The trip that shouldnt have happened

We planned a trip. Ok so nothing new you must be saying. We plan hundreds of non-executable trips everyday. But this one, for a change, happened. There were were nearly 5 different reasons why the trip shouldn't have happened. I ll let you know about them and how each of them was overcome.

1. Minimum number of people

Since the trip we planned was a mid-night trek in a mountain, numbers always matter. When the trip was planned there were nearly 15 people who were "interested". When they came to know that the trip is being finalized, as were expected, many of them dropped off. Anyway we managed to get 8 interesting people on board. Yeah interesting because all of them are in sync with each other. We never even bothered to ask those incompatible ones.

2. Mode of Transport
The initial plan was to travel in motor bikes. Many people, especially my friend Queen, were very much thrilled by this idea. Then we found out that the number of people were more than the number of available motor bikes. Needed a change in plan; KP agreed to take his car. So 4 in car and another 3 in motor bikes. Thats when Goa agreed to join the trip and in came the second car. So motor bike plan trashed.

3. Release
We were at the fag end of a release cycle that has given us more trouble than pleasure till now. Everybody wanted it out, but it just refused to go like a newly married bride reluctant to leave her parents house. On the trip day, everybody were praying for no new issues to crop up. The new build definitely seemed fine but still until we started we always thought it ll break and dampen all our plans.

4. Directors!!!
On the way to the trip, KP stopped at a desolated place to ask for directions. The place looked cheesy, with a gang of drunken guys checking us out. The girls were oblivious to all these and got out to take photographs. They had to be forced inside the car. KP asked directions from a few policemen standing there. They told him that the place is closed for tourists for a some time now. KP came back and conveyed us the bad news. We were making alternate plans to visit another hill when KP again came up with a brain wave. Since we had come this far, he suggested, we go to that place and check whether its really closed. We all agreed on that and it ended up being a really good idea. The place was indeed open and we found lots of other people like us already trekking.

5. Tiredness
Its no easy trek. Had to climb continuously for 3 hours. Nearly every one got tired. Pops was getting ragged big time and that made her both physically and mentally tired :-). PG was hauling her through many of the steep climbs. The queen was all chirpy and enthu but her energy reserves were coming down quickly. Goa was dragging behind for sometime. We stopped at one point and opened few Red Bulls. It really boosted people's energy and spirits. Made me remember the Nitro button in "Fast and the Furious"

In the end, it was a trip worth made. It was so mesmerizing to see the clouds settled down below us. Endless wisps of white everywhere like an ocean of milk. It was like those scenes where they show gods in old movies. The sun was reluctant to come out for a long time. It was the first time I am witnessing a sunrise. As soon as the sun came out, the clouds ended their midnight affair with the mountains and rushed away. With that we started our climb down with our hearts badly looking forward to the next trip.

Here I am

My oh my... Bangalore is freezing. Temperatures are the lowest in 30 years it seems. During midnight temperatures dip to 8 degrees. I was in hibernation all these days and along came Scribbler. She poked me in the belly and whispered “I have tagged you”. So here I am, eyes half shut, still missing the other half of my sleep, but happy as well to be back in Hogwarts.. err..sorry Blogworld (Am I dreaming too much about Hermione these days??!!!)

1. Name one person who made you laugh last night?
   My Teammate

2. What were you doing at 0800?
   Sleeping like a King (Ahem...u know like the ones in Egyptian pyramids!!!)

3. What were you doing 30 minutes ago?
   Orkutting

4. What happened to you in 2006?
   Many things

5. What was the last thing you said out loud?
   Ha ha ha... :-)

6. How many beverages did you have today?
   Two

7. What color is your hairbrush?
   Blue

8. What was the last thing you paid for?
   My breakfast and coffee

9. Where were you last night?
   In my room.

10. What color is your front door?
    Grey

11. Where do you keep your change?
    In my purse.

12. What’s the weather like today?
    Dark and cloudy.

13. What’s the best ice-cream flavor?
    Butter-Scotch

14. What excites you?
    Many things...music, books, movies, nice girls...the list goes on :-))

15. Do you want to cut your hair?
    No i want to grow it long.

16. Are you over the age of 25?
    Yes, 5 months past 25.

17. Do you talk a lot?
    Yes I do.

18. Do you watch the O.C.?
    No

19. Do you know anyone named Steven?
    Yes. Steven Spielberg!!!

20. Do you make up your own words?
    What does this mean?

21. Are you a jealous person?
    Sometimes

22. Name a friend whose name starts with the letter ‘A’.
    Arul

23. Name a friend whose name starts with the letter ‘K’.
    Krishna

24. Who’s the first person on your received call list?
    My roomie

25. What does the last text message you received say?
    Your account balance is **** Sorry too low to publish :-(

26. Do you chew on your straw?
    No

27. Do you have curly hair?
    No

28. Where’s the next place you’re going to?
    My Room

29. Who’s the rudest person in your life?
    There is no one person... many.

30. What was the last thing you ate?
    Half a piece of chocolate which my team mate gave me to avoid stomach aches!!!

31. Will you get married in the future?
    Yes

32. What’s the best movie you’ve seen in the past 2 weeks?
    Bourne Identity

33. Is there anyone you like right now?
    Not one but many.

34. When was the last time you did the dishes?
    When I was home some 3 months back.

35. Are you currently depressed?
    No

36. Did you cry today?
    No

37. Why did you answer and post this?
    My friend wanted me to wake up and start blogging.

38. Tag few people who would do this survey.

Joju

Viki

Breakups….people who are or were in a relationship may know well about it. Only a lucky few may never know about this. I am pretty well accustomed to it. Till now I have had about 6 or 7 breakups, 5 of them with the same girl!!!!

So why do couples breakup?? Some of the reasons are:

1. One of the couple finds the other one cheating.

2. They don’t get ample time to spend with each other.

3. One of them notices a repelling behavior in the other of late.

4. Pressure from parents, relatives and friends.

5. One of them finds a new boy/girl more interesting than the present one!!!

6. Just like that!!!

So after my latest and may be my final breakup, I started thinking. Breakups can be avoided if you think well before deciding to commit. Of course you would be choosing the right girl/boy, who is 100% compatible with you. But there are some other factors that you should take into consideration.

1. First and foremost, the society.

Our society is still very immature. They still cannot accept an inter-religion or inter-caste marriage, though the latter is slowly getting accepted. Inter-religion marriage are still taboo. Come on grow up guys, the people who are in the relation would have already talked about this and are perfectly compatible with the difference in their faiths. They are not kindergarten kids whom you have to sit on top and preach. I have seen a lot of couples having different faiths but living their life in perfect harmony. The one “big question” the so called society asks these couples is “What about the kids, on what religion will you bring them up?” My solution is, don’t bring up the kids in any one particular religion. Teach the best of both the religions, when they grow up they will be able to choose the path that they want to. Show them the paths; never force them to choose the one you want. But for those people out there, who do not want to anger the society, choose a partner who is of the same religion and caste as you. But then, what is the difference between a love marriage and an arranged one. Love should be spontaneous. It should not be restricted within the realms of castes and religions.

2. Choose a partner who is strong

The person whom you have chosen may be good, but he/she should be strong enough to face the rough winds until your relationship is accepted by the elders. A lot of people will suddenly appear out of thin air to advice you about the grave mistakes that you are about to do by continuing the relationship. These people will be very intelligent and cunning. They will find out your weak points and apply maximum pressure at those areas. Emotional blackmail is the term for it. The most common pressure points are parents, close relations and faith. Some of the most common dialogues are like “Your father had a heart attack just a few months ago, if he comes to know about this he will have one last fatal one. You can decide whether to kill your father or save his life by leaving that girl.”, “That boy is of a different religion, god will never accept this. He will make you and your parents suffer for disobeying him, he will send fire balls down to earth to destroy you.” An ideal partner should be brave and emotionally prepared to face such crap from people around them. If they show signs of cowardice and indecisiveness, back off at the earliest. They will never be there to support you when you need them most.

3. Talk

Make sure that you talk about everything and have come to an agreement on almost all aspects. There should not be any lingering doubts or indecisiveness. You should be well prepared with answers for the questions that the elders ask. Most of the couples do not put a conscious effort in meaningful talking. Only when we talk can we find out about our differences, our views of life and where we stand. This can help you to present your case confidently and firmly to the elders later.

Heart burns and heart breaks are never easy. We feel like the whole world is collapsing on us. During these testing times it is better to channel our attention to other activities like work, sports or arts. There is no use hitting the bottle and going into depression. It can only do you more harm. They can never heal the wounds. Remember there is no better healer than Time.

(P.S. Sorry if you find this post too preachy. Just trying to give variety  )

Chennayil Oru Mazhai Kaalam

“Can you come to T.Nagar today evening by 7?” she asked me in that sweet sweltery voice of hers. ‘T.Nagar….I can even come to the end of the world with you baby…just say yes’…oh this was my heart speaking. My mouth said “T.Nagar?? Let’s see… I have some work in office…will try my best”, “Thankyouuuu”, ‘there she goes again…don’t kill me girl’.

Since I had a lot of work at office I was present in T.Nagar by 6!!!!!! I don’t know why, but I don’t get interested in other girls, even though they are very beautiful, when she is around. But now since she was not there, I started devouring them like a hound… of course with my eyes.

I was half way through a girl in red T shirt when I heard the familiar voice “Hi, you reached early?” I turned around and as soon as I set my eyes on her, my feet turned to jelly. ‘Concentrate man…concentrate…be a man…you have seen her a thousand times before’ …but she was dazzling today. She wore a light blue chudidhar and she wore her shoulder length hair untied in a way which I liked…her face was really glistening…oh ok may be it’s from the lights of LKS Jewelers…but still it was glistening. Who the hell said that girls who are dark skinned are not beautiful…this one standing in front of me is killing me…Oh man now she is smiling…She had one of the best smiles I have ever seen and I started melting. I can even feel my body melt and fall to my feet. Hey wait a minute that was not my body melting… they were rain drops…Its raining in Chennai!!!

“No, I just reached now… I told you na… I have lots of work in the office” this I said with a not so friendly face. “Oh thanks a lot for coming… that’s so sweet of you” Her face still has not lost the smile. The combination of the lights, the heat, she and the rain were driving me mad. “So why did you ask me to come to this junk place??” “I want to buy a sari…can you help me to choose one?” ‘You want me to select a sari…how about a life partner??’ “You know very well that I am not an expert in selecting dresses for girls” In the background my brain has captured her still image and is doing a mini fashion show with all kinds of saris. “Come on, I know you can…see its also raining we need to get into someplace soon” She took my hand and pulled me along. I followed her like a leashed dog running behind his master. Inside I could feel my blood going through a whirlpool, in the place where she had caught hold of my arm.

We reached Pothys and got into the sari section. She asked for some type of sari and they pointed us to a particular corner. The attender pulled out lots of saris and spread it on the table. Now my brain was doing another high speed mapping of the saris with her. In the mean time, she slipped away to see some other sari collection in the next counter. The attender who was standing in my counter asked me “Sari yaarukaavadu present panna pooreengala sir?” (Are you going to present this saree to anyone?) “Err..aama..illa” (Err..yes…no) “Illa sir, present panna pooreenganna avanga vayasu sollunga.. adukku yeatha maadiri collections kaaturrean” (If you are going to present it to someone, then tell me her age so that I can show you the appropriate collections) “Avanga vayasu Tw” (Her age is Tw..) “Sixty eight” she chirped from behind. I was speechless. “Next week is my grandma’s wedding anniversary, the sari is for her” The same killer smile on her face.

Booom!!!! The tire of a bus burst outside… or was it something inside me that burst???!!!

Tagged

I was tagged by Scribbler. May be she wanted to help me find something to put in my blog... Thanks Scribbler :-). So here goes the 8 random facts about me:

1. I am a Cancerian

2. My favorite ice cream flavor is Butter Scotch

3. The first things I notice in a girl are her eyes and hair

4. I like pets

5. I cry each time I see the climax of Schindler’s List

6. I do flirt a lot

7. I have stolen money from my mother’s purse

8. Had my first big crush at the age of 14

Rules for tagging :
***********************************************************************************************
1. Players start with 8 random facts about themselves.
2. Those who are tagged should post these rules and their 8 random facts.
3. Players should tag 8 other people and notify them they have been tagged.
************************************************************************************************
I copied the rules for tagging from Scribblers blog. Thank you Scribbler (or may be I should say sorry) ;-). I did not get 8 people to tag, anyway I am tagging the following people:
YASJ
Crazemaze
Putmeonthespot

Jack the Bugger

It was one of those horror movie nights. You know, the one in which the wind howls, curtains fly, windows and doors strain on their hinges, the moon hides herself and the clouds have a running nose. Her tiny little heart was beating fast. She knew the time was near. Images flashed through her mind….the bright flame….the huge shadow…the hot breath…two of her sisters running wild….their babies bringing up the rear.

The first to go were babies… 3 boys and 5 girls. One moment they were there, running as fast as their tiny legs could carry them behind their mothers, in the next they were up in smoke. She could smell their burning bodies and it made her move further into her crevasse. Soon one of her sisters was caught. She was not burned. The killer had no intentions to let her die that easily. He had style. He put her on the floor and as she was about to make her escape, he poured wax on her, entombing her permanently. The other sister was caught a little while later. She was ploughed out of the hole in which she was hiding by a big pole and the same was driven into her head a little later killing her instantly.

Her senses were so numbed with fear that she did not see the big hand creeping towards her. And when she did realize, it was too late. She saw the glint of his spectacles and his huge pink tongue coming out to lick the sweat in his upper lip. The huge hands caught her and swept her off her feet. She tried desperately to slip away, but it was an iron grip. She was carried away somewhere far of. As she was taken she realized that today there was no fire and no pole, he has devised some other new technique. When the movement stopped, she could see a huge body of water, still and serene. Alarm bells started ringing when the killer started moving towards the water body. With a loud splash she was pushed into the water….and held there firmly. The huge hands were holding her head down. Her lungs were about to burst, eyes were bulging out, legs splashed around feebly. His hands were too strong for her tiny fragile body. She could feel her life getting dissolved into the water...tortuously slow. The killer felt her legs go still and turned around with a victorious smile.

Sorry about the violence and goriness folks, but I am witnessing these incidents daily in my house. Baffled?? Ok I ll make it clear. The victims are….. bed bugs and the vicious killer is my room mate. He is a chronic bed bug killer. He cannot resist a bed bug sitting and enjoying the stale air in our room. I have seen him waking up in the middle of the night and hunting bed bugs. He devises innovative methods to make the killings. The other day he was telling me that he is going to read books on famous killers and implement their tactics on the “poor” bed bugs!!!! He has also started thinking like a bed bug so that he can accurately predict where they will be hiding. I am having nightmares in which I see him as a jumbo sized bed bug crawling towards me for his “Bloody Mary”. Pray for me brother……Pray for me sister.

P.S.: Two continuous posts on bugs..... I am bugged!!!!!!!!!!!

Fe(Male)

The other day I saw a documentary on the Black Widow spider in Animal Planet. Among black widows the males are very puny compared to the gigantic females. Now let’s name our main characters here: The tiny male is Jack and the big female is Rose.

Now when Jack first sets his eyes on Rose, he goes head over heels (all eight of them!!!). There is no romance involved here, like most of us males he only has sex in mind. He approaches her slowly, like a shy “bride-to-be” approaching her potential groom with the coffee tray. But he is always on the ready to turn back and flee if she doesn’t like him, because in the event that he fails to impress her but he still hopes to fix a date for dinner, he may end up being her dinner that day. So Jack plays the waiting game from a safe distance while Rose makes up her mind. When Jack feels that he is getting positive feedback from Rose he cautiously approaches her. Poor Jack is no artist. He can’t paint naked pictures of Rose (though he has more arms than Leonardo). So he does the next best thing, make love to her. Now comes the tragic part, even when Jack is in his last throes of copulation, Rose starts eating him…Alive. Most of the Black Widow males thus end their lust with the supreme sacrifice and many of my fellow male homosapiens can also relate to this ;-)

So why does Jack get into this misadventure even though he knows that he may die? Because that is the way it is programmed in his genes by nature. The sole aim of Jack’s existence is to reproduce by impregnating Rose with his genes. Other than that, his existence doesn’t seem to have any purpose. But why does Mother Nature go about this business of reproduction in a roundabout way? Why should she create two entities, male and female? Why didn’t she create a single organism that contains both male and female capabilities? It can reproduce whenever it feels like and avoid going through these complex mating rituals. Also since now a single organism can do the work, nature can actually conserve the extra energy. Instead of feeding two mouths she now has to feed only one. Nature has implemented this concept in lower order organisms like bacteria, virus, amoeba and even in plants, but not in higher order organisms. May be nature is testing this theory and bacteria and viruses are the Beta versions. Wonder when she is going to “go live” on us!!!!!

On the lighter side look at some of the good things that can be achieved if Mother Nature does implement this on us humans:

- No eve or adam (???) teasing

- No separate Male and Female seats in buses.

- No separate male-female queues in cinema theatres, banks and temples.

- No separate schools and colleges for males and females.

- No male chauvinists and no feminists.

- You can save lot of paper and ink by eliminating entries like Sex, Father's

Name, Mother's Name (there will only be a single column, Parent's Name) and

Spouse’s Name in almost all application forms.

Ok I can see you ticking of more such “good things”, you are welcome to let me know of that :-)