Oru Glass kittiyirunnenkilllllllll........

I was doing laundry when the door bell rang. Bin opened the door.. The sound of Gasper. I called out aloud - Gasper, are you alone? Reply was from Sand - "Yes, I'm alone" :-S

After routine rounds of thallu, pallu etc we left to Tharavaadu for lunch.
Sand and Soo were seen holding tight onto a table. They had reserved it for us. And we came a good 45 minutes late. Thank God it was Sand. If it were for KK, you would have got the audio treat of the millennium :-S

Back to Pluto, finished off Omkara in Bin's laptop. Original CD , okay.. We are strictly against pirated movies. Akshay Kumar says, pirated CD's damage your player :-)

Movie over, Jim comes with tea !
Soo spared of her 'monopoly' of tea making.. I had biscuits and chocolates for disposal. All of 'em were given to the youngest member of the lots. Soo, of course. Soo, with biscuit and caramilk in one hand; tea and snickers in the other was a sight to see.. I grabbed my cam, and captured this in frame, amidst roaring laughter from her and the onlookers.. Seeing the laugh going outta controol, Soo said "Sand, ee glass onnu pidichey... njaan onnu chirikkatte"

That invited more laughter and set the mood.
Everyone was seen exchanging glass.. for the sole reason to get a good laugh.

If Bomman Irani had a laugh therapy in Munnabhai MBBS, here is Soo's Glass Therapy for you. Try it at home, it really works !
:-D

See some proof below

On Fire !

When the fire alarm went off, i thought its just another false alarm.. I dint care a **** and continued my work.. It was already 7.45 in the evening. But then when there was panic in the building, I set on my foot; my cube mates still glued on to the pc. A quick analysis of the situation and i sensed some danger. Burning smell was coming from the interior of the floor. I alerted my cube mates to evacuate. The entire floor and building evacuated to the safe assembly area. The security was quick to act. They assessed the situation, and immediately alerted the fire service and police. By the time they came, I saw the security boys - even the pantry staff - running around and climbing to the 3rd floor. They sensibly opened up all the windows for proper ventilation. Thats when we, from below, saw thick smoke coming out from the back extreme of the building. From what we learned, the fire was in the data centre - thats somewhere at the middle of the length of the 3rd floor. The back end would at least be 20m from that point !

Fire brigade came in quick time. By 8.20PM, they were in the stand by mode. The squad rushed in, and I guess, the fire extinguishers in the floor were used to quench the fire, if any.

By 9PM it was all in control. I climbed up to 3rd floor, to check if my pc is all fine. But i was stopped at the entrance, coz there still was thick smoke inside.. The security warned that its unsafe to go in - rightly so. So I retracted to the basement. A colleague of mine who went to fetch his vehicle keys later told me that, there still is smoke inside, and its all foggy in there.

By 9.15PM, the fire brigade packed up and left.
The facilities team of the office had already arrived by this time.
Hopefully, everything is under control.
And fortunately no one is hurt.
The damage to the property - well, thats left to be assessed.

Not a great way to end the week !

Birthday Treat

It was the best time to treat..
Not many group members in India..
Just 6 of us. And on top of that Alex is not well :-)

So we went for a hi-fi lunch treat.
At Sue's Food Palace.

A planned attack at 1.30 dint take off.
Instead, it was almost 3PM when we started soup.

A buffet is the best bet for us.
We made max out of it.

Also met Sue. She was friendly enuff to pose with us for a pic.

The food was pretty heavy. The pudding was yummy.
In the end, Sand was heard murmuring - wil hav to walk an hour extra tomorrow morning
:-D

Pics will tel rest of the story !

Birthday Blog

They dint allow me to be on land for most of the day. Yes, I was airlifted. This offer comes as a package, along with kicks and cries - they call it b'day bumps.

The day started off with wishes right from 11.30 in the night. (Something wrong in this statement?) :-S The first wish came from my class10 friend! We were out of touch for all this years, havent seen him at all since then. And it comes as a phew big pleasant surprise to get a call from him. With an apology, of course - My eyelids wont allow me to stay awake till midnite :)

This, followed by calls, plenty of 'em - some of 'em came while I was in deep sleep (at 12.10) :)
So could not answer them.

Early morning.. Bath.. Temple..
(This was the plan, but never kicked off)

There was something in the offering at the office. A cute colorful bouquet was given to me by our lovely team. It was officially handed over to me by the big shot of our office - the Group Head!!
This was followed by a sweets distribution session. Thanks to N for helping me get the sweets :)
(Due to the huge rush, I had to later top-up the sweets stock!)



I dont remember, doing a single work-related activity; except for an early morning telecon.

A count of the number of wishes. It comes to 87 - direct, call, sms, orkut, mail, ecards and what not!

Back home in the evening, and Aasish and Binoy were ready with a cake. A nicely decorated chocolate cream cake. And two candles to add to the mood. Soon after the cake cutting ceremony, I found myself nicely decorated with the cream :-S


I dint retire, before hugging those fellows - in an attempt to give them their share of the cake - on face of course :D

A super birth day equally memorable as the one which we celebrated in our own Bethany Hostel

Birthday!

Its my bday today !
Got so many things to write..
Will write tomorro, its 11.30 in the nite and i'm dead sleepy..

Just for the record, I got wishes from 85 different people..
Thru calls, thru sms, thru orkut, thru mails, thru direct wish and what not..
And one of the wishes came from an ICICI bank rep :-P

More on this later..

How 'll u sleep on it?

Imagine a one legged cot..
Tuff ?
Okay.. Lemme make it ez for you..
Imagine a 4-legged cot itself :-P

Put a nice cozy 5inch thick mattress on it..
(The more the thickness of the mattress, the more frequent, your visit to the orthopaedist)

Now align the cot in such a way that the 3 legs of the cot are rendered useless..
The image below may help you do the fine tuning in the arrangement..


Now you are all set for a peaceful sleep.
Good night !
:D

Tail:
1. Pic from the furniture shop, opposite forum.

Funny : Lage Raho Munnabhai

No, its not about the fun in the film. This happened outside the theater..
Well it goes like this.

Scene1:
5 youngsters, in front of Innovative Multiplex, standing in a round. A heated discussion going on.
Topic:
"We are 5. And we have 6 tickets. Kya kiya jaaye?"

Scene2:
A head comes out from the round-table conf (oh.. there was no table!)
Gasper... "ideaaaaaaaaa"
He is seen footracing to the queue in front of the booking counter.

Scene3:
Gasper comes back at double the speed (footracing ofcourse)
A Broad smile on his face..
Visibly, something outrageously funny and embarassing has happened.

This is what happened
Scene2.5:
Gasper walks up to the queue..
Does a detailed study of the anatomy and psychology (and what not) of teh gathere ppl, anxiously waiting to grab their tkt for the 7.30PM show. He applied all skills of his 2+ years MBA course, and spotted his guy. Popped the question, in a low voice "Are you alone".
That guy gave him one BIG stare, and Scene3 followed :D

__________________________________________________________

Scene 11:
NOw that 3 out of 5 are inside the theatre, Bin and Rat decided to try their luck at disposing off the ticket.. A brief description - Rat with a bag on his back. A khaali water bottle in hand. Hair falling onto face. Nothing short of a gunda..
Bin, in formals. Black pant, white shirt with sloping black stripes. A French beard on his face.
Bin took up the task. Started the analysis

Scene12:
Q n A session
To guy 1 - Munnabhai ?
Guy 1 - No, I'm Rakesh
Bin - Oh, sorry..

To guy 2 - Munnabhai tickets ?
Guy 2 - I already have tickets
Bin (in mind) - To kya chane biriyaani khaane ke vaaste line mein khade ho ??

To guy3 - How many of you ?
Guy3 - Main, meri patni aur woh
Bin - :-S

To guy4 - We have one ticket, do you need one ?
Guy4 - We are 3
Bin (again in mind) - Saala... full family nikal aayi hai.. philm dekhne..

Scene 13:
Bin, after doing a closer study, found that all the bikers first park the bike, and then walk towards the parking-fee-collector guy, and then to the counter. So he back-traced, and posted himself near the pfc.

Scene 15:
1000W smile on Bin's face. Runs to me, standing a few metres apart. And said "Da, why shud we waste our time, chalo lets get in"


This is what had happened in
Scene14:
A couple parked the bike.. The guy came rushing, gave Bin 5 rupees, and demanded a receipt.
All Bin had was a film ticket, which the guy was not interested in.
The pfc intervened and solved the issue. He took the 5 rupee coin and gave the guy the receipt.
An apology from the guy, and a full speed retract from Bin towards me..


Rest of the jokes, inside the theatre..
No, not on the screen.. Off it..
Half of the film here, half there.. How 'bout that ?
Read on :-P

We got into a screen, the ticket-phaader gave us a discounted version of the ticket, and we got in. E13 and E14. Well, the row E was full, but then, there were plenty of empty seats in the front rows. We searched for Sand, Soo n Gasper in E-row, but fond no match. So we sat somewhere and started watching the film. A call from Sand.. nothing audible.. i said i'll send a msg.. hang up.
Sent a msg "We are in screen1 , not in E-row.. We are find here.. Take care. Willmeet during interval"
Reply "We are in screen1 too!, 5th row from back is E-row. ok, meet u dirunginterval"

Interval
Sand calls.. Da, stand up.Let me spot you.
Rat - I'd been standing for the last 60-odd seconds , staring at E-row.. Are you there ?
Sand - come out .. meet you at the door..

We walked to the door..
Just as we reached the door, there he was, Sand, at the door...
But.. :-S
Not teh same door as ours.. The opposite door.. the door of the next screen !
Sand - "Do you see any difference between the numbers '1' and '2' ? Ours is screen '1' ticket. Youa re in 'screen 2' !! "
Rat/Bin: oops :-)

We enjoyed the rest of the film in the ACTUAL screen 1
:-))

Tail:
1. Today is my Mal calendar birthday!
2. Tomorrow I complete 3 yrs in my company!
3. And tomorrow is the birth day of "Are you alone" :-D

3 Things for Today

1. Aadat - Abhijeet's comment..
Abhijeet, you know him.. the veteran (semi-bald) Hindi playback singer. One of my favorite singers.. His first major hit was from the movie Khilaadi (Waada Raha sanam). But thats not the topic of discussion here..
He is one of the panelists for the Zee TV Saregamapa Kids Champ contest. Y'day when I was surfing the channels, saw this program. A blind kid, in black pant, black jacket, singing 'Aadat' beautifully.. Applause for him. Donno his name.. but sure will make a good singer out of himself.
Post his peformance, it was the judges turn to comment.. Bappi Lahiri (how I hate this guy *$$&$* ) and Alka Yagnik (Ms Sweet voice) gave good comments. Abhijeet's turn. He said something like this "I donno who sang this song originally.. Whoever has sung this, has sung it VERY badly.. Na sur hai na taal" . I felt like diving into that TV and kicking his.........
Point 1 -> He lied... The song is a sub-continent hit. And if you donno the name of the singer, I would say SHAME on you. Point 2 -> He has sung it badly ? Then how the hell did it become a smash hit ? Every body likes the song.. Everybody hums it.. The singer (Atif Aslam) has revolutionised the way of singing, I would say - with his frequent 'ga-ma-ga's (switching note and coming back in quick time). Abhijeet, you made a black mark.....

2. Song Listening habit..
Have to do some drastic re-work on my winamp schedule. Usually, I'm plugged in, for the entire tenure, I'm in office. Have to restrict it to probably, max 1 hr per day.. Ear phones damage your hearing ! Its not a new fact, but mine is a new act !
(Rhymed!!)

3. Boost!
Thanks to my room-mate, I've started drinking boost in teh morning.. In fat-rich milk! Its too heavy!! I feel like a stuffed teddy bear :-S

Enuff of all this..
Time to gear up for the ona-sadya (onam feast)
Lemme run around the building, 2 rounds, and emulate some more hunger in me :D

Onam

Onam – Festival of Flowers & Feast

Little would King Mahabali have thought that in year 2006, his 'praja' would be celebrating Onam in front of a dumb 17"-lit up box. At least, that is the fate of me, who has been destined to celebrate(?) Onam in the 'luxury' of 22 degree air conditioned room, with virtual pookkalam (floral decoration) and pulikkali (tiger dance) - all circulated thru stupid fwds..

But then, there is a brighter part to it.

Onam is celebrated in a bigger (and a bit modern) way in almost all major IT firms. All of you mite have already seen the circulated images of onam celebs.. And then, step into any mallu hotel on an Onam day, and you'll be treated with the feast of your life..

With Rice and umpteen number of dishes served on a light green fresh plantain leaf, you will feel full after the 'performance'.

But then, you have to find space in your tummy for the 'payasam'.

(Now what is the English for it...?? "poridge" I donno.. To see what it is, step into a mallu hotel on the Onam day)

BTW, feast is not the main attraction of Onam, you see.. Its the 'pookkalam' - the floral decoration! From 10 days before Onam, you can see different 'pookkalams' everyday in front of every house in Kerala. Starting with one round, it will end up with 10 rounds of flowers on the 10th Day - the day of Onam. It need not be a round with concentric circles all the time. You can get to see a variety of colorful designs on the D-day..

Let me not write anything about the history behind Onam.

Or about who this 'Mahabali' (aka ‘Maveli’) is.

Fwds would have told you all this, already !

So here is wishing you all a Happy Onam.

BTW, Monday (Sep4) is Onnaam Onam (First Onam)

Tuesday (Sep5) is Thiruvonam

Wednesday (Sep6) is Moonnaam Onam (Third Onam)

See you all in a mallu hotel on Tuesday :-)

Tail:
1. Thiruvonam coincides with my bro's first wedding anniversary!!! :-))
2. Last time, my Onam feast was with parents, here in Bangalore.
This time, it would be in a hotel :-(
3. The write-up above was prepared, keeping in mind, my office notice board :D
Hence, you may see toooo many un-new info !