I absolutely adore this man ...

You rock Malli -> http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=VE9JS00vMjAwNi8wNS8yNiNBcjAwMjAy&Mode=HTML&Locale=english-skin-custom

And others: Pls download your e-certificate

Sabse Pagal Kaun

Disclaimer: The nature of this post has nothing to do with Author's constant exposure to extreme heat in Chennai.

Hello. I've been organizing the 'Sabse Pagal Kaun test' for some years now. And as anyone with an IQ of more than the cube root of pi would have guessed, I was the only participant and the only winner.

Given the changing times when even Budhadeb Bhattacharya is talking of reforms. I have decided to open this contest to private sector and to keep the left happy, a cap of 25% FDP (foreign direct participation) is put.

So here are the nominations for this year ...

1. Sensex - if eccentricity is anywhere close to madness, then Sensex is a big contender. The dip it shows in a day seems like Suraj Badjatya making 'hum aapke hain kaun' today and 'mein prem ki deewani hoon' the next day. And it is not only about crashing down, the ability to recover is equally maddening. I am sure that Sachin Tendulkar and Wayne Rooney would be already taking recovery tips from Sensex.

2. This nomination is sent by Youth for equality. If senility has anything to do with madness, Dear Mr. Arjun singh would win it hands down. Other participants would feel like India playing against England (in soccer not cricket).

3. Cannes - Our only foriegn entry (given the 25% FDP cap). Now I used to think that film festivals are about showcasing offscreen and onscreen talent. This has been amply (dis)proved by Aishwarya Rai and Malika Sherawat being the face of bollywood at Cannes. They can better buy a curvy mannequin and dress it up in a pathetic evening gown to get the same deadwood expression year on year. Come on guys, stop this pagalpan, have you heard of Nasser and Konkona, that’s what Indian cinema is.

4. The final entry is 'You' - Now there are many more exciting things in this world than the number of stars (black holes and quasars included) in Milky Way. Still, you have chosen to read this blog and have reached this far in this post, you know that you deserve a nomination. It mit be your only chance, I have heard that the HRD ministry is contemplating about reservation in this award also.

So here we are, time to vote for the most biased and undemocratic award celebrating meritocracy in madness. Winner will get a chance to meet George Bush (FYI, he has won the lifetime achievement award for a record sixth time)

ps: I know u'll have this urge to vote for yourself and win, pls. don do that, I'll anyways send you an eCertificate of participation. U deserve that, after all you've read this post.

In my mynd: If :) is a smiley ... what do we call :(

Passing the parcel

I have received 3 mails(fwds) and 2 SMSs on this:

AIIMS: 96 hours after their hunger strike almost 100 students have collapsed. Please come out for support before its too late. What they are doing is for all of us! Its not only the doctors who are against the reservations, so are we and we should come out with full support. The media is prohibited by the government from covering the issue. Please Please Please spread the word...and do something...

I have been reading loads of views on the quota issue on blogs, message boards and mails. Some of them are written with really a balanced, well thought-off approach. Others were just plain anti-reservation rhetoric. I have been away from newspapers for more than a month now, but I assume that every one from Shobha De to Vir Sanghvi must have been writing about this. The point is, when would we say, “Ok, enuf has been written and said, now lets take ACTION”. ACTION, the big painful word.

No matter how strongly I feel about this issue, there is something missing inside me due to which I will never be able to do what my the doctors of my generation are doing. In simple words I lack courage. Thats why I dont even feel worthy of voicing an opinion. It’s not that I am helpless, I am clearly HOPELESS.

Hats off to those who are ready to stand up. God bless you guys. And for the rest, this is what you and I can do, fwd mails and SMSs saying -

“Please Please Please spread the word...and do something...“

Pass the parcel … the parcel of our country’s future, our future. It stopped mattering to us, and we'll cease to matter.

In my mynd:
Hawaon ki hawas kam nahi hoti
Chitaon pe bhi iskon sukoon aata hai
Tum ummeed ka daaman thaame rehna
Diyon pe bhi mashaal sa junoon aata hai

Encounters of the third kind

Update: after pondering over Y2's comment and realizing that its more probable to see an alien in chennai than a chic ... i rename the post ... although i am not putting 'close' before 'encounters'

i can understand how it feels to find smthing that u've been looking for really really badly ... now my knowledge of history is as limited as clothes on mallika sherawat's body ... so if i remember correctly, archimedes (my spellings are as bad as pathiv patel's keeping) had to work on finding whether the crown of the king was pure gold or not ... when he discovered what we call the law of displaced-water-equal-to-the-mass-of-the-body, he was thrilled enuf to run naked on the streets of rome, was it cairo, was it athens ... whatever. He ran and he screamed Eureka .... i feel the same now .. i have found eye-tonic in chennai .. can u believe it ... ya read again 'eye-tonic in chennai' ....

Scene I - Ascendas tech park. Food court. 9 in the night .. cool place with hot crowd. BPOs rock .

Scene II- Savera Hotel. Disc and Pub. 11 in the nit. was she really wearing only what she was wearning ... huhh ...

Eurekaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa .....

now m not as despo as it sounds ... its just m happy to see some good crowd ... suddenly chennai feels a lot better ...

in my mynd: "naa ji bhar ke dekha naa kuch baat ki, badi aarzoo thi mulaqat ki"

Half time whistle

Summer internship is half way thru. The no work- no life balance has just tilted to no work-some life

4 weeks in Chennai. Seems a lot longer than that. Given that I spent my 7 years in Indore in just 2 places. 3 different accomodations in 4 weeks in Chennai has been a lot of fun. I have packed my bags so often that I feel I am doing my summers in a live-out-of-a-suitcase types marketing role.

I have seen 3 beaches in last 4 weeks. Given that I had seen only one in the first 25 years of my life. It has been a jackpot. I kinda like the sea. Its really soothing to walk on that sand holding someones hand (wait, thats just a rhyme, it never happened).

I met some old friends after years and made some new ones. They were all very kind souls to treat and feed this debt-ridden-half-mba-with-no-stipend-yet friend. We talked of all the sweet memories of engg. college and work over soup, coffee, nariyal pani and few other beverages. Man!!! nostalgia is so versatile, makes u laugh, makes u cry.

I have spent last 3 days in bangalore. Till last week, I belonged to that rare species of software engineers who are also lovers of rock music and still haven't been to B'lore. 3 days in B'lore were a blast. Especially after spending most of the April in Chennai, B'lore feels like a hill station. Adding to its already gud weather was the Breeze(r) that kept flowing. Bangalore serves you heavy doses of that essential nutrient that your eyes are completely deprived of in Chennai. This eye-tonic is available everywhere in pubs, malls, streets but is diluted and mixed with crowd.

My summers is more than half way thru. Loads of work to be done. I still don feel like working.

The Purple Haze has not faded yet.