Gunda

I had wanted to pen this anecdote for a long time. My company magazine's group members asked me for a write up on Thanksgiving, and I decided it is time to pen the long pending thingie. Here it goes -

Thanksgiving , though a gerund, must be practiced in life as a present continous verb. One must be thanks-giving throughout the year, and throughout one's life - even for the small things that gives happiness, joy and comfort. Enjoy an early morning walk, a sunrise, a full moon over the brooklyn bridge, a view of new york's night skyline.

One of the things that I am thankful for is the wealth of friends that I have. Here is a glimpse of the wealth that I possess.

Circa 2000. Yours truly will be graduating from college in about a month, and my first job at Wilco was waiting for me.

At this time, I was invited to Hyderabad for a "One day tour of Wilco". Wilco had sent over first class train ticket for the event.

As I was prepping for the trip, my friend Gunda (we call him Gunda, which means fatso in tamil), said, "I will give you company on the trip. We can checkout Hyderabad after your Wilco tour."

I was thrilled, and nodded.

Gunda purchased sleeper class tickets for the trip on the same train that I was taking. On the day of travel, when we reached the station, we saw that the first class coach was just about a mile away from Gunda's sleeper coach.

In true camaraderie spirit, I dumped my luggage in the first class, and joined Gunda in his coach. The train pulled out of the station at 4:30 PM.

At around 7:00 PM, the train pulled into the first station from the array of stations it had to stop before reaching Hyderabad.

I said to Gunda, "Let me go to my compartment. Lest, the efficient Ticket Checker would sell off my berth for some pocket money."

"What about dinner? ", blurted out Gunda. His first love in life was always food.

"In about an hour food will be served on the train. You take the food, and come over to the first class coach. Let us have dinner together. Since there is no throughway to the first class from the sleeper class coaches, wait for the next station. It should be coming around 8:15pm, I guess.", thus I instructed.

He was vigorously nodding.

After a brisk mile walk on the platform, I got into my coach, and was happy to figure out that my seat was not siphoned off.

At 8:00, food was served. I was waiting for the train to pull into a station so that Gunda can join me.

It was 8:30, and there was no drop in the pace of the train. But hunger was pacing up. The station, that I thought would be arriving at 8:15pm, either didn't exist or the train driver decided to skip the stop.

9:00 pm, and there was no sight of any station. I gave in to hunger.

I was getting ready to hit the sack, and the train pulled into a station. The grandfather clock on the station wall was displaying to the world that it was quarter past 10. I got down from the train to stretch myself.

"Gunda must be fast asleep", I thought. "Its no use walking a mile to confirm this!"

After the grandfather clock's longer hand traversed 12 degrees, the train signalled that it was bored of the station, and would like to move on.

Hearing the cry, I was about to hop onto the train. At this moment, I noticed that someone was jostling his way through the crowd on the platform. He was moving in a funny fashion. He was holding out his hands, in a curved shape, and was balancing something between his two palms.

The figure, as it drew closer, surprised me. It turned out to be Gunda.

Gunda was huffing and puffing as he approached. I was more shocked to see the thing he was holding between his hands.

He gave a wide grin, put one leg on the coach's stairway, turned and said, "Come lets eat."

My heart sank.

sad moments

the market conditions, the unpredictability, the layoffs ... it sucks!

"... hum sab tho rangmanch ki katputhilyan hi jinki dor uparwaale ki ungliyon me bandhi hi. kab kaun kaise utega, yeh koi nahi batha saktha hi...."

family, friends and time should help!

lunch conundrum

how much ever advancements man has made, come lunch time, he gets down to the age old act of food gathering. i don't carry lunch to work, and every day I try to resolve the conundrum - 'where do i go?'

where do i go?
the question i know,
the answer i don't,
where do i go?

where do i go?
let me first hit the road,
decide on the go,
where do i go?

where do i go?
not this one - had here just yesterday,
that place done on friday,
where do i go?

where do i go?
at last, as usual, arbitrarily choose one from the finite set,
now at the very least a place less, tomorrow when i think,
where do i go ?

i am still here ...

my little blog fan base made me happy by inquiring about the absence of yours truly from the blog-o-sphere.

folks,
a project with crazy deadlines has kept me away from madraskaapi for almost a month now.

and to top that, the financial market is giving a roller coaster ride to one and many. the ride is more thrilling, scary and unpredictable than any hollywood movie released thus far.

governments across the world are working long hours, and on weekends, and coming up with EBFs (emergency bug fixes) or band-aids every other day. but the indexes have not seized their downward trend.

ask a software engineer, his/her panacea would be - let's restart/bounce the indexes.

latest fix - the governments in the western european countries, and the US government have started taking big stakes in banks, thus, nationalizing them. in other words - governments are going the socialist way. nehru mama would be having a hearty laugh up in the heavens, and would be saying to rajaji "naan appave sonen ella…!" (I told you…!).

in all this melee, I carved out a few hours to go to a live recording of Jon Stewart's "the Daily show". i had booked the tickets online (they are free) about 3 months back.

the ticket said, the shows are always overbooked. so, turn up at least by 4:00 pm. it also said, the gates will open at 5:15 pm, and the recording would start around 5:30 pm, and complete by 7:30 pm.

turned up at the gates at 4:00 pm, and at 5:10 pm the organizers approached us and said, "sorry! better luck next time."

as we started to drag ourselves towards a subway station, a organizer shouted out, "they are looking for audiences for 'the colbert report'. its just 2 blocks away!". the "the daily show" throw away crowd started walking towards the coal-bear guy.

few of the folks got lucky. i being unlucky that day, continued to be unlucky, and took a bus home after a 3 hour stand-up exercise.

game, set, match - roddick

my teammate called in sick yesterday, and gave me his two tickets to the US open round 4 game between roddick and gonzalez. i thanked the virus (hope my teammate doesn't read this blog!), my stars, and cursed myself for not taking any action even after the maria maria incident.

the atmosphere at the flushing meadows was reminiscent of a mela. well lit stadium under a clear night sky, XXXXXXXL tv screens outside the courts, beautiful fountains, confused staff, delayed schedule were all part of it.

hundreds of people were court hopping to catch glimpse of games that were simultaneously in progress. in transit, one could pick food and drinks from one of the many food stalls that were put up. desi food was being served at new delhi masala ishtall. the long queues at the stalls didn't daunt the food lovers.

the tickets, 60$ a piece, were for the seats in what i would call a vertigo-zone, where neither a tennis ball nor a tv camera could reach. but watching the game live on the center court (arthur ashe stadium), with all the fan fare, was exciting.

the desi couple (dc) sitting next to me, and the referee of the game added humorous touch to the evening.

the dc were giving running commentary about the types, make, intricacies of kati rolls that they were hogging. while roddick was firing aces at 130 miles per hour, the dc were going strong at 6 rolls per set. when the last set was underway, the dc ran out of rolls. after some heated discussion, they left the court, never to return.

"thank you", "silence please", "....sh..shshsh...sh..", "gracias" - few of weapons employed by the referee to silence the crowd. worst, when roddick was serving at 6-2, 6-4, 5-1, and the crowd was going berserk, the referee yelled 'just one more game'! gonzalez must sue him for match fixing.

gosh! "game, set, match - roddick", was declared within 90 minutes of the start of the show. had the 11th seeded gonzalez played like a 11th seed or roddick played a bit like the 11th seed, the match would have been a better paisa vasool. but, as always, there is next time.

wednesday

foreword : read the following lines slowly. if you are in a hurry, come back later and read the blog.


the beauty. have i seen her somewhere?
why is she approaching me? was my stare obvious?
will the.. she inquired something !
am i drunk? what did she say?
concentrate.
more of listening, less of staring...
she has a beautiful nose - long, slender, pointed.
stop. listen.
she is silent. i guess its my turn to speak.
i am sorry...what ?
what... what what ?
oh boy. she is loud.
i thought ...wait. am i thinking or am i speaking.
i thought you asked something. i spoke.
her hazel eyes!
idiot. keep listening lest you want to miss her.
no.
oops! sorry. btw, what time is it ?
why the hell did i ask that question ?
7:00 am.
oh shit! now i remember. she is miss.wednesday.
i have a 8 o'clock to go to. wake up!
i hate early morning meetings.

maria maria

maria sharapova was here at south seaport at tennis ball's throw distance from my work place. the tennis star was here to launch a diamond studded cannon camera that is worth $10000.

got to drool at the her from a close span of 10 ft.

damn! i did not have a camera with me, and could manage couple of low resolution shots with the phone camera. i must start having a camera at my workplace.