Dyanora TV to Fashion TV

Nothing can be more painful than seeing both sides, rather extremes of life within the same span of time. I went very close to such painful & pleasurable experiance in the last 2 weeks.

I had been to Tanjore last week and had to meet real "bottom of pyramid" (thanks to prahladh .. u no more call them poor) households. Women who were shabbily dressed, the greased paint on the cup in which they offered me native tamil hospitality, clamouring sound of aluminium plates, the multi-plastered circuit board, the hay and cow dung that were spread in what they call as 'thinnai' (elevated platform in the entrance of their houses, where the guest would sit till the head of the house arrives), roofs hittting you on your head(as if suggesting that you need to come down a bit into their world), small children who are running around naked (who rush into check the new laptop that you are carrying around ! they had hardly seen it before), head of the house clad in lungi greeting you with a frustrated smile, and more ..... This is what a low end spectrum looks and feels like.

I am not a very sophisticated person who have just lived in metros or one of those rich brats who dont give a rats' ass to the other side of the world. But, Its very painful even to acknowledge their daily life which is nothing just more than a fight for survival. When i see myself dressed in a fab-india kurta and lee jean, sitting their with my leg folded, I feeel odd. A little emotional in most aspects, i get deeply affected when i see such things. I start sympathising with them and begin questioning about the way they live and start listening to their cribs when my job is just to go there and get some answers.

But life at the other side is not too rosy. I was taken aback with the following conversation around me.

Kid 1 : look at that uncle na. he is from government( the only people they can associate with is the government when they see a man dressed in trousers) .

kid 2 : uncle, (pointing to my laptop) what is that ?

By this time, the lady who was taking me around had withdrawn from this crowd and had sat down at a most distant and decent looking place. I understood that she is not gonna follow me into the huts and started going ahead. I sit in one 'thinnai' and all the children are around me after having seen me with a laptop. I picked up on of those kids from the crowd and made him sit on my lap. The women who accompanied me gave a very puzzled, "what are you doing?" kind of a look.

Kid on my lap : (moving his hand around my pocket) Uncle do you have some nice shirts like this ? I dont have one.

It was bang on my emotional nerve. I knew i cant take it more. I told him i will get him some next time i meet him. I showed them a song from anniyan which was on my laptop. The instant smile that it brought of their face and the old women thanking me for being nice to kids were a few things, which i just can't forget ..... There are something that money cant buy ... Huh ! I had no anwers to the haunted look a child gave me when i got up to leave. She was in tears, so would i have been had i been there for a few more minutes.

The lady who had come with me asked, "I expected you to be a hip MBA student .... Have you been to places like this before?". I ignored the question and walked ahead. "She just does not deserve a reply", i thought. She continued, "Hello ! I asked you something". I smiled at her and said, " MBA student is also a human being ". She was not happy with my reply and i dint care about it.

Somehow, its my emotional part which i am just not able to harden as i grew up. After the last years Tsunami thing ( I was in the spot doing some small helps that i can), this again reminded me of the other side of life. My friend badri along with some helping group have started an orphanage for kids. I am also looking at doing something of similar kind in the future.

In the other side was the cosmopolitan life in b'lore. Last afternoon, after our work, I and abishek went to some pub called "Hints" ... On reaching there, we were told that some gentleman has booked the entire place for some private party. Huh ! He should have paid some lakhs for it. Then, we moved into a equally hip-lookin hotel called copper chimney which was adjacent to this 'Hints' in the 5th floor of Bangalore Central. From this hotel, we can see the entire bangalore. The hotel was brilliant and view was exemplery. What Next ? The same person who sympathised with poor kids a week back spent 500 bucks for a lavish lunch. Over a period of time, i had just grown very casual about spending huge amount of money.

But what i saw after than was something that shocked me. I asked for the way to the restroom and the person there directed me to a huge teak-finish doors. I was just startled. It wasn't just hat. I opened the door and there were huge mirrors on all sides and a brilliant couch on one of teh corners of the restroom. It would be atleast 600 Sq.Ft in size(60 % of our ppl live in houses which are smaller than that). The couch was too good and there were three metal wash basins which had been elevated to a height by plush looking bathroom-ware. Galssed everywhere and you just cant see dirt anywhere in that room. It was so neat and so plush. I went and pulled the zipper in front of the closet(or whatever u call it), and looked up ..... Oh God ! .... What is that ? there was small screen which had FTV running on it. Have you even pee-ed before looking at hot models cat-walking. If you have not, this is the place that you should go to. OMG ! i was just not able to beleive it. It has such a good A/c which wud freeze you to death and a brilliant architecture that was just out of the world by the standards of a restroom.

Man ! That is what life is all about ! The world is full of ironies .... We live with it happily untill the reality slaps you hard on the face. Even though the 5 minutes inside the restroom was enjoyable, the time i had spent thinking about the relavance of comparison of both sides of the world had been painful.

But at the end of the day ! Its just a hard reality and just does not deserve any argument ..... ITz all in the game .....

JK

Banglore at its best ....

Had beeen in bangalore for the last 30 odd days. Office work had kept me away from exploring the beautiful city. But for its sick traffic jams, bangalore is an ideal place to live. Awesome pubs, brilliant restaurants, lovely hangout joints, kewl multiplexes and my favourite idly, vada and coffeee combo(albeit its inherent sweet taste) ..... After an year in Jamshedpur, Bangalore comes as a very different but an equally loveable city.

Very different from each other, both of them have lotsa things to make you fall in love with. Bangalore is a more busy, less green and more happening city. My Weekdays begin and end in my office at brookefields ( The office is a delightful place to be in and i need to write a seperate blog about it). Its such a lovely office and i generally remain there till 7 in night and it would be around 9 when i get back home. I straight away crash into my bed. Thats is my sad personal life and HLL eats away most of my time.

But still, I manage to visit some nice pubs and retaurants (thanks to my team mate abishek and his Ford Fiesta) ... Both of us are very frustrated with the tea business and we step out to some close by joints whenever we find time. I had been squandering money on eat-out for the last few days especialy. Should have easily spent around 2000 bucks in last 4 days and had lotsa fun.

Bangalore is fun and just fun. All you need is time, friends and a vehicle. I had the last two and the first one is a big fight for me. I get to roam around the city only in weekends and sometimes while I have to go for some agency/ market visits. I also head to chennai every alternative weekend and hence dont really have much time in bangalore. Till date, I had visited quite a few places in bangalore ... Bageecha, ' The Stones' pub, Herbs and spices, Corner house(and its yummy DBC), Copper Chimney(5th floor - Bangalore CENTRAL), Traditional shanti sagar in malleswaram, few coffee-days, leela palace and its barista, KFC ( many a times), Pizza hut, Inox and Innovative multiplexes. It had just been brilliant and nothing distant from it. I have not met any of my co-xlers in bangalore, but I keep on roaming with sandeep and abishek on weekdays and some other pals on weekends.

Last week, it began as a gentle breeze and rain gods showered their blessing on this cute little city. It was damn cool and climate immediately adusted to its friendly self. This is one of the major reasons why people prefer bangalore over any other south indian city. The climate is all the way very moderate and nice. I got a chance of roaming around in sampige road without an umbrella while it was drizzling a bit. A hot cup of chai with pakodas did suit the occasion and I revelled in the joy of the moment. I love being alone at these times and the absence of friend allowed me to take a pleasant rain drenched walk all around malleswaram with a lollypop in mouth and an umbrella in hand. I was not tempted to open the umbrella even when i got completely soaked in rain.

The rain stoped ... but i continued. Nothing can get better than this feeeling of mild breeze soothing ur already drenched body. I am not a smoker ... perhaps a hot chai or a sutta could have made that moment more memorable.

I will remain here for another month and i wish i can see all the places a friend suggested when i left for bangalore. Bangalore is one nice place to spend early years of yoru carreer when u have all the energy and patience to try out all new things in your life. All you need is a nice gal and good money ! Here i come ..... with no former and mild quantity of latter .... but with a heart to live a lively life to its fullest possible extent ...

JK
~ Bengaluru is not as good as chennai ; but you will still not complain .....

Wasting an evening and 150 rupees.....

what you would find below is the story of how the reunion of two friends was screwed by some unknown guys in other side of chennai :((

Sathish and I decided to catch a movie together last week and we headed straight to satyam cineplex which was our usual movie hang-out joint. As fate would have it, we never had tickets for Rang De Basanti (This movie had been pending in my list for quite some time) ... Our choice was between Thirupati and 'Azhagai irukirai; Bayamai irukirathu'. I decided to go for thirupathi because of ajith factor and i remembered seeing gowndamani in one of its posters ...

We happily walked ahead with no clue of whats waiting for us. I had always liked ajith. But for his bad acting skills and sheer lack of grace, he had always been soothing to eyes(unlike our current tamil heroes). The movie began ....

5 minutes sailed by, i became restless
10 minutes sailed by, i became helpless
15 minutes sailed by, i was irritated
full movie sailed by, i was mad

It was one of the most painful movies i have ever seen in recent times. At no point of time was there a story, comedy scenes were overdone and stupid, hero worship was irritating, songs managed to get some blood out of my ears and there was this behen**** director who appeared at every odd scene of the movie and tells some shitty so-called 'punch dialogues'.

The last thing was something, that i cannot forgive myself for. The man who i assumed to be gowndamani in those posters was this fellow. He is a pain and nowhere in india will a director have a fight for his intro.

Ajith does not show his face in the first 10 minutes. But they keep rattling his name more than 20 times. " Where is thirupathi, when the villain is beating up some poor hopeless old man ?", is the Question ..... Then People start saying all shitty dialogues comparing ajith with cracker, elephant, festival and what not .... Our man comes in and bashes up the villain and sings one lousy number to celebrate some festival .... what the hell ? When will the movie watching junta improve ? I was shocked to find people applauding for all these bull-crap gimmicks that was going on the screen.

Then comes two of the worst parts of the movies ....

1. The director suddenly comes out of a house with a punch on the villain's face like 'Thirupaachi' vijay, with an auto driver outfit like 'basha' rajni. I would crush his testicles, if i had seen him the same day when i saw the movie .... Maaa Ki ***** .... this bugger is also struck by the acting bug. Seeing guys like cheran and SJ suryah, the director has gotten interested in acting. But the tamil audience dont deserve to watch more monkeys on screen. Not just this, he appears in two other scenes and utters some stupid dialgoues .... God Save Tamil Cinema !!!

2. The second one was Ajith's comedy. He along with sada have done something, which the director would loved to call 'comedy'. Ajith is the last person whose comedy would be enjoyed by the audience. Its damn sickening.

The director loves some specific way of taking a movie which gets painfully repeated in every movie he takes.

1. This horrfifying sister sentiment. The tamil cine field is maturing from mum's love(I am sorry - I began using this word more often after working for RED LABEL chai) to sister's love. In all this 3 movies so far, he has had sisters' character forming the crux of the movie. The best part was he brings both the gals who played vijay's sister in thirupaachi and sivakasi in this movie. Both of them had been given sister roles with many dialogues to cry and houl abt ....

2. The hero goes up bashing the villain only after the interval. Before that, It is time for some songs and masaaaaaalaaaaa ( I dunno what he means when he says this )

3. Name of the movie - Name of the place (These are what we call jenti-ments ... appartently his next movie is Natarasankottai and he hemself is the hero in the movie).

The movie so predictable and it reminds me of so many movies. The hero intro is just as bad as 'sivakasi'. The hero has a rich friend, Riaz Khan(annamalai) and is very attached to him. ajith beats everyone who speaks against riaz. riaz betrays ajith when ajith tries to avenge for his sister's death. The doctor who killed the ajiths' sis is the brother of riaz. ajith then challenges and makes riaz kill the doctor himself (Traces of Varnajalaam and Aaru) and goes all out to kill riaz. But in the end, he forgives riaz for no reason( again annamalai). The hero has a lovable sister(thirupachi), criminal brother(padikahavan) and sacrificing parents (Mudhalvan) .... Police comes only after everything is over (err.... which movie ?) . So, the movie makes you feeel nostalgic abt all that u had seen so far in life ....

The most hilarious thing is the so-called message ....In the later part of the movie, it looks like the movie was taken just for the message. It gets into some lousy documentary mode and makes the audience leave early ...

Kudos to the director for his impeccable flaws and unmatchable shit.

Thirupathi ..... worth a mottai and an oottai in ur pocket ....

JK

SBDN .... What they never teach you anywhere ....

This is what the coporate world would teach you .... SBDN ... If that looks like a fundoo jargon to any of you, its just a simple terminology most of us would love to implement.

Seem Busy Do nothing ....

Remember one thing ! This is what impresses your boss the most and not how brainy are you or your contribution to the balance sheet.

Here are some gyan from a seasoned Fraxer(Its the 'free riders association in XLRI'-- denoting men who escaped work, but shared the credits).

1. Never walk early into the office, Never walk late tooo. Walk at the ideal time when 75% of your teammates are around. Dont walk empty handed, carry a book. If you prefer being non bookish, do carry a coffee and 'look cool'. If you can, catch up with your old friend in your mobile and 'look more cool'.
2. When you head to your desk, dont sit down. Walk around for a while. Say 'hi' to people. If possible try to find out the status of last nights' program, work in progress and similar things to make people feel that 'your mind is at work'. Go to the stationary room, printer room and visit friends in other projects. Settle down only after 10-15 minutes. This just reinforces to people around you that 'you are active'.
3. Never roam around in the office empty handed. Always have some book in your hand. If you dont have one, Do pick up some junk print outs from your collegues desk and keep flipping them as you walk across the wing.
4. When your boss is around, make sure that some weird platform / work related stuff is open in your comp. Make sure that you are on phone with someone and speak something global. Make sure that he listens to you type (bang the keyboard will all your strength).
5. Make sure that your desk is never clean. Keep some print outs of mail from your boss to make him feel important, if at all he comes to your desk. stick some weird work related diagrams (if in a s/w company, ER diagrams and data model are the best things to be stuck) in your pin-board.
6. Make sure that you mail your boss at the end of everyday ... we call its status mail in IT jargon. He is least bothered if you have completed the work. But he will go mad if you dont send him a mail. You can use the 'work in progress' in as many places as you like.
7. If you stay late at nights(i mean after 6 PM), do send as many mails as possible from your ID. Keep delaying all your mails to the end of the day ( EOD is a magic word) and send them before you leave the office. Make sure that you send mails in weird time just to prove that you have stayed late.
8. If you stay after 10, do send a mail to your manager that you have stayed back working and will reach office some 15 minutes late on the next day(as if you were on time all the other days).
9. Using Global and technical Jargons when you talk. It makes people around you feel that " wow ! thats something which i have not heard of"
10. Try to impress the boss and become the team lead .... Tats a dream position ... you never work and will get to forward all the deliverables after reviewing them. So you will do no work and take all the credits of someone who is slogging his ass off ....

Thats the magic of Fraxing .... Nothing can beat the happiness you get when you are being praised for something which you just dont deserve ...... whoaaaa

The process is like Dravid .... It takes some time to sink in and setttle down, but when done, its just rocking ...

Sakath hot maga

JK

Creat-Witty

It can neither be learnt; nor thought .... It does not come when you need it. It comes when u least expect it or require it. Out of the bolts, it speaks of your natural instincts of not thinking into things, but thinking around them.

One lovely example ...

What would you call an impotent man ?

Pe(e)acock.... ( guess u got the pun, if not leave a comment)

Can it get better ?

Nobody can answer it. There lies the beauty. Until something better strikes you(god knows when), u cannot beat it ...

Its not about racing, its about aceing ....

JK