The "Get together" Party

OK.. for those of you, however low that number is, were expecting to see the next two episodes of the Kerala trip (yes, there were supposed to be 2 more with pictures and anecdotes et all), I have no freaking idea what we did last year any more. And so, that be no happen!!

Now, I'm back to writing, hopefully. Mostly to keep the part of my brain that does non-work related stuff from getting dusty. Yes, I choose that as my excuse. I have always wanted to get back to sitting down and writing. But turns out I'm either in a situation that I want to write about (obviously, I can't report live from the situation) or too lazy to login and write about it. As you might have already guessed (I'm gonna knock that grin off your face) it's the latter. So here we are.

And I have no idea what to write. Grrr!!

Oh yes!!! The party! The one that we had last weekend at my sister's place. Now there's a story worth telling. It's definitely a good story if you really don't want other people to know about it. This is one of them.

My sister has an annual affair that we all like to call a family get together. It's usually a pot luck lunch with all the families getting together at her house. Unlike all these years and thanks to social media and internet based messaging services like Whatsapp, we now keep in touch all the time. Literally, ALL THE TIME!! One of the multiple simultaneous conversations streams on this group turned out to be the menu for that day which we started discussing one week in advance. I won't go into the details of the menu but there was a debate on whether to have puri or not for the lunch. One logical side of the argument was that this will mean at least 3 people will have to be dedicated to the puri process while everyone else will be outside yakking their heads off. The other, can't-resist-puri, side of the argument was that IT'S PURI. HOW CAN WE SAY NO TO IT!!!!

Well, as you can imagine my sister was on the logical side and my b-i-l on the can't-resist-puri side and she won that argument. What a surprise, right! Then the week goes by and somewhere mid week the ice cream is mentioned. What ice cream you say? The ice cream that was home-made by my sister. And because she loves him so much, she also made puri for the can't-resist-puri person.

When you are really happy about something and are in the midst of people, would you really be able to contain that happiness and act like nothing happened? No normal person I know could do that. Neither did my BIL. He told us about the ice cream AND the puri. The ice cream was supposed to be a surprise, by the way. Ever since he started singing praises of the puri, none of us could stay logical any more. I mean come on!!! Puri and choley!! Who says no to that!! (find that person and I will take a swing). There began evolving a plan that seemed so innocent, but few of us knew would be devilish. We planned to go camp at her house on a Saturday that preceded the day of the actual get together. After a lottttttttttttttttttttttttttttt of planning for it, we finally made it there (which is at least an hour and half from where we all live).

The choley was wonderful. So were the hot puffed up puris. Heavenly!! We ate our fill and then some more. Then came out the ice cream. If the puri was delicious and the choley was taste bud tingling, this was on a totally different level. It was so amazing that Suman (another cousin) came up with the idea of ice cream cake for the get together. We were all excited and yayying the idea, when my sister asks the logical question. (Yes, she's the logical  and sane one here). Who will bake the cake? Suman, high on the ice cream (we hope) literally puts up her hand and says me me me me!! Her enthusiasm was very infectious and I also did mostly the same thing in her support.

I forgot to mention that by this time we had gotten the bottle of Bailey's, Black Lable, Cardhue and some more types and I was, maybe, on my second drink. We all agree that baking a cake, at 10 in the night, is the best idea and two of us head out to bring the missing ingredients. So, we start baking (Masterchef Suman assisted by yours truly) and the other in parallel are making the board for "baarAT". If you didn't read that right, they started creating the board on the floor!!

This was made from colour paper that was cut into strips and stuck on the floor!! All this started to be done only by 11.30 PM. Not to mention the other sister who was participating by means of virtual presence on Hangouts!! Yeah baby!! In your face Cisco :D

By this time, the cake was almost done. While the oven did it's job, we started to play the game. Almost in true epic proportions. Only to say that we did not bet anything. Everything else you would need to gamble was there! This game lasted until a drink was spilt on it complete with the pieces of glass that broke with it. The clean up resulted in the board being wiped off too, which meant we have to move on to a different game.

In comes Monopoly!! This was where the term MBC was invented. It stood to symbolise the accuracy and speed of our banker, Ashwini. It also stood for Manthari Banking Corporation. (Manthari in Konkani means old woman :P) We played on till no one had any sort of monopoly over anything. Not even how boring it had gotten. This is when Suman comes up with her second brilliant idea of the night. This was to go on a drive. At 4 in the morning!!! I was barely in the state to stand up, forget going on a drive. Nonetheless, we did go. That is a story, very similar to the Hangover movie, that we swore not to talk about it again.

We did go to Sankey tank in the hopes of seeing a sunrise, but were disappointed by the cloud cover. So we decided to go back home and sleep. At 7 AM!! Sleep we did. Some of us woke up at 10 AM and managed to get ready just by the time the other people started arriving. The remaining part of the get together was very very normal compared to this night.

We all hope that this will only be one of such nights. May our lives all be wild and crazy!!

A trip to Kerala- Episode 1

It all began in October 2012. I returned from an outstation trip and came to office on Monday to find photos of a few guys from their trip to Trivandrum. And thus was coined the phrase "Dude! We gotta go to Kerala". It so happens that Arun (one of the aforementioned guys and a friend and a colleague, Phew!) is from Trivandrum. Also from the same city is Ajith. So these guys decided to just take off to Kerala for the weekend. They were, ofcourse, joined by a Nishant (you'll notice this one doesn't end with an "h") who is my namesake and co-troublemaker in the office.

We'd been repeating "the" phrase every alternate weekend or so, which was the frequency at which Arun went home for the weekend, but hadn't really gotten to making it a reality. One fine warm and sunny afternoon of Mar 2013, on a coffee break, or was it breakfast, we repeated "the" phrase with a certain finality to it. Before your imagination runs wild, we decided to go the following weekend. Murphy's law being what it is, a lot of the cogs in the universe's "plan implementation division" did not work together as a team and this idea, surprise surprise, did not materialize.

Then came the news that would actually deliver a blow of finality to "the" phrase. Arun was being transferred to the Delhi office. It was now, in the face of certain loss of future opportunities, that we brave soldiers fighting the war called life, made "the" decision. A week before Arun was to leave town for good was the weekend we decided to finally make the trip. Tickets were booked, families were told and leave applications approved. Yes, in that particular order. You think you cut it close, come live my life ;)

On the foretold Thursday eve, we packed our bags and left for the bus stand. The cogs were all in perfect sync. So much so that it was raining in Bangalore on that evening. A kind of the universe's way of saying that our vacation had started. The only thing on our mind was that we were now free of all other worldly responsibilities towards work and home and were headed for three days of coastal monsoon weather and the beauty that we've heard is Kerala.

The bus left bang on time at 08.15 pm from Madiwala and a movie was played, as was tradition. The first movie that was played was "Romans" which Arun told me was the best recent comedy movie made in Malyalam. Yes, they play only Mallu movies on the way to Kerala!! Fortunately this one had English subtitles  and I had Arun beside me to help understand the nuances. After about 10 mins, most of which was only the introduction and the scrolling thing with names (dammit why can't I remember words when most needed!!), some of the passengers ahead complained this was the 106th time they were watching this and had it changed. Disappointment!

The next change was called "Husbands in Goa" which is a remake of a Hindi movie where three husbands go to Goa to have an affair (again, not remembering. This is becoming a habit!). Arun told me this was a crappy movie and I agreed as I have seen the Hindi version of it, which didn't make sense in a language I understood either. Fortunately, this was objected to as well and the next change, was what Arun told me was the worst movie ever and one that other Mallu's had advised him to not watch inspite of it starring Mammootty. This was titled "Kamath and Kamath" (pronounced Kammmat and Kammmat in Mallu).

All this took about an hour or so and we realised that we had travelled all of about 5 Km from Madiwala. This was normal, I was told, as it was raining and the traffic is always heavy on this road. I was just wondering what the reason may be for so many people leaving Bangalore on a daily basis!!

The rest of the journey went fairly well. I slept through the latter half of the film, as advised by Arun and woke up the next morning to find myself in Trivandrum at 7 am. Bang on time I was told. It had just stopped raining and the weather seemed very nice. We got off the bus, collected our bags and headed on to Arun's house. As expected (actually Nishant had told me this) Arun has a very nice house. Formal introductions were made to his mother (only I needed to be introduced) as I was the "other" Nishanth she was meeting.

After some tea and rest, we were called for breakfast. Appam and stew, which was very nice. The first item on the agenda for that day was a visit to the Anantha Padmanabha temple. The same famed temple where wealth beyond imagination was discovered. It being a Friday, there wasn't much of a crowd at the temple. This was very helpful as were all wearing mundu, which a mandatory requirement to enter the temple premises. The idol of the lord is about 80 feet long (yes, long. He is in a reclining position you see) and has to be viewed through 5 doors. It's like taking 5 photos and stitching them to create one panoramic view. It is quite glorious and we were happy to be able to spend sometime in front of the idol and admire it.

After we went around the huge temple grounds and had admired all the architecture and stone carvings of the god knows how old temple we decided it was time to move on to the next item on the program. We got dressed at the car and headed out to Ponmudi. Ofcourse, when we left, we decided to eat something on the way as we might not make it up there by lunch. Arun took us a very nice place called Flavors after which we headed on.

More details in the next episode

Sweet Pain

How many things can happen in a rather uneventful day? Many, apparently! Most of the things that go unnoticed by people, but only felt by you because, well, it's happening to you ain't it?

The day started on a positive note. A friend of mine was getting engaged in the morning. Yes, that's right, in the morning. I also thought it was strange, but it seems that all their functions happen in the day. Well I got there ahead of stipulated time and met another friend. By the time we went to the venue thinking there wouldn't be many people, there was quite a noisy humming that you generally hear from a crowd. Turns out the program had not yet started.

After a bit of the usual leg pulling of the bride-to-be, we were forced to have breakfast again by her dad. That pretty much served as punishment alright!! It ended up in us finding and introducing ourselves to the groom-to-be and passing on statutory warnings for the future and leaving even before the ceremony started. (We have to go to work before lunch, at least!!). So we went to the engagement and did not attend the ceremony.

The day at office was pretty much as usual without the bosses in office. Not that it mattered. Spent my time reading something I wanted to catch up on for a while now. Fairly enlightening I must say. It just so happened to be the wedding anniversary of a colleague and as always I ended up getting him to "share" it with the office. Cut fruits for everyone it was!!

Now here's the interesting part. I happen to have developed allergies to a few particular fruits (that I know of till now). These include banana, chickoo and guava for starters!! Oh did I forget mango? Yes, strange as it may be, that's that. So I, all well knowing, ate chickoo and banana (for whatever reason still evades me). I was good for about half an hour. Happy even, that the allergies must've been temporary. But reason be confounded, they struck!! Karma definitely be bitch, I tell you. I'm not going to put anyone on a guilt trip for a while now, not until forget this one. I'll just let Karma slack off ;).

What was better, was that it was time to leave office. In the next 15 mins, I was quite sure that there was someone reaching in and playing with my stomach like children do with wet clay when they try to shape it. That pretty much gave me a sense of what "world of pain" might mean. To add to that, the news of someone having a heart attack was not even eliciting the right response from me (politically, I mean).

Also, did not help that the direct bus I take decided not to stop at the regular bus stop and took me about an hour and half to get home, in pain. Also, the one continuous thought in my head, which I'm not able to stop or remove (don't think I'd want to cos then it'd be completely blank, but still) is causing more pain. Pain, sweet pain!!! I think I'm more aware of my environment when I'm in pain. I tend to observe more things than usual. I defer passing judgement on people and situations by a fair bit with the thought that it might be wrong when I judge in pain. I probably get it wrong anyway, but it make me think a little more than usual.

Just realised, I used to think solitude is the way for me, but now pain seems to be the new Novocaine. I'd like to, really like to, be past the "solitude is my vice" phase, but we'll see. The best part about pain (yes, strange choice of words, I agree) is that I seem to enjoy it and the post effects too. The sudden lack of pain is such a state of bliss!! This sounds similar to some popular phrase about hammer and hitting and all that, but well, you get the point.

Of course, there were other things that quite made my day tonight when I logged in (strange world it be, log in for happiness!!!). OK, that does not sound right at all, but if you get it, good. Otherwise, shut up!! Did I mention that it rained today, again. To go and have a cup of tea just after, highlight indeed.

Sometimes there are these small signals (not the tea) that are out there which reminds me that good things are coming up on the next curve. And my life is just the way I like it, a ghat section!!

Rare occurrences

There are people who spend lifetimes in the middle of the ocean, over a make shift platform that they call "the rig" trying to find one of the most precious commodities known to man.. Oil!

It's hard to believe how these men and women can stay there for such long times and call it home... Yes, I digress!!

But the moment they hit oil, the moment that black swill rises up from earth's bosom and hits the top of the mast.. that's the moment these guys live for.. While it may not be possible to imagine the kind of happiness or elation they feel, something similar happens to us mortals once in a while.

I got to experience this for once today. I do not know if it will ever happen again and when it did happen, I realized I do not have the right tech to keep a record of it. Took just over 4 years for me to realize that even this facet exists... People sometimes exhibit sides of them that we never knew existed. Well, that it happened in my presence (also) makes me happy.

To more of these and the next time, I'll be ready for a recording....

PS: If this post seems very vague, then I'm not talking about you.

Begin O' Begin, year so new.....

First Sunday of the "new year" at home.... How nice it is to spend it lazily... for as long as it lasts at least. :)

I've often wondered why we long for the laziness that we claim we don't get time for. While in fact, we're lazy most of the time. I, for one, can speak from personal experience. We do put off most things that need to be done, at work and otherwise.

But still, there is that longing for doing nothing. And when we have it, the longing for going out or doing something... Well I have it now, and me likey. :)

To act or not to act!!

I keep thinking about this on and off. Do we truly realise the consequences of our actions? We may see and foresee the short term effects, but most of us (maybe none of us) are able to understand the gravity of it all.

We do and say things without giving it as much a thought as to how it will change things. Change things for ourselves, for others directly and many others indirectly. When you change one thing for yourself, it changes your behaviour towards another person which in turn changes things for someone else that other person deals with and so on.... It's a bloody exponential effect!!

I'm not saying that the "do good and be good" policy is the best way to go about anything because, really, that don't work in life. You can't be "good" to everyone and expect the world to just kneel in front of you or get a red carpet rolled out just for you. The red carpet gets rolled out only to the doors of hell, I tell you.

I'm not sure I can think that far ahead and see how what I do may effect someone else in what way.. I'm not that wise.. If I was, I'd probably be somewhere in the Himalayas deep in meditation or penance. For I have a feeling that when one is enlightened, one would not still want to stay here and live such a life.

I always wonder how it would be if we had a chance to replay what we did and change it. Kind of like a macro or reviewing a document with Tracking. They say change is constant. Imagine what would happen if we had such powers and every change remains in memory. You do not forget what happened the last time before the change... That would lead to frustrate a lot of people...

Ofcourse, I haven't considered the life and death factors in this wild imagination of mine.. too lazy to think up fixes for them bugs..

What then should we or can we do? How the hell should I know!!!! Go figure it out for yourself.. and if you do find the answer, let me know. I'm here and ready poke enough holes in the theory to sink it like a rock.

Greed

What do we get from this one word? More, more and more…….

Its not always materialistic things. No. I strongly disagree. Money, property, bling, attention.... these are not all that we want. We want more than this. We want our lives to mean something. Hell yes!!

But mean what? What is the true meaning of satisfaction? Does that term even mean anything? Of course, it is relative. That much I agree. But does that mean that everything in life is relative? There is no absolute?

We always want something that we don’t have. It’s not need, it’s just want. The insatiable wanting for everything is maddening sometimes. Is there no destination other than death to this want? That cannot be right, can it?

Do we live only to want more, get more and then want some more? Is that all life is? Let’s look at it from my point of view, which simply means cynically.

Let’s take a good honest person. He/ she wants only the best for everyone. Thinks that they have only a few things they need to live on happily. Is fairly satisfied with the way things are. But then, how does this person live on? Only one way. Strive for more.

The struggle for survival is a lie. There is no struggle for survival, only for more. Every human being struggles all their life to get more.

Oh, and for all of those who thought they were good and noble, wake up and smell the coffee. There’s no nobility either. Nobility is just another form of satisfying one’s want to create a perception of goodness. It is the want of being good for “greater purposes”, to try to attain the satisfaction of being a good soul. The noblest of them all is so only because of restraint. There is no man, woman or child created that does not feelings that are against the “noble way” of life. On the contrary, they might have them more than the “mere mortals” who are classified under mediocre. Why?

Think about it. The more restraint one exercises over their feelings, the more the feelings fester within. It grows like the tangles of poison ivy, threatening everything within and around with spite in them. If this bulging sack of misery someday happens to explode and come out of the restraints, which is when the noble are tainted. Lucky are those who pass on before this happens.

What, then, is the ugliest face of greed? Love, I say. Love is what moves mountains and love is what inspires irrational behavior at times. There is no more powerful weapon of greed than love. The devil plays us only because of the greed within. Without greed there’d be no devil and without a devil there’d be no god. Everything comes in pairs.

What do we do about the greed? Nothing. What can you do about your breathing? It’s important to live, no? So live on we shall, with the greed driving us to scale greater heights in life. I can’t think of something that is a counterpart to greed. How can greed have no duality? Or is it that we see duality within the greed and put it under good and bad both? Know not I shall for there is no absolute proof. Faith is all we have. Faith that the greed of goodness will deliver us from evil and unto the heavens.

Pray, that I shall remember that the greed is what helps us live and not let it make me be the cause bringing unto others the bitter gift of misery.