What if the MUA-OPT-ians diversify into the IT ?! What if they start a software firm ?!
A conceptual blog... follows...
Thaimes News Network, Tuesday June 23 When a bunch of software pro's come together, there is no stopping to creativity and innovations. This is exactly the success story of Blim. Today is the inaugaration of the new venture of MUA-OPT into the software biz.. Blim !
Thats the name of the firm. There was another obvious name suggested for the shop. Says the co-founder Rat, "We wanted the name to reflect the image and tradition of ours. Somebody suggested 'mirror'. But then we opted for the tech-savvy name - Blim"
The logo is a banana-peal banana-peel
Introducing the main chair-holders.. (not to be mistaken with share-holders)
CEO : KK (His experience in his previous firm will be of immense help)
GM : Lee (We need someone who has a BIG stature)
CTC : Dennis (Thats the Chief Technical Consultant)
HR : Jis Jose (Off late, he has been giving Personality Courses to a bunch of aspiring techies!)
Overseas Manager : Dipu Jose (He is in no mood to board the return flight to India.. He will also get Blim listed in NYPD (or is that NYSE?) )
Gulf Operations : Rony (The company may shortly start an oil division in Bangalore. And will export to Gulf. Rony will handle this)
Facilities Head : Jins (Top priority given to dormitory rooms)
SDH : Sand (Software Delivery Head... We need someone to do some work - someone who 'can' !)
TDH : Alex (Training Division is safe here... Training sessions will be sandwiched btwn prayer meetings)
Communications Division : Binoy (He will handle all the calls - for any positive outcome, speak to him over phone, in female voice)
Night Vigil : Jim (He'll keep track of who's sleeping and who's not, without anybody even knowing!)
Transportation : Sowji (And no doubt, the official transporter is Bajaj Discover.. Oreyyyy peda.. Min speed 35kmphr. Max could be any number btwn 35 and 36. Koramangala to EC in 2hrs)
Catering Support : Shobin (Menu -> Breakfast: idli, Lunch: idli, dinner: more idli)
PRO : Robin (Public Relations will be safe here. The company will soon start producing comedy movies)
General Support : Geo (In general, this 'general support' will be an aid to climb up the obstacles - such as, say, a wall - and to come out in flying colors)
Gym and Recreation : Kiron (Badminton will be made compulsory. If you dont play badminton, no salary for you)
CA and AC : Saar (For tallying up the accounts, he will be assisted by Dipu. Air Contitioning will be single-handedly man-handled by Saar. Saar will also have the additional responsibility to serve as backup for Alex)
Photocopying and Faxing : Gasper (In addition to this, he will be a major supporting hand for Shobin)
Chip Design Unit : Rat (Gasper will find a 'No Admission' board here)
Receptionist : TBD (To make sure that the lines are not jammed (internally), receptionist may be a male employee)
Saturday night 11.30. I'm back from a family day function at SAP Labs. (KK performed live! It was one great show..)
Tomorrow is my cousin's house-warming function. Just to make sure that everything is going on as per plan, I sent out an sms to her. "What time should I bump into the house, tomorrow? Are all the arrangements going on as per plan?". She replied "Why are to coming tomorrow? I think you mistook the housewarming date for tomorrow. Its next week :D"
I was :-O Omigosh ! Serious breach of intellectual property !! I had almost jumped into a self-driven trap, to waste one full day!
What followed was a quick planning.. The planning committee consisted of a fully-asleep Sowji, half-asleep Bin, about-to-sleep Gasper and myself. There is no point counting Jim, as he was already romancing some Tamil actress in his deep deeper deepest sleep ! Planning was quick. A phone call was made to Sho, to confirm his presence/absence. He confirmed his absence :-D
Well, as for the outcome of the plan... Venue : Hogenakkal Crew : Rat,Bin,Sow,Goose,Jim Xportation: 2 bikes (for now, thats all we have) Threat: upset tummies (Rat,Bin) Start time : 7.30
Well, breaking tradition is not allowed when it comes to MUA. And the tradition says, never follow your plan completely. So the final plan looked like this:
Venue : Hogenakkal (this dint change!) Crew : Rat,Bin,Sow,Goose,Jim,Sand,Soo,Rob (3 new heads!) Xportation: 2 bikes and a car (Sand will bring his Santro) Threat: upset tummies (Rat,Bin) - no change here too ! Start time : 9.30 (slipped by JUST 2 hours) :-D
Since Sand and Soo needed some time to come to Pluto (we intimated them at 7.10 in the morning. Well, that was an interesting discussion, and needs more space on this write-up. let me come out of the brackets..)
Trring Trring... Trring Trring... (continues for a while) Rat: Da, eneekedaa Sand: Hmm.... Rat: Da, hogenakkal povaam? Sand: nge ?!! Rat: Hogenakkal.. H-O-G-E-N-A-K-K-A-L Sand: Da, njaan oru 5 min kayinju vilikkaam.. Rat: Boot-up time aano ? Sand: Yeah...
And he called exactly after 5 minutes, and confirmed he is in... Thats the spirit ! And thats the strength of MUA.. The driving force.. The ultimate figurative lunatism of the peripheral demarcation in the.. (over aayi...)
9.30 start was after breakfast.. Sand and Soo would come to Pluto and pick Gasper and Jim. Rest of us started on bikes..
Topped up fuel from Shell petrol pump. (You need to step down from your bike, and accept their palms-zipped namaskaar, before they will attend to you! Strange and funny!) Topped up the tyres as well.. The reader showd funny values. Expected tyre pressure value 34. Actual 17 !! No wonder, I get mileages in the range of 45, instead of the expected 50+ !!
Racing along the Hosur Road was fun. From Hosur, there is a shorter route which goes through picturesque villages. And thats the route we took. Phew.. It was so magical ! And the roads, the curves, the straight-line-cutting-bike rides, the vertical curves on the roads, the uncertainty that originates when you climb up that road at 90kmph... it was all truly amazing.. [First Pit Stop]
[A wallpaper at First Pit Stop]
[Second Pit Stop. My bike did this much km!]
Santro was loaded with Sand, Soo, Gasper and Jim. Sand had, in the morning,during the 'planning-session' had told me "No stereo in car.. pls giv us Robin for entertainment" I replied "You need entertainment, right? Consider it done" and dumped Gasper into the car :-D Sand might now be thinking of ways to finish me off !!!
The last 15km stretch is all messed up; there is no road.. and trying to find out the existence of some tar would be just waste of time.. This, and the traffic block at the village-road-entrance and a couple of pit-stops delayed our entry into Hogenakkal a bit. We finally parked our vehicles at the Hogenakkal parking lot at 1.40PM [At the parking.. Parking is free!]
Lunch at the 'heavily monopolised' C.M Hotel. Veg meals plus fish fry. [Its not a Bar, but a Bar-Attached hotel :D ]
Two things you shouldnt miss on Hogenakkal-trip are the 'round-boat' and the 'fish-fry'. Veggies can avoid the 2nd thing...
LUnch was followed by heavy bargaining for the round-boat. He started from 850, I guess, and we finally pulled it down to 450. [Bargaining in progress.. Right extreme is the vendor]
That included 2 hours on boat, inclusive of waiting, and putting us under mild waterfalls, and some artificial whirl-effects on the boat.. [We hired 2 boats.. Each carried 4 of us]
Bin and Robin jumped into the water. The water was 100ft deep! Jim also joined them. Our boat now has just me and Gasper and the rower. I too jumped into the water, leaving just Gasper in the boat.
Bin, showcased his talents. He is district level swimming champ, you see ! He climbed up a huge rock and jumped 15 feet to touch leg first into the water! Tremendous courage!
Robin, dint want to be left behind, he too did the same; but the height was lesser, and he landed flat on water.. It was less of a jump, and more of a fall :-D
For non-swimmers, there is another shallow beach-kinda setup.. While all of us, simply preferred to sit on the sand, Sowji grabbed the opportunity. He wanted to be fully prepared. This is what he did: 1. Removed the watch (which he bought during his recent US trip) and gave it to me 2. Removed his Kimi Raikkkonen (i think he is a famous taxi driver in US) and placed it safely onto my lap.. 3. Folded his jeans, knee-high (i wonder whats the point... the water is chest-deep)
Then he walked into the water. (This reminded me of Arnold Schwarzenegger going down into molten metal)
Soon, Robin, Jim, Gasper and Binoy joined Sowji. After 30 minutes of masti, Sowji slowly emerged out of water... This is what happened, in sequence: 1. He first reached for this jeans front pocket, and took out a white object. It was his mobile. 2. From the rear right jeans pocket emerged his purse - full of cash and cards 3. From the rear left pocket came the RC book of his bike
I captured his expression, after he 're-invented' the mobile. See the sequence below..
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After 'submitting' his valuable items digged out from the pocket, our 'dude' again goes into water. And joins the rest of the gang for more of games...
By around 5, we packed from there, and got back into the boat. During the return to base, we shot some interesting dance videos..
Soon after getting out of water, we had a 'fresh' sugarcane juice. 5 rupee per glass.. ice-cold.
At the base, we had a strong tea.. Also got a chance to capture this pic, which can contend for a particular stimulative brand... [No (more) comments!]
Back to our respective vehicles... The return trip was a showered one.. We raced with the cloud to get some clean air (the water droplets were blocking the view!) Finally, it was close to 1 hr of riding in the rain. That was a good experience.. Got reminded of our earlier expedition to Ponmudi (this was much before the launch of MUA)
At a rain pit-stop, Robin commented.. "Ellaam aayi.. bike trip, vellathil trip, mazhyathu trip.. ini oru kaduvayem koodi kandaal mathi ee kaattil.." Gasper "athinu njaan undallo.." Robin was quick "kazhutha alledaa.. kaduva!"
Half of the sprite which i was drinking took alternate route and landed elsewhere :D
The return trip, which commenced at 5.30, finally ended at Hotel Kalavara near Madiwala at 8.45. Post dinner, except for Sand and Soo, rest of us assembled at Pluto. The agenda was "loss analysis" and "photo preview" Sowji laid neatly all the different currency notes (indian and US) along with the different bank ATM cards and other papers under the fan. Giving them company was his white foldable samsung mobile.. Jim also had a malfunctioning mobile.. It says "Insert SIM card" ! He tried telling the mobile, 'dude the SIM is already in there', but that alone dint help...
Photo preview was a laughter challenge, and the pick of the lots were Sowji's mobile-expression, and his dance-on-the-boat-floor performance :-D
The punch-line for the trip was 'Thagoli', courtesy Robin. Anything would be suffixed by this word.. eg.. "Sprite thagoli", "chappaathi thagoli" ... This was contageous, and became an instant hit, with everyone pre-fixing and suffixing it to wherever possible in their statements...
Tail1: It was a 126km trip from home to Hogenakkal Tail2: The water was cleaner, compared to a couple of weeks back - thanks to no-rain
And finally on Monday, April16 (2007), Lee got married. .. .. .. Well, I wanted to write on our high-energy Hogenakkal trip. But leaving Lee midway would be unfair. Let him marry peacefully :-)
So on Monday, Sowji and I leave for Gasper's house. Picked him up and left for the wedding. On the way, picked up Jins also.. He had come straight from his house.. All of us in formals.. And Sowji, well.. check one of the pics to follow...
We were doubtful whether we had time to go to Lee's house. But we had time, and we caught him at his house. The guy was all dressed up in a royal suit and was raring to go.. He was cool until we gave him moral support "Nothing to worry, okay.. Be cool. Dont leave any tension on your mind or face.. blah blah...". Sowji, who was hiding all this time, jumped into the middle with his share of support.. Lee almost made Sowji a sticker, seeing his outfit.. [The guyz with the Man of the day]
We all left for the church. Jesin greeted us at the church. The wedding take too much of time. Then food. The gift was handed over during food-time.
And for the 'walk-away' guy, here's the gift that we chose ..
[Its an electronic toy, which will swing and sing. But the variant which we bought, we made sure, doesnt work :D ] Post lunch session, we had to rush back home. Jesin wanted us to be his guests.. He stays very close by. We obliged, and paid a visit to his house.. We left soon, coz we were running short of time. What followed was an F1 race on a M-800. Sowji unleashed all his driving skills and we reached home, well ahead of time !
After freshening up and tea, left for the bus boarding point. Ours were the last and the next seats... Jins was courageous to get into the last seat.. [Just into the bus..]
It rained slightly, and Sowji was soon asleep. The F1 drive had taken its toll on him ! Gasper stayed back, coz he was on a week's leave. He will spend lip-zipped days at his house. And for us, its just a temporary visit to Bangalore, coz the very next week, we would be here again - for Geo's wedding !
Sunday was peaceful. It was Vishu. Sowji, the other night has promised a nice 'kani'. But by divine grace, that dint happen :-D (For that matter, we slept the previous night, at past 12)
My vishu-kani was an mp3 player and mobile phone - both are my usual bed mates. This year may be a techy year ! Called mom and got an audio vishu kani...
By the time we (Sand and me) got up, Sowji had been to church, and back home. Post-breakfast, we left in Sand's black ikon to Lee's place. We had earlier called him up to announce that we would be joining them for lunch (smart move) [Ikon is all geared up...] The drive was rocket fast, with Sand behind the wheels, and Sowji complementing for the later half. (eeks... i still get confused between complement and compliment!!!)
Since all of us were first timers, we decided to stop at a strategic point and call up Lee to find out whether we are on track. Sowji "Da, njangal ivide road side il wait cheyyuvaa.. Adayaalam oru karutha kaakka" :-$ Sand grabbed the mobile and gave the actual landmark - a school, and we reached home in 5 mins.
No decoration, no bahalams, not even a generator !! That was Lee's house..
Now that we are home, there was some movement, laughter here n there. Lee seemed to have grown up (side ways of course..) He seems to be competing with Sami (the singer, not the player) BTW, the singer Sami has cut down weight by a huge number, and is these days lavishing as a choco hero. (The reason for cutting down on weight was - "Overweight was one of the reasons for his unsuccessful 2nd wedding). Leeeeeeeeee.. kekunnundooooooo ??!! [Extra support to Lee's tummy!]
Discussions, jokes, photos ... and then the main course - Lunch :-)
Post lunch, gave some moral support and boost to Lee, and left the place tata bye bye. [Moral support?!] Reached the base (Sowji's home) by tea time. Sowji's mummy prepared tea.. Sand was in a hurry, coz the next day he has to travel to Coimbatore - purchasing for his ali's wedding... Sand left soon after tea.. He wont be joining for Lee's wedding...
In the eve, Sow and I went to 'Etumaanoor Metro' for some shopping. Well, the catch of the day -> a gift to Lee :-) (will put a pic of the gift in the last write-up in the series...)
The agenda for the 3-day wedding trip was like this: 1. Saturday -> roam around, go places, go for movie (this was successfully completed) 2. Sunday -> Go for Geo's engagment. Then to Lee's house to analyse and comment on the wedding arrangements. 3. Monday -> Attend the grand wedding of the Lee of the...
Everything seemed to be going fit and smooth, until a phone call from Geo, late in the evening on Saturday.. We were in car, just left Kumarakom, for a 15-minute 15km nailbiting drive... We have a movie to catch, you see !!
Geo sounded very happy, and said "Thanks for blessing the engagement with your absence". I was sure he was kidding.. I replied, "Haha.. good joke.. How are the preparations going on ? What time are you ppl leaving for the bride's place tomorrow?"
It dint take long, to get the 'gyaan' that the engagement is already over ! And as against the common (well, not so common...) belief that the engagement was on Sunday, it turned out that the engagement is already over !! It was today - Saturday !!!!
How could we miss the date ?! This calls for a detailed investigation. Gmail should be included as a party - they were the official communication partner (read "the invitation card was sent thru gmail" ) But upon a re-check, it turns out that gmail is good. The date is printed properly :-s
Well, not much of discussions and arguments followed, coz very soon, we found ourselves staring dumb at the huge white screen in front of us.. Meera Jasmine.... :-)
[ Tea to energize a hi-speed drive.. 15km in 15mins, thru traffic! ]
