omni-valid!

this morning went to brahmotsavam festival at Sri Ranganatha temple, pomona village, with my friend in his car. on the way back, o.c-vahanam was not available, and i had to take the public transportation.

used a cab service to get myself dropped at the nearest train station. being so accustomed to the plastic in the city, i carry no more than 20/30 bucks on me. the cab driver took 20 of these.

about four minutes was left for the arrival of the train. the sunday schedule - one train every hour.

i rushed to the touch screen enabled ticket vending machine. i gave all the inputs it requested for, and to my shock found that the credit option was disabled. i gave benefit of doubt to software, and started from scratch again. but the same result.

it was not a bug but a feature !

i counted the few dollars left in my wallet, added all the coins i had, but could not make the amount the machine demanded.

being sunday, the ticket office was closed. no help was anywhere near in the two-track-no-high-raise-platform-station that befitted the description of the malgudi railway station. as i was thanking my stars, the train pulled in.

30 seconds lay between me catching the train, and a one hour wait on the malgudi station.

i went to the conductor who descended from one of the coaches. "hi, i only have credit card. the vending machine does not accept credit card".

"that is fine. just get the ticket", replied the conductor.

"no, sir. the machine does not take credit card".

"use cash", promptly came the reply.

like a school boy who forgot to do his homework, i said, "i don't have enough cash on me!".

the conductor looked at me up and down once, and said, "i can't do nothing. speak to the chief!". saying so, the he pointed in the direction of a train car at the front.

i ran up the station platform to the chief conductor, an elderly gentleman, and explained the situation to him.

the chief said, "get into the train, we shall see."

i was relieved.

after the train started moving, the chief approached me and said, "it is seven dollars for your ticket sir".

"can i pay by card ?!", i asked, very well knowing the answer.

"how much cash do you have?"

"three dollars".

the chief smirked, gave me a free ticket, and said, "carry few dollars, it is valid where ever you go!".

SALE! SALE!! SALE !!! Everything Must Go!

over the last few years, i have seen the caption put up as a sign outside a good number of shops in new york downtown. i thought it was a strategy employed by a shop to push its products. once the sale is done, the shop would either rename or relocate.

the same sign met my eyes outside a circuit city outlet. this time, for a change, i did believe the shop's outcry. circuit city, the number two electronics seller chain, has been short circuited.

yesterday, me and my friends, on our way back from a drive to point pleasant beach, decided to stop over at the outlet. heavy crowd and light discounts (10-15%) were omnipresent in the shop. tvs and monitors were selling like hot cakes.

a 60 year old business being shutdown in this fashion was a bit saddening. i felt for the employees who seemed to be engaged in hara-kiri.


PS: money savers, you might want to check circuit city stores in a week or two for better discounts.


UPDATE : jan 31 - got the battered flier from the battered company. check out the store if interested.

all's well that ends well

sometimes...it is good to fail.

my failure to get into "the daily show" the last time, got me tickets to watch the live recording of today's show from the vip stand.

in fact, i had two extra vip tickets that i offered to few of my friends. none of them took it. some were not ready to leave work early, some had prior appointments, while a couple of them asked, "who is jon stewart?".

the show was hilarious, and jon stewart is a rock star. his wit, humor and presence of mind is just 'out of the world'. before the recording started, he took few questions from the audience.

someone asked, "can i get to intern on your crew?".

the host replied, "sorry. i don't know anyone on the show. anyways, don't take up internship here. they won't pay you, and you will be sodomized, like in the white house."

damn the show director, the camera does not cover the audience. so, hear me laugh in tonight's edition of "the daily show". if you miss it on comedy central, you can catch it tomorrow on http://www.hulu.com.

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.

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.

karthik is my name!

when my parents christened me karthik, they had thought it was a unique name. coincidentally, this unique thought occurred to quite a good number of parents in the late 70s and the early 80s. end result, scores of karthiks were released into this world.

whatever school i attended, coaching class i went to, there was a minimum of two karthiks on the roll-call. the max number was at my college that had 4 karthiks in the class. i did not dare to take the count across the 2000 batch, or across my college. definitely karthik would have made it to the podium at the most-common-name-contest.

class was divided into groups of 4 or 5 to do experiments in the labs. my group consisted of karthik, karthik, karthik and kiran.

even though karthik's spelling varied from karthik to kaarthik to karthick to kartic, the name was pronounced one and the same. in order to distinguish the beings, some characteristic or the other was used to qualify the karthiks. for eg - nettai (tall), bodhai (drug- the guy was always in a trance), dumm (cigarette), delhi, current.

year 2008. i am attending evening accounting classes at new york university. the strength of the class is 20, and the only other desi in the class is also named karthik. now what are the odds?

dasavatharam review-ed

a genuine effort from kollywood at something big and different.

+ kamal's multiple roles and voice modulations. the characters of fletcher - the ex-cia agent, balram naidu and boovaragan have been very well done.
+ racy screenplay. please leave your brains at home though!
+ immense effort has been put into making the sets and the visual effects.
- bad graphics.

catch the movie at a good theater so that the decently made graphics does not get degraded any further!

trivia : ten avatars - rangarajan nambi, govindrajan naicker, president bush, fletcher, japanese kung-fu master, balram naidu, avtaar singh, krishnaveni paati (grandma), vincent boovaragan, khalif ulla.

snapped...

while roaming the streets of Manhattan over the long weekend, I met telugu movie star Venkatesh. he was shooting for his movie 'chintakaya ravi' at union square, new york.

he was happy to stare into the camera with us.