Tagged...

Got tagged by RAT.... and well... since he placed so much hope on my responding fast, here goes.. :-)

1.LAST MOVIE YOU SAW IN A THEATER: RACE – at Sangeet Theatre, Hyderabad

2. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING? Fools Die – Mario Puzo

3. FAVORITE BOARD GAME? Chess.... Used to play it.. Don’t find the time anymore

4. FAVORITE MAGAZINE? I read almost all magazines I can lay my hands on...

5. FAVORITE SMELLS? Smell of the earth after the first few rain drops hit the ground, Jovan’s white musk, BRUT (on guys)

6. FAVORITE SOUND? Pitter-patter of rain on the roof,

7. WORST FEELING IN THE WORLD? The feeling you get when you’re betrayed by people you trusted....

8. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU THINK OF WHEN YOU WAKE? Yet another day!!!!

9. FAVORITE FAST FOOD PLACE? I prefer all those ‘Chaat Bandaar’s’ on the road-sides .... They serve it pretty fast and its damn good too..!

10. FUTURE CHILD'S NAME? Dunno yet!!

11. FINISH THIS STATEMENT. "IF I HAD A LOT OF MONEY I'D...? Never be Happy...

12. DO YOU DRIVE FAST? No

13. DO YOU SLEEP WITH A STUFFED ANIMAL? Yes, I have 3 teddy bears on ma bed... I LOVE TEDDIES :)

14. STORMS-COOL OR SCARY? Cool

15. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CAR? Not that rich as yet... will let ya know when I strike rich

16. FAVORITE DRINK? Mom’s Filter Coffee, currently though its “ENSURE” - a children’s drink...

17. FINISH THIS STATEMENT, "IF I HAD THE TIME I WOULD ..... Go for DANCE CLASSES...

18. DO YOU EAT THE STEMS ON BROCCOLI? Nopes, have never eaten broccoli in my life so far...

19. IF YOU COULD DYE YOUR HAIR ANY COLOR, WHAT WOULD BE YOUR CHOICE?I like my hair color the way it is.. :D

20. NAME ALL THE DIFFERENT CITIES/TOWNS YOU HAVE LIVED IN. Palakkad, Coimbatore, Ettimadai (falls in b/w Pkd & Cbe on the highway), Bombay, Bangalore, Hyderabad.

21. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH? None.... Maybe Cricket when India-Pakistan or India-Australia are playing

22. ONE NICE THING ABOUT THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU. Hmmm... Well... He leaves good comments on my blog which inspire me on my next topic ;)

23. WHAT'S UNDER YOUR BED? Couple of HUGE suitcases that belong to my roomies...

24. WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE BORN AS YOURSELF AGAIN? Yup... no other choices entertained...

25. MORNING PERSON, OR NIGHT OWL? Both... depends on the occasion

26. OVER EASY, OR SUNNY SIDE UP? Didn’t quite get that... if you meant Eggs, Sunny-side up...

27. FAVORITE PLACE TO RELAX? My room ...

28. FAVORITE PIE? I don’t much like Pies....

29. FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR? Like all flavors except Vanilla...

30. OF ALL THE PEOPLE YOU TAGGED THIS TO, WHO'S MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND FIRST? I am not tagging anyone... no one’s as jobless as me ;)

Some more doubts .....

› Why is it that when adults have multiple personalities it's schizophrenia, but when a child has imaginary friends its cute?

› Do coffins have lifetime guarantees? And if so, whose lifetime??

› Why do you get in trouble for blocking an exit when you're standing in the doorway? In case of an emergency, wouldn't you run out, too, therefore NOT blocking the exit?

› If mars had earthquakes would they be called marsquakes?

› Why is Charlie short for Charles if they are both the same number of letters?

› Who gets to keep the pennies in a wishing well?

› Do stuttering people stutter when they're thinking to themselves?

› If a deaf person has to go to court, is it still called a hearing?

› Why do people, such as S.W.A.T or Seals wear the bulletproof vests where you can see them? Wouldn't people aim for their head?

› Why can't we sneeze with our eyes open?

› If I think, and therefore I am, am I just a thought?

› If rabbits' feet are so lucky, then what happened to the rabbit?

› Why does mineral water that has "trickled through mountains for centuries" go out of date next year?

› Why do birds not fall out of trees when they sleep?

› If you lived in Siberia and you wronged the Russians government, where would they send you?

Rendezvous with Telugu... :-)

I had written in my blog earlier about my tryst with Telugu Desam and the people here… In a bid to learn the language, quickly and efficiently, I have resorted to watching Telugu movies… (Some of them are so corny that it would sure make up for another post…but first things first!!!)…

Of course when you all of a sudden start watching Telugu movies, you are greeted with skeptic amusement from all quarters, more so from your friends forget anyone else… there are then such a lot of chitchat flying around like “she might have gotten a Telugu boyfriend”, “trying to show off – the stupid #%@^”, “there should be a reason as to why she is suddenly so interested in Telugu… hmm!!”

Forget all that, the best part was, it was not as difficult as I thought it would be to understand the dialogues, as many of the words are common to Tamil, so I kind of started quite enjoying it and showing off my command over Telugu-in-bits-and-pieces …. And soon I could quite follow what people were talking about when we started going for “those famous tea-breaks” … good for me!

Recently, I was watching this Telugu movie – Bommarillu (starring the infamous “Boys” pair – Siddharth and Genelia) – the movie was quite interesting and I was engrossed in it, when my cook came rushing out of the kitchen listening to the dialogues and squealed… “Bommarillu… neeku Telugu thelusa??” … and me in a bid to show off said “koncha koncha thelusu… :-)”…. She went berserk saying “Oh god..!!”And holding her hands up to her mouth… for a minute I was a little stunned… I did not know me spouting out my barely-can-manage-Telugu would evoke such a response from her… I got a little scared as well… I quickly shifted to Hindi and told her I was still learning..! Whew!!

But on the note of movies – you should watch this movie called “Happy Days” which is about this set of engineering students who deal with their 4 years in an Engineering college… last I heard it was dubbed in Malayalam which was getting quite a good response from audiences…. It’s a Must-Watch movie… one movie where we would find it easy to identify with the stuff happening … :-) we would’ve been guilty of it sometime or other in college… :P

So that is my rendezvous with Telugu …. Still going on quite strong… :-) Have moved on to the all more important sentences – “I am hungry”… “I am sleepy” … “I want to go home” … and the best of all “antha scene lethu ;-)” …. :-) --> used very religiously in office with teammates… !!! heheheheh…

Note to Self....

If death meant just leaving the stage long enough to change costume

And come back as a new character...

Would you slow down? Or speed up?

Quite a poignant thought – if you look at it… it questions the very essence of your living…
Do you love yourself..?? Do you feel a sense of pride when you look at yourself in the mirror? Do you say ‘I love you’ to yourself?? Are you your favorite?? Are you happy with yourself? Happy with the way your life is going?

I am sure a lot of times you feel let down, bogged down, frustrated, irritated, depressed, and emotionally feel like you are not capable of doing whatever comes your way… doing what people entrust you with …. Or even simply not doing something that you actually feel like doing and something that you actually love doing…

Everyone is influenced by something or the other… someone or the other…. But it all depends on how you look at the way people say things… it is all a matter of fact if you have the courage to look deep inside yourself, and find the strength and the nerve to do things that you feel are right… even if they are not the right things atleast you’ll have no one else but yourself to blame and move on…

A lot of people I know, crib about themselves, about how their lives are not as good as everyone else’s… how others have it so much better than themselves… how others are better at things that they themselves are not… about how they had to suffer and undergo troubles when they were so young… (And what are these troubles??? – Not enjoying with friends, not travelling etc – this is what they say…)

Gosh! I have just one thing to tell …. Your life is what you make out of it… if you can’t do something that you like, like what you are doing…!! We’re given such a beautiful life to enjoy, to do good, to make good, to feel good… and all we ever do is just complain and crib about how life sucks and how things could have been so much better… if that’s the case, do it … make things better… don’t crib, complain, criticize and grumble about how sad and bad life is…

That way, you are criticizing GOD… Complaining about what he chose to give you… GOD would not have given you something that you cannot handle right… and even if you find it tough there’s always one or the other that GOD shows to help you… Never fear shadows, they always mean there’s a light shining somewhere nearby..!!!

Live life well… Treat it as a gift… and don’t gripe about small things that are of no consequence….

The only way you can repay GOD for the good things in life is by smiling always…

When I stand before God at the end of my life, I hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, "I used everything you gave me.”

Krazzy 4 ... who's better Hrithik or SRK??

There’s this huge debate going on in the media as well as between people I know about the item numbers in the new Rakesh Roshan movie – ‘Krazzy 4’. There are 3 item numbers in the movie performed by SRK, Rakhi Sawant, and Hrithik Roshan. Now the debate is not about Ms.Sawant, it’s about SRK and Hrithik on whose performance is better as they are dancing to the same song – one a remix of the other supposedly the title song.

Personally, I feel that SRK’s performance was more appealing than the junior Roshan’s. Not just because of the way it was portrayed, but also because of the choreography. The choreographer for Hrithik’s version – Ganesh Acharya – could have utilized Hrithik a lot more better… the visuals of Hrithik’s song was perfectly good… but just the steps and the song as a whole could have been made differently or in a better light exploiting Hrithik’s amazing dance talent…!!

SRK though he is not a great dancer or anything, he has that ability to bring his persona onto the limelight in an effortless manner, much better than I have seen anyone do that… He captures your attention so gracefully and naturally that you are more or less transfixed to what you are seeing on screen or whatever crap he is doing out there… Hrithik too has that ability but if he is utilized in a proper manner…

All said and done, Hrithik is definitely a better dancer than any other actor in recent times and has given some truly amazing pieces.

But in this song, I think SRK takes the cake ….

Sun, Sand and a Holiday.... :-)

Okie this is been long in the pending stage… a travelogue on our trip to Vizag…!!! :-)

Vizag is around 700-750 kilometers from Hyderabad… a neat straight road that goes through Vijayawada, Rajamundry and then finally Vizag…

An impulsive decision to go on a road-trip, a unanimous choice to drive down to Vizag for the weekend, and 2 days of guaranteed fun… Sun… Sand… and a holiday… Rhythm of the soul!!! :-)

There were 10 of us for the trip… Me, Glen, Meenal, Kalyan, Ravi, Amol, Lokesh, Bheemesh, Nagaraj, Mahender…. 2 cars… A Scorpio and a Wagon R…

We started from Hyd at around 6:00-6:30 on a Friday evening and drove down all the way without stopping for gaps until 9:00. We stopped for dinner at a road-side dhaba, hogged, swapped stories, had hot cups of chai to keep us awake during the journey and moved… stopped again at around 1:30 – 2:00 at a toll gate and swapped passengers… :-) we stopped for breakfast at a place called Annavaram where we had a nice good satiation of our hunger-pangs… we reached Vizag at around 7:00 in the morning… went straight to hotel, settled in and then had a huge breakfast (complimentary u see ;)) … then to get some of our strength back we dozed for a while… got up at arnd 12:30 sorts and went down for lunch.. After lunch we left immediately for Rushikonda Beach… now this is the best part of the Vizag trip…the beach was awesome, the water was perfect and clear, and we had a lot of fun.. Dunking each other in water… splashing water all around… etc etc..!! Now I don’t know swimming and so didn’t venture too much into the water.. But my dear brothers – Kalyan and Ravi – they did not spare me… they dragged me in so much and so deep that I was dunked and water over my head… I thot I was a gone-case…!! Lol… but anyways…

Rushikonda stretch is just too awesome and breath-taking… the beach is a perfect haven for rest, relaxation and more….

After the beach, we went up to the Kailasagiri hills in the ropeway… that gave us a good view of the surrounding area as well as the beach..!! We went up the hill, roamed for a bit, hogged on the cotton candies.. And well had a gr8 time..!! We also went in the toy train.. :-) Once we came back down, we went back to the beach and again hogged on paani-puri, groundnuts and all those stuff that you normally get at the beach… :-) Glen and Kalyan got into an argument about the “kadalamma kalli on the sand” thingy… readers from kerala would identify with this :-) for the others,…

The legend goes that if you write “kadalamma kalli (the sea goddess is a liar)” on the shore on the beach, the sea will make sure that it is washed off… irrespective of how much further to the shore the water has to come…

So anyways they tried that and well after a few unsuccessful attempts the water did manage to come up there and wash it off… lol..!!

Once we were back in the hotel, we washed off the sand from ourselves and had a good dinner and then slept off… Morning we were woken up at 4:45-5:00 to leave for Araku valley & Borra caves which is about 70 kms from Vizag… had a hot cuppa tea, and cleared out the room and left for Araku..

The drive was damn peaceful, full of lush greenery all around, and lots of those yellow flowers (not sunflowers!) and a nice winding road… we stopped for breakfast at a road-side hut… the food was served hot – nice crisp dosas with spicy chutney, omlettes, and idlis with Chai… it was so YUMMY and MOUTH-WATERING… better than any dosa that I have tasted so far (sorry amma! :P)… we left soon for our destination…

Reached Araku at around 10:30-11:00. Araku has this little rivulet of a waterfall from higher up… not exactly a rivulet but more so a stream with a strong current… it was very wet and slippery and Kalyan and Meenal had a nasty fall.. but it was not too bad, thank god the rocks were not jagged… then yours truly almost fell into water, but thankfully managed to regain my balance and hurt my big toe instead … all said and done it was a great time..!! :-) managed to capture a lot of good snaps…

Next trip was to Borra caves… legendary for the fact that, it is believed that Lord Hanuman, on his way to Lanka passed through these caves… Indeed, there is a huge gash on the rocks at one particular spot which looks like a mace has been dragged through it and a HUGE footprint on the ground there, believed to be Hanuman’s. The caves were not too exciting except for this part of it and we came out of the caves in a hour’s time. We left for Vizag ata round 4:00. Reached Vizag at 6:00, went up to Kailasagiri Hills again for a last visit to Lord Shiva and Parvathy whose colossal statues were enshrined there.

We left Vizag, back to hyd at arnd 7:30 in the evening… I slept the entire way back until we stopped for dinner somewhere near Rajamundhry. Had good dosas and a nice south Indian kaapi… drove back all the way …. All of us were dead worn-out and exhausted. The next stop we made was at 5:30-6:00 in the morning when we stopped for tea and biscuits somewhere near hyd. We reached hyd back at 8:00-9:00 in the morning all drained but happy…

Monday morning – office beckons – who cares?? :P .. Thankfully my boss was also with us so we said we are bunking office for the day… went back home… long hot bath, a cup of tea and straight 8 hours of sleep on our cozy bed…

Vizag was a great trip not for just the fun part of it… when we went we all knew each other to the extent colleagues know other contemporaries. The trip helped us bond together and form some friendships that are to last a lifetime…

(Yeah, yeah, too much senti at the end I know… but can’t help… I had to write that!!)

Some Doubts...

1. Isn't it funny how the word 'politics' is made up of the words 'poli' meaning 'many' in Latin, and 'tics' as in 'bloodsucking creatures'?

2. Why do companies offer you "free gifts?" Since when has a gift NOT been free?

3. How important does a person have to be before they are considered assassinated instead of just murdered?

4. If you were born exactly on 12:00 midnight on December 31st – January 1st, which year would you say you were born in?

5. If marriage means you fell in love, does divorce mean you climbed out?

6. If water spins clockwise when it drains in the northern hemisphere and water spins counterclockwise when it drains in the southern hemisphere...which way does it spin at the equator?

7. Why is the name of the phobia for the fear of long words Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia?

8. If the entire world is a stage, where is the audience sitting?

9. If a turtle doesn't have a shell, is he homeless or naked?

10. If someone with multiple personalities threatens to kill herself, is it considered a hostage situation?

11. If you swallow a burp does it turn into a fart?

12. Who was the first person to say, "See that chicken over there ... I'm gonna eat the first thing that comes out of its butt"?

PS: More to come.... ;)