May good sense prevail

Usually, I do not review movies or songs or books on this blog. It is really not my forte. In fact, I suck at it. But, sometimes there is so much to say that a single update on Facebook cannot do justice to my thoughts.

I had three movies in my "to be seen" list this year. Since no one, I repeat, no one, wanted to provide revenue to SRK, Ra-One went right out of the window. Though I had tempted mom into Rockstar by reminding her that it is the same guy who directed Jab We Met (and that is how I made her watch Love Aaj Kal), the movie unfortunately hasn't released yet; which means it too went out of the list temporarily. That left us with the Tam "magnum opus" of the year. And, given that I was waiting for 7aum Arivu (7th Sense) with bated breath and wanted to very badly watch it the first day, it is only fair that I dedicate a full length post to its brilliance.

Some quick observations down under (yes, feel free to diss as you please):

• Surya, you are an extremely handsome guy, definitely so by Tam standards. And I totally adored you in that Bodhidharman role. The make up actually suited you quite well. And, your look and costume in the climax fight were way too brilliant. You are one of those few people who can look good and calm and brave and extremely drool worthy all at the same time, in a fight sequence. Keep it up please.
• Unfortunately for you, that ain't ever enough for the Tam audience. If that is all you are giving, we had rather have lots and lots of it, than little bits and pieces. Where were you hiding for a good 15 minutes in the second half of the movie? Yeah, yeah, in that water tank getting some DNA revamping and all that. But, it was a huge waste of our time without you.
• Which brings us to the next item on my list. Have you guys heard of something called "editing"? All that this movie needed more than anything else was a good pair of scissors. A snip there through that sad song, a snip here through the Chin villages, a snip right across Shruti Hassan's dialogues, we would be good today. By leaps and bounds.
• Oh yeah, talking about which, for all the "Tam"ness that the movie propagated, pray what language was the heroine talking? What the hell does "vel" mean? Oh, she was actually referring to "veyil", the sun and not "vel", the arrow? Please, oh please, get your accent right? Else, just let someone else dub for you. Let us all not kill Tam while we are still alive.
• And talking about the "Tam"ness, I think we had some confusion around the story. Were we talking about China attacking India, or Tamil Nadu? Why were we bringing too many countries into the picture? There was bio warfare at one end, the Tamil Eelam at another, the fact that we have all forgotten our history somewhere else, and then the dilution of Indian history into Tam history. And, what was with all that random, patriotic senti? No Sir, it just did not fit in.
• I do not want to talk any further than everyone else about those songs. Should we start thinking of some other music director for Surya? It is just becoming too stereotypical, and not so nice any more. But, that one song, shot in exotic locales, was damn good. Good feast to the eyes and the ears for both genders and all ages.
• That villain guy is a good find. He was actually scary. All along the way back, I was nervously looking around for a tall Chin guy who might hypnotize me into killing myself.

But, you know what hurt me the most. When the movie got over, mom said, "We may as well have watched Velaayudham. It would have been wholesome entertainment at least". Perhaps, Surya, it is time for you to start meddling with story lines and not just sit back and trust directors who have proven right for you in the past.

Some pressing matters

I am not convent educated, unlike many of the leading ladies of Chennai. In fact, I was ruthlessly pulled out of a famous missionary school when I was barely six and enrolled in an extremely serious, very studious school. It was because my parents valued “no-nonsense”, “nationally accepted”, “rigorous” education over chaste English.

Ah well! That is quite some drastic stereotyping. No? Not my fault, blame my parents!

Though not convent-based, the school I studied in did teach me really good English. Or, so I have prided myself in thinking thus far.

However, of late, I have had some serious doubts about my mastery over the Queen’s language. What else could explain my confusion when I am repeatedly subjected to phrases such as these:

• Looking forward to meet you – I have always thought that it should be ‘Looking forward to meeting you’. But, the sheer number of people who use the former has intimidated me into believing that I might perhaps have been wrong all along.
• You can be rest assured that – This I know is completely wrong. You ‘can rest assured’. Or, you ‘can be assured’. How the hell can you ‘be rest assured’?
• Historic growth has been around xx% – How can all growth be of historic significance? For that is what ‘historic’ means. It is something out of the ordinary that happened when we were not around. Otherwise, it is simply ‘historical’.
• Between x to y – This used to be my Dad’s favorite. Every time he received a wedding invitation that stated that the reception would be held ‘Between x p.m. to y p.m.’, he would start arguing very excitedly. You either say ‘from x to y’ or ‘between x and y’, he would say. I do agree whole-heartedly.
• Forecasted – This is my latest problem. Would any of us have the nerve (or even the heart) to say “I putted everything in order before leaving for the day”? Then, how can one make a statement like “It is forecasted to be low”?
  

Please do clarify my doubts; right now, despite a round-the-corner vacation, these pertinent and perhaps, elementary questions seem to be weighing heavily on my heart (or is it mind).

License to Anagrammatize

All of us would have experienced some form of waiting in our lives be it the ticketing counter at a railway station or the waiting room in a clinic. What does one do when one is “in the process”?

Having spent my childhood in the still evolving India of the late 80s and early 90s, I had no access to mobile phones, leave alone iPods. So, I would be armed with a book whenever I was headed for an expected-to-be “queued” place including hospitals and passport offices. But, there were times when I was not adequately warned and so I would turn up at such places with absolutely nothing to do and lots of time to kill.

I do not possess the most important skills required in such situations
a) Sketching, drawing and other variations of this art-form (in fact in school I used to pray that art class get cancelled and we be allowed to go to the library instead)
b) Playing running-and-catching with other kids in the queue or waiting area (Games class was another one of those in school which I would strive to bunk)
c) Observing people (this is ongoing trouble as I am not even 1% a good listener and observer as a talker)

So in such tricky situations, I would rummage through my mother’s handbag and get a piece of paper and a pen and start writing. Usually, I would bite and chew the pen in an attempt to write a poem which would be very diligently transferred to my poetry book once I got back home. But, one can write only as much in such an environment, filled with people worried and grumbling and wanting to go home soon. I tried my hands at story writing as well, but realized soon enough that it is just not my forte.

Then was I introduced to this brilliant game in school. It was some form of Anagrams, but I fail to remember the name now. For instance, from the word “Anagrams”, I needed to make as many words as I could like gram, ran, sang etc. The catch was that I could use a letter in the word I formed only as many number of times as it was used in the root word.

And, so, in any queue, I would take a word from a poster around me, preferably a long one and preferably having an ‘S’ and start making words from it. The longer the size of the word, the more letters there were to choose from and hence the more the number of words I could arrive at. Also, if the word had an ‘S’ it just made it easier to make plurals of the same word like run, runs, bun, buns, rub, rubs etc. from a root word like “burns”.

As time went by, I made the game stricter for myself. First, I banned pluralized words from the resultant set. Then, I introduced another rule that allowed only words of size not less than four in the resultant set.

I also started playing different versions of the game with improvisations like:

A) Forming whole words or phrases from the root word

1. Deliver -> Relived
2. Update -> Tap Due
3. Respond -> Ponders
4. Industry -> Try usin' d

B) Extracting sub words from the root word which mean the same as the root

1. Deceased -> Dead
2. Hectare -> Acre (not exactly the same meaning, but such ‘anagrammatic license’ is allowed in my game :))
3. Stripe -> Strip
4. Strip -> Rip

This game comes in handy even now, when I sit in a class which I do not feel like listening to, when I am stuck in a lecture hall where I should not have been, when I am in a taxi in a sea of traffic. It calms down my nerves and helps me be at peace with a very shifty, pained and irritated ‘queue-world’ maybe because it involves a little bit of concentration and hence provides the required distraction, or maybe because it helps me live in my own world of words, a world I love so much.

GROWTH

You know that you have grown older when
• In the Saraswathi Puja, your cheque books and files replace books and note books
• You start waiting for the beginning of month instead of term holidays and summer holidays
• You look at that young adolescent couple on the road with the eyes of a veteran chuckling to yourself, “Kids!”
• You work towards project deadlines during weekends rather than doing homework
• You start keeping track of the amount of money you earn instead of the CGPA you get
• You do not look forward to your birthday anymore ‘cos not withstanding all those celebrations you are growing OLDER BY A YEAR

You know that you have not grown up when
• You look forward to every festivity solely because of all those sweets you will get to eat
• You still get up at 11 in the morning on a lazy Sunday afternoon with not a worry in the world
• You discuss that handsome guy on the road with your childhood friend with the same excitement you had as an adolescent
• Your mom still packs lunch in the same lunch box to office that you took to college
• You still fight with your friends over silly, trivial issues like “Why did you not call me back that day”
• You still look forward to your birthday not withstanding that older by a year part ‘cos of the rich chocolate cake you are going to eat

pgp_iimb_2010@yahoogroups.com

It has been almost a month and a half now since I graduated and vacated my “2 year home”. I have been missing all of what I guess everyone else has been missing which includes the midnight chai at Athicas, endless discussions on nonsense, sense, the world, some globe and a little bit of marketing, bracket spams, mess ka khana, and so on. In order to reduce the intensity of senti, I have been filling my daily routine with an hour of compulsive browsing of the various photographs I shot of campus, with and without people, at all times of the day, but it has not contributed much to the cause except for making me miss the past even more.
In the midst of this misery, a fachcha posted a link to the yahoo group that would welcome and clear the queries of the incoming batch of 2008-10 on BR and then ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE. Yes! I am back to my old routine of almost night outs, sifting through hundreds of mails, laughing my head off, starring the “star mails”, reading and re-reading them and musing over how much my seniors would have laughed reading our mails to a similar group two years back.
The prim and proper ones introducing themselves with “Name:”, “Grad College:”, “Work Ex:” etc. are a tad too boring and do not catch my fancy. Nevertheless, they do tend to remind me of my own first mail which was equally boring and mini-resume level and probably one of the safest ‘cos of its obscurity. They also include some common place queries like “How many suits would we need?”, “What’s the dress code?”, “What is the minimum attendance requirement?” etc. And, there are hell a lot of boring ones on the loan process and laptop configurations, which, contrary to the popular belief of every incoming batch are extremely hassle free and easy to acquire. And, yeah, every one of these mailers solemnly promise how much they are looking forward to joining B blah.. blah.. which is totally true I think, for after all, I too said and expected the same and got more than I asked for :D
But, there have been some queries which are real gems. And, I wonder, I do wonder, about the first week of the poor pitiable guys who generated these queries :P
Here are a few:
• "Who bears the expenses for the exchange program.. self?" – Well, what the heck is that supposed to mean? If you are trying to ask about scholarships etc., why not make that clear rather than getting into trouble with Arbit of this kind?
• "Someone posted that there are good reasons to stay back during term V at IIMB. What are those?" – The answer to this one is extremely profound! It was something like “Because in an exchange system, when you give something, you get something in return.” – Now that is one hell of an answer which made me laugh for 10 minutes straight
• “Though most of my questions have been answered but I was just wondering if we are allowed to visit anyone's room late night as well, considering that there are mixed hostels??” – It is intriguing what is really going on in that mind which posed this question. Extremely fast that one! But equally kiddish too! 'Allowed to visit' I believe.. Haven't heard of such stuff in a post graduate environment!
• And, some of these “I am handsome, I have 1 GF and expect to have many more” level intros which must really be pissing off those poor fachchas interning away to glory promptly evoking responses like “C'mon guys this is not some orkut community. And we seniors are not jobless at all. Its high time you realise that you will be entering a Post grad. campus and professionalism is expected from each and everyone here.” – Oh man! Sometimes or at least most times, even words in mails get passed down from one batch to another
But overall, the fachcha batch seems to be most creative and enterprising in its endeavour to help out the incoming batch what with the 11 p.m. rule and “Peace Club”! IIMB Rocks as always and am still sifting through hundreds more of these mails laughing every other second. Some way of time pass, that, at least for the rest of the month!

P.S. I was terribly hungry at 2.30 in the morning today and missed Athicas like never before for 2 hours straight before dropping off to sleep again :(

Nostalgia!

"Time to leave the dream place I slept through, " says a friend. Once I log into GTalk, there are similar sounding status messages like "The last mile", "One more week to go", "Last three days of classes", "Done with IIM" etc. each one expressing a myriad of emotions on this last one week. To some, it looks like that most awaited release from jail. To most others, it feels like the end of the world.
Not many months ago, I too was counting down weeks with glee, reflecting sentiments similar to the former group, immensely happy at the thought of leaving. Now, there is little less of the glee, little more of the sorrow at having to leave.
Sorrow at having to leave
• Late night meetings
• CC war rooms
• The squad at the PGP office headed by Gundu Rao
• Talks at the Audi
• PPTs attended in business suits, business formals, PPT formals & informals
• Sleeping in class
• Working stealthily on the laptop (read chatting on GTalk) while some really serious stuff like economics, tax, finance and sales keep happening on the dais
• Surprise quizzes, not-so-surprise quizzes, announced quizzes all considered alike after sometime
• RGgiri
• Learning diaries
• Mentoring and mentees
• Unmaad and Vista
• L^2s and Dandiya nights
• Sports meets - the numerous Spardhas and Sangrams and Sangarshs and what nots
• Official GBMs and not-so-official GMs(Gossip Meetings)
• BRacket and Arbit
• Pathetically slow internet speeds
• DC++ our savior
• Resume submissions and shortlists
• 11:59:59
• Tea at NC at 12 midnight
• Campus walks at 1 in the morning, on the road to Whispering Teaks especially
• Music at full blast at 2 in the morning
• Laughing away to glory on not so deserted corridors at 3 in the morning
• Hot plates of Maggi at Athicas at 4 in the morning
• Chikamallaiah and his everyday quota of spams
• RTK with his own share
• Innumerable birthday treats, PPO treats, LPO treats and any other plausible treat on Earth
• 'Jab we met' level movies watched with a gleeful group of friends, armed with Lays and Pepsi
• Breakfast at the mess
• Dinners at Krishna Kafe
• CCS and its extension
• Papers, Competitions and Debates
• UnBold Inc.
• CP, ACP, DCP and more variants
• Special lunches for Pongal and Onam, candle light dinners on V Day
• Chocolate dedications on Christmas Eve
• Study groups formed towards the end of our times here


I know, I know I have got obsessed with bullet points. This is my third bullet point post. Happens with experience.. sigh! Could not find a better way to mention each and every one of these things that I am going to miss so much. Others please feel free to add to the list. I might have after all missed some really important stuff.

These are a few of my favorite things..

• Long bike rides
• Rich chocolate cakes
• Honey dipped ice cream
• Laughing over nothing
• Unexpected surprises
• Expected ones too
• Talking arbit
• Nice, warm hugs
• Playing UNO into the night, losing pathetically, occasionally winning as well
• An ipod which says ‘Life is beautiful’
• 8 hours sleep
• Memories of good times
• Being ‘kavity’
• Fresh flowers
• The pink theme
• Multitasking on chat windows
• Teasing friends to death
• ‘Bummy’
• Writing scandalous testimonials
• Getting nice ones in return
• Looking at someone's face glow with happiness when I give that "oh-so-important-to-me" gift
• ‘From Rahman for Bosnia’
• Marine Drive on a star lit night, with me, the sea and not much in between
• Being pampered to the extent of feeling like a kid
• Coming up with innovative status messages and generally feeling noticeable
• Watching a favorite movie on T.V., even though I have a D.V.D. of it
• Writing long letters filled with loads of love, affection and what not
• Reading more than writing 'em long letters
• Heavy rains, Sunday afternoon, a hot plate of 'bhajjis', a book in hand
• Fighting with Mom and then giving up
• Fighting with friends and never giving up
• Last day of exams
• An earth shakingly clean room, filled with stuff carefully picked by me
• Night walks near 'Whispering Teaks'
• Expressive greeting cards
• Friends who take complete ownership over me
• Lot of people, heavy traffic and a general sense of well being and belonging
• GTalk at 4 in the morning
• Public holidays
• Public holidays immediately after a Sunday
• Dandiya during Diwali - if not dance, at least watch!!
• Sweets, sweets and more sweets
• Chocolates, chocolates, chocolates and more chocolates
• Packages of brownies that come all the way from Mumbai to Bangalore, packed with more than just brownies
• Shopping on Linkin Road
• Destination airports
• Shoulders that are always ready for my resting head and endless tears
• Sometimes Marketing
• Even more so Consumer Behavior
• Generally dressing up
• Of late, stoles
• And always, blogging!!

Thanks to plagiarism!!

A decent enough post has been long long overdue on this blog. But, given the state of affairs with me, I guess thats going to take an even longer time. Right now, I am going to "copy-paste" (yes, ardently following my school-college-school days' fundae) things that I had loved in books that I read and am reading. There is no connection as such between one "bullet point" and the other, but giving each of them a thought has made me a "profound thinker" over the past few weeks.

1. The truth is a bully we all pretend to like.
2. The real trick in life is to want nothing and to succeed in getting it.
3. You kick up the leaves and the magic is lost.
4. We make them cry who care for us. We cry for those who never care for us. And we care for those who will never cry for us. That is the truth of life; it’s strange but true.
5. I chose and my world was shaken. So what? The choice may have been mistaken; the choosing was not. You have to move on.
6. Remember you are born to live. Don't live because you are born! Don't go the way life takes you. Take life the way you go!!
7. I don’t know what frightens me more, the power that crushes us or our endless ability to endure it.
8. Sometimes we love with nothing more than hope. Sometimes we cry with everything except tears. In the end that’s all there is: love and its duty, sorrow and its truth. In the end that’s all we have – to hold on tight till the dawn.
9. Some of the worst wrongs were caused by people who tried to change things.
10. Mistakes are like bad loves; the more you learn from them, the more you wish they’d never happened.
11. Every virtuous act has some dark secret in its heart, and every risk we take contains a mystery that can’t be solved.
12. It isn’t a secret, unless keeping it hurts.
13. We concentrate our laws, investigations, prosecutions, and punishments on how much crime is in the sin, rather than how much sin is in the crime.
14. Happiness is a myth that was invented to make us buy things.
15. Depression only happens to people who don’t know how to be sad.
16. Love means never having to say you are sorry.
17. How on earth are you ever going to explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love?
18. People never know how special someone is until they leave, but maybe sometimes it’s important to leave, so they are given that chance to see how special that someone really is!!

I was wondering whether to add references for each of these "bullet points" or rather "number points"!! But, I decided to save myself the trouble and let you guys have the fun of wondering and searching for them across the plethora (that is definitely not an under-statement) of books available in this Universe.

The last one alone is something you will never be able to get from any book in this Universe. It was coined by a dear sweet "kutty" friend of mine!!