cow can fly

"c..o..w...cow, c..a...n...can, f....l...y...fly", actor1 reads out from a hand written notebook.

"cow can fly", repeats actor2, a second grade school student.

"wait a second! cow can fly? no it cannot be", said actor1.

actor2 gives a look of an inverted exclamation mark.

actor1 confidently says, "this is wrong kanna (dear). there must be something else here as 'cow cannot fly'."

"no!! cow can fly. my teacher told me."

"cow cannot fly. you might have noted down incorrectly", kindly said actor1.

an offended actor2 objects, "no....cow can fly. my teacher told me so."

"cow does not have wings. it cannot fly. let us rub this...", said a bit less kinder actor1.

"NO....cow can fly..... my teacher told me so. do not rub it", says actor2, and grabs the rubbing hand of actor1.

"ella pa (no dear)....let us change this."

actor2, now an angry actor who is almost in tears - "don't.... rub..... my..... teacher told me", and starts crying.

actor1 continues rubbing the almost indelible pencil writing about cow's flight.

the crying actor2 presses hard on actor1's hand, and pleads, "no. my teacher will scold me, don't rub."

actor3 intervenes. "amma, leave it. let the cow fly today." the actor turns to the kid, "dei! ask your teacher tomorrow and correct it. if your teacher still says 'cow can fly', let us all go to her house and watch the cow take off."

actor2, the little-dear-incorrigible brother of mine, was relieved and was all smiles.

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.

six two

in india, one is blessed to have the option to outsource certain mundane, trivial chores. ironing of clothes is one of these. damn! how much i miss it.

when I was in hyderabad, I used to walk to the ironing lady's shop, that was couple of streets away from my home, to drop clothes. the following day i collected the clothes minus the wrinkles.

on my first visit to this shop, I was unwelcome-d by a 5 year old kid who was standing at the shop's threshold. upon seeing me, he ran into the shop, stood at a distance, and stared. i gave him a smile, and a wink. no change of expression on his face and he continued to stare.

the kid welcomed me the same way on my next visit. my broken telegu, like "ikkada ra…" (come here), peter-english-hi, didn't help.

on the third visit, he garnered some guts ( I dunno from where!), and walked up to me. i smiled. his stare had now metamorphosed into an awe.

the kid set his head in a pendulum motion, and starting at my knee began to raster scan me. as his eyes reached mine, he stopped, sighed, and exclaimed, "enthaa...bedha manishi!". (what a big human!)

iGhajini

either i have a memory loss or ghajini is the first hindi movie to be named after a villain. probably the director named it so because the villain had a better phone - the iphone.

only if 'air voice' had a tie-up with 'iphone', aamir's post knock-out-punch life would have been much less painful and less stressful. iphone would have been his savior, and one stop shop remedy for his 'short term memory loss'.

instead of scribbling all over his body, aamir would need just one tatoo - "check iphone - password 0007."

the manager knocks on the door, and would say, "hello sir! i am your manager. please check your facebook."

also, the free cool apps would have attempted to improve aamir's memory power, and make him less impatient. games like 'labyrinth lite' would have held him to his seat at the medical college auditorium, while the movie audience could have heart-fully savored the-hot-but-cannot-act jiah khan in the 'latoo' song.

google maps would have rendered the street view of mumbai. aamir could have done better things, like dance to another number, instead of mapping out mumbai on his wall.

sanjay singhania could have gone green, and in lieu of writing those bulky diaries, he could have blogged, from his iphone, at ihatesrk.blogspot.com .

hey murugadoss, had you directed iGhajini, steve jobs would have definitely bought the overseas rights, and dubbed the movie in english.

memento chritopher nolan's understand did not folks who - would have made fresh memories of 'short term memory loss', and iphone sales would have sky rocketed.

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.

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!