our hero had done their btech 2gether n so went 2 the visitor's lobby 2 recieve their friends.. now our hero's weakness started acting up.. poor boy.. though he managed 2 remember the nickname of 1 of his frnds, he couldnt get hold of the name of the 2nd guy. now he had called up a few of his batchmates into the lobby. the problem was, he couldnt very well ask his friend's name( n that 2 a classmate of 4 years..) in front of every1 else.. but his natural resourcefulness n a slice of luck saw him through the situation.. the guys introduced himself as anoop to 1 of us.. so, that took care of getting the guy's name and then it was our hero's show all the way from there.. after introducing his close friend 2 every1 else and chatting up with him 4 some time, they departed. now comes the interesting part.. they happened 2 meet another of their classmates later in the day..( as u know any informal or formal surveyor will tell u that over 70% of mallus in pune are from around palakkad..) so this guy tells our hero n thalaivar that classmate nicknamed 'pakru' happens 2 b in pune that day.. excited by seeing yet another classmate our hero goes overboard and makes a big deal of wanting 2 meet him.( i was told later by a reliable source that this is a std procedure 4 him.. often the name registers in his mind and its only later that he finds out who the person concerned was..) however even thalaivar who is so used 2 our hero's ways was shell shocked by this performance.. it just so happened that the anoop whom he introduced 2 others was nicknamed pakru!! so the next time he meets u n says "hello machu, enganundu jeevitham..?" just try 2 find out if he really recognised u..

During the FLP, we used to wait for the coffee break so that we could rush out of the class. Usually hyd_mallu, thalaivar and myself go together.Hyd_mallu used to drink coffee often from the vending machine during his office hours, he had also seen the staff filling the tea, coffee, sugar powders and all into the machine and keeping them back in the cupboard below. When they all were at their hostel, thalaivar and sonnatta had even told him that if we bring noodles, we have to just add salt and hot water from the vending machine to get delicious yummy noodles!!! One fine evening, when he was alone, he thought of gargling with salt water as he had a throat pain. For that he needed salt, the only way he could get it is from the cupboard just below the vending machine from which the staff kept all the powders.Hyd_mallu went to the cupboard, took the salt and added it to a cup of water, and gargled lavishly!!!!!!! Omigosh!!! he felt some distaste and it only took a minute for him to realise that what he added as salt was bleaching powder...
For all of us, "boost is the secret of my energy"
but for him "bleaching powder is the secret of my energy"

well so much 4 the day.. so let the comments n barbs start pouring in..
[i will be indebted 2 thalaivar 4 his accurate n detailed description of events]

Thalaivar's tamasha's!!!!

The Shahrukh Khan of our batch (atleast he says so!!! do u doubt whether he hasnt seen a mirror for years or is it that he hasnt seen shahrukh???) But frankly he has the 'main hoon na' style when he walks with that long bag..(now you may surely think i am bribed)

He has that 'muyal chiri' when anyone plays a prank on him, a very innocent smile...He made me believe that i had the power to curse because whatever i say used to happen only on him....he was very scared of me for a few days because if i curse him that he will be sick, the next day he directly comes from the medical store!! what i heard is that while everyone goes for breakfast to any hotel, he goes to the medical store instead!!......

NOw a true story of him coming up...He went to the barber shop to cut his hair. Its famous that his hindi is so 'fantastic' that he usually makes use of hyd_mallu in case anyone speaks hindi. But this time luck was against him, he was alone in the barber shop. the barber came (obviously he knew only hindi) and asked something to him, as Thalaivar didnt understand what he said but got a clue that it was something related to the hair style, he answered "thoda" as he wanted the barber to cut only a little hair.........Now the stylish cutting started, thalaivar was soon into a dream of becoming shahrukh as soon as the barber finishes!!! he was shocked when the barber interupted his dream, not because he was done with the cutting, but as the barber had left only "thoda" hair on his head......

Sannatta!

I didnt have any plans to write about Sannatta now, but he provoked me to write a column about him..so i take the risk of writing some truths eventhough my life may be in danger after this comes out!!
The silent guy in our batch..hmm, but not at all silent when he wants to fire anyone. Its very rare to see a smile on his face, the only time you see a glow in his eyes along with the sporadic smile is either when he hears the word "punjabi dhaba" or sees a .... (you can fill thise 4 dots as you wish)
He got his name Sannatta just because he is the last person to open his mouth in the class. He is extra polite when he comes for studying just one hour before the tests in class along with hyd_mallu and thalaivar.
His access card was not working for 2 days (hmm, i dont know why? infact no one knows why? - there is only one reason that i have heard about the access card not working..)

He has got enough curses from me and even luttapi had a dream that sannatta would never get a project..haha, that was the time when you could see a different expression on his face - a terrified one as if his future has closed all the doors against him..

Here is a joke I heard about him..As both thaliavar and hyd_mallu used to accompany him to their domicile, they usually take an auto from office. Its only hyd_mallu who knows hindi fluently so the conversations restrain between him and the auto driver. Sannatta used to carefully listen to their conversations. their house was close to a bridge so that hyd_mallu used to tell the auto driver "bridge ke baad side mein ruk ja". As they got a stay which was more comfortable than the present they moved out to that place. This time when sanatta was travelling in the auto he told the auto driver confidently "bhayya,bridge ke baad side mein ruk ja". The funniest thing is that there wasnt any bridge near their new house and the auto driver started to laugh......I think that was the first and the last time he spoke hindi.
(for the above story courtesy :Thalaivar . and i am not directly or indirectly reponsible for any injuries of thalaivar)

FLP Days!!!

You may be wondering what this FLP means, right? its nothing but the Fresher Learning Program here in my office, there were 36 of us all set to rock the world!!I didnt have time to be homesick coz the majority of them were mallus..

in the first week itself i had to believe that "An Idea can Change your life!"..its just happened like this. i went to the idea office to enquire about mobile connections, i slipped from the staircase and fractured my leg, i had a plaster hmm,.,,,for 6 weeks.it was ofcourse a tough time for me, but as there were a lot of helping hands it was not at all a problem, it was either ikka, timon, pumba, hyd_mallu, luttapi ,da or anyone else there who used to supply me with the daily coffes or teas.

it was luttapi who used to sit beside me everyday and ofcourse she is my roommate. Shes been the goalpost of the whole class just because she acts so funny many a times..famous for accepting the goals meant for someone else..her favorite passtime is to play goldminer, She was the master brain behind naming timon and pumba :) , She is called luttapi, coz she used to get a lot of goals from kuttusan, and ofcourse me...kuttusan used to sing "CID moosa, ill catch u like an eecha..." whenever he sees her..(for reasons everyone knows).and oops , i forgot to tell u that...keep a distance from her, otherwise get prepared to be scratched..there wer a lot of victims like timon and pumba which also gained her a name "murmaani"..so beware friends!!!

(i'll consider writing more abt her if she offers a grand treat!!)

Then comes timon, the comedy character..you will never know how time flies when you are with him, so witty that we didnt have time to close our mouth and stop laughing, His favorite passtime is ofcourse "choriyaling" luttapi..and ofcourse very very helpful, you tell him anything, he does it without any hesitation,...comes to the class with a kuttusan chiri and a Yo! ..one day when in the perl class, everyone saw him flat on the ground with his legs up..hehe..he was sitting near me, on his way to rin, who sat behind us (still on the chair), the brucelee inside him arouse, that he twisted the chair in a manner only he could explain..and ....oooopppppps...there lies the chaplin of our class.,,it was the biggest "fall" of the class, which was followed by thalaivar and 'da'.(da is another character, who is my roommate, a very devoted believer, and often uses the word da more than the number of times she breathes)

this blog will become so long, so will continue in the next blog....

first attempt

this is my first attempt to blog...its not at all because im good at writing or so...its free time tht makes u do all these sort of things.. so who ever reads this may get crazy about the things tht i write..about me, im working in pune..and the more im on bench, the more blogs u can expect!!! So better pray for me to get a project, even though im comfortable either ways