Doing A Head Shave

It was one of my long time wishes to shave my head. I have heard from many of friends as it’s very cool and I too wanted to feel it. There is no harm in trying it as it will grow back in 2-3 months time. But there were too many ‘No’s, including a heavy one from Mom. Mom’s reason was, you can’t come bald for your brother’s marriage. It had taken more than 6 months to find a suitable alliance and marriage since then. But I had to wait and wait. In the deepest mind, I too was not sure whether to go for it – after all shaving your head will never go you a smarter look.

A week before the ceremony while at native with my bro, mom and a cousin; the same topic came up – my longing to shave head. As usual mom was against saying you wont look good in that and bro in my support. I loved my cousin’s attitude, “you go and just do it; after all its your head”. Yeah, why mom can’t think like that?? Her final argument of brother’s marriage is over but she was saying she don’t want me to take me along with her with no hair in the head. But I am in Bangalore and she is at Kerala and wont be at home not more than a weekend in a month normally.

D-Day

I have to do it, but when, that was a question.  I have decided my next hair cut after brother’s marriage is the one. And I had to wait for another one month to gain the guts. Each morning I will say today evening and in the evening I will say, “Oh!! It’s late, tomorrow”. Finally on the fourth weekend after brother’s marriage by noon I decided to go to barbershop. A question was still in mind – a usual hair-cut or…..?? Finally reached the barbershop and told the brand new model cj’s hair style. He dint have any emotional change (why should he have, he has done more than full moon’s he had seen; Oh I missed it, it was a Lunar eclipse night). I am still not sure; I have to do it, but today?? Very first scissor movement locked the decision. He took the heaviest lock of my hair in single cut from the middle portion. No more escape. So I am going to have a head shave!!

First thing I did after coming out, was a call to mom – “I did it!!”. Bro was also at home then. He turned to a politician – after supporting all these days, now he asks are you crazy. And both of them wanted to see pix. Soon I went out for a weekend cricket hours. It was a bad day with bat, and a mediocre one with ball. When I reach back, bro has given publicity enough among the cousins. Finally by dinner time, I uploaded my pix in Facebook. I have never got so many comments or like for anything on Facebook, not even on my birth-day. Mom immediately called after seeing it, “I am shocked” and was the end of call.

Why-syndrome

The question everyone had “why, why did you do this??”. I didn’t have any reason. So answers were filled by themselves – love failure, new love, someone special asked, anything religious, Tirupathi visit, saving money and many more. One of my colleagues have asked this 4 times or so. Why to a hair cut raise so many of “why”s. I agree the scientific approach starts with questions like “why” but why a “why” for such a stupid thing. I fear these people will tomorrow why I had breakfast, why I slept, why I walk to bus-stop, why I.. why I..

Verdict

Still in the first week, I don’t know how long it will take nor how it will feel after 2 weeks. But as of now, its too head is always cooooooool. A drop of water on head is really amazing. You have to feel it. I am enjoying by gentle pats on my head even when I wrote this sentence. And more proud after doing another senseless act in life.

Nelliampathi with family

Nelliampathi was our land of attraction again for the family trip with maternal relatives. We were 41 and were visiting the place after a span of 4 years. The idea behind the trip is simple – men can drink freely and women will get freely. I have cousins who didn’t come for my brother’s marriage a week before but reached for the trip from abroad. The trip is on weekend, have booked a stay almost 12km from road, no sight-seeing or outing.

I was the one to reach at Thrissur by 8 in the morning. Soon after taking a bath, I boarded the bus to Nelliyapathi. When I entered the bus, it looked bit funny to me – a thermocol box for ice-cubes, 2 kilos of peanuts, 2 kilos of onions and couple of bags for liquor!!! Are we going only to drink? I did not spend much time saying hello to all as we were all together last weekend. We had packed cricket bat, cards, chineese-checkers and so on suiting people of respective age group. Soon the music was on, bottles started emptying and trip was gaining momentum. But God never let us over joy, so he made a small accident, nothing serious, a window glass has broken. After 5-10 minutes stop, the trip continued.

Misty Valley

Misty Valley, as I mentioned is 12kms off the main road and jeep was the only mean of travel. 12km in 1hour and 15minutes, such good was the road!!! My cousin even asked the driver, “upto what angle does the jeep withstand; haven’t we reached the limit?” But I can tell you it was such an amazing experience.  There were rocks all over, sometimes steps, quite often the road is not even as wide single jeep, but you can always a jeep from other side and so on. And the best of all, you can expect an elephant or a wild boar or a harmless deer anytime on the journey. But we were not lucky except for a wild boar while returning. After the long drive once we reached the resort by 2pm, we were all tired and hungry. We soon had the food. Soon everyone went for a nap. I have a bad habit, if a sleep in the after-noon, I will sleep for atleast 3 hours. So trying to resist that, we tried to fly the kite. All of us have tried our luck, but could not get the kite even 10 feet high. All to blame our inexperience. Finally I too gave up and had a sleep.

In the evening, we all went for a walk by 5:30pm. It was getting dark early and as we saw to snakes on the way, we had to return soon. We decide to explore more next morning.

After usual chit-chats we camp-fire was ready. The couple dance was the ‘item of the day’. Couples  had to dance with the song we sang. The dancers included 68 years old uncle to recently married brother. Even though none of us had any taste for music we all sang and the next event was the limit of destroying the art of music - ‘Idea star singer’ . ‘If you cant sing , keep your mouth shut’ – is something which never works on these trips. Meanwhile I had omelettes from the kitchen and chicken was served to all. Dinner was soon served by 9:30 and was the end of the day. I did not know why people are sleeping so early during these days,  but had to sleep by 10:30 -11. And that was then end of Day 1.

Stories revealed

On the second morning, as we went for a walk after second trip of black-coffee. Almost everyone was there and it looked like a procession in the middle of the forest. We started to walk with not much plans. Unlike most of the trips to hill stations, there weren’t many leeches – hardly 5-10 for the entire crew. We saw monkey and some were black too. There were mooing of deers but could not see them.

The day-before we had located a coffee-shop too. So last destiny was coffee-shop. It was proper filmi style shop. Long back, it was granary to store coffee seeds. Seats were made of cane and seats on one side holed from half-way. The shop – I doubt whether it could be called so- had opened only with our arrival. The shop had nothing much than tea and coffee and some left-over snacks of previous day. There were people for tea, black-coffee, black tea and the snacks. So we had almost half an hour to hear the stories from the man in the shop. And I was the one who entered the shop first.

He was an employee in the coffee plantation. There was an elachi factory downhill as well.  The place was heavenly accoding to him those days. Even Ambassador  - the only car in Indian roads those days – could easy drive through these routes. They had 10 employees round the year to clean the road during these days. But the wage for coffee-estate employees was 2 Rupees less than tea-estate employee which was again 2 Rupees less than drivers. So he was the least paid among the wagers.

As usual, there comes the twist in their happy life. Some 12 years or so ago Govt declared is as forest. So no more plantations and you can’t even cut the grass that was growing into the roads. Soon the well maintained estates were converted to real forest. The owners of the land were least interested to help the wagers and they gladly closed the factory. So people like this man, has to get atleast his gratuity fund before he leaves from here. He says, they owe him 50,000 plus interests for all these 12 years.

His life was even miserable. He lost his wife in the past. His two daughters are married and youngest is still with him. His one son is at his native place – Kottayam. His other son is in “Persia” and don’t know much about him. He believes the astrology, and says he son is very rich though he doesn’t have any contacts with him. He might be relieving himself by saying so – his son is prosperous now. And as the estates are closed, he don’t have much sales too. He usually opens his hotel only by lunch.

Then we were more curious to know about the animal life around. It was for the first time I was hearing elephants were less harmful!! According to elephants will stay around for some time but will leave. And sound and fire are usual weapons for them. Wild gaur was considered as more harmful and had killed 2-3 peoples there. Porcupines, mongooses, deers were other common visitors. Life is never that easy. And there are frequent checks by forest department to make sure no wild animals are hunted.

Then the stories started to repeat. As the people inside the room kept on changing, the same questions popped up. Unlike the films, you can’t expect a saviour who will solve all his problems. Its always nice to hear others’ problem but how often do we help to solve them? We were not different either. On the way back to room we met few more natives and everyone had similar stories.

Day inside Misty Valley

Once we reached the back, beak-fast was ready. It was now the time for all games. I started off with cricket. The ball was having fantastic movement that I could not how I bowled some deliveries. Then I had time for cards too. Kids had Chineese checkers. Attempts to fly the kite made a few busy all the day.

Soon something unusual and unbelievable was boiling in the bar-room. My brother wanted to dance after having some drinks, so did my cousins, but what about the song? So and they wanted nattan-pattu (local traditional song) to dance. Finally my only non-alcoholic cousin lit up the party. None could believe what was coming. He was making lines instantly about the people and was delivering at the pitch of his sound. It was so loud that we, ladies started to peep though the window. After more than one hour show we decided to give a change to all. The agenda was to take everyone from the room and end up the procession in the courtyard. Oh!! That’s was simply the best time I had with my cousins. Shouting, cheering, dancing and what all we could do were done. Last procession itself was about ten-minutes video with a single person singing throughout – “Ente koodae vayyo thankammae” or “Aadaadu pamabae.. Aadaadu pamabae” . I cant say how great it was, you have to be there to feel it. The procession ended up in the lunch hall.

After the quick lunch, we had to pack-up. We were suppose to start by 3pm. Again I was the one who wanted to reach early – I had to catch my bus to Bangalore too. But as some elephants had blocked the way the jeeps reached by with a slight delay of two hours. During the two hours we had time for another session of loose talks and to roam around the rooms.

I missed out say about their communication media. They had a table which had a look like ham devised on it. A triangular white box out of which a cable looking like a telephone wire was kept on the table. The table had a speed-o-meter kind dial at the centre. When I went near it, the person asked me to move a bit as it was blocking the signals. I could not resist myself, what was that device behind that triangular box!! Any guess? Yeah, a CELL PHONE!!! Box was to prevent it from rain and sun and the signals was very weak over there.

Once our jeeps reached back, we soon started our journey back. And reached back by 9:30pm. We didn’t stop anywhere during the return drive.  And I managed to reach for bus in time. But as usual, if you are early, your bus is late. I had to wait for another 1 hour for my bus to reach.

I am not sure that was my best weekend in life, but it was certainly the best with my cousins. 

The BEST of course..

My Marriage

It’s very a great feeling when you know your friends trust you. But it’s always more fun when you can utilize that trust and ride them through a never existing story. I have to confess to many of my colleagues and friends for exploiting their trust lately on a well framed stories with the help of some of you.  The story was about my marriage, when I had no plan of getting married.

Triggering

Day after marriage fixing of my brother, I went to my senior, Mahi at office to share my plan of leaves for the upcoming months. In the evening, Noman was there for usual chit-chat. To tell of Noman, him he can get married on any day after his elder brother’s marriage and he was so eager to get married as well. His brother was not finding a suitable alliance. Mahi loved to have some fun of him and announcement, “cj’s marriage is fixed”. Noman could not believe it. Why can’t I join the party?

Me:“I am getting married”

Noman: “What is your plan?”

Me: “My brother’s marriage is in Nov and Dec is month of lent for X’tians.”

Mahi: “So we can expect it by Jan”

Me: “Ya, but I don’t feel like marrying now.”

Then the discussion went on like that off topic.

Late evening, I was on chat with my friends. She was also at Kormangala and her office was near Maharaja’s hotel which was hardly 1km from my office. I was just checking the location on Google maps. As Noman and I usually leave together, he came to my desk and saw me checking for a hotel at 7pm. So he made up his part.

“Going for date, uhh??”.  

“Not yet, her office is here. Just checking the exact location”

“Where is she working?”

“Philips”

“If she is so near, why can’t you go and meet her for lunch?”

“It’s still in the initial days. And I am not sure of the marriage yet”

“How did that come up”

“It’s my daughter of dad’s friend. It came up like that.”

“So over a drink, ‘My son and your daughter getting married’”

“Not exactly”

So outline of the story is ready. But we need more stories before presenting to friends and more digestable stories as they know me last 7 years or so.

Broadcasting

Once you have the initial story, we have to spread it among your friends. Now I have to start the process of spreading it. I send a mail to “Seis amigos”, a mailing group for my close group.

Subject: 

I am getting nailed soon!!

Content:

Yeah sh*t happens!! And this tym, its likely to be worst. My dad's frnd want me to call him "papa" in recent future. Thalkalam chettandae ullathu kondu block chaythu erikuvannu.(I can block for the time being in the name of brother) bt soon it could happen. I am trying to avoid by all possible reason i could ever figure out but doesnt look like it will work .. Afterall njan allae, i wil find a fix ennu oru vishwasam. (Afterall it’s me and I will find a fix, that is my belief) 

Anyways her name is Ann Jacob, working in Philips at 80ft-road kormangala. 

We met once on last sunday for lunch. She is nice bt as u know i am not in marriageable age and she is even worse. 

further details after escaping from the trap 

That was enough. More questions and enquiries like photos, her backgrounds, her college etc came up.

Concreting

Phase 3 starts now. Now I had to make sure the things are more reliable. When you are framing a story it should be flawless. Next time when I came back from home, my ring-finger became an actual "ring finger". I reached office on the Monday. During the tea-break, the usual stories came up – I am getting married in  next couple of months and Noman’s marriage will take long time. I dint say much during the chat, but just raised my left hand and turned the ring at Noman's face. It completed the stories but I got congrats from Noman only and a more perplexed look from Mahi, who saw a sudden twist in story.

Someday along the week, Thanku was on GTalk and the same topic popped up. The discussion topic soon changed to Ann. I was least interested in marriage, and my mom cant say a “No” to him. He had a heart-attack couple of months back too. I can convince Thanku more than anyone with worst of arguments. Not different this time either. Ann can be a could friends but never more than that was my point.

Side-effects

We can never break Newton’s 3^rd law. When you are framing a rumour with you as the hero, there is always potential risk. It may kick you back. For me it happened during the last team outing. If front of elderly staffs, Noman said the same stories of my marriage. They had better logic than Noman, your brother’s marriage and your marriage cant be together. But they still congratulated me!!

If I still proceed with the rumour, I might get into deep trouble with reaching at wrong people. And I think I had more than fun in last 2 months or so. Afterall I am so happy to see how much people around me take me by my words.

Coorg-Madikeri Trip

 After a small break of small 3 months, it was another trip. We could not break the jinx of having some out of “Seis Amigos”(Six Friends) to make it “Seis”(six). This time it was Manu who missed it out. Plan was pretty simple – we have a cab booked, home stay arranged and  trip starts by Friday night and ends by Sunday evening. Where to visit, when to visit or such questions had no answers. All we know is, we are going and my friends trust me as well on this.

Onward Journey

We started by 11:00pm on Friday, as usual I was the first one. We had pick-ups from Domlur (Bhanu and Apu) and Marthahalli (Thanku and Aliyan). And finally we had to pick Sali, who had urgent work for the Saturday and was supposed to “Work From Cab” with his datacards. The drive to home-stay would have been a normal one, unless the driver tried to make a roller-coaster on the road. He never disappointed a gutter or a hump, always drove through the centre line on the road and fabulous breaking skills. It was around 6:30am when we reached the home-stay. 

Home-stay at Coorg

Our coffee was ready as we reached.  We roamed around before places, refreshed, had break-fast and initial set of testing on photo-graphical skills before 9:00.

Meanwhile, all the 3 ladies stood around me asking for day’s plan and I knew the perfect answer for them “Where all do you people want to go?” and in actual I was totally empty and had no idea on schedule. The plan is ready now. Irruppu falls and Nagarhole National Park in the morning. Later to Madikeri, so Sali could complete the work when we outside “No-range zone” Home-stay. Day 2  we planned for Madikeri again with Kushalla nagar. 

The First-Sight seeing

A snap from home-stay

Irruppu fall was first destiny.The fall had too strong and was more crowed that we had to get satisfied by just watching the water. Near the falls, we got another testimony of girls- we found 2 boys and 1 girl coming from opposite side. Girl was identified as our 3-year junior at college by Thanku. Soon a long chit-chat as expected blossomed after which we understood, the guys too were our juniors.  

Irruppu falls

Then we went for Nagarhole Rajiv Gandhi National Park. It was unlike most of the parks in India. We saw many spotted-dears and a snake. Soon Sali had a long start and announcement, “Its 12:30, I want to send my report”. Ok guys, we are going back to room then to rafting, which hardly 5kms from stay. So our plan had started changing. We rushed to home and soon we had awesome lunch with chicken, fish, ghee-rice and so on.

Lunch was so heavy that the plan has changed again. Sali and me will go for the hunt - hunt for range – while others will have a nap.

Cloudy Sky:A usual vacation spoiler,
whom we enjoyed a lot this time

Post Lunch

Of course, I had to go with Sali. In the cab, he was equipped with 2 datacards and his mobile phone and was looking for first signal from anywhere on the way to town. I had nothing to do, but to roam around for almost 1 hour to take some random pictures and to make all the time-pass calls.

When we reached back by 4:00, Aliyan was in sound sleep in gent’s room while 3 ladies on the bed talking and probably some rumours too on stake. So I went alone to have a walk in and around the home-stay. I got a good fallen-wood to lie down and enjoy the sky with no disturbance at all. It was rain who interrupted me. I enjoy 5 minutes drizzle, but had to go inside when the rain got heavy. I love to have some time alone and had my share.

When rain subsided, Sali and me had tried some badminton. Soon Bhanu and Apu joined us and now time for some mixed-doubles. We decided for a trek now. Actually it was Apu who wanted to have trek. So we entered the forest by 6:15 pm. Even though it was reasonably dark, each of us had atleast 10 leeches on our legs to direct us. So soon girls started to protest which boys never hear. But the cook converted guide announced a wild-boar is somewhere near.

Crescent-Moon Night

Back from trek, we all went an investigation on home many leeches we all had. We had a hot bath before going for the camp-fire. The owner of the stay, Mr. Pratap was a nice man and offered me a drink atleast 3 times. I don’t know why, he was asking only to me. I doubt I look like a drunkard. The cook had a drink, he smelt. I saw driver sitting with Manshion House. His son, Abhi had visited the camp-fire and had a chat with us. He was a nice little chap.

Dinner was soon served- another delicious one with some 2 varieties of chicken, rice, rice-kheer and many others.  We had a plan for second show but everyone was tired that we soon went to sleep with plan ready for next day. We will be ready by 7:30, and leave after breakfast by 8:00 to Madikeri targeting Abbey falls, Dubbare Elephant camp, Kushalnagar, Omkara temple but to leave madikeri by 3:00 pm and reach Bangalore for dinner.We soon went back to sleep.

Madikeri

With a fully packed day planned for Sunday, we were supposed to get ready by 7:30. But it was 7:30 when we left the room. Madikeri was around 100km from there. Just as we started from room, we saw some kids in uniform. We dint care much for that. But at most junctions, kids were waiting their bus or so. Suddenly we all had a feel of “Hangover” movie. Did we miss one day? NO!! That happens only in movies not in real life. But did we..? And that was the first time our mobile was useful. It was Sunday, more importantly October 2^nd, Gandhi Jayathi and kids are going to school for that. During the journey, I enjoyed a lot alone - a head massage from one of my friends.

Abbi Falls

First we went to Omkareshwara temple. It was build during the Mughal reign, and was build more like Mosque with dome. There was a naming ceremony going on as we entered the temple. I could make some hymns which were wishing to have long life and all pleasures in life. We moved from there in 10-15 minutes.

We reach Abbi falls with lot of expectations. Last day we dint get wet at the Irruppu falls and we had planned to get into the falls. Yet another disappointment was the result. The water was so powerful that no one could get to the stream. But it was an amazing to see the falls from the hanging bridge build across the stream. The tiny water droplets that shattered from rocks and carried by wind could alone make the whole trip unforgettable.

We decided to drop the elephant camp as we were running out of time. And by around we started off for Kushalnagar. We had lunch on the way from a mallu-hotel.

Tibet in Karnataka

Kushaalnagar was a place I was waiting to visit the most. I am always interested to see different cultures and different people. As you enter town itself we will start seeing the difference. My thought of Buddhists was people who are so silent and left old worldly luxuries like Buddha. I saw them having now-veg food, playing most of the games, using mobile phones and doing everything like any of us. But I could not get answer to one question - what are they wearing, a skirt or a lungie like mallus?

The first room we saw had prayer time. They were using trumpets, drums and other musical instruments. It was making a lot of noise and I was actually running to see what was happening. I could not make out anything on what they were praying. Also they were serving some snacks and Pepsi for people inside the temple. We could watch everything from outside only. I tried to make something out from what was happening for 10 minutes or so. Finally I gave up and went to next temple.

Golden Temple

I can bet to you, if are not blind, the moment u enter the temple you would be astonished by the amazing 60-feet tall Buddha’s statue in copper plated with gold. There were a couple of other statues which was 58-feet tall on either side of the central statue. The statues were filled with holy-scriptures, teachings, clay and so on. The wall was adorned with 25 pictures based on the teachings of Guru Rinpoche. I doubt, some paintings had more of Indian style than the Tibetan paintings. As they had written, to understand those painting we should be aware of all teaching of the religions, I gave up the attempt to decipher the paintings. But another question that popped-up in my mind was, unlike most religions the Temple had too many dragons in too bright colours; very much unlike Christian or Hinduism. I dint allow my friends to sit for resting inside the Temple as was written somewhere as it was a place of worship and not entertainment.

We then did some shopping from the shop near the temple and started back.

Back to Old-world

All our plans were changing or dint work at all, but our plan to reach by 7-8pm has worked. We reached Bangalore by 7:30 or so and we had a coffee together

For anyone who loves to travel or nature or history or to just sit idle with no disturbance, you should visit Coorg atleast once and I am sure you will wait for your next visit. Never miss a chance to Coorg that comes your way.

Nice shoes!! Where did you buy it from?

Everyone likes someone to appreciate you and your belongings, but not always. It’s true when you are in corporate world. When someone says to me, I have done a good job through chat, nowadays I reply with “tel me” instead of thanks and there comes the next task for me.

But a week before something worse has happened. After reaching back at Bangalore in the morning, still feeling the home, I had to rush to office. I have a habit of keeping all my shirts ironed in a stack and will pull out the bottom most shirt from the stack (yeah,  I actually implementing FIFO- First In First  Out) so each shirt will have same frequency of usage. Today it was “Pink-shirt” day. When there are only guys in your office, who cares what you wear. So I started to office at usual time as usual except for feeling home-sickness.

I went for breakfast from usual hotel. Everything was normal till the middle of breakfast. Then a man from nowhere turned up. The first dialogue itself created confusion.

“Nice shoes!! Where did you buy it from?”

(OMG!!! An unknown “man” coming to me to say my 2+ year old Woodland is nice. And this guy does not look new to Bangalore and I can bet he has seen the same shoe – exactly same colour and model - atleast 20 times. So what he is interested is not my shoe, but something else. Then I realized, I was wearing wrong shirt today. Did I turn on a wrong indicator? I have never been an attraction to girls, but now!!! Oh no!!! This cant be so. This is the worst that can happen. But I still tried to be polite to him but want to avoid him. )

So keeping my eyes in my plate,  I said “From Marthahalli, Woodland showroom”. So that’s the end of conversation for me. But he remained there.

He wants to start a conversation. Ok. I don’t mind, this is the first and last time we are going to talk or meet.

“How long have you been using these shoes?”

“More than 2 years”

“Oh! It is nice”

My eyes are more into plate. He has no plans of letting me enjoy my food.

“By the by, I am Ajith, Working at blah blah. May I know your name?”

“George”

“Which is your native place?”

“Kerala”

“Do you watch Tamil Movies? There is a hero named Ajit”

So do you think you are that hero??

“I don’t  watch much of them”

“My name and his name are same. My Mallu friends watch his files...Where are you working?”

“Kormangala”

“In which company?”

“Blah blah blah”
Please.. Please leave me. I am the not kind of person you are expecting

Then he had a series of questions to be answered in one word.

“How long have you been to Bangalore?”

“Were you working with same company for all the time?”

“What platform are you working on?”

“What do you do on weekends?”

…

I never have seen a man with these many questions.

There comes the one last, but the worst question.

“What is your mobile number?”

And he gave me a miss call. I dint save his number, but he was saving that.

By then I have completed my food and said I am leaving. He has repeated his first sentence again.

“Nice shoes!!”

Then he went to parking lot and took his Honda Activa. For me,  my doubts were cleared, such soft spoken man having Activa!! I completed the story. But still wanted to know what he wanted or more importantly, I didn’t turn on a wrong person.

I soon called my friend and told what has happened. He could not stop himself from laughing. When he had a similar experience, it was me who made most of the fun. But he dint share his number. I was sure I will get a call from Ajith in one week time.

On that Friday, my phone rang by 6:30 pm. An unknown number.

“Hello”

“Hello”

“I am Ajith”

“Ajith? Which Ajith?”

“We meet there in hotel last Tuesday”

“Oh ya”

“I told, I am working in Blah Blah. Me, with my friends have started a venture. We you are looking for part-time employees. Are you not interested in some extra income from your spare time”

“No. I am working in a start-up and am fully occupied. 24*7 I am busy”

“Ok. If you know any of your friend looking for an extra bonus, please let me know”

“Sure, I can call in this number itself?”

“Ok”

So I am safe.The worst hasn’t happened. I am so relieved at that. But I learnt something from this, a man can also start a long conversation by talking about your shoe!!

Stories I heard the most

Sometimes loneliness is a blessing, especially when it is self imposed. This is partially true for me about this weekend. I was just at room, going out for 2 meals on each day and spending most of my time in front of laptop or by sleeping. During the post lunch nap today, I had a visit by Dad in my dreams- the most common figure in my dreams. I woke up soon with a lot of memories of him. He was a more like a grandfather to me as I was youngest of four in the family. He caned me just once or twice, he never said a ‘no’ to me and I could go with him to anywhere in the world.

My dad had a set of stories with some moral which I have heard atleast 20 times. Thereafter the title of stories would convey the meaning. Obviously they were not bed-time stories. I would like to share some of my favorites of the same old stories with everyone.

The Dead Dog

It’s probably the smallest story, but the best.

A dog was lying dead on the road. Everyone who passed by said, the dog smelt bad. But the hero came by the road and said “Look at its teeth, they are glowing white!!” 

And obviously moral is find only good in others.

Dad and Son with a donkey

This is my personal favorite.

A dad and son were going with some load on their donkey’s back. Then someone on the road asked, why can’t one of you can also get on donkey’s back and son got on the donkey’s back. As they went on someone else asked, how can you make your dad work when you are not. So both of them swapped. Next person had the opinion of both travelling on donkeys back. Next was on opinion of no one on donkey back as it was tired and even asked one of them hold the load as well. Father and son obeyed everyone.

The story has made me a bit adamant too. I wont accept anyone unless, I feel its right.

Manager and Peon

You might have heard the story in different version too. But this was the most repeated story.

A rich businessman had a manager and a peon. The peon used to complaint, why the manager was paid much and had less work. So finally the rich man decided to answer him. Rich man found a load of firewood taken through the road. Rich man asked the peon to check whether it was for sale. Peon came back saying, it was. The rich man asked the peon to check whether it was dry enough to be used next day. Peon ran again. When he came, manager asked to for the price to peon and the peon had to run again. Now the manger was called and asked the same question and he returned with all answers for all relevant questions. 

Once again moral is so simple. Its not the hardwork that matters but smart work.

Be always the last!!

The dad was teaching his son, always take the smallest piece of sweet from the plate. And then dad asked his son what he understood. The boy was smart, he replied like- always be the last one to take from the plate!!

I m going home!!

Yeah!! I am going home again for the weekend. Don’t get into the false impression from my excitement that I am going home after a long time. In fact, exactly 4 weeks back I was at home; but 4 weeks is long period for me. At anytime, whether you go home once in a week, or a month or an year, u will wait for that days to come only to see yourself back to your routine much before. Last time I went home it was another proof of Murphy’s Law from the time I planned the trip.

I had to go home town on that weekend as it was my Grandma’s –I don’t have faintest of memory of any other grandparents - death anniversary. And the Mass at church was at 7:30. I booked a ticket for bus at 7:30pm on Friday, leaving my usual 10:30 bus. I am all set to go on Friday morning. After reaching office, I got a call from travel agency saying, I can go only by 8:00pm bus. Fine, I agreed. I can still manage to reach in time.

I was in the middle of the meeting at 6:45pm at office. My system was used for conferencing. Its ok, I asked my one of my colleagues to lock my laptop in one of the drawers after meeting. And I started running. As usual, my bag is not yet backed and there is no power at room. As I was planning to go to church directly, I wanted to iron my shirt too. Ok! I will manage in a T-shirt. And so while I was having my dinner by 7:45, I remembered about my mobile charger. Again I ran back to get and somehow reached back by just 5 minutes for 8. Then I heard the good news, my bus is at 8:15. Still I can manage to reach for church. I always hate waiting, and I am waiting for my bus to go HOME!! Finally bus comes by 8:50 and starts by 9:10. Still I had a hope of reaching in time.

Bus journey is always the same. Everyone wants a lady to be seated next to you, but only ladies can ask for it. But you can still feel something running very softly through your skin. After 5 minutes, you can make sure, bedbugs always causes irritation. I wont wake on any sudden breaks in the bus, but bedbugs... Bus stops for dinner at 11:00pm, don’t ask me who will have dinner at that time. After all, I still prefer bus to train.

And now starts the worst part. I woke by 5:30 in the morning; bus is stopped at the check post – state border. Checking is always there and it will take upto 1 hour. So I went back to my sleep. If the bus is not moving, I cant sleep in the bus and by 6:30 I decided to have a look outside. Then, I realised the scene was worse than I thought. Bus reached here by 4:45 and there was no conductor and driver in the bus. Someone tried to call the travel agency and they too don’t know what is happening. Issue is simple, bus had 2 feet tall luggage and it was more like a courier from someone to someone. So my first question got an answer, I wont reach for Mass. Now, I want to reach at the earliest.

I got into next local bus that came by and boarded to nearest town, Palaghat. I was seeing that bus stand for first time in my life. After a couple of calls, I found the shortest route bus to my hometown, Thrissur.  After 15 minutes, a guy from the old bus has got into this bus. In next 10 minutes, the bus which we had left hopelessly is just behind us and it soon overtook us and would have reached Thrissur atleast 30 minutes before me.

And finally I reached the town by 10:00. I need to travel for another 1 hour to reach my uncle’s place on a normal day. But monsoon always doubles your time for conveyance. It was pouring so heavily too. And finally I got down at the bus stop. After heavy rains, it was kind of flooded and I hate walking in water, atleast when I was no extra Jeans in my bag. And finally I reached, with just 5 hours of delay.

But my luck dint change now too. After dinner, we went back home. I had bought a new jeans after my last visit to home and wanted to show to everyone. Then I realised the fact, I forgot to take my jeans from uncle’s place. I immediately called to uncle’s home and it was aunt who picked the called.

Me: “ I think, I have left my jeans there”

Aunt: “No problem, your uncle will wear”

Me: “I don’t mind if he is wearing it, but I have nothing to wear tomorrow”

Aunt: “You mean, you haven’t got anything when you came from Bangalore”

Me:”Nope”

Aunt (she cant stop laughing): “You don’t have anything else!! you are the best.”

One of my uncles, who was going back only on Sunday morning helped me to get my only Jeans back.

And the Sunday is always short, especially if you are Christian. Waking by 8:30, going for Sunday mass, lunch and a small sleep will make it 4 in the evening. And time for me to leave.

The return journey will never be better, but I will be tired after the weekend that will have a sound sleep. Bus coming late by 1 hour, bed bugs and much more colder night.

Whatever be climate or by whatever time I get late, once I reach home, have some homely food and then lie down in my mom’s lap, all those golden days returns.

Again I am going home on this weekend and all my siblings and nephew and nieces are at home. And I am so eager to join them....

the YOUNGEST Child

I will have a chance of getting all your parents’ love and they wont say a ‘No’ to me often if I am the only child to my parent. This was what I thought during my childhood days especially when I had 3 siblings elder to me. And to be frank, I was not the pet of my dad or mom during my childhood days even though I was youngest. It was not their fault. My mouth was always wide open crying. I never let anyone interfere in my life. Even in my kindergarten stages I studied all alone. I was more lonely than a single child during those days.

I was self-fulfilling. I can play cricket alone - by bowling to wall and hitting back when it came make or by batting with a ball hanged from the roof, or I can play cards all alone with 6 hands. But its always better to play with many instead of all alone. To have daily evening cricket session or to play cards with all my family members were always better. So my “only child” theory fails. Being alone, unless it is self imposed, its boring and more importantly irritating to me.

But being the youngest was always fun. You can do all mischief and just point your fingers at your sibling. You are the safe. Just like ladies, tears are always for your rescue. (When I was even 12 years, my dad had given an offer of giving me one rupee on each “non-crying” day. I seldom let my father lose his money.) While playing cricket, I never lost more than 3 matches in a row or to phrase it in better manner – my bro hated me crying on ground, why to get thrashed. But off-grounds he always enjoyed making me cry. To cry was always my best weapon. Most days I would cry and would sleep just to skip dinner. My dad was always on my side, though he knew I was not innocent. There is a syndrome found widely among the youngest kid – Monday morning stomach-ache; I was not different.

But with time things has changed. I completed my studies and became salaried. I became more attached to my family like never before. And I started to face the youngest-child crisis. Even when I am going for a shopping, I need to report to mom. At the age of 10 or 15 its fine, but at 25!! If I am doing more than usual, I have to report to all my siblings and get permission from all of them even though final decision was always mine. And the worst according to me is someone else making budget for me. On the other hand, for my elder bro, things are just opposite. He is matured, responsible and whatever I am not. Everyone at home, rely on him like anything.

Now I feel, I should not have been the youngest. I don’t want to be under shades of anyone anymore. But what do to, I have enjoyed the same shades for more than couple of decades and I cant always get best of all. And I am happy about being the youngest.

We are the hardworking Software Engineers

When I was young I have heard someone saying, the laziest people on earth are school teachers. They had summer vacations, 2 set of other 10 days vacations, all 2 days weekend-off, class timing not more than 9:15 to 4:00, same syllabus for atleast 5years and more importantly no risks at all. But the best part is most of them will be complaining about their ‘hectic’ life. 

Time has changed, professions have changed, and schedules have changed. Teachers have to work on Saturdays, vacation classes are common and their life got more hectic but they are no more complaining.

Then who has replaced teachers of past decade??

 I believe it's people like me, “Software Engineers”. We usually have 5 days week. We just have to sit and relax in air-conditioned rooms for 9 hours of which normally we work for not more than 6 hours. And the funniest part is, we are doing something any high-school pass out can do; but we talk to others as if we are  working on rocket science. Salary, we can`t compromise on that, we need a 100% hike every year.

There are many common things I have heard or observed from many of my friends who are holding the designation.

1. If we reach office by 11:00, we are early. But we will stay till 7:30 in the evening. (Obviously girls cannot work after 6pm, it is late. Yeah, they can roam on a weekend till midnight, that’s a different scenario)
2. We don’t know why, all our seniors are dumb. Senior Software Engineers are dumb, Team Leads/Tech Leads are dumber and Project Managers are the dumbest.
3. We know how our seniors reached there- playing politics and favouritism.
4. At work, we have a “Use Me” tag; all works no one wants to do, will always come to us.
5. If we work on a night, we had a hectic day and need a compensatory-off. Same rule applies if we work on a weekend, even if it is for one hour.
6. Fridays are days for fashion-show at office, don’t miss it. (I loved my bus ride to Electronic City)
7. In a discussion, always use some random terminologies. For example, I once told my Lead, “The method you have implemented is based on greedy algorithm. This is a particular case of knapsack problem and we need to have a proper backtracking”. And my Lead immediately waved a green flag to my new algorithm.
8. After all these great works, there comes the appraisal. Everyone whom we hate will get a grade change or better hike, and never for us.
9. And finally we are bored with our work and no hikes too. We are going to try our luck with next employer

When it comes to person life, we again have some strict rules.

1. We can’t wake before 7:30 though we prefer 8:00. But on weekend, we cannot wake before 10:00. We hit the bed after 12, not even got knows what we do till that time.
2. We can wear only branded items, be it a shirt, jeans, shoes or whatever it is.
3. Volvo is the only bus we can get in. While travelling we need to hear songs from our phone and will be having a thick Novel to make others think we are reading a lot.
4. Multiplex is the only place apart from your laptop where we can watch movies. A movie ticket can never be cheaper than 250 bucks.
5. Bars are something which is no more matching us, we will visit only pubs.
6. We meet more friends in Facebook or GTalk rather than in person. We cannot live without internet for sure.
7. We can give treats with food-coupons like Sodhexo and Ticket coupon but cant buy you a Paav-Baaji by paying 15bucks.

If I have missed out any, please add them below.

No chicken @ KFC, Matty is still happy

It was a usual day till 6pm with usual Software Engineering works with lots of discussions and little conclusions (but thankfully we had some decision today). Around 6, I got a call from one of my friends, Shashi (name changed to suit the situation) asking for a movie. But I was not in a mood, so we compromised with KFC. I got back to work and when I was about to leave at 7, Matty(name changed) pinged me and to check my dinner plan. If I mention about Matty, he is the laziest man among my friends circle, who is happy to spend all his weekends sleeping at room, who wont go for a treat at best restaurant which is even 1km away just because he has to travel. Matty readily decided to join us.

From the time we reached KFC, Shashi and I found something fishy, Matty who always dies for chicken, doesnot want chicken today!! Then why did he come to KFC!!! to have some veg!! no way!! With our buckets we started off with usual stuffs before Matty started revealing. Though he is just 25, he has an active account in a Matrimonial Site for 4 months or so. He has got a couple of proposals as well. Then he started details of each proposal. One was from my hometown and other from his home town. He gave a brief about both of them like both having fathers abroad, completed engineering and so on.

The moment he started describing about the girl from his home town, Santro(I dont know her actual name, bt my guess is very close), he was getting pale, shy and a mix of many other emotions. Then he started to focus too much on the Santro, I just shot a random question - "Did u know know her before?". After initial denial he gave up. Now story is getting more closer, her bro is his long time friend, Matty has sent a request in matrimonial site to Santro and her brother has contacted him through Facebook. But Santro dint want a guy from IT field. After 4-6weeks, Matty and Santro met near St.Thomas' statue after Sunday Mass, but dint even talk. Before lunch of same day, his request in matrimonial site was accepted. Matty is more and more interested in narrating.

Its was Shashi's turn now, "You liked her before, right?". Matty was not able to withstand. Whoa!! Stories are getting even fascinating. I just had a spontaneous "for how long?". Matty was straight forward, "for last 10 years or so"!! Holy c***!!! Ten years back means, he is of 15 and she is of 12 - she is in 7th standard!! I dont even remember any of my junior girls even at college, which is less than 3 years history. Then why did he propose Emy(again name changed) 2 years back, if he loved someone for last 8 years??

Matty went on with narration, Santro's family has enquired about him a lot among his friends, and ultimate level of workplace from his Product Manager. Santro bro told Matty, all his family is family is up with a green flag, but Dad has to confirm. And her dad will be coming in July for 35 days leave. It was Matty's indirect message, "Kids, be prepared for my engagement next month".

Shashi and me, we have something common among us in last May. Shashi was interested in a girl but she flew back to her native town in May. During the same month, I got rejected by a girl on proposing. Now this friend, who has made us believe us he was in our league after he too had lost Emy, is getting married to a girl whom he loved from the time he knew what is love.

The guy who was getting now emotion was Shashi. I have never seen him that desp. According to Shashi, Matty had started planning his life from the age of 15, he found  a girl 3 years younger to him.. nearby but 2kms apart.. once she registered in matrimonial site, he paid 3k and registered himself and send interest to her. Unlike most arranged marriage where parents find the girl, he has done everything. Why werent I interest in my super-juniors while I was in school. I could not answer to Shashi.

All I can say now is, "Matty, we will meet for your engagement. Best wishes!!"

(PS: All characters are 100% existing, so please dont reveal identity of anyone while commenting)

A normal day at the age of 9, 16 and 25

Yesterday, while returning from native to Bangalore, I came across a thought – “How much did I change in years? What changes did came across in my day-to-day life?”. I found something really fascinating, I am still living my old life!!

I don’t remember much about myself during the period I could enter my age in single digit column. I was shyest person around. I still remember the day, when I was 4-5, while all kids around me were involved in playing the game of picking the chocolates from the floor, I was happy to hold my mom’s sari tip.

Let me share my daily life schedule of my life after that age from where memories flows easily.

Day’s Start

Whatever my age me, I woke always between 6:00-7:00. When I was of 9 years, I woke up at 6:15, went to church and will go through all the home works for the day in less than 30 minutes before starting to school at 8:45. During my +1, at the age of 16, day was almost same – wake by 6:15, go for tuition at 6:45, and to classes. But after tagging myself as “Software Engineer”, I have the flexibility to sleep till 8-30 or even 9, but I am not so(atleast not on weekdays). After half an hour of alarm at 6:30, I will wake by 7:00. Just like in my school days, I will just go through some pending tasks of last day before starting to office at 8:45. I found it more or less I am still following same routine and decided to go ahead.

Working Hours

For any reason, I hate people waiting for me or myself waiting for others. So be at school or at office I will reach in time. Till this day of life, my working hours starts before 9:30. And always I had a break at 11 for a tea with even hotter rumors. Best part of at school or workplace is always lunch time. The sports- break is something I still enjoy, though the sports evolved from Football in open-ground at 9 years, to Volleyball in classroom at 16 years, to Table-Tennis at terrace 25. I am bit scared about is my next playground, as it has always moved up from ground to Terrace!!

But the working hours is something which always stretched - From 4PM(during schools) to 4.45PM(during +2) to “UNKNOWN”. “UNKNOWN” is again the privilege you get as a Software Engineer, which I won’t miss even if I want to.

Back home

When you are staying with parent the best part is when you return from school – SNACKS. I badly miss those days. But after evening snacks, it’s time for entertainments. It was cricket with brother when I was young, then with kids around and even now it’s the same old cricket – and my teammates are of still of the age 10 . If second option for relaxation came up, it was TV before teenage replaced with Laptop and FaceBook are for later part of my life.

Dishearten hours comes now – homework time. It doesn’t matter when I returned from school or office; I am supposed to spend some time at home. To make it simple, I will sleep 30minutes after completing my home works. During school days, I could finish my work in 1 hour, so slept at 7pm (trust me, it’s true). I rarely saw 10pm even during my 10^th standard. Scene changed finally in recent past, the bed-time has now has shifted to 12-1am on weekdays. Atlast, end of my day has changed in years

Yeah, my life has changed in years. But I am still living my old routine only to labelled as “Boring Programmer” by a colleague of mine!!