This is a love letter from a boy to a girl, however,
the girl's father does not like him and wants them
stop their relationship......
and so the boy wrote this love letter to the girl.
He knows that the girl's father will definitely read
this letter!!
"The great love that I have for you
is gone, and I find my dislike for you
grows every day. When I see you,
I do not even like your face;
the one thing that I want to do is to
look at other girls. I never wanted to
marry you. Our last conversation
was very boring and has not
made me look forward to seeing you again.
You think only of yourself.
If we were married, I know that I would find
life very difficult, and I would have no
pleasure in living with you. I have a heart
to give, but it is not something that
I want to give to you. No one is more
foolish and selfish than you, and you are not
able to care for me and help me.
I sincerely want you to understand that
I speak the truth. You will do me a favor
if you think this is the end. Do not try
to answer this. Your letters are full of
things that do not interest me. You have no
true love for me. Good-bye! Believe me,
I do not care for you. Please do not think that
I am still your boyfriend."
So bad!!
However, before handing over the letter to the girl,
The boy told the girl to "READ BETWEEN THE LINES"...
Sunday, 17 December 2006
Friday, 24 November 2006
Love Story
This is a nice one but long…so check it out only if you have the time :-)
This narration of his own Love story by a software engineer from Chennai
is very lively...
It was a lovely December morning in the hottest city in the world. All
right, so that was a little unfair. Chennai is not the hottest city in
the world. But it certainly is the city with the most uncomfortable
weather among the cities that I have lived in. And I've been around.
But I digress. I was in the company bus on my way to work, as usual
trying to catch up with my sleep. On this particular day, a girl got on
the bus, came to
my seat and sat down. "Good Morning," she said. I looked back at her
through half closed eyes, replied "Good Night," and then proceeded to
return to my half hour nap before the bus reached the office.
Unfortunately, I was woken up by a punch in the arm.
"Wake up, bozo!" She was looking at me with a big smile on her face.
"I'm not sitting next to you to listen to you snore."
Half-heartedly, I opened my eyes and turned to her. "What's up?"
I asked.
Preeti Mehra was tall, good-looking and slightly tomboyish. She was
also my best buddy. "Come on," she said. "Don't look so disappointed.
You'd rather sleep than talk to me?"
"I talk to you everyday, Preeti."
"You also sleep everyday."
"It's not enough."
"So you've had enough of talking to me, eh?"
You can't argue with a statement like that, so I had to give up. I
grinned and said, "OK, sweetheart. What's on your mind?"
"I wanted to tell you what happened yesterday. Can you guess?"
"Anurag called you last night."
"How did you know?" She was stunned.
"Oh, he asked me for your number yesterday."
"And you gave it to him?"
"What else could I do? And stop complaining. You've been drooling over him
for weeks now. He must have thought he had a chance."
Preeti was the kind of girl who would openly ogle at every other guy she
saw.
And yet, she would not respond to any advances of a romantic nature.
She'd happily join a group of boys to go to a cricket match,
But if asked out to a movie, dinner, or even coffee, she'd never say yes.
She defined 'Hard-To-Get'.
"You like putting me in these situations, don't you?" she said.
"No. That's not true. I love putting you in these situations!"
That invited another punch in the arm.
I had known Preeti for a year. We'd tell each other about our joys and
our sorrows, our victories and our defeats. I'd tell her about all my
crushes and she'd scold me for being silly. She'd drag me to classical
music concerts and I'd add them to the list of things she 'owed me'
for.
And though I never let it show, I must say that she punched pretty
hard.
~*~
It was 12:00 am and my phone was ringing. "Hello," I said, as I picked it
up.
"Happy Birthday!" It was she.
"You're supposed to throw me a surprise party, sweetheart. Not just call
to say Happy Birthday."
"Well then open your door, dumbo!"
So I did and found her, cell-phone in hand, at my doorstep -- with what
seemed like half the population of my company. My roommates were
supposed to be working late that night. Now I knew why.
I blew a lot of candles (seemed like much more than 25), cut my cake,
got kicked in the behind, and got painted with the cake's icing. If
Preeti had had her way, she'd probably have preferred to use a
paintbrush and a can of paint. But I bribed her with a copy of the book
"Lord of the Rings". She'd borrowed it from me three times already. I
thought it was about time I gave her a copy for herself.
We chatted for an hour after everyone had gone. "I think it's time I
left," she said finally, trying to stifle a yawn. I nodded. I dropped
her home in my roommate's car. As she was getting out of the car, I
stopped her.
"Hey, Preeti."
"What?"
"Thanks."
"Hey, don't get senti on me now!" she smiled. "Are you trying to worm
out of that gift you promised me?"
"You know, it's interesting how I'm getting you a gift on my birthday."
"That's just because you're stupid," she grinned. "And you better get me
that book, or I won't return your copy."
"Hey, that copy was a gift to me from my dear friend Preeti Mehra. I
can't let you keep that."
She wasn't falling for that. "Your dear friend? And what about me? Am I
not dear to you?"
"Very smart. That won't work with me. I'm not one of your Love Crazy
suitors. Why do you need the book anyway? You've read it umpteen times
already."
"That is besides the point. You are getting me the book. We both know
that." She smiled that wide confident smile of hers. "Good night." And
she got out of the car.
I sat there for some time, just thinking. Our conversations were always
like this - a little joking, a little teasing and a lot of demanding.
But somehow, I felt that something had changed since the moment she had
turned up at my door that night. I was still in my reverie when a paper
ball landed on the windshield. I craned my neck out of the window and
looked up. She was standing in her balcony.
"What are you still doing there?" she whispered loudly.
"Waiting for you to start a paper-ball fight," I whispered back.
"We can do that tomorrow. Go home now. It's way past your bedtime!"
"Ok, mommy," I grinned back. "I'm going home now!"
~*~
I'm an extravagant gift-giver, and it is definitely going to be my
downfall some day. I made her wait for it, but finally bought her the book.
That, and half-a-dozen other omnibus collections of various authors,
including
a copy each of `The Complete Works of Shakespeare' and `The Complete Short
Stories of Charles Dickens'.
All I got for it was an "I told you so."
I started spending a lot of time at her place after that. Mostly because I
wanted to read all those books, and she wouldn't lend them to me.
"I'm not as stupid as you, ape-man. I'm not falling into the same trap I
laid for you.
Plus, you dog-ear your books. You're not doing that to these masterpieces.
So if you want to read them, you read them here. And if you want to mark
your place, use a bookmark."
So that's what I did. She'd even make me wash my hands before I touched the
books.
It was as if they were sacred.
"Need I remind you that it was me that bought you the books in the first
place? For my birthday!"
"So? They're mine now."
"Well, then. I've been meaning to ask you this for a long time. Where
exactly is my birthday gift?"
"It was in your tummy at one point of time. It's probably been washed
into the sea by now."
"Huh?"
"Remember the cake I baked you on your birthday?"
"You what? You can't bake cakes!" That was a mistake. She looked hurt.
"You baked me a cake?" She didn't say a word. She just shrugged.
I was stunned. "But you never told me."
"You didn't ask." That was typical of her.
"It was fantastic! And you wasted most of the icing on me!"
"The cake was for you, dumbo."
"How long did it take you to make the whole thing?" It had been a
two-layered vanilla-chocolate cake with three flavors of very creamy icing.
She had done all that!
"Well, the chocolate cake took an hour and fifteen minutes, and so did
the vanilla. Then cutting them up and putting them together took another
15 minutes.
Each flavor of icing took 20 minutes for preparation, and
then putting it on the cake took another half hour. Cleaning up the mess
took an hour."
She seldom claimed the credit for anything, but once she started bragging,
there was no stopping her.
However, I wasn't thinking about that right then.
"You spent over five hours on that cake?"
"A little over four hours preparing it, and an hour cleaning up. Yes."
I was speechless. I didn't know how to react. She hated cooking.
"I forgot to mention," She continued, "the hours I spent the week before
that, practicing.
Even the birds wouldn't touch the first three cakes!"
I couldn't help but ask. "Why?"
"Because the first one got burnt, the second one was only half cooked, and
in the third one, I forgot to add sugar."
It was just like her, to try to divert the conversation. "I mean why did
you spend so much time on baking me a cake?"
She looked at me like I'd asked her why the sun rises in the east.
"For your birthday, stupid. Of course, I also wanted to beat every gift
you've ever got me. Try beating this one."
She was grinning like she'd won the world championship.
As far as I was concerned, she had. I'd never spent a week making her
anything. I'd never even spent an hour making her anything. Getting her
a gift normally involved me taking her to the store, letting her choose
and use my credit card. Suddenly, I felt cheap. "Thanks," was the only
thing I could say. "Thanks a lot."
"Hey. Are you getting senti on me again?"
I was.
~*~
I was still mulling over my feelings for Preeti the next day at work when
my boss asked to speak to me.
I went over to his cabin and he started with the usual greetings, asking
how work was going and whether I was comfortable.
He then told me that the company wanted to send me to New York for a
couple of years.
Normally, this wouldn't have made much of a difference to me. I could work
anywhere and didn't have too much love for visiting places foreign.
But right then, the first thought that came to me was that I'd be away
from Preeti for two whole years.
Twenty-four hours before, I'd have been disappointed to lose her company.
But right then, I was devastated. That was when I
Knew I was in love with her. I'd had crushes before, lots of them. But
this was different.
"Do you have any problem in going?" my boss asked, since I hadn't
responded.
"Not really," I replied. What else could I say? That I was in love, and
couldn't bear the separation?
"When do I have to leave?"
I had a month.
~*~
"Wow! New York ! Great! I've heard it's a fantastic city! Did you know it
snows there in winter?"
Preeti was obviously very excited about my going.
She didn't seem to share my disappointment on what I now saw as
'separation'.
I had not decided then if I was going to tell her how I felt. We'd known
each other for a little over a year, and we were very close, but beyond
some mild flirting, the relationship had never got even close to
romantic. That was, of course, until I found out she had spent a week
baking me a cake. It's funny how small things seem to make such a big
difference.
"What happened?" she asked. "You don't seem very happy."
"Oh," I replied, "it's just that it's so sudden, that's all. And you
know I was never all that interested in going to America ."
"What an idiot. Go see the place. I've heard the women there are
amazingly beautiful." She had a sly smile on her face. I wanted to tell
her I didn't care if I laid my eyes on another woman again, if she
wasn't with me. But I didn't.
I realized that I only had another month with her. She'd rejected every
guy who'd asked her out ever since I'd known her. I didn't want the
same
to happen to me, and I didn't want to make it awkward between us. I
didn't want to risk that month. I wanted it to be the best time I had
ever spent with her. After I came back from the US , I might not even
get to meet her again. Two years was a long time.
We ate out almost every night. We visited some of the best restaurants
in the city. She also helped me shop for warm clothes, formalwear,
shoes, toothpaste and a million things I'd never have thought of on my
own.
"You need to buy a nail-cutter." My roommates and I shared one.
"I've prepared a list of must-have medicines that you should carry."
"Your iron won't work in the US . No point buying one here as you need
one that works at a hundred and ten volts and has flat pins. You can
buy one at a K-Mart or Wal-Mart as soon as you get there."
"You need at least two pairs of formal shoes and at least ten pairs of
dark socks. The East Coast has a formal dress code. And you won't do
your laundry more than once a week or two."
"How many ties do you have? And which trousers do your blazers go with?"
"Better get a haircut before you leave from here. Knowing you, you'll
postpone the first haircut for too long."
She'd call me up at one in the morning to tell me to add 'one more item'
to my list.
And with every passing day, I was falling more deeply in love with her.
The month swept by quickly. The day I was supposed to leave, I asked her
to come with me to the airport.
"Of course, dumbo. You think I'd let you go just like that, or what?"
After packing my bags for me and checking the lists for the hundredth
time, she finally pronounced me "Good to go."
We reached the airport four hours early to beat the rush, because it was
an international flight.
She got a visitor's pass to sit in the waiting area while I went ahead and
checked-in my bags.
Preeti had got a spring balance from somewhere and so we knew my bags were
well within the
weight limit. I finished the formalities and came to sit with her.
We had only a few hours before I had to go for my security-check.
We decided to get something to eat at the food court.
And all the time, the one thing that was going through my head was that,
after this,
I wouldn't see her for at least another two years.
"Hey, Champ. Why so glum?" She saved 'Champ' for special days.
Normally, it was just 'dumbo', 'bozo', 'ape-man', 'matchstick man',
'weirdo', or
if she was very irritated with me, 'nutcase'.
"I don't want to go," I said.
"I don't want you to go either."
"No, you don't understand." I couldn't hold it in any longer.
"I can't stand the thought of living without you by my side."
She stared at me. There was a strange look in her eyes. I couldn't read
it.
"I am madly in love with you, Preeti."
At this, a sound escaped her lips that sounded like a cross between a
sob and a laugh. "Well, dumbo, you've picked an absolutely fabulous time
to tell me about it!"
A tear escaped her eyes. It was all I could do to stop myself from wiping
it off her cheeks.
"How long have you felt this way?"
She seemed amused, though she was definitely crying. I didn't know what to
make of it.
"From the day I found out you had baked me a cake."
She laughed. "That's all it took? Well, bozo, I guess a way to a man's
heart is certainly through his stomach! Hold it. A month? You waited a
month? You were the one who kept saying that if you really liked a girl
you wouldn't waste a day in telling her!" She was smiling widely now.
It looked funny, with her eyes all wet.
"Well, I was confused. How did I know how you'd react? In fact, I still
don't understand your reaction.
I thought it would change things between us. You've rejected every guy who
ever proposed to you!"
"That's because I'm in love with you, you overgrown idiot!"
"What?" Somehow, I'd never expected her to say that. She was in love with
me?
"How long have you been in love with me?"
"Ever since the day you offered to carry my suitcase for me."
"But that was the first day I met you!"
"I guess I was always a sucker for chivalry."
"All this time you've been in love with me and you never said anything!
Then you go and complain that I waited a month!"
"You guys are so bad at reading a girl's mind."
"You women are so good at keeping your thoughts a secret! Even Einstein
couldn't figure you out."
"Einstein was a nerd. Casanova, on the other hand, understood us very
well."
"I love you."
"I know."
That moment, my dear friends, was magic. I looked into her eyes and took
her hands in mine.
Physical contact for us had been limited, until then, to a punch in the
arm, a slap on the back of the head,
or giving each other a 'high five'.
"You realize, don't you," she said, "that this is our first date?"
Leave it to her to notice the little things.
"I really don't want to go." I'd always maintained that love is a
bucketful of emotions. I wasn't exactly delighted to be proved right.
"Don't worry. I'm coming there in a couple of months."
"How? On a dependent visa?"
She laughed. "For that, I'll have to wait, won't I? I've got a project
in New Jersey ."
I couldn't believe my ears. "What? When did that happen? You never even
told me!"
"Well, I wasn't sure you'd propose before you left. And I couldn't
exactly sacrifice you to those New York women, could I? I had to watch
out for myself. So I went on a project-hunting spree. There is an
opportunity coming up for a project in about two months. Someone is
coming back to India , so I'll be taking his place. They want me there
for a little less than two years."
She was beaming. "I realized I had struck gold!"
"And if I'd not told you how I felt? When were you planning on telling me
about it?"
"Around a month before I reached there. I had to make it look natural.
Or you'd think I was desperate."
"Well, you are desperate!" This was incredible.
All I'd done in the past month had been to mope around, listen to sad songs
and write her
Letters that I never intended her to read.
"You've been scheming all this while!
How come you didn't lay a trap for me a year ago?"
"I tried giving you hints, dumbo, but you just wouldn't pay attention!"
She was laughing. "You're the only guy I ever spent any time with.
Wasn't that a big enough hint?"
This narration of his own Love story by a software engineer from Chennai
is very lively...
It was a lovely December morning in the hottest city in the world. All
right, so that was a little unfair. Chennai is not the hottest city in
the world. But it certainly is the city with the most uncomfortable
weather among the cities that I have lived in. And I've been around.
But I digress. I was in the company bus on my way to work, as usual
trying to catch up with my sleep. On this particular day, a girl got on
the bus, came to
my seat and sat down. "Good Morning," she said. I looked back at her
through half closed eyes, replied "Good Night," and then proceeded to
return to my half hour nap before the bus reached the office.
Unfortunately, I was woken up by a punch in the arm.
"Wake up, bozo!" She was looking at me with a big smile on her face.
"I'm not sitting next to you to listen to you snore."
Half-heartedly, I opened my eyes and turned to her. "What's up?"
I asked.
Preeti Mehra was tall, good-looking and slightly tomboyish. She was
also my best buddy. "Come on," she said. "Don't look so disappointed.
You'd rather sleep than talk to me?"
"I talk to you everyday, Preeti."
"You also sleep everyday."
"It's not enough."
"So you've had enough of talking to me, eh?"
You can't argue with a statement like that, so I had to give up. I
grinned and said, "OK, sweetheart. What's on your mind?"
"I wanted to tell you what happened yesterday. Can you guess?"
"Anurag called you last night."
"How did you know?" She was stunned.
"Oh, he asked me for your number yesterday."
"And you gave it to him?"
"What else could I do? And stop complaining. You've been drooling over him
for weeks now. He must have thought he had a chance."
Preeti was the kind of girl who would openly ogle at every other guy she
saw.
And yet, she would not respond to any advances of a romantic nature.
She'd happily join a group of boys to go to a cricket match,
But if asked out to a movie, dinner, or even coffee, she'd never say yes.
She defined 'Hard-To-Get'.
"You like putting me in these situations, don't you?" she said.
"No. That's not true. I love putting you in these situations!"
That invited another punch in the arm.
I had known Preeti for a year. We'd tell each other about our joys and
our sorrows, our victories and our defeats. I'd tell her about all my
crushes and she'd scold me for being silly. She'd drag me to classical
music concerts and I'd add them to the list of things she 'owed me'
for.
And though I never let it show, I must say that she punched pretty
hard.
~*~
It was 12:00 am and my phone was ringing. "Hello," I said, as I picked it
up.
"Happy Birthday!" It was she.
"You're supposed to throw me a surprise party, sweetheart. Not just call
to say Happy Birthday."
"Well then open your door, dumbo!"
So I did and found her, cell-phone in hand, at my doorstep -- with what
seemed like half the population of my company. My roommates were
supposed to be working late that night. Now I knew why.
I blew a lot of candles (seemed like much more than 25), cut my cake,
got kicked in the behind, and got painted with the cake's icing. If
Preeti had had her way, she'd probably have preferred to use a
paintbrush and a can of paint. But I bribed her with a copy of the book
"Lord of the Rings". She'd borrowed it from me three times already. I
thought it was about time I gave her a copy for herself.
We chatted for an hour after everyone had gone. "I think it's time I
left," she said finally, trying to stifle a yawn. I nodded. I dropped
her home in my roommate's car. As she was getting out of the car, I
stopped her.
"Hey, Preeti."
"What?"
"Thanks."
"Hey, don't get senti on me now!" she smiled. "Are you trying to worm
out of that gift you promised me?"
"You know, it's interesting how I'm getting you a gift on my birthday."
"That's just because you're stupid," she grinned. "And you better get me
that book, or I won't return your copy."
"Hey, that copy was a gift to me from my dear friend Preeti Mehra. I
can't let you keep that."
She wasn't falling for that. "Your dear friend? And what about me? Am I
not dear to you?"
"Very smart. That won't work with me. I'm not one of your Love Crazy
suitors. Why do you need the book anyway? You've read it umpteen times
already."
"That is besides the point. You are getting me the book. We both know
that." She smiled that wide confident smile of hers. "Good night." And
she got out of the car.
I sat there for some time, just thinking. Our conversations were always
like this - a little joking, a little teasing and a lot of demanding.
But somehow, I felt that something had changed since the moment she had
turned up at my door that night. I was still in my reverie when a paper
ball landed on the windshield. I craned my neck out of the window and
looked up. She was standing in her balcony.
"What are you still doing there?" she whispered loudly.
"Waiting for you to start a paper-ball fight," I whispered back.
"We can do that tomorrow. Go home now. It's way past your bedtime!"
"Ok, mommy," I grinned back. "I'm going home now!"
~*~
I'm an extravagant gift-giver, and it is definitely going to be my
downfall some day. I made her wait for it, but finally bought her the book.
That, and half-a-dozen other omnibus collections of various authors,
including
a copy each of `The Complete Works of Shakespeare' and `The Complete Short
Stories of Charles Dickens'.
All I got for it was an "I told you so."
I started spending a lot of time at her place after that. Mostly because I
wanted to read all those books, and she wouldn't lend them to me.
"I'm not as stupid as you, ape-man. I'm not falling into the same trap I
laid for you.
Plus, you dog-ear your books. You're not doing that to these masterpieces.
So if you want to read them, you read them here. And if you want to mark
your place, use a bookmark."
So that's what I did. She'd even make me wash my hands before I touched the
books.
It was as if they were sacred.
"Need I remind you that it was me that bought you the books in the first
place? For my birthday!"
"So? They're mine now."
"Well, then. I've been meaning to ask you this for a long time. Where
exactly is my birthday gift?"
"It was in your tummy at one point of time. It's probably been washed
into the sea by now."
"Huh?"
"Remember the cake I baked you on your birthday?"
"You what? You can't bake cakes!" That was a mistake. She looked hurt.
"You baked me a cake?" She didn't say a word. She just shrugged.
I was stunned. "But you never told me."
"You didn't ask." That was typical of her.
"It was fantastic! And you wasted most of the icing on me!"
"The cake was for you, dumbo."
"How long did it take you to make the whole thing?" It had been a
two-layered vanilla-chocolate cake with three flavors of very creamy icing.
She had done all that!
"Well, the chocolate cake took an hour and fifteen minutes, and so did
the vanilla. Then cutting them up and putting them together took another
15 minutes.
Each flavor of icing took 20 minutes for preparation, and
then putting it on the cake took another half hour. Cleaning up the mess
took an hour."
She seldom claimed the credit for anything, but once she started bragging,
there was no stopping her.
However, I wasn't thinking about that right then.
"You spent over five hours on that cake?"
"A little over four hours preparing it, and an hour cleaning up. Yes."
I was speechless. I didn't know how to react. She hated cooking.
"I forgot to mention," She continued, "the hours I spent the week before
that, practicing.
Even the birds wouldn't touch the first three cakes!"
I couldn't help but ask. "Why?"
"Because the first one got burnt, the second one was only half cooked, and
in the third one, I forgot to add sugar."
It was just like her, to try to divert the conversation. "I mean why did
you spend so much time on baking me a cake?"
She looked at me like I'd asked her why the sun rises in the east.
"For your birthday, stupid. Of course, I also wanted to beat every gift
you've ever got me. Try beating this one."
She was grinning like she'd won the world championship.
As far as I was concerned, she had. I'd never spent a week making her
anything. I'd never even spent an hour making her anything. Getting her
a gift normally involved me taking her to the store, letting her choose
and use my credit card. Suddenly, I felt cheap. "Thanks," was the only
thing I could say. "Thanks a lot."
"Hey. Are you getting senti on me again?"
I was.
~*~
I was still mulling over my feelings for Preeti the next day at work when
my boss asked to speak to me.
I went over to his cabin and he started with the usual greetings, asking
how work was going and whether I was comfortable.
He then told me that the company wanted to send me to New York for a
couple of years.
Normally, this wouldn't have made much of a difference to me. I could work
anywhere and didn't have too much love for visiting places foreign.
But right then, the first thought that came to me was that I'd be away
from Preeti for two whole years.
Twenty-four hours before, I'd have been disappointed to lose her company.
But right then, I was devastated. That was when I
Knew I was in love with her. I'd had crushes before, lots of them. But
this was different.
"Do you have any problem in going?" my boss asked, since I hadn't
responded.
"Not really," I replied. What else could I say? That I was in love, and
couldn't bear the separation?
"When do I have to leave?"
I had a month.
~*~
"Wow! New York ! Great! I've heard it's a fantastic city! Did you know it
snows there in winter?"
Preeti was obviously very excited about my going.
She didn't seem to share my disappointment on what I now saw as
'separation'.
I had not decided then if I was going to tell her how I felt. We'd known
each other for a little over a year, and we were very close, but beyond
some mild flirting, the relationship had never got even close to
romantic. That was, of course, until I found out she had spent a week
baking me a cake. It's funny how small things seem to make such a big
difference.
"What happened?" she asked. "You don't seem very happy."
"Oh," I replied, "it's just that it's so sudden, that's all. And you
know I was never all that interested in going to America ."
"What an idiot. Go see the place. I've heard the women there are
amazingly beautiful." She had a sly smile on her face. I wanted to tell
her I didn't care if I laid my eyes on another woman again, if she
wasn't with me. But I didn't.
I realized that I only had another month with her. She'd rejected every
guy who'd asked her out ever since I'd known her. I didn't want the
same
to happen to me, and I didn't want to make it awkward between us. I
didn't want to risk that month. I wanted it to be the best time I had
ever spent with her. After I came back from the US , I might not even
get to meet her again. Two years was a long time.
We ate out almost every night. We visited some of the best restaurants
in the city. She also helped me shop for warm clothes, formalwear,
shoes, toothpaste and a million things I'd never have thought of on my
own.
"You need to buy a nail-cutter." My roommates and I shared one.
"I've prepared a list of must-have medicines that you should carry."
"Your iron won't work in the US . No point buying one here as you need
one that works at a hundred and ten volts and has flat pins. You can
buy one at a K-Mart or Wal-Mart as soon as you get there."
"You need at least two pairs of formal shoes and at least ten pairs of
dark socks. The East Coast has a formal dress code. And you won't do
your laundry more than once a week or two."
"How many ties do you have? And which trousers do your blazers go with?"
"Better get a haircut before you leave from here. Knowing you, you'll
postpone the first haircut for too long."
She'd call me up at one in the morning to tell me to add 'one more item'
to my list.
And with every passing day, I was falling more deeply in love with her.
The month swept by quickly. The day I was supposed to leave, I asked her
to come with me to the airport.
"Of course, dumbo. You think I'd let you go just like that, or what?"
After packing my bags for me and checking the lists for the hundredth
time, she finally pronounced me "Good to go."
We reached the airport four hours early to beat the rush, because it was
an international flight.
She got a visitor's pass to sit in the waiting area while I went ahead and
checked-in my bags.
Preeti had got a spring balance from somewhere and so we knew my bags were
well within the
weight limit. I finished the formalities and came to sit with her.
We had only a few hours before I had to go for my security-check.
We decided to get something to eat at the food court.
And all the time, the one thing that was going through my head was that,
after this,
I wouldn't see her for at least another two years.
"Hey, Champ. Why so glum?" She saved 'Champ' for special days.
Normally, it was just 'dumbo', 'bozo', 'ape-man', 'matchstick man',
'weirdo', or
if she was very irritated with me, 'nutcase'.
"I don't want to go," I said.
"I don't want you to go either."
"No, you don't understand." I couldn't hold it in any longer.
"I can't stand the thought of living without you by my side."
She stared at me. There was a strange look in her eyes. I couldn't read
it.
"I am madly in love with you, Preeti."
At this, a sound escaped her lips that sounded like a cross between a
sob and a laugh. "Well, dumbo, you've picked an absolutely fabulous time
to tell me about it!"
A tear escaped her eyes. It was all I could do to stop myself from wiping
it off her cheeks.
"How long have you felt this way?"
She seemed amused, though she was definitely crying. I didn't know what to
make of it.
"From the day I found out you had baked me a cake."
She laughed. "That's all it took? Well, bozo, I guess a way to a man's
heart is certainly through his stomach! Hold it. A month? You waited a
month? You were the one who kept saying that if you really liked a girl
you wouldn't waste a day in telling her!" She was smiling widely now.
It looked funny, with her eyes all wet.
"Well, I was confused. How did I know how you'd react? In fact, I still
don't understand your reaction.
I thought it would change things between us. You've rejected every guy who
ever proposed to you!"
"That's because I'm in love with you, you overgrown idiot!"
"What?" Somehow, I'd never expected her to say that. She was in love with
me?
"How long have you been in love with me?"
"Ever since the day you offered to carry my suitcase for me."
"But that was the first day I met you!"
"I guess I was always a sucker for chivalry."
"All this time you've been in love with me and you never said anything!
Then you go and complain that I waited a month!"
"You guys are so bad at reading a girl's mind."
"You women are so good at keeping your thoughts a secret! Even Einstein
couldn't figure you out."
"Einstein was a nerd. Casanova, on the other hand, understood us very
well."
"I love you."
"I know."
That moment, my dear friends, was magic. I looked into her eyes and took
her hands in mine.
Physical contact for us had been limited, until then, to a punch in the
arm, a slap on the back of the head,
or giving each other a 'high five'.
"You realize, don't you," she said, "that this is our first date?"
Leave it to her to notice the little things.
"I really don't want to go." I'd always maintained that love is a
bucketful of emotions. I wasn't exactly delighted to be proved right.
"Don't worry. I'm coming there in a couple of months."
"How? On a dependent visa?"
She laughed. "For that, I'll have to wait, won't I? I've got a project
in New Jersey ."
I couldn't believe my ears. "What? When did that happen? You never even
told me!"
"Well, I wasn't sure you'd propose before you left. And I couldn't
exactly sacrifice you to those New York women, could I? I had to watch
out for myself. So I went on a project-hunting spree. There is an
opportunity coming up for a project in about two months. Someone is
coming back to India , so I'll be taking his place. They want me there
for a little less than two years."
She was beaming. "I realized I had struck gold!"
"And if I'd not told you how I felt? When were you planning on telling me
about it?"
"Around a month before I reached there. I had to make it look natural.
Or you'd think I was desperate."
"Well, you are desperate!" This was incredible.
All I'd done in the past month had been to mope around, listen to sad songs
and write her
Letters that I never intended her to read.
"You've been scheming all this while!
How come you didn't lay a trap for me a year ago?"
"I tried giving you hints, dumbo, but you just wouldn't pay attention!"
She was laughing. "You're the only guy I ever spent any time with.
Wasn't that a big enough hint?"
Love Letter
this is how a marketing guy would propose to
someone....
You are my TVS SCOOTY (First Love) and also my AIWA
(PURE PASSION) I always BPL (Believe in best) and
you
are SANSUI (Better than best) You are MC DOWEL'S
(Mera number one) love LA O PALA (Made for one)
I beleive in FRESHIYA (Gorepan se jyade khoobsurti
ka wada) and you are one of the most beautiful in
this world. I think of you day and night. When you
give me one and only Smile you are DOMINO'S PIZZA
(Delivering a Million of (smile per day) for me.
This
is COLGATE ENERGEY GEL (Seriously Fresh) feeling
for me.
I would like you to be my life partner. I know you
are worried about your Father who is KAWASAKI BAJAJ
CALIBER (The unshakeable) and also my Father who is
CEAT (Born tough). But don't worry I am also FORD
ICON (The Josh Machine) and rest of our family
members are KELVINATOR (The coolest one). If they
will
say no we will run away and marry and PHILIPS (Lets
make things better).
They feel MIRINDA (Jor ka jatka dhire se lage) and
we Coca Cola (life ho to aisi). Trust in
God who's always NOKIA (Connecting people) those who
love each other. And we are WILLS (Made for each
Other). We will be HERO HONDA (Leading the way) of
our love life. Then our life will be BOLERO(Break
free). Now HYUNDAI (we are listening) the song of
love
you must know that love is DAIRY MILK (The real
taste
of life), SATYAM ONLINE (Fun, fast easy),
PARX (always comfortable) and also AMUL (The real
taste of India) and for me life is HOME TRADE (Life
means more) So never forget me.
OK bye! I wrote little but PEPSI (Ye dil mange
More)!!!
LG [Digitally yours], xy
someone....
You are my TVS SCOOTY (First Love) and also my AIWA
(PURE PASSION) I always BPL (Believe in best) and
you
are SANSUI (Better than best) You are MC DOWEL'S
(Mera number one) love LA O PALA (Made for one)
I beleive in FRESHIYA (Gorepan se jyade khoobsurti
ka wada) and you are one of the most beautiful in
this world. I think of you day and night. When you
give me one and only Smile you are DOMINO'S PIZZA
(Delivering a Million of (smile per day) for me.
This
is COLGATE ENERGEY GEL (Seriously Fresh) feeling
for me.
I would like you to be my life partner. I know you
are worried about your Father who is KAWASAKI BAJAJ
CALIBER (The unshakeable) and also my Father who is
CEAT (Born tough). But don't worry I am also FORD
ICON (The Josh Machine) and rest of our family
members are KELVINATOR (The coolest one). If they
will
say no we will run away and marry and PHILIPS (Lets
make things better).
They feel MIRINDA (Jor ka jatka dhire se lage) and
we Coca Cola (life ho to aisi). Trust in
God who's always NOKIA (Connecting people) those who
love each other. And we are WILLS (Made for each
Other). We will be HERO HONDA (Leading the way) of
our love life. Then our life will be BOLERO(Break
free). Now HYUNDAI (we are listening) the song of
love
you must know that love is DAIRY MILK (The real
taste
of life), SATYAM ONLINE (Fun, fast easy),
PARX (always comfortable) and also AMUL (The real
taste of India) and for me life is HOME TRADE (Life
means more) So never forget me.
OK bye! I wrote little but PEPSI (Ye dil mange
More)!!!
LG [Digitally yours], xy
Proud to be a Hyderabadi
hi guys!
Enjoy being a Hyderabadi.
Yeh Mera HYDERABAD
Woh GOKUL ki pani puri,
woh Radhe-Shyman ki chaat,
Woh Famous ki ice cream,
Wah usme thi kuch baat.
Woh Agra Wala ki mithai,
woh MInerva ka dosa,
Woh Dimmy ki pav bhaji
Aur raste ka samosa.
Woh open-top Bus ka 'suffer',
woh Necklace ki hawa,
Woh Tand Bund ke Statues,
Aur subah-subah Joggers ka sama.
Woh December ki zara si sardi,
woh baarishon ke mahine,
Woh garmi ki chuttiyan,
Jab choote they paseene.
Woh Holi ki masti, woh Navratri ka Garba,
Woh Diwali ke pataakhe
Aur Ganpati ka shor-o-Saraba.
Woh Liberty ki traffic,
Woh APSRTC ki rush,
Woh tadapti garmi mien,
Taj ka Barf-ka-Gola.
Woh Tank Bund ka mahol,
woh Pani ki leheren,
Woh doobte suraj ka nazaara,
Wah uska kya kehena.
Woh Sangeet ka popcorn
Aur Malls mein shopping,
Woh Banjara Hills ka nazara
Aur vaha ke Banglows.
Woh cinema ke queue, woh black ki ticket,
Woh Parade ground ka maidan,
jahaan bachche practice karte hain cricket.
Aur kitni karoon mein baddai,
Itni cheezen kehene ke baad,
Yeh shehar hain mera apna,
Jiska naam hai HYDERABAD
ba bye.
be Proud to be Hyderabadi.
Enjoy being a Hyderabadi.
Yeh Mera HYDERABAD
Woh GOKUL ki pani puri,
woh Radhe-Shyman ki chaat,
Woh Famous ki ice cream,
Wah usme thi kuch baat.
Woh Agra Wala ki mithai,
woh MInerva ka dosa,
Woh Dimmy ki pav bhaji
Aur raste ka samosa.
Woh open-top Bus ka 'suffer',
woh Necklace ki hawa,
Woh Tand Bund ke Statues,
Aur subah-subah Joggers ka sama.
Woh December ki zara si sardi,
woh baarishon ke mahine,
Woh garmi ki chuttiyan,
Jab choote they paseene.
Woh Holi ki masti, woh Navratri ka Garba,
Woh Diwali ke pataakhe
Aur Ganpati ka shor-o-Saraba.
Woh Liberty ki traffic,
Woh APSRTC ki rush,
Woh tadapti garmi mien,
Taj ka Barf-ka-Gola.
Woh Tank Bund ka mahol,
woh Pani ki leheren,
Woh doobte suraj ka nazaara,
Wah uska kya kehena.
Woh Sangeet ka popcorn
Aur Malls mein shopping,
Woh Banjara Hills ka nazara
Aur vaha ke Banglows.
Woh cinema ke queue, woh black ki ticket,
Woh Parade ground ka maidan,
jahaan bachche practice karte hain cricket.
Aur kitni karoon mein baddai,
Itni cheezen kehene ke baad,
Yeh shehar hain mera apna,
Jiska naam hai HYDERABAD
ba bye.
be Proud to be Hyderabadi.
2010 India vs USA
IN 2010
Two top American Executives at IBM, USA
Alex: Hi John. you didn't come to work yesterday.
John: yeah. i was at the Indian Embassy trying to get my visa.
Alex oh, really? what happened? i've heard that thesedays they have become strict.
John: yeah, but i managed to get it.
Alex: how long did it take to get it stamped?
John: Man, it was a long queue. Bill Gates was waiting in front of me and they really gave him a hard time. poor guy, even brought the property papers for hishouse in Seattle to show them that he will return to USA. i went there at 4:00 a.m. to get in the queue and there were tons of people ahead of me.
Alex: really? in India, at the US embassy it only takes an hour to get a visa for USA.
John: YEAH! but that's because no one in India wants to come to USA, except Americans who have taken Indian nationality and want to bring their kids here.
Alex: so, when are you leaving?
John: as soon as i get my ticket from the company in India. I'm so excited. i will be getting a chance to finally fly with the world's fastest growing airline, DeccaNaidu Airways. sort of dream come true, you know.
Alex: how long are u planning to stay in India?
John: what do u mean"how long"? i will try and settle in India. my company has promised me that they will process my green book as soon as possible.
Alex: really? man, u're a lucky one. it's very difficult to get a green book in India. last year my cousin and his family went there on a tourist visa and they're not comming back now.
John: yeh. that's y iam planning on marrying a Indian girl there and then sponsoring my parents and my brothers and sisters from New York to India.
Alex: but i hear you can find lots of good American girls in Hyederabad and Bangalore.
John: yeah, but i prefer Indian girls. they are so much more superior to our girls, and what great brunette complexion they have!
Alex: what city are u going to?
John: HYDERABAD!. the company has an office in downtown
HiTec City. Yeah, the salary is good but the cost of
living is quite high because of all the people
flocking to this high-tech Mecca.
Alex: I hear the exchange rate is now $100 to a Rupee!
That's just too much. What about Bombay and Delhi?
What are they like?
John: No idea. But they are cheaper than Hyderabad,
which is the world's headquarters for information
technology now.
Alex: I hear the quality of life in India is
incredible.
John: Yeah, man. You can buy a BMW for Rs.30,000, and
a Mercedes for less than Rs.45,000. But my dream is to
purchase a Maruti Turbo FX-2800 which costs roughly
Rs.90,000. But what a sweet design, great curves, and
it purrs to the touch.
Alex: By the way, which company are you gonna work
for?
John: KankaNaidu Technologies, a
pure Indian conglomerate specializing in embedded
software.
Alex: Man, you're so lucky to work for a pure
Indian company. They are really intelligent and
unlike any American body shops that have opened their
fly-by-night outfits in India. The Indian
companies pay you even when you're on the bench. My
friend, Paul Allen, used his bench time to visit the
Kakinada Coast, the most gorgeous resort in India, I
hear.
John: Yeah, man, you're right. I hope the US learns
something from them and follows in their footsteps. It
seems all we do is borrow more and more money from the
Banjara Bank.
Alex: How are you going to cope with their language?
John: I've been learning Hindi since my school days. I
always dreamed that one day I'll head for India
ever since my uncle bought me that T-Shirt from
Osmania University. At the Consulate they tested my
proficiency in Hindi and were quite impressed by my
score in TOHFL (Test of Hindi as a Foreign Language).
Alex: Boy! You're so damn lucky.
John: Yeah. I'll be travelling in the world's fastest
train, Laser Express, I'll be visiting the world's largest
theme park in Charminar Manga, and I'll be visiting the
famous Bollywood where I might meet the sons and
daughters of movie legends like Amitabh, Sharukh Khan,
Amer, Karina
and the gorgeous of all at her own time, Madam Ashwariya.
Alex: You know, the Indian President is scheduled
to visit USA next year and I hear that he may increase
the number of employment visas.
John: That's very true. Last month, their Labour
Minister, Chinna Babu Naidu, visited the White
House and donated Rs.20,000,000 for the re-development of
the World Trade Centre at Silicon Valley, and has
promised more if we follow the models of the fast
developing high-tech cities, Hyderabad and Bangalore.
Bill Gates was lucky to have a chance to meet him.
Very lucky person.
Alex: Will you be calling on Dave? I hear that he has
made it big there and has a beautiful house on the Musi River in Hyderabad.
John: Yeah, I'll be meeting him.
Alex: Anyway, nice chatting to you, John. Good luck,
you lucky guy.
John: Yeah, and the same to you, Alex. By the way,
don't ever go to the Indian Consulate in
Dhoti-kurta because they will think you're too
Indianised and may doubt that you will ever come
back, and your application will be rejected. And yes,
don't forget to say to the Visa Officer politely:
"Namaskaram, aap kaisay hain?" It will show
them you're a cultured person.
Two top American Executives at IBM, USA
Alex: Hi John. you didn't come to work yesterday.
John: yeah. i was at the Indian Embassy trying to get my visa.
Alex oh, really? what happened? i've heard that thesedays they have become strict.
John: yeah, but i managed to get it.
Alex: how long did it take to get it stamped?
John: Man, it was a long queue. Bill Gates was waiting in front of me and they really gave him a hard time. poor guy, even brought the property papers for hishouse in Seattle to show them that he will return to USA. i went there at 4:00 a.m. to get in the queue and there were tons of people ahead of me.
Alex: really? in India, at the US embassy it only takes an hour to get a visa for USA.
John: YEAH! but that's because no one in India wants to come to USA, except Americans who have taken Indian nationality and want to bring their kids here.
Alex: so, when are you leaving?
John: as soon as i get my ticket from the company in India. I'm so excited. i will be getting a chance to finally fly with the world's fastest growing airline, DeccaNaidu Airways. sort of dream come true, you know.
Alex: how long are u planning to stay in India?
John: what do u mean"how long"? i will try and settle in India. my company has promised me that they will process my green book as soon as possible.
Alex: really? man, u're a lucky one. it's very difficult to get a green book in India. last year my cousin and his family went there on a tourist visa and they're not comming back now.
John: yeh. that's y iam planning on marrying a Indian girl there and then sponsoring my parents and my brothers and sisters from New York to India.
Alex: but i hear you can find lots of good American girls in Hyederabad and Bangalore.
John: yeah, but i prefer Indian girls. they are so much more superior to our girls, and what great brunette complexion they have!
Alex: what city are u going to?
John: HYDERABAD!. the company has an office in downtown
HiTec City. Yeah, the salary is good but the cost of
living is quite high because of all the people
flocking to this high-tech Mecca.
Alex: I hear the exchange rate is now $100 to a Rupee!
That's just too much. What about Bombay and Delhi?
What are they like?
John: No idea. But they are cheaper than Hyderabad,
which is the world's headquarters for information
technology now.
Alex: I hear the quality of life in India is
incredible.
John: Yeah, man. You can buy a BMW for Rs.30,000, and
a Mercedes for less than Rs.45,000. But my dream is to
purchase a Maruti Turbo FX-2800 which costs roughly
Rs.90,000. But what a sweet design, great curves, and
it purrs to the touch.
Alex: By the way, which company are you gonna work
for?
John: KankaNaidu Technologies, a
pure Indian conglomerate specializing in embedded
software.
Alex: Man, you're so lucky to work for a pure
Indian company. They are really intelligent and
unlike any American body shops that have opened their
fly-by-night outfits in India. The Indian
companies pay you even when you're on the bench. My
friend, Paul Allen, used his bench time to visit the
Kakinada Coast, the most gorgeous resort in India, I
hear.
John: Yeah, man, you're right. I hope the US learns
something from them and follows in their footsteps. It
seems all we do is borrow more and more money from the
Banjara Bank.
Alex: How are you going to cope with their language?
John: I've been learning Hindi since my school days. I
always dreamed that one day I'll head for India
ever since my uncle bought me that T-Shirt from
Osmania University. At the Consulate they tested my
proficiency in Hindi and were quite impressed by my
score in TOHFL (Test of Hindi as a Foreign Language).
Alex: Boy! You're so damn lucky.
John: Yeah. I'll be travelling in the world's fastest
train, Laser Express, I'll be visiting the world's largest
theme park in Charminar Manga, and I'll be visiting the
famous Bollywood where I might meet the sons and
daughters of movie legends like Amitabh, Sharukh Khan,
Amer, Karina
and the gorgeous of all at her own time, Madam Ashwariya.
Alex: You know, the Indian President is scheduled
to visit USA next year and I hear that he may increase
the number of employment visas.
John: That's very true. Last month, their Labour
Minister, Chinna Babu Naidu, visited the White
House and donated Rs.20,000,000 for the re-development of
the World Trade Centre at Silicon Valley, and has
promised more if we follow the models of the fast
developing high-tech cities, Hyderabad and Bangalore.
Bill Gates was lucky to have a chance to meet him.
Very lucky person.
Alex: Will you be calling on Dave? I hear that he has
made it big there and has a beautiful house on the Musi River in Hyderabad.
John: Yeah, I'll be meeting him.
Alex: Anyway, nice chatting to you, John. Good luck,
you lucky guy.
John: Yeah, and the same to you, Alex. By the way,
don't ever go to the Indian Consulate in
Dhoti-kurta because they will think you're too
Indianised and may doubt that you will ever come
back, and your application will be rejected. And yes,
don't forget to say to the Visa Officer politely:
"Namaskaram, aap kaisay hain?" It will show
them you're a cultured person.
Hyderabadi
This is dedicated to All my dear Hyderabad friends the city I am born in and admire more than any place that I saw till date…
You are a real hyderabadi, if....
1. Your address reads as 23-404-32/67A-43 (New MCH
number 56-678/4A/B-22),while you actually live in the
second house beside zamzam cafe in lane behind Anand
Theatre on SP Road.
2. You end up buying only a salwar kameez, whether it
is a theatre workshop, food mela, consumer expo,
designer jewellery show, science show or an automobile convention.
3. Your street has at least one roadside mobile hotel
that serves Chinese delicacies such as "Vegetable soft needles",
"Navrotten Kurma", "Chicken Manchewurea" or "American Chompsee".
4. Your answer is 'seedha chale jao' when somebody
asks you for directions,whether it is to Malakpet,
Masab Tank, Malkajgiri or Moosapet.
5. You come across tailors sporting the board:
Immidiot delivery in two days onli.
6.You can speak Hindi, Urdu, hyderabadi hinglish,
except Telugu, fluently.
7.You ask the waiter to get you some 'Mango pickle'
even if you are
s! itting at a lavish continental banquet dinner with
exotic Chinese, Mexican, Italian and Lebanese
cuisines.
8. You order for a tea just after having had a Caramel
custard.
9. You have at least one Srinivas,Prasad, Raju or
Venkatesh within six square feet. OR you have at least
one cousin, friend, colleague or acquaintance with
these names.
10. You have at least one cousin, friend, colleague or acquaintance in
the US in software.
11. Every time somebody gives you a piece of good
news, the first thing
you ask them is 'Party kab hain miya ?'
12. Refer to any past as 'parso', be it yesterday or
long before
three hundred years.
13. You call 11 AM as subah subah.
14. You label your boss as 'Dimakh Kharab'
15. And it doesn't matter where in the "Gulf/middle
east" you are leaving you always tell you are going to
"Dubai". (I know of one family who still keep telling
everyone their son is in "uno! Dubai mein hai" but he
is physically in Yemen for the past 5 years. [Smile]
16. You are 15 minutes late and you feel you are on
time.
17. You look at the fixed price stand and still ask
'dene ka bolo'
18. If you do not eat rice at least once a day you
will die.(Nothing other than Rice is considered as a
meal)
19. If you feel offended by someone looking at you
(Kaiku ghoor raa miya ?)
20. If you think you are a born shayer and use some
typical filmi batein in stylish urdu and crack some
romantic jokes.
21. While someone does this, you say to yourself
'chubbe saale ,mooh dekh aaine mein, tere ku kaun pat
thi, pataaney waala tho main hi hoon'
22. If you can say the typical "Light le le baap" and
be cool without analyzing what the situation is.
23. If you feel its legal and your Nizami birth right
to show yourhand and stop the traffic (better than !
an traffic police)while you cross the road whenever
and wherever you like.
24. If you can hang out in a Irani cafe the whole day
after ordering one cup tea and a empty for yourself
and your dear friend and chat like thats the last day
with each other.
25. If you eat Paradise Biryani or bawarchi Biryani
atleast once in a week.
26. If you go to the Petrol Bunk and say "Panch Point
Single Oil maroo yaaro" and hand over 15 bucks.
27. If you can relate the words 'Nakko', 'Hou' 'Kaiku'
,'hallu' and make these the integral part of your
vocabulary.
28. If you tell your friend that you will 'just come
back' ("abbhi aathu mein") and your friend knows that
either you will take a couple of hours or not come
back at all.
29. you end up watching every movie you come across ,
and end up saying oh! that was good , but it could be
better if it was made that way
30. You are reading this and secretly admitting that
you are, after all, a true blue Hyderabadi [Smile] You
know one thing..... Once a Hyderabadi, always a
Hyderabadi... and you will forward this site for sure
to Hyderabadis ... since only they can relate to it.
You are a real hyderabadi, if....
1. Your address reads as 23-404-32/67A-43 (New MCH
number 56-678/4A/B-22),while you actually live in the
second house beside zamzam cafe in lane behind Anand
Theatre on SP Road.
2. You end up buying only a salwar kameez, whether it
is a theatre workshop, food mela, consumer expo,
designer jewellery show, science show or an automobile convention.
3. Your street has at least one roadside mobile hotel
that serves Chinese delicacies such as "Vegetable soft needles",
"Navrotten Kurma", "Chicken Manchewurea" or "American Chompsee".
4. Your answer is 'seedha chale jao' when somebody
asks you for directions,whether it is to Malakpet,
Masab Tank, Malkajgiri or Moosapet.
5. You come across tailors sporting the board:
Immidiot delivery in two days onli.
6.You can speak Hindi, Urdu, hyderabadi hinglish,
except Telugu, fluently.
7.You ask the waiter to get you some 'Mango pickle'
even if you are
s! itting at a lavish continental banquet dinner with
exotic Chinese, Mexican, Italian and Lebanese
cuisines.
8. You order for a tea just after having had a Caramel
custard.
9. You have at least one Srinivas,Prasad, Raju or
Venkatesh within six square feet. OR you have at least
one cousin, friend, colleague or acquaintance with
these names.
10. You have at least one cousin, friend, colleague or acquaintance in
the US in software.
11. Every time somebody gives you a piece of good
news, the first thing
you ask them is 'Party kab hain miya ?'
12. Refer to any past as 'parso', be it yesterday or
long before
three hundred years.
13. You call 11 AM as subah subah.
14. You label your boss as 'Dimakh Kharab'
15. And it doesn't matter where in the "Gulf/middle
east" you are leaving you always tell you are going to
"Dubai". (I know of one family who still keep telling
everyone their son is in "uno! Dubai mein hai" but he
is physically in Yemen for the past 5 years. [Smile]
16. You are 15 minutes late and you feel you are on
time.
17. You look at the fixed price stand and still ask
'dene ka bolo'
18. If you do not eat rice at least once a day you
will die.(Nothing other than Rice is considered as a
meal)
19. If you feel offended by someone looking at you
(Kaiku ghoor raa miya ?)
20. If you think you are a born shayer and use some
typical filmi batein in stylish urdu and crack some
romantic jokes.
21. While someone does this, you say to yourself
'chubbe saale ,mooh dekh aaine mein, tere ku kaun pat
thi, pataaney waala tho main hi hoon'
22. If you can say the typical "Light le le baap" and
be cool without analyzing what the situation is.
23. If you feel its legal and your Nizami birth right
to show yourhand and stop the traffic (better than !
an traffic police)while you cross the road whenever
and wherever you like.
24. If you can hang out in a Irani cafe the whole day
after ordering one cup tea and a empty for yourself
and your dear friend and chat like thats the last day
with each other.
25. If you eat Paradise Biryani or bawarchi Biryani
atleast once in a week.
26. If you go to the Petrol Bunk and say "Panch Point
Single Oil maroo yaaro" and hand over 15 bucks.
27. If you can relate the words 'Nakko', 'Hou' 'Kaiku'
,'hallu' and make these the integral part of your
vocabulary.
28. If you tell your friend that you will 'just come
back' ("abbhi aathu mein") and your friend knows that
either you will take a couple of hours or not come
back at all.
29. you end up watching every movie you come across ,
and end up saying oh! that was good , but it could be
better if it was made that way
30. You are reading this and secretly admitting that
you are, after all, a true blue Hyderabadi [Smile] You
know one thing..... Once a Hyderabadi, always a
Hyderabadi... and you will forward this site for sure
to Hyderabadis ... since only they can relate to it.
Instant Cooking
For the first time, I was managing things on my own outside India... Altogether it was a nice experience except that I fell ill and at times felt a bit lonely. choosing what I wanted to have so much that I ended up living on junk :0)
For the first time I was cooking. I was not cooking some amazing stuff. It was only the instant noodles, upma n other instant this and that. It all started with me getting one little electric stove…I started making maggi, aloo curry,rice ( I know you will ask me whats there to cook here)
Mom had given me sambar podi,pundu podi… you name it I had it…as I was getting a little bored of having food at canteen(as we did not have any choice nor taste) or maggi or bread.
The only vegetable apart from tomato and cucumber that I came across during my stay there was potato. It was in the breakfast in the potato in the lunch ( All the subzis had potato in some form or the other) and in the dinner ( if I remembered to order for some dinner) . If I cooked using these instant x and instant y, I would still need some subzi and if I cooked rice, I would order for french fries
Once I got some bread but the bread wasn't good and like tennaliraman's cat I quit having bread unless it was fruity bread. So I started having soup instead of dinner for a while:d . That was fun and I could have some vegetables( instant soup- maggi:D) Then I tried having vegetable aata noodles with soup. But sometimes I do feel bread ,cheese,jam is a good substitute !!
But on most days I would feel very bored to cook nay bored to do the washing and would have chips,biscuits. Hmm may be this weekend I will try sambar, roti lets see how the experiment turns out !! keep your fingers crossed :0)
For the first time I was cooking. I was not cooking some amazing stuff. It was only the instant noodles, upma n other instant this and that. It all started with me getting one little electric stove…I started making maggi, aloo curry,rice ( I know you will ask me whats there to cook here)
Mom had given me sambar podi,pundu podi… you name it I had it…as I was getting a little bored of having food at canteen(as we did not have any choice nor taste) or maggi or bread.
The only vegetable apart from tomato and cucumber that I came across during my stay there was potato. It was in the breakfast in the potato in the lunch ( All the subzis had potato in some form or the other) and in the dinner ( if I remembered to order for some dinner) . If I cooked using these instant x and instant y, I would still need some subzi and if I cooked rice, I would order for french fries
Once I got some bread but the bread wasn't good and like tennaliraman's cat I quit having bread unless it was fruity bread. So I started having soup instead of dinner for a while:d . That was fun and I could have some vegetables( instant soup- maggi:D) Then I tried having vegetable aata noodles with soup. But sometimes I do feel bread ,cheese,jam is a good substitute !!
But on most days I would feel very bored to cook nay bored to do the washing and would have chips,biscuits. Hmm may be this weekend I will try sambar, roti lets see how the experiment turns out !! keep your fingers crossed :0)
Thursday, 23 November 2006
Things to do during a Conference Call
10) Chew the end of your pen, trying to appear thoughtful
9) Play tic-tac-toe against yourself (Sometimes it can be oddly riveting)
8) Try to flip your pen across your index finger and thumb (Some people do it so effortlessly! I've been trying this unsuccessfully for several years now :-( )
7) Look at people's shoes and judge them (You could notice other things like clothes or hairdo and judge them based on that too, but I have observed that it is easier to look down than up)
6) Observe your reflection on the glass wall and fix your hair (i know I cannot do this :0) )
5) Give missed calls to all (You might think that you can rather send smses than missed calls, but there is a two fold reason to avoid smses a) To send a sms, you will have to actually look at your mobile and type out the msg. This will take a minimum of 30 secs and doesn't show you in good light if you twiddle with your mobile for so long a time. But sending a missed call requires just a few seconds and can be done without looking at your mobile and the mobile can even be inside your pocket/bag b) Smses cost money)
4) Take your id card apart and put it back together (But remember, id cards cost money. So take care not to break the access card into two)
3) Locate new marker pens in the conference room to flick to your cube (This is a never ending cycle - I flick the pens from the conference room and bring it to my cube and someone flicks it from my cube :-( )
2) Doodle and sign your name all over your scribble pad (If my paintings are ever exhibited sometime in the future, I will publicly acknowledge my company's part in bringing out my sketching abilities)
1) Well, I guess you could try to listen to what is happening in the call and try to chip in with a few ideas. Or you could think of blogging ideas too :-)
9) Play tic-tac-toe against yourself (Sometimes it can be oddly riveting)
8) Try to flip your pen across your index finger and thumb (Some people do it so effortlessly! I've been trying this unsuccessfully for several years now :-( )
7) Look at people's shoes and judge them (You could notice other things like clothes or hairdo and judge them based on that too, but I have observed that it is easier to look down than up)
6) Observe your reflection on the glass wall and fix your hair (i know I cannot do this :0) )
5) Give missed calls to all (You might think that you can rather send smses than missed calls, but there is a two fold reason to avoid smses a) To send a sms, you will have to actually look at your mobile and type out the msg. This will take a minimum of 30 secs and doesn't show you in good light if you twiddle with your mobile for so long a time. But sending a missed call requires just a few seconds and can be done without looking at your mobile and the mobile can even be inside your pocket/bag b) Smses cost money)
4) Take your id card apart and put it back together (But remember, id cards cost money. So take care not to break the access card into two)
3) Locate new marker pens in the conference room to flick to your cube (This is a never ending cycle - I flick the pens from the conference room and bring it to my cube and someone flicks it from my cube :-( )
2) Doodle and sign your name all over your scribble pad (If my paintings are ever exhibited sometime in the future, I will publicly acknowledge my company's part in bringing out my sketching abilities)
1) Well, I guess you could try to listen to what is happening in the call and try to chip in with a few ideas. Or you could think of blogging ideas too :-)
Ball Bhojanam
I enjoyed this mail fwd.
Anniyan: DEY PARUPPU……….
Ganguly: yaaruga neenga gillespi maathiri hair style vachurikinga???
Anniyan : naan avan ila da yeman, yenda run adikave maatingara
Ganguly: batting form appo appo vanthutu pogum, cricketla ithellam
sagajam thanaga…..
Anniyan: ippidi soli thapichidalaamnu paakiriya…..
Anniyan: 5 run edutha thapa?????????
Ganguly: onum thapu ilinga……
Anniyan: 5 matchla 5 run edutha thapa?????????
Ganguly: thapu maari thanga theriyuthu……….
Anniyan: 5 varushama 55 matchla 5 run edutha thapa?????????
Ganguly: periya thapu thaanga………..
Anniyan: kamunati athathanda oruoru matchalayum nee panikitu iruka
Anniyan: unakellam ballbojanam thanda, nee than stump
akthar,sami,lee,mcgrath ellarum una vachuthan bowling practice
panaporaanga!!!!!!!!
Anniyan: DEY PARUPPU……….
Ganguly: yaaruga neenga gillespi maathiri hair style vachurikinga???
Anniyan : naan avan ila da yeman, yenda run adikave maatingara
Ganguly: batting form appo appo vanthutu pogum, cricketla ithellam
sagajam thanaga…..
Anniyan: ippidi soli thapichidalaamnu paakiriya…..
Anniyan: 5 run edutha thapa?????????
Ganguly: onum thapu ilinga……
Anniyan: 5 matchla 5 run edutha thapa?????????
Ganguly: thapu maari thanga theriyuthu……….
Anniyan: 5 varushama 55 matchla 5 run edutha thapa?????????
Ganguly: periya thapu thaanga………..
Anniyan: kamunati athathanda oruoru matchalayum nee panikitu iruka
Anniyan: unakellam ballbojanam thanda, nee than stump
akthar,sami,lee,mcgrath ellarum una vachuthan bowling practice
panaporaanga!!!!!!!!
Tamil Slangs
A
Alwa kudukarathu- To cheat
Aatha - Mother
Abase - Loot / steal
Alppam - Silly/Cheap
Anna - The Elder brother
Anni - Elder brother's figure
Appeetu - Unsuccesful
Asathal - Impressive
adangkokka makka - Oh My God!
B
Bejaru - annoying
Bulb vangarathu - To get embarassed
Bajari - In strict terms lady in high street offering body rental service. Also used for gals with simial eloquence
C
Cutting - Small Peg
Chevaru Mutti - similar to Sulpeta. Alcohol with a distinct quality of urge to bang in the walls after getting drunk. Not usually available in the open market
D
Damaram - deaf
Dubakoor - cracked
Dubukku - Clever fool (its me me me )
Deal-la vidurathu - not keeping up to one's responsibility and letting something fail
Dabaikarathu - The act of escaping silently
Danks baa - Very friendly way of thanking
G
Gaja - Matter/Porn
Gujili - Jigidi/Figure/Chick
J
Jiggidi - figure/ chick
K
Kadalai - Casual chatting Usually between two members of opposite sex
kiLambu, kaaththu varattum - a decent way of saying that your words are not making any sense and you better shut up and get lost
Kalasarathu - To ridicule someone
Kalasitta po - Wow...its great
Karuthu Kandhasamy - Person on full time duty on Preaching others for the sake of it
keesuduvane keesu - To get left and right
Kuruttu Kabothi - blind
M
Machan /Macchi /Maamu - casual way of addressing a friend
Major Sundar - One who lives in the style of 5 generations back
Mama - long arm of the law - which reaches into your pocket for 50 rs now and then
Maanga - Fool
Maal - Money/Buck
Mary- A gal who often displays her English linguistic skills
Meter - Multiple meanings Money collection not by lawful means sometime used for drunk also
P
Pannadai - lunacy indefined
Periya Paruppu - Big brother
Peter - A guy who often displays his English linguistic skills
piskothu - very simple (when it refers to an activity)
piskOthu - a silly person (when it refers to an individual)
Pongal - Kadalai
Poyappu - Daily life/survival
Punnaku - Useless
Q
Quarter Govindan - Person with permanent symptoms of Salpetta and Chevaru Mutti
R
Ravadi - Troublesome
S
Sister - Often used to address figures where attempt was unsuccessful
Single tea-kku singi adiththal - survival has become very difficult
Salpeta - Special brand of alchol not usually available in the open market
T
Thena vettu - Bold/ Arrogant
Thala - The Head (boss, one and only leader etc.)
Thoda - sarcastic exclamation (usually doubting)
Ticket Vangarathu - To attain eternity at Kannama pettai
U
usaar paNrathu - to get something for oneself using devious methods
Ushaar Maakans- Careful Fools
V
Vennai - Useless guy
Vetti Officer - Likes of us i.e. people who are not employed for any useful work
Alwa kudukarathu- To cheat
Aatha - Mother
Abase - Loot / steal
Alppam - Silly/Cheap
Anna - The Elder brother
Anni - Elder brother's figure
Appeetu - Unsuccesful
Asathal - Impressive
adangkokka makka - Oh My God!
B
Bejaru - annoying
Bulb vangarathu - To get embarassed
Bajari - In strict terms lady in high street offering body rental service. Also used for gals with simial eloquence
C
Cutting - Small Peg
Chevaru Mutti - similar to Sulpeta. Alcohol with a distinct quality of urge to bang in the walls after getting drunk. Not usually available in the open market
D
Damaram - deaf
Dubakoor - cracked
Dubukku - Clever fool (its me me me )
Deal-la vidurathu - not keeping up to one's responsibility and letting something fail
Dabaikarathu - The act of escaping silently
Danks baa - Very friendly way of thanking
G
Gaja - Matter/Porn
Gujili - Jigidi/Figure/Chick
J
Jiggidi - figure/ chick
K
Kadalai - Casual chatting Usually between two members of opposite sex
kiLambu, kaaththu varattum - a decent way of saying that your words are not making any sense and you better shut up and get lost
Kalasarathu - To ridicule someone
Kalasitta po - Wow...its great
Karuthu Kandhasamy - Person on full time duty on Preaching others for the sake of it
keesuduvane keesu - To get left and right
Kuruttu Kabothi - blind
M
Machan /Macchi /Maamu - casual way of addressing a friend
Major Sundar - One who lives in the style of 5 generations back
Mama - long arm of the law - which reaches into your pocket for 50 rs now and then
Maanga - Fool
Maal - Money/Buck
Mary- A gal who often displays her English linguistic skills
Meter - Multiple meanings Money collection not by lawful means sometime used for drunk also
P
Pannadai - lunacy indefined
Periya Paruppu - Big brother
Peter - A guy who often displays his English linguistic skills
piskothu - very simple (when it refers to an activity)
piskOthu - a silly person (when it refers to an individual)
Pongal - Kadalai
Poyappu - Daily life/survival
Punnaku - Useless
Q
Quarter Govindan - Person with permanent symptoms of Salpetta and Chevaru Mutti
R
Ravadi - Troublesome
S
Sister - Often used to address figures where attempt was unsuccessful
Single tea-kku singi adiththal - survival has become very difficult
Salpeta - Special brand of alchol not usually available in the open market
T
Thena vettu - Bold/ Arrogant
Thala - The Head (boss, one and only leader etc.)
Thoda - sarcastic exclamation (usually doubting)
Ticket Vangarathu - To attain eternity at Kannama pettai
U
usaar paNrathu - to get something for oneself using devious methods
Ushaar Maakans- Careful Fools
V
Vennai - Useless guy
Vetti Officer - Likes of us i.e. people who are not employed for any useful work
THAYIR SADAM
THAYIR SADAM
Pazhai chadam [the previous day's rice] and thayir [curd]," my Paati (grandmother) would always advise. Paati had everyone under her radar. No one could escape Thayir Chadam. It did not matter what time of the day it was, she made sure it was always available. My dad had it three times a day and mom had it several times, while my friends dreaded it! Paati, however, believed in it firmly.
My Paati was short, with salt and pepper hair and a face that was heavily lined. Despite having borne 11 children, there was nothing weak or feeble about her. Her face was a reflection of her inner strength. When she spoke, her words were strong and stern. She was orthodox and believed in following our customs and traditions. Paati rarely smiled but when she did, it conveyed the depth of her feeling. Her hands were strong, even though they now trembled with age. Her fingers had darkened with numerous tiny cuts and her palms were rough. These warm hands had worked hard; they had also wiped away many tears.
Paati could prepare Thayir Chadam in a jiffy. She would dip her hand in the leftover rice, which was always over-cooked for easy digestion, and pick a handful. This rice would then be mashed in another vessel before it was mixed with curd and water. Sometimes, the rice would be soaked in water overnight.
Years of experience had made Paati a Thayir Chadam expert. Thayir Chadam had various forms -- it could be solid, semi-solid or liquid depending on the urgency and the time of the day. Sometimes, it would be served with Vadugu Mangai (Spicy Mango Pickle) or the Red Bullet as I liked to call it. If you were in a hurry, she would mix it in equal proportions of water and call it Thayir Chadam Karaich. This was more popular than Coke in my home when Paati was around. The feeling of this salty mixture on a hot day could give beer a run for its money.
She believed in the nutrition of her product and found no reason to explain what it did to the consumer.
The West has only recently realised the benefits of consuming curd. Scientists now believe the live bacteria in yoghurt are beneficial to health; they stimulate the human immune system as well as kill harmful bacteria. Yoghurt is widely known as an outstanding source of protein, calcium, potassium, phosphorus, vitamin B6, B12, niacin, folic acid and potassium. The US government has now set aside $ 90 million for the International Institute of Analysis and Research into Yoghurt and Allied Products. But our ancestors knew this 5,000 years ago when they settled down with their kamadhenus on the banks of the Vaigai and the Cauvery.
My fondness for Thayir Chadam increased as I grew older. Now that I am in the US, though, I have to compromise -- I am happy with thayir in any form if I cannot have the conventional Thayir Chadam. To me, a meal is not complete if there is no form of thayir to end it. So, every time I go out with my friends, I search for Raitha (chopped vegetables in curd) or any similar curd substitute.
No matter where in the world we Iyers wind up living, it is important for us to maintain our 'Iyer' identity -- to recognise it in each other and to share it with others.
One way we do this is by sharing our love of south Indian food. For many of us south Indian-Americans, our traditional foods have become our strongest metaphor for what it means to be an Indian. For me, Thayir Chadam, Idli Sambhar, Dosais, Adais and those wonderful Nai Appams I was raised on are a metaphor for so many things -- family, togetherness, warmth, a welcome to friends and neighbours and, yes, a welcome to strangers too.
To me, Thayir Chadam at the end of a hearty meal symbolises not only the oneness of the south Indian experience, but also our individual and regional preferences -- curd is never eaten in exactly the Iyer way in any other part of India. After these years of living in the US, my parents still remind us to have curd everyday and have passed on this tradition to our son.
My mother has now taken over the mantle from my grandmother. She makes Thayir Chadam in her own unique way, and her flavour is different from the ones made in other nearby homes. Any day you come to our home invited or uninvited, you can always tuck into a refreshing bowl of Thayir Chadam!
Pazhai chadam [the previous day's rice] and thayir [curd]," my Paati (grandmother) would always advise. Paati had everyone under her radar. No one could escape Thayir Chadam. It did not matter what time of the day it was, she made sure it was always available. My dad had it three times a day and mom had it several times, while my friends dreaded it! Paati, however, believed in it firmly.
My Paati was short, with salt and pepper hair and a face that was heavily lined. Despite having borne 11 children, there was nothing weak or feeble about her. Her face was a reflection of her inner strength. When she spoke, her words were strong and stern. She was orthodox and believed in following our customs and traditions. Paati rarely smiled but when she did, it conveyed the depth of her feeling. Her hands were strong, even though they now trembled with age. Her fingers had darkened with numerous tiny cuts and her palms were rough. These warm hands had worked hard; they had also wiped away many tears.
Paati could prepare Thayir Chadam in a jiffy. She would dip her hand in the leftover rice, which was always over-cooked for easy digestion, and pick a handful. This rice would then be mashed in another vessel before it was mixed with curd and water. Sometimes, the rice would be soaked in water overnight.
Years of experience had made Paati a Thayir Chadam expert. Thayir Chadam had various forms -- it could be solid, semi-solid or liquid depending on the urgency and the time of the day. Sometimes, it would be served with Vadugu Mangai (Spicy Mango Pickle) or the Red Bullet as I liked to call it. If you were in a hurry, she would mix it in equal proportions of water and call it Thayir Chadam Karaich. This was more popular than Coke in my home when Paati was around. The feeling of this salty mixture on a hot day could give beer a run for its money.
She believed in the nutrition of her product and found no reason to explain what it did to the consumer.
The West has only recently realised the benefits of consuming curd. Scientists now believe the live bacteria in yoghurt are beneficial to health; they stimulate the human immune system as well as kill harmful bacteria. Yoghurt is widely known as an outstanding source of protein, calcium, potassium, phosphorus, vitamin B6, B12, niacin, folic acid and potassium. The US government has now set aside $ 90 million for the International Institute of Analysis and Research into Yoghurt and Allied Products. But our ancestors knew this 5,000 years ago when they settled down with their kamadhenus on the banks of the Vaigai and the Cauvery.
My fondness for Thayir Chadam increased as I grew older. Now that I am in the US, though, I have to compromise -- I am happy with thayir in any form if I cannot have the conventional Thayir Chadam. To me, a meal is not complete if there is no form of thayir to end it. So, every time I go out with my friends, I search for Raitha (chopped vegetables in curd) or any similar curd substitute.
No matter where in the world we Iyers wind up living, it is important for us to maintain our 'Iyer' identity -- to recognise it in each other and to share it with others.
One way we do this is by sharing our love of south Indian food. For many of us south Indian-Americans, our traditional foods have become our strongest metaphor for what it means to be an Indian. For me, Thayir Chadam, Idli Sambhar, Dosais, Adais and those wonderful Nai Appams I was raised on are a metaphor for so many things -- family, togetherness, warmth, a welcome to friends and neighbours and, yes, a welcome to strangers too.
To me, Thayir Chadam at the end of a hearty meal symbolises not only the oneness of the south Indian experience, but also our individual and regional preferences -- curd is never eaten in exactly the Iyer way in any other part of India. After these years of living in the US, my parents still remind us to have curd everyday and have passed on this tradition to our son.
My mother has now taken over the mantle from my grandmother. She makes Thayir Chadam in her own unique way, and her flavour is different from the ones made in other nearby homes. Any day you come to our home invited or uninvited, you can always tuck into a refreshing bowl of Thayir Chadam!
Women
Here is a girl, who is as much educated as you are;
who is earning almost as much as you do;
one, who has dreams and aspirations just as you have
because she is as human as you are;
one, who has never entered the kitchen in her life
just like you or your sister haven't,
as she was busy in studies and competing in a system
that gives no special concession to
girls for their culinary achievements;
one, who has lived and loved her parents & brothers & sisters,
almost as much as you do for 20-25 years of her life;
one, who has bravely agreed to leave behind all that, her home,
people who love her, to adopt your home, your family, your ways and
even your family name;
one, who is somehow expected to be a master-chef from day #1,
while you sleep oblivious to her predicament in her new circumstances,
environment and that kitchen;
one, who is expected to make the tea, first thing in the morning
and cook food at the end of the day,
even if she is as tired as you are, maybe more,
and yet never ever expected to complain;
to be a servant, a cook, a mother, a wife,
even if she doesn't want to;
and is learning just like you are
as to what you want from her;
and is clumsy and sloppy at times
and knows that you won't like it if she is too demanding,
or if she learns faster than you;
one, who has her own set of friends,
and that includes boys and even men at her workplace too,
those, who she knows from school days
and yet is willing to put all that on the back-burners
to avoid your irrational jealousy,
unnecessary competition and your inherent insecurities;
yes, she can drink and dance
just as well as you can, but won't,
simply because you won't like it,
even though you say otherwise;
one, who can be late from work once in a while
when deadlines, just like yours, are to be met;
one, who is doing her level best
and wants to make this most important relationship
in her entire life a grand success,
if you just help her some and trust her;
one, who just wants one thing from you,
as you are the only one she knows
in your entire house - your unstinted support,
your sensitivities and most importantly - your understanding,
or love, if you may call it.
But not many guys understand this......think about it!!!
And women reading this must be really beaming by now….
who is earning almost as much as you do;
one, who has dreams and aspirations just as you have
because she is as human as you are;
one, who has never entered the kitchen in her life
just like you or your sister haven't,
as she was busy in studies and competing in a system
that gives no special concession to
girls for their culinary achievements;
one, who has lived and loved her parents & brothers & sisters,
almost as much as you do for 20-25 years of her life;
one, who has bravely agreed to leave behind all that, her home,
people who love her, to adopt your home, your family, your ways and
even your family name;
one, who is somehow expected to be a master-chef from day #1,
while you sleep oblivious to her predicament in her new circumstances,
environment and that kitchen;
one, who is expected to make the tea, first thing in the morning
and cook food at the end of the day,
even if she is as tired as you are, maybe more,
and yet never ever expected to complain;
to be a servant, a cook, a mother, a wife,
even if she doesn't want to;
and is learning just like you are
as to what you want from her;
and is clumsy and sloppy at times
and knows that you won't like it if she is too demanding,
or if she learns faster than you;
one, who has her own set of friends,
and that includes boys and even men at her workplace too,
those, who she knows from school days
and yet is willing to put all that on the back-burners
to avoid your irrational jealousy,
unnecessary competition and your inherent insecurities;
yes, she can drink and dance
just as well as you can, but won't,
simply because you won't like it,
even though you say otherwise;
one, who can be late from work once in a while
when deadlines, just like yours, are to be met;
one, who is doing her level best
and wants to make this most important relationship
in her entire life a grand success,
if you just help her some and trust her;
one, who just wants one thing from you,
as you are the only one she knows
in your entire house - your unstinted support,
your sensitivities and most importantly - your understanding,
or love, if you may call it.
But not many guys understand this......think about it!!!
And women reading this must be really beaming by now….
Rewind
good old days..
When gulli-danda and kanche (marbles) were more popular than cricket ..
When we always had friends to play aais-paais (I Spy),chhepan-chhepai
and pitthoo anytime .
When we desperately waited for 'yeh jo hai jindagi' ..
When chitrahaar, vikram-baitaal, dada daadi ki kahaniyaan were so
fulfilling .
When there was just one tv in every five houses and
When bisleris were not sold in the trains and we were worrying if papas
will get back into the train in time or not when they were getting down
at stations to fill up the water bottle ..
When we were going to bed by 9.00pm sharp except for the 'yeh jo hai
jindagi' day ..
When Holis & Diwalis meant mostly hand-made pakwaans and sweets and
moms seeking our help while preparing them .
When Maths teachers were not worried of our mummys and papas while
slapping/beating us ..
When we were exchanging comics and stamps and chacha-chaudaris and
billus were our heroes ...
When we were in nanihaals every summer and loved flying kites and
plucking and eating unripe mangoes and leechis ..
When one movie every Sunday evening on television was more than asked
for and 'ek do teen chaar' and 'Rajni' inspired us .
When 50 paisa meant at least 10 toffees ...
When left over pages of the last years notebooks were used for rough
work or even fair work .
When 'chelpark' and 'natraaj' were encouraged against 'reynolds and
family' ..
When the first rain meant getting drenched and playing in water and mud
and making 'kaagaj ki kishtis' ...
When there were no phones to tell friends that we will be at their
homes at six in the evening .
When our parents always had 15 paise blue colored 'antardesis' and 5
paise machli wale stamps at home
When we remembered tens of jokes and were not finding 'ice-cream and
papa' type jokes foolish enough to stop us from laughing ..
When we were not seeing patakhes on Diwalis and gulaals on Holis as air
and noise polluting or allergic agents ...
the list can be endless ..
on the serious note I would like to summarise with .
When we were using our hearts more than our brains, even for
scientifically brainy activities like 'thinking' and 'deciding' .
When we were crying and laughing more often, more openly and more
sincerily .
When we were enjoying our present more than worrying about our future .
When being emotional was not synonymous to being weak .
When sharing worries and happinesses didnt mean getting vulnerable to
the listener .
When blacks and whites were the favourite colors instead of greys .
When journeys also were important and not just the destinations .
When life was a passenger's sleeper giving enough time and opportunity
to enjoy the sceneries from its open and transparent glass windows
instead of some superfast's second ac with its curtained, closed and dark
windows ...
I really miss . do u?,
When gulli-danda and kanche (marbles) were more popular than cricket ..
When we always had friends to play aais-paais (I Spy),chhepan-chhepai
and pitthoo anytime .
When we desperately waited for 'yeh jo hai jindagi' ..
When chitrahaar, vikram-baitaal, dada daadi ki kahaniyaan were so
fulfilling .
When there was just one tv in every five houses and
When bisleris were not sold in the trains and we were worrying if papas
will get back into the train in time or not when they were getting down
at stations to fill up the water bottle ..
When we were going to bed by 9.00pm sharp except for the 'yeh jo hai
jindagi' day ..
When Holis & Diwalis meant mostly hand-made pakwaans and sweets and
moms seeking our help while preparing them .
When Maths teachers were not worried of our mummys and papas while
slapping/beating us ..
When we were exchanging comics and stamps and chacha-chaudaris and
billus were our heroes ...
When we were in nanihaals every summer and loved flying kites and
plucking and eating unripe mangoes and leechis ..
When one movie every Sunday evening on television was more than asked
for and 'ek do teen chaar' and 'Rajni' inspired us .
When 50 paisa meant at least 10 toffees ...
When left over pages of the last years notebooks were used for rough
work or even fair work .
When 'chelpark' and 'natraaj' were encouraged against 'reynolds and
family' ..
When the first rain meant getting drenched and playing in water and mud
and making 'kaagaj ki kishtis' ...
When there were no phones to tell friends that we will be at their
homes at six in the evening .
When our parents always had 15 paise blue colored 'antardesis' and 5
paise machli wale stamps at home
When we remembered tens of jokes and were not finding 'ice-cream and
papa' type jokes foolish enough to stop us from laughing ..
When we were not seeing patakhes on Diwalis and gulaals on Holis as air
and noise polluting or allergic agents ...
the list can be endless ..
on the serious note I would like to summarise with .
When we were using our hearts more than our brains, even for
scientifically brainy activities like 'thinking' and 'deciding' .
When we were crying and laughing more often, more openly and more
sincerily .
When we were enjoying our present more than worrying about our future .
When being emotional was not synonymous to being weak .
When sharing worries and happinesses didnt mean getting vulnerable to
the listener .
When blacks and whites were the favourite colors instead of greys .
When journeys also were important and not just the destinations .
When life was a passenger's sleeper giving enough time and opportunity
to enjoy the sceneries from its open and transparent glass windows
instead of some superfast's second ac with its curtained, closed and dark
windows ...
I really miss . do u?,
TR Style
yakka dum dum dum
kaalla kolusu poota ava ponnu
cooling galss poota ava gunnu
ammanu nenacha ava theivam
avaluku aagama poochuna nee paavam
selai katna alaga irupa ponnu
jeans potaalum paakum namma kannu
roadmela ootra ava biku
avala overtake panninena nee maku
follow panna oru kicku
traffic sargeant kita maatnaalum kedaikum kicku
dai poonu sericha aathuku 1000 artham
atha aaranja senje kutham
avanga ayuthamey kanneru
atha nee kandukalane aiyduva bejaaru
yakka dum dum dum aa dicka dicka dish!
kaalla kolusu poota ava ponnu
cooling galss poota ava gunnu
ammanu nenacha ava theivam
avaluku aagama poochuna nee paavam
selai katna alaga irupa ponnu
jeans potaalum paakum namma kannu
roadmela ootra ava biku
avala overtake panninena nee maku
follow panna oru kicku
traffic sargeant kita maatnaalum kedaikum kicku
dai poonu sericha aathuku 1000 artham
atha aaranja senje kutham
avanga ayuthamey kanneru
atha nee kandukalane aiyduva bejaaru
yakka dum dum dum aa dicka dicka dish!
From Chukku Kaapi to Cappuccino
From Chukku Kaapi to Cappuccino
This blog was written because I was left with no work to do after coming back from Café Coffee day today. I always feel that blogs are written by people who have nothing else to do, but write blogs. And blogs are written for people who have nothing else to do, but read blogs. So if you have nothing else to do, continue reading.
Café Coffee Days in my life!!! I can't believe it. Six, seven years back I would never have imagined that such a day would occur in my life. Café Coffee day is supposed to be a place where high class people who didn't know how to spend the money they had, go. But now I am there... I have changed a lot since my school days.
As I said in my previous post, I never talked in English till the end of my 12th standard. May be in my primary school we talked in English a little bit... (Since girls were there in my primary school we used to talk in English... Mostly it was the "You go girl." "Miss this boy no... he is stealing my pencil miss" and "Miss this boy is pinching me miss" type of pathetic English.). Till I went to college, I never read an English newspaper. I never knew who Sidney Sheldon was. I never saw English movies. "Star movies" was considered adult material at home. I never talked to a girl. I don't feel that I missed anything...But still because I didn't have such experiences, I had to adjust a lot when I traveled beyond Cornigela, my place.
Born in Cornigela, an ordinary conservative town, even Chennai took a lot of time for me to adjust. My home town was too cool. You could watch movies for 15 Rs. in an AC theatre. You get the best food at lowest prices. You can drink water wherever you want and it doesn't affect you. Girls never wear T-shirts or Jeans. You can see girls in half-sarees. And there were a lot more things that were cool to me...My first costly experience as far as I can remember was my first Pizza.
In my 12th standard holidays I had my first Pizza. We, a group of 5 friends went to a bakery. It was around 7 p.m at night. We ordered our first Pizza (only one because it costed so much - 20Rs!!!). As the Pizza arrived one of the guys started using his hand to take out a piece. "Ley" ....The others shouted... "asingam pannatheylae. Fork kudupaanga"... We got 5 forks for eating one Pizza. Everybody tried taking out a piece with the fork. Nobody was successful. Stupid forks... As we were trying different methods, two girls came in, and took the table adjacent to ours. They seemed to be from the so called high class families in Cornigela. They ordered a Pizza. We were still trying to eat ours. Their Pizza arrived in their table. Unable to find a solution, we looked at them for one. One of the girls took out a piece with her hand and started eating it. Damn stupids we were!!! But what do we do now?? We can't go back to the hand-intake method... We are brave!!! Luckily for us the power went off... Forks were put down and everybody started picking a piece with the hand. Our sole aim- finish it off before power comes back!!! Unlucky for us, power came back immediately... We had a piece each in our hands... The girls started laughing... People around us realizing what had happened too joined them...We promised we would never eat Pizzas again. But we all did.
The first change in lifestyle for me occurred in Chennai. Chennai was completely different. Watching a movie for Rs.40 was a one time life experience for most people in my village. I had to adapt to such things since I had to be a part of the group. Otherwise you feel let out. My habits started changing. For example, you look into the glass before drinking water to check whether it is clean. I went to my first Coffee Pub in Chennai. I remember saying some time back "Loosu paya thaan Coffee publa poi mukkaa manineram wait panni oru black coffeeya 50 Ruba kaasu kuduthu kudippaan" - I did it...
If Chennai was difficult for me, how easy would be an MBA school? I was dumbstruck with the culture... The Hi's and the fundoo English speaking guys were all a great change, though I had expected it. There is a sense of hollowness when you say a Hi to somebody here. In Cornigela a smile was enough to say what you feel. There is real sense of belonging in a smile. I miss it - a smile without a Hi.
Here is an example to show how my family mindset is different from the mindset here. At the end of the first term when I went home, I showed quite a few photographs to my parents. In one photograph there was a guy who had his arms around a girl's shoulder. My mother asked me whether they were in love. I said "No". But even today she doesn't believe me. She still feels that they are in love!!! If only she comes here(...
The mind works mechanically here - after you crack a joke you do what they call high fives!!! When you meet a person you ask something like "What's up buddy?"- Only God knows how you are supposed to answer for such a question!!! You say "Excuse me" after a sneeze - What big mistake have you made to say that?? When you are ready to sacrifice ethics for grades and see even your closest friend as a competitor in group discussions, how much difference will that Excuse me make? Pretty difficult to adjust!!!
Even Café Coffee Days and costly dinners sometimes hurt. Daily my father takes a bus to reach home from his office because taking an auto would cost him Rs.30. He walks a kilometer daily from the bus stop to my house. When I think of that and the fact that I am spending Rs.50 for a Chocolate Fantasy, I feel uneasy. Definitely it is not a matter of money. The fact is that I somewhere in my heart feel that this is not really who I am...The fact that I have changed a lot hurts... I want to be the same myself, but I am unable to do so.
Started listing down a few things that have changed in my life. The left column is a list of things that were part of my life before I entered college. And the right are those that I came to know/were a part of my after I entered college.
I wish I go back to school and be the same guy I was. I know I can't. But I want to do it and live the same life all again.
Leo da Mirci once said, "I love what I do because I do only what I love".
If only following something is as simple as saying something!!!
This blog was written because I was left with no work to do after coming back from Café Coffee day today. I always feel that blogs are written by people who have nothing else to do, but write blogs. And blogs are written for people who have nothing else to do, but read blogs. So if you have nothing else to do, continue reading.
Café Coffee Days in my life!!! I can't believe it. Six, seven years back I would never have imagined that such a day would occur in my life. Café Coffee day is supposed to be a place where high class people who didn't know how to spend the money they had, go. But now I am there... I have changed a lot since my school days.
As I said in my previous post, I never talked in English till the end of my 12th standard. May be in my primary school we talked in English a little bit... (Since girls were there in my primary school we used to talk in English... Mostly it was the "You go girl." "Miss this boy no... he is stealing my pencil miss" and "Miss this boy is pinching me miss" type of pathetic English.). Till I went to college, I never read an English newspaper. I never knew who Sidney Sheldon was. I never saw English movies. "Star movies" was considered adult material at home. I never talked to a girl. I don't feel that I missed anything...But still because I didn't have such experiences, I had to adjust a lot when I traveled beyond Cornigela, my place.
Born in Cornigela, an ordinary conservative town, even Chennai took a lot of time for me to adjust. My home town was too cool. You could watch movies for 15 Rs. in an AC theatre. You get the best food at lowest prices. You can drink water wherever you want and it doesn't affect you. Girls never wear T-shirts or Jeans. You can see girls in half-sarees. And there were a lot more things that were cool to me...My first costly experience as far as I can remember was my first Pizza.
In my 12th standard holidays I had my first Pizza. We, a group of 5 friends went to a bakery. It was around 7 p.m at night. We ordered our first Pizza (only one because it costed so much - 20Rs!!!). As the Pizza arrived one of the guys started using his hand to take out a piece. "Ley" ....The others shouted... "asingam pannatheylae. Fork kudupaanga"... We got 5 forks for eating one Pizza. Everybody tried taking out a piece with the fork. Nobody was successful. Stupid forks... As we were trying different methods, two girls came in, and took the table adjacent to ours. They seemed to be from the so called high class families in Cornigela. They ordered a Pizza. We were still trying to eat ours. Their Pizza arrived in their table. Unable to find a solution, we looked at them for one. One of the girls took out a piece with her hand and started eating it. Damn stupids we were!!! But what do we do now?? We can't go back to the hand-intake method... We are brave!!! Luckily for us the power went off... Forks were put down and everybody started picking a piece with the hand. Our sole aim- finish it off before power comes back!!! Unlucky for us, power came back immediately... We had a piece each in our hands... The girls started laughing... People around us realizing what had happened too joined them...We promised we would never eat Pizzas again. But we all did.
The first change in lifestyle for me occurred in Chennai. Chennai was completely different. Watching a movie for Rs.40 was a one time life experience for most people in my village. I had to adapt to such things since I had to be a part of the group. Otherwise you feel let out. My habits started changing. For example, you look into the glass before drinking water to check whether it is clean. I went to my first Coffee Pub in Chennai. I remember saying some time back "Loosu paya thaan Coffee publa poi mukkaa manineram wait panni oru black coffeeya 50 Ruba kaasu kuduthu kudippaan" - I did it...
If Chennai was difficult for me, how easy would be an MBA school? I was dumbstruck with the culture... The Hi's and the fundoo English speaking guys were all a great change, though I had expected it. There is a sense of hollowness when you say a Hi to somebody here. In Cornigela a smile was enough to say what you feel. There is real sense of belonging in a smile. I miss it - a smile without a Hi.
Here is an example to show how my family mindset is different from the mindset here. At the end of the first term when I went home, I showed quite a few photographs to my parents. In one photograph there was a guy who had his arms around a girl's shoulder. My mother asked me whether they were in love. I said "No". But even today she doesn't believe me. She still feels that they are in love!!! If only she comes here(...
The mind works mechanically here - after you crack a joke you do what they call high fives!!! When you meet a person you ask something like "What's up buddy?"- Only God knows how you are supposed to answer for such a question!!! You say "Excuse me" after a sneeze - What big mistake have you made to say that?? When you are ready to sacrifice ethics for grades and see even your closest friend as a competitor in group discussions, how much difference will that Excuse me make? Pretty difficult to adjust!!!
Even Café Coffee Days and costly dinners sometimes hurt. Daily my father takes a bus to reach home from his office because taking an auto would cost him Rs.30. He walks a kilometer daily from the bus stop to my house. When I think of that and the fact that I am spending Rs.50 for a Chocolate Fantasy, I feel uneasy. Definitely it is not a matter of money. The fact is that I somewhere in my heart feel that this is not really who I am...The fact that I have changed a lot hurts... I want to be the same myself, but I am unable to do so.
Started listing down a few things that have changed in my life. The left column is a list of things that were part of my life before I entered college. And the right are those that I came to know/were a part of my after I entered college.
I wish I go back to school and be the same guy I was. I know I can't. But I want to do it and live the same life all again.
Leo da Mirci once said, "I love what I do because I do only what I love".
If only following something is as simple as saying something!!!
Marriage Analyse Pack
Take a break…jus relax and analyze the below facts :0)
Here it goes for all the guys (eligible bachelors J ) ] n ya girls could also take a cue ... there..............
There are times in a person's life when he needs to take crucial decisions on his own. Marriage is one of them. Believe me, the decision on whom to marry is the most important decision a person will make in his life. After marriage, your wife is the most important person in your life. She can make or break your life. The mere thought of this is very frightening.
Some of the questions that crop up are -
a.. What sort of a girl do I marry?
b.. Will she adjust in my family?
c.. How can I decide on a girl by just meeting her for a few times?
d.. When should I get married?
e.. This is my life. So, I should choose the girl I marry, but then what if I make a mistake? .. so on and so forth.
I will try to address these & many more questions in the following sections.
The Nine Rules of Arranged marriage
Rule 1 - Magic no. 28
In an ideal scenario, a girl goes to college at the age of 18. By the time she graduates, goes for her post graduation and/ or works for 1-2 years, she will be about 23- 24. This means that she has spent about 5 years away from her home. In the 5 years period, she would meet many smart guys at college or during her first few years on job. So, in all probability it would be difficult to find a good girl older than 24 yrs. Secondly, in Indian families there is lot of pressure on the girl's to get married by the time they become 24-25.
Statistics says that there is a generation gap after every 5 years. So, in such scenario, one would prefer to marry a girl who is about 3-4 years younger to you. Thus, working backwards, an ideal age for a guy to get married is by 28. Earlier the marriage, the better it is.
Well, as we all know, in the current market scenario, there will never be stability in our career. So, I believe there is no such thing as, "I will marry when I settle down".
Rule 2 -- Subset of marriage-able girls
At times you hear statements like, "I am not getting the right match, I will look after 3 months, I will find a better match then". Well the truth is otherwise. The subset of unmarried girl looking for a match is fixed. >From this subset, there would be girls who would get married & there would be new girls added who would be looking for a match. The net result is that at any given time, the variety & number of marriage-able girls are fixed.
Rule 3 - Competition for girls
Like all other facets of life, there is lot of competition for good girls. So, if you are looking for a girl who is post graduate, done her Engg, is working, very beautiful, smart, from a good family etc. etc, just think again. There are other guys who are also looking for similar girls & probably they are better off than you in terms of career, looks personality etc. Given a choice every guy would like to marry Aishwarya Rai. So, set your expectations accordingly.
Rule 4 -- Understanding girls
You would have met a lot of people during your life. As we all know, its difficult to judge a person based on a few meetings. I am sure you would agree with me that in case of girls it is even more difficult to understand them in a few meetings. I know people who are still trying to understand their wife. ;-).. Understanding your spouse is a life long assignment. So, then how do you select a girl based on a few meeting? This is where you need to take the help of your parents/ friends & latest technologies like email/chat to choose your girl.
Rule 5 - Society expectation
The selection process is tough on every one who is involved in the process. In arranged marriage, involvement of family & society is pretty high. You can't meet a girl 3-4 times & then say no to her. It is bad for her future. So, you should have a good short-listing criterion. Meet only a few girls & be sure what you are looking for. It is for the benefit of everyone involved.
Rule 6 -- Marriage between equals
Unlike love marriage, in arranged marriage you also marry into the girl's family. In arranged marriages, family support plays a major role in ensuring a successful marriage. This is where the compatibility of social status, family values & caste/religion plays a major role. Its important to note that in case there is a perfect match between the two families, the marriage is destined to succeed.
Rule 7 - Know yourself
Unlike love marriage, in arranged marriage you first marry a person & then fall in love. So, it's very important that you do a self-assessment on the kind of person you would love. They say, "Opposite attract", while they also say, "Bird of same feather flock together". So, you take a call on what sort of person you like. Take a pen & paper; write down the kind of attributes you are looking for in a girl. Say, she should ideally have the looks of Sonia, the style of Monica, the voice of Chitra, the patience of Rashmi. You will certainly not find the perfect girl, but then you would have a good idea of what you are looking for. The secret here is to set some minimum criteria for selection. Don't forget rule no.3 here.
Rule 8 -- Girl's Beauty
A girl's looks attract, but then no one wants to end up marrying a dumb It is like buying your bike. When you initially buy it, you are crazy about the looks, but later on you love it for its reliability, fuel economy & comfort level. Similarly, a girl's looks are important, but then it should not be the most important criteria. Later on in life, you will get bored of her looks. It is then that her personality & behavior will make all the difference to your marriage. I am sure your parents will be able to advice you a lot better on this topic.
Rule 9 -- Taking advice
As I have mentioned in the next rule, it's very important that the final decision on whom to marry must necessarily be yours. However, don't do the mistake of isolating yourself from the world while planning your marriage. Discuss with your parents & very close friends on this issue. They are your well wishers. Secondly, in such important matters its necessary that you analyze all possibilities. Remember, I am not suggesting that you follow others' advice, but don't forget to take their advice.
Rule 10 -- Own decision
All said & done, it's your marriage & your life that is at stake. Once you are married, you & your wife are the only persons who will be facing the music. Don't marry a girl just because your parents or friends asked you to do so. After marriage, if things don't work out & you end up saying, "It's because of my friends or my parents that I married you", then your marriage is destined for disaster. If the girl is of your choice, it is you who will be responsible for whatever happens. That's when the marriage works out perfectly. So, ensure that you marry the girl of your choice.
How to approach the selection process?
From the day, a person decides to get married; the selection process takes a minimum of 3 months. The whole process needs a lot of patience & commitment. The ideal steps to be followed are:
a.. Definition phase -
Define the minimum criteria for the kind of life partner you are looking for in terms of education, physical appearance, social status, family values, future career plans. Remember the Rule 3 here.
b.. Lead Generation phase -
Place ads in various newspapers, magazines, websites, through friends, family friends, family societies & association etc. You need to exhaust all possible means of getting bio-datas at one go. Remember the Rule 2 here.
c.. Short listing phase -
Based on your selection criteria, short-list the interesting bio-datas. The general process followed for correspondence is as follows:
1. The initiator sends a one page profile of himself/herself.
2. Based on the profile, the receiver sends his/her one page profile along with request for detailed profile, photo, horoscope.
3. The initiator then sends the requested information along with a request for similar information.
4. The receiver send similar information.
5. If the bio-data is selected, it is passed over to the next phase.
A.. Casual interaction phase -
Based on short listing, about 7 to 10 bio-datas are taken forwarded to this phase. The next step to follow here is to exchange email/ chat ids. The guy & the girl then interact for 10 - 15 days to try & judge mutual compatibility through email/chat.
B.. Family interaction phase -
Based on the earlier phase, about 5 leads are taken for consideration in this phase. During this phase, the parents get involved & check the background information about the families to find mutual compatibility.
C.. The dating phase -
Based on the earlier phase about 3 leads are taken forward to this phase. During this phase, the guy & the girl interact by going out alone for 2-3 times. The guy needs to prepare a set of simple questions like who is your favorite star, what are your hobbies? He needs to use his judgment to analyze the girl based on her responses.
D.. The D-day phase -
Finally, the D-day comes when the guy has to select the girl he wants to spend his life with. If the process if followed systematically, there will be no ambiguity in deciding who should be your life partner.
Finally, my dear friends, marriage is all about compromises. In spite of all the planning that you do, there are a lot of uncertainties in a marriage. In fact this is the best part about marriage. Just remember that the person you marry must be of your choice. In such case, there would be no going back for both of you.
A few words of advice: To make your marriage a success; just believe in the age-old virtue, "Never do anything to others that you don't like for yourself".
Here it goes for all the guys (eligible bachelors J ) ] n ya girls could also take a cue ... there..............
There are times in a person's life when he needs to take crucial decisions on his own. Marriage is one of them. Believe me, the decision on whom to marry is the most important decision a person will make in his life. After marriage, your wife is the most important person in your life. She can make or break your life. The mere thought of this is very frightening.
Some of the questions that crop up are -
a.. What sort of a girl do I marry?
b.. Will she adjust in my family?
c.. How can I decide on a girl by just meeting her for a few times?
d.. When should I get married?
e.. This is my life. So, I should choose the girl I marry, but then what if I make a mistake? .. so on and so forth.
I will try to address these & many more questions in the following sections.
The Nine Rules of Arranged marriage
Rule 1 - Magic no. 28
In an ideal scenario, a girl goes to college at the age of 18. By the time she graduates, goes for her post graduation and/ or works for 1-2 years, she will be about 23- 24. This means that she has spent about 5 years away from her home. In the 5 years period, she would meet many smart guys at college or during her first few years on job. So, in all probability it would be difficult to find a good girl older than 24 yrs. Secondly, in Indian families there is lot of pressure on the girl's to get married by the time they become 24-25.
Statistics says that there is a generation gap after every 5 years. So, in such scenario, one would prefer to marry a girl who is about 3-4 years younger to you. Thus, working backwards, an ideal age for a guy to get married is by 28. Earlier the marriage, the better it is.
Well, as we all know, in the current market scenario, there will never be stability in our career. So, I believe there is no such thing as, "I will marry when I settle down".
Rule 2 -- Subset of marriage-able girls
At times you hear statements like, "I am not getting the right match, I will look after 3 months, I will find a better match then". Well the truth is otherwise. The subset of unmarried girl looking for a match is fixed. >From this subset, there would be girls who would get married & there would be new girls added who would be looking for a match. The net result is that at any given time, the variety & number of marriage-able girls are fixed.
Rule 3 - Competition for girls
Like all other facets of life, there is lot of competition for good girls. So, if you are looking for a girl who is post graduate, done her Engg, is working, very beautiful, smart, from a good family etc. etc, just think again. There are other guys who are also looking for similar girls & probably they are better off than you in terms of career, looks personality etc. Given a choice every guy would like to marry Aishwarya Rai. So, set your expectations accordingly.
Rule 4 -- Understanding girls
You would have met a lot of people during your life. As we all know, its difficult to judge a person based on a few meetings. I am sure you would agree with me that in case of girls it is even more difficult to understand them in a few meetings. I know people who are still trying to understand their wife. ;-).. Understanding your spouse is a life long assignment. So, then how do you select a girl based on a few meeting? This is where you need to take the help of your parents/ friends & latest technologies like email/chat to choose your girl.
Rule 5 - Society expectation
The selection process is tough on every one who is involved in the process. In arranged marriage, involvement of family & society is pretty high. You can't meet a girl 3-4 times & then say no to her. It is bad for her future. So, you should have a good short-listing criterion. Meet only a few girls & be sure what you are looking for. It is for the benefit of everyone involved.
Rule 6 -- Marriage between equals
Unlike love marriage, in arranged marriage you also marry into the girl's family. In arranged marriages, family support plays a major role in ensuring a successful marriage. This is where the compatibility of social status, family values & caste/religion plays a major role. Its important to note that in case there is a perfect match between the two families, the marriage is destined to succeed.
Rule 7 - Know yourself
Unlike love marriage, in arranged marriage you first marry a person & then fall in love. So, it's very important that you do a self-assessment on the kind of person you would love. They say, "Opposite attract", while they also say, "Bird of same feather flock together". So, you take a call on what sort of person you like. Take a pen & paper; write down the kind of attributes you are looking for in a girl. Say, she should ideally have the looks of Sonia, the style of Monica, the voice of Chitra, the patience of Rashmi. You will certainly not find the perfect girl, but then you would have a good idea of what you are looking for. The secret here is to set some minimum criteria for selection. Don't forget rule no.3 here.
Rule 8 -- Girl's Beauty
A girl's looks attract, but then no one wants to end up marrying a dumb It is like buying your bike. When you initially buy it, you are crazy about the looks, but later on you love it for its reliability, fuel economy & comfort level. Similarly, a girl's looks are important, but then it should not be the most important criteria. Later on in life, you will get bored of her looks. It is then that her personality & behavior will make all the difference to your marriage. I am sure your parents will be able to advice you a lot better on this topic.
Rule 9 -- Taking advice
As I have mentioned in the next rule, it's very important that the final decision on whom to marry must necessarily be yours. However, don't do the mistake of isolating yourself from the world while planning your marriage. Discuss with your parents & very close friends on this issue. They are your well wishers. Secondly, in such important matters its necessary that you analyze all possibilities. Remember, I am not suggesting that you follow others' advice, but don't forget to take their advice.
Rule 10 -- Own decision
All said & done, it's your marriage & your life that is at stake. Once you are married, you & your wife are the only persons who will be facing the music. Don't marry a girl just because your parents or friends asked you to do so. After marriage, if things don't work out & you end up saying, "It's because of my friends or my parents that I married you", then your marriage is destined for disaster. If the girl is of your choice, it is you who will be responsible for whatever happens. That's when the marriage works out perfectly. So, ensure that you marry the girl of your choice.
How to approach the selection process?
From the day, a person decides to get married; the selection process takes a minimum of 3 months. The whole process needs a lot of patience & commitment. The ideal steps to be followed are:
a.. Definition phase -
Define the minimum criteria for the kind of life partner you are looking for in terms of education, physical appearance, social status, family values, future career plans. Remember the Rule 3 here.
b.. Lead Generation phase -
Place ads in various newspapers, magazines, websites, through friends, family friends, family societies & association etc. You need to exhaust all possible means of getting bio-datas at one go. Remember the Rule 2 here.
c.. Short listing phase -
Based on your selection criteria, short-list the interesting bio-datas. The general process followed for correspondence is as follows:
1. The initiator sends a one page profile of himself/herself.
2. Based on the profile, the receiver sends his/her one page profile along with request for detailed profile, photo, horoscope.
3. The initiator then sends the requested information along with a request for similar information.
4. The receiver send similar information.
5. If the bio-data is selected, it is passed over to the next phase.
A.. Casual interaction phase -
Based on short listing, about 7 to 10 bio-datas are taken forwarded to this phase. The next step to follow here is to exchange email/ chat ids. The guy & the girl then interact for 10 - 15 days to try & judge mutual compatibility through email/chat.
B.. Family interaction phase -
Based on the earlier phase, about 5 leads are taken for consideration in this phase. During this phase, the parents get involved & check the background information about the families to find mutual compatibility.
C.. The dating phase -
Based on the earlier phase about 3 leads are taken forward to this phase. During this phase, the guy & the girl interact by going out alone for 2-3 times. The guy needs to prepare a set of simple questions like who is your favorite star, what are your hobbies? He needs to use his judgment to analyze the girl based on her responses.
D.. The D-day phase -
Finally, the D-day comes when the guy has to select the girl he wants to spend his life with. If the process if followed systematically, there will be no ambiguity in deciding who should be your life partner.
Finally, my dear friends, marriage is all about compromises. In spite of all the planning that you do, there are a lot of uncertainties in a marriage. In fact this is the best part about marriage. Just remember that the person you marry must be of your choice. In such case, there would be no going back for both of you.
A few words of advice: To make your marriage a success; just believe in the age-old virtue, "Never do anything to others that you don't like for yourself".
Whats in a Name
I got an mail, with this suject “Tamil Name in US”, I started reading, i couldnt control laughing,everyone around started staring at me, Chk this out, this a blog article by a person called Kalaivani… Caution: Before reading it, see whether anyone is around you…
En per padum paadu!!!
My full name is Kalaivani, but I call myself Kalai. This is not for scene, …like how Madhavan does in Anbe Sivam (Anbarasu –> Ars).it has a looooong and pathetic history…
I started hearing different versions of my name after coming to this country, and the painful fact is all the possible permutations and combinations of vowels in my name give meaningful words in tamil!!!
When I first joined the university, my professor wrote to me..
Dear KALAvani (meaning: thief; context: kalavani paya..)
Sari adhuvachum typo nu free ya vittudalam..Then after a year, I joined a company for internship.those people called me before I joined, to inform me about some test which I had to take..
“Hello is this Ms. Kizhavaani?” (meaning: old; context : kizha bolt..etc.)
“No..this is KALAIvaani”
“Ohh..am sorry KALAvaani” (Marupadiyum…)
Then I decided.periya pera irukkinala thane ivlo confusion?!! So, I started calling myself ‘Kalai’… but the story continued..
I joined my full-time position in another company recently. On my first day, we had a meeting..
“Let’s all welcome our new associate.Ms. Kulai” (meaning: bunch; context: kulai kulaiyai vazhaipazham kaaithadhu)
CLAP! CLAP! CLAP! CLAP! Followed by smiles.
(Dei.ennangada… ellarum serndhu comedy panreengala???)
Anniku arambichadhu…
Once my boss and I were talking about a project… after finishing the meeting…
“Ok, Kali. Nice to have you here!” (meaning: last yuga; context: kali muthi pochu.)
“That’s KALAI” (Enakku idhu thevaya?!)
“Ohh kAALi?” (meaning: goddess; context: badrakaali..)
“Hee hee .very close” (Podaannnggg…!!)
So, I stopped correcting my name after that..!
One fine morning, I was working.
“Hey kiLai (meaning: branch; context: marakiLai) .howz it going?”
“Yea good” (Sollitu thirumbitten. Nammaluku edhuku indha per thiruthura business nu…)
“Is that how you say your name?”
(Aaahaa arambichutanya…!!!)
“Uhhh. It’s KALAI”
“Kolaai?” (meaning:pump; context: kozhai adi sandai.)
(Venaaammm…)
“Kolai?” (meaning: murder; context: kolai panniduven..)
(Venaam!)
“kaLai?” (meaning: weed; context: kaLai pudinguradhu.)
(Valikkudhu… azhudhuduven…)
“May be I’ll get your name with practice. Haha.”
(Idhellam remba over da dei… Tamil la paatha rende rendu ezhuthu thaan da!!!)
Ennada, Chandramukhi la thalaivar ‘durga’ perai nakkaladikkira maathiri… namma per ayiduche nu nenaikkum podhu… my friend came up with a brilliant idea!
Adhavadhu… to compare my name with a word.so I started using this word ‘kaleidoscope’; which has the same pronunciation as ‘kalai’!
So, I started telling everyone. ‘Kalai as in kaleidoscope’!. Ippo kooda romba ellam ozhunga solradhulla. They are saying ‘kalaai’ (kalaaikiradhu)..
“Hey Kalaai!!”
“Yea?”
“Just trying to say your name. Ha ha ha”
“Ohhh ..how sweet!” (thooo thEri..)
Yedho vaandhi edukkira effect la per irundhalum… my life was in peace… until few days back…
My net connection was down, so I called up the customer service (En kiragam. Madras call center ku pochu!)
Enakku andha vishayame theriyala. So I started in complete American accent…
“Your name ma’am?”
“Kalaai”
“What? Can you repeat ma’am?”
” Kalaai as in kaleidoscope”
“I didn’t get that ma’am. Can I have your number? I can check the records”
(Sigh!… and gave the number)
“Ohh, Kalaivani, right?” (in a sarcastic tone.)
(Ada paavi makka… nee nammooora??!!! All American accents stopped. Back to Indian accent.)
I could clearly see what he was thinking… per paatha ‘urs pammingly’ nu podra category maathiri irukku… scene podradhu mattum princess Diana range kaa…
“Anna… naan sathyama andha maathiri illeeenganna!!! ”
En per padum paadu!!!
My full name is Kalaivani, but I call myself Kalai. This is not for scene, …like how Madhavan does in Anbe Sivam (Anbarasu –> Ars).it has a looooong and pathetic history…
I started hearing different versions of my name after coming to this country, and the painful fact is all the possible permutations and combinations of vowels in my name give meaningful words in tamil!!!
When I first joined the university, my professor wrote to me..
Dear KALAvani (meaning: thief; context: kalavani paya..)
Sari adhuvachum typo nu free ya vittudalam..Then after a year, I joined a company for internship.those people called me before I joined, to inform me about some test which I had to take..
“Hello is this Ms. Kizhavaani?” (meaning: old; context : kizha bolt..etc.)
“No..this is KALAIvaani”
“Ohh..am sorry KALAvaani” (Marupadiyum…)
Then I decided.periya pera irukkinala thane ivlo confusion?!! So, I started calling myself ‘Kalai’… but the story continued..
I joined my full-time position in another company recently. On my first day, we had a meeting..
“Let’s all welcome our new associate.Ms. Kulai” (meaning: bunch; context: kulai kulaiyai vazhaipazham kaaithadhu)
CLAP! CLAP! CLAP! CLAP! Followed by smiles.
(Dei.ennangada… ellarum serndhu comedy panreengala???)
Anniku arambichadhu…
Once my boss and I were talking about a project… after finishing the meeting…
“Ok, Kali. Nice to have you here!” (meaning: last yuga; context: kali muthi pochu.)
“That’s KALAI” (Enakku idhu thevaya?!)
“Ohh kAALi?” (meaning: goddess; context: badrakaali..)
“Hee hee .very close” (Podaannnggg…!!)
So, I stopped correcting my name after that..!
One fine morning, I was working.
“Hey kiLai (meaning: branch; context: marakiLai) .howz it going?”
“Yea good” (Sollitu thirumbitten. Nammaluku edhuku indha per thiruthura business nu…)
“Is that how you say your name?”
(Aaahaa arambichutanya…!!!)
“Uhhh. It’s KALAI”
“Kolaai?” (meaning:pump; context: kozhai adi sandai.)
(Venaaammm…)
“Kolai?” (meaning: murder; context: kolai panniduven..)
(Venaam!)
“kaLai?” (meaning: weed; context: kaLai pudinguradhu.)
(Valikkudhu… azhudhuduven…)
“May be I’ll get your name with practice. Haha.”
(Idhellam remba over da dei… Tamil la paatha rende rendu ezhuthu thaan da!!!)
Ennada, Chandramukhi la thalaivar ‘durga’ perai nakkaladikkira maathiri… namma per ayiduche nu nenaikkum podhu… my friend came up with a brilliant idea!
Adhavadhu… to compare my name with a word.so I started using this word ‘kaleidoscope’; which has the same pronunciation as ‘kalai’!
So, I started telling everyone. ‘Kalai as in kaleidoscope’!. Ippo kooda romba ellam ozhunga solradhulla. They are saying ‘kalaai’ (kalaaikiradhu)..
“Hey Kalaai!!”
“Yea?”
“Just trying to say your name. Ha ha ha”
“Ohhh ..how sweet!” (thooo thEri..)
Yedho vaandhi edukkira effect la per irundhalum… my life was in peace… until few days back…
My net connection was down, so I called up the customer service (En kiragam. Madras call center ku pochu!)
Enakku andha vishayame theriyala. So I started in complete American accent…
“Your name ma’am?”
“Kalaai”
“What? Can you repeat ma’am?”
” Kalaai as in kaleidoscope”
“I didn’t get that ma’am. Can I have your number? I can check the records”
(Sigh!… and gave the number)
“Ohh, Kalaivani, right?” (in a sarcastic tone.)
(Ada paavi makka… nee nammooora??!!! All American accents stopped. Back to Indian accent.)
I could clearly see what he was thinking… per paatha ‘urs pammingly’ nu podra category maathiri irukku… scene podradhu mattum princess Diana range kaa…
“Anna… naan sathyama andha maathiri illeeenganna!!! ”
foreign eppo pogiraan ???
foreign eppo pogiraan ???
"unge payyen foreign eppo pogiraan ?"
The familiar sentence is arguably one of the most frequently asked
questions, losing only slightly to the even more grave one "...unge payyen eppo foreign pogiran , eppo kalyanam ?" to someone who unluckily happens to be in the IT Industry and in Hyderabad. There was never a better conversation topic for the older
generation to suck every drop of blood the poor bloke manages to save
despite working as a techie.
It's a wave that everyone wants to be part of, and everyone wants to
show they know. The word computer is now a house-hold name. A good
relief for many topic starved aunties and uncles, but our poor techie
gets stuck like a nail that's half into the wood when its head decides
to painfully break lose.
The popular following that IT has gotten in recent years has been more
due to the lucrative travel, than what the techie believes is due to his
work. This time it is the uncles who have the upper hand in making a
conversation, owing to some 'extra' knowledge, thanks to 'external'
contacts. Aunties resign to just asking "...yendappa computer aa?"
(literally means "are u a computer?", but it is supposed to be "Are you
working in the IT field?" One must be ready to field a volley of smirks
and barrage of questions, if the victim answers a "no", though it would
be the right answer for such a question. For if you are not part of the
bandwagon, and then you'd rather term yourself a foolish old crackpot
and be happy with that, than get a loathsome look from the omnipresent
aunty.
IT has such a popular following here, most do not know what they are
following, but just drift along to be 'seen'. Our aunty gets into her
form, and asks our techie, "you computer, my son also computer" ...our
techie, just out of a ctrl-alt-tab-enter, has no idea how to respond to
this inhuman portrayal, by the aunty, of her son. He just smiles and
says "wonderful aunty, which company?" and is hardly interested in what
he hears. The aunty carries on. " yen payyan sapoo"...the indianised MNC
becomes "sapoo" from SAP, while our techie replies back, "I work for
GE".aunty is a bit concerned on hearing that, and blurts out "is it a
good company ? didn't u get in infosys ?"...techie is at his wits end to
explain; aunty is in no mood to understand. aunt's techie son is
blushing ear to ear.
while the general social understanding of an IT company hovers between
Infosys and Wipro, some good souls give respect to "Vorakal" too(Indianised version of Oracle). So
aunties are generally happy if one is from any of these companies. The
other companies will only mean a detailed interrogation about the
techie's academic credentials, past criminal record, if any, and a sure
minus point as a prospective groom.
It is the conversation between aunties that is the funniest and
amazingly astonishing. Recently one of my cousins went onsite, and I
being the scape goat, who still 'had' to be in India , was the butt of
all discussions.
aunty1: "evvan foreign eppoo pogiran ?" (when is he going onsite?)
aunty2: "konjam nall kezhaiche poguvan" (He might go in some days!)
aunty1: "hmmm...they say only brilliants (sic) are sent onsite"
aunty2: "that's true!"
I was being murdered inch by inch, neat and clean. My reputation in
tatters.
This is even bearable, but get this, if a techie manages to stumble on
an onsite travel but is cancelled on that last millisecond, and then his
future is doomed, for aunties will have a field day dissecting him and
nailing him for not working well at the office. I have been most
unfortunate in this case, so much so that if I had got a call to abort
the travel 2 seconds later than what I got, I might have had to jump off
the plane mid-air.
aunties started flowing in from early evening that day, some trying to
stay oblivious of the situation, some trying hard to keep a straight
face, and a few more giving their own versions of my story, which by the
way I never told anyone!...well one aunty even had the nerve to ask me
"did you have a fight with your manager?". well I was kind enough to say
"no aunty, project got scrapped ", only to realize that the aunty had no
idea what a project meant, and instead pressed me to agree that I had
indeed done some mistake...finally she let me go when I blurted out "my
manager had a fight with the airlines"....well that was enough for me to
roll over on the floor and laugh at her, despite the 'humiliation' of
not going onsite.
uncles are not far off, and are ever more eager to learn 'computers'.
One uncle was particularly curious to know as to why we guys were paid
for playing computer games !...apparently he was of this view after he
had seen his 9 year old son only playing games on his newly bought comp.
I knew better than to explain, so I told him that it was because if we
won, the company would get money. uncle's spirits rose, and in all
probability he would have gone home and pestered his innocent 9 year
old son to teach him to play games in the hopes of joining a IT company
in future !
uncles are a little more "knowledgeable" though. One uncle came to me
one day, when I made the suicidal mistake of attending a social
gathering full of aunties and uncles, and asked me as to which company I
worked for, and I answered him hoping he would stop there. however ,
uncle had no such intention and carried on " yaav language ?"...though
stunned, i replied back ".Net uncle" ...uncle's face glowed and then
he said " yen payyan Java , c, !" (My son works on JAVA, C
has long fallen from grace) ..In most uncles view, languages are
like company shares, the value of which keeps fluctuating on an hourly
basis.
Though salary is something of a sensitive issue, uncles don't give
didly-squat about that and continue questioning the techie on the same.
I was ripped apart when i told my uncle that my gross was 25k, to which
my uncle in suspended euphoria exclaimed that his son earned 2.5 lakh
per month at onsite. Having no room to argue, i kept mum, when my uncle
went off again "why don't u ask your manager for a raise".... I told him
i would consider his advice and ask, though my manager was bit of a
dragon, unlike my uncle's son's manger, who was a saint just short of a
halo!
Even weirder is the funny way in which people take those mails managers
send to techies and their team, as to the good work being done. one of
my cousins who recently joined my company got such a mail from his
manager, and he thought it was a good idea to take a print out and show
it to his father, a folly he still regrets to this day. My uncle not
only read the copy, but made a hundred photocopies and distributed it as
pamphlets to his near and dear ones. My dad got one too, and i had to
field some intense questioning at home, since i had not managed to get
one such letter even once ! i had even gone to the extent of thinking
about printing one on my own just to escape the 'humiliation'.
while it's often funny to listen to the weird misconceptions people have
about IT, it gets irritating if it goes too far. It would be a boring
place without the aunties and the uncles, but it would be a wonderful
place, if they knew better than to draw conclusions about one's work, of
which they know so less about !
"unge payyen foreign eppo pogiraan ?"
The familiar sentence is arguably one of the most frequently asked
questions, losing only slightly to the even more grave one "...unge payyen eppo foreign pogiran , eppo kalyanam ?" to someone who unluckily happens to be in the IT Industry and in Hyderabad. There was never a better conversation topic for the older
generation to suck every drop of blood the poor bloke manages to save
despite working as a techie.
It's a wave that everyone wants to be part of, and everyone wants to
show they know. The word computer is now a house-hold name. A good
relief for many topic starved aunties and uncles, but our poor techie
gets stuck like a nail that's half into the wood when its head decides
to painfully break lose.
The popular following that IT has gotten in recent years has been more
due to the lucrative travel, than what the techie believes is due to his
work. This time it is the uncles who have the upper hand in making a
conversation, owing to some 'extra' knowledge, thanks to 'external'
contacts. Aunties resign to just asking "...yendappa computer aa?"
(literally means "are u a computer?", but it is supposed to be "Are you
working in the IT field?" One must be ready to field a volley of smirks
and barrage of questions, if the victim answers a "no", though it would
be the right answer for such a question. For if you are not part of the
bandwagon, and then you'd rather term yourself a foolish old crackpot
and be happy with that, than get a loathsome look from the omnipresent
aunty.
IT has such a popular following here, most do not know what they are
following, but just drift along to be 'seen'. Our aunty gets into her
form, and asks our techie, "you computer, my son also computer" ...our
techie, just out of a ctrl-alt-tab-enter, has no idea how to respond to
this inhuman portrayal, by the aunty, of her son. He just smiles and
says "wonderful aunty, which company?" and is hardly interested in what
he hears. The aunty carries on. " yen payyan sapoo"...the indianised MNC
becomes "sapoo" from SAP, while our techie replies back, "I work for
GE".aunty is a bit concerned on hearing that, and blurts out "is it a
good company ? didn't u get in infosys ?"...techie is at his wits end to
explain; aunty is in no mood to understand. aunt's techie son is
blushing ear to ear.
while the general social understanding of an IT company hovers between
Infosys and Wipro, some good souls give respect to "Vorakal" too(Indianised version of Oracle). So
aunties are generally happy if one is from any of these companies. The
other companies will only mean a detailed interrogation about the
techie's academic credentials, past criminal record, if any, and a sure
minus point as a prospective groom.
It is the conversation between aunties that is the funniest and
amazingly astonishing. Recently one of my cousins went onsite, and I
being the scape goat, who still 'had' to be in India , was the butt of
all discussions.
aunty1: "evvan foreign eppoo pogiran ?" (when is he going onsite?)
aunty2: "konjam nall kezhaiche poguvan" (He might go in some days!)
aunty1: "hmmm...they say only brilliants (sic) are sent onsite"
aunty2: "that's true!"
I was being murdered inch by inch, neat and clean. My reputation in
tatters.
This is even bearable, but get this, if a techie manages to stumble on
an onsite travel but is cancelled on that last millisecond, and then his
future is doomed, for aunties will have a field day dissecting him and
nailing him for not working well at the office. I have been most
unfortunate in this case, so much so that if I had got a call to abort
the travel 2 seconds later than what I got, I might have had to jump off
the plane mid-air.
aunties started flowing in from early evening that day, some trying to
stay oblivious of the situation, some trying hard to keep a straight
face, and a few more giving their own versions of my story, which by the
way I never told anyone!...well one aunty even had the nerve to ask me
"did you have a fight with your manager?". well I was kind enough to say
"no aunty, project got scrapped ", only to realize that the aunty had no
idea what a project meant, and instead pressed me to agree that I had
indeed done some mistake...finally she let me go when I blurted out "my
manager had a fight with the airlines"....well that was enough for me to
roll over on the floor and laugh at her, despite the 'humiliation' of
not going onsite.
uncles are not far off, and are ever more eager to learn 'computers'.
One uncle was particularly curious to know as to why we guys were paid
for playing computer games !...apparently he was of this view after he
had seen his 9 year old son only playing games on his newly bought comp.
I knew better than to explain, so I told him that it was because if we
won, the company would get money. uncle's spirits rose, and in all
probability he would have gone home and pestered his innocent 9 year
old son to teach him to play games in the hopes of joining a IT company
in future !
uncles are a little more "knowledgeable" though. One uncle came to me
one day, when I made the suicidal mistake of attending a social
gathering full of aunties and uncles, and asked me as to which company I
worked for, and I answered him hoping he would stop there. however ,
uncle had no such intention and carried on " yaav language ?"...though
stunned, i replied back ".Net uncle" ...uncle's face glowed and then
he said " yen payyan Java , c, !" (My son works on JAVA, C
has long fallen from grace) ..In most uncles view, languages are
like company shares, the value of which keeps fluctuating on an hourly
basis.
Though salary is something of a sensitive issue, uncles don't give
didly-squat about that and continue questioning the techie on the same.
I was ripped apart when i told my uncle that my gross was 25k, to which
my uncle in suspended euphoria exclaimed that his son earned 2.5 lakh
per month at onsite. Having no room to argue, i kept mum, when my uncle
went off again "why don't u ask your manager for a raise".... I told him
i would consider his advice and ask, though my manager was bit of a
dragon, unlike my uncle's son's manger, who was a saint just short of a
halo!
Even weirder is the funny way in which people take those mails managers
send to techies and their team, as to the good work being done. one of
my cousins who recently joined my company got such a mail from his
manager, and he thought it was a good idea to take a print out and show
it to his father, a folly he still regrets to this day. My uncle not
only read the copy, but made a hundred photocopies and distributed it as
pamphlets to his near and dear ones. My dad got one too, and i had to
field some intense questioning at home, since i had not managed to get
one such letter even once ! i had even gone to the extent of thinking
about printing one on my own just to escape the 'humiliation'.
while it's often funny to listen to the weird misconceptions people have
about IT, it gets irritating if it goes too far. It would be a boring
place without the aunties and the uncles, but it would be a wonderful
place, if they knew better than to draw conclusions about one's work, of
which they know so less about !
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