There is a rat in my pants!

Well, the story unfolds in Coimbatore airport, which is probably the same size as mine and my neighbor's apartment put together (No, i don't live in a bungalow, but a regular sized apartment!). I was returning to Chennai by a Jet airways flight from Coimbatore. We were waiting in the lobby after having passed through the security which incidentally was almost the same as the check done by the uniformed guard outside Saravana Bhavan.
There was only one TV kept at the corner of the lobby right next to a mobile coffee shop. So, while Vidhya, Akshara and Vidhya's mom were seated in the front, i went to the corner to find a seat to watch TV. I had just settled down when i felt a sudden itching sensation on the top of my foot (I was wearing a slipper). It was like something had scratched my foot. I jumped up in surprise. The lady at the coffee shop said "Its ok sir. It was just a rat which ran over your foot. It has run away. Don't worry". Since i too saw something running away from me, i kind of calmed down.But, i felt an itch near the knee and on my thigh. So, i was there in the airport, jumping up and down and feeling the sides of my fearing that a rat had gone inside. But, i didn't manage to find anything.
So, i went over to the place where Vidhya was sitting and started narrating this experience. Vidhya got worried and asked me to consult the airport doctor as a precautionary measure. But, i reassured her that it would be ok and started joking about the situation. A few minutes had passed and i felt an itch on my waist at the back and it seemed to "travel" to the left! I quietly excused myself to go to the rest room, just to ensure that all was ok.
Since it was an airport, i guess that the restroom was also designed like the ones inside an airplane, an extremely small box with not even enough room to stretch my hands in either direction. Once inside this box, i undid my pant's buckle and to my utter shock, out jumped an itsy bitsy teenie weenie rattie (Just to make it rhyme!).
Well, it looked like one rat was chasing another and the one chasing took a wrong turn and went up my pants. This rat had just spent almost 5 minutes inside my pants and it was obvious that both of us (the rat and i) were relieved to be relieved of this imprisonment! The rat was delirious with joy and started running all over the place. Well, all over the place wasn't much, as there wasn't much space to run around. i guess that this rat, before entering my pants, was practising for the upcoming rat-race in coimbatore because it started running in circles along the wall of this small room. This rat didn't look like a sprinter, but a marathon runner. So, it would be some time before this rat stopped his practice.
But, there was a problem. i was in the way with my pants down to the ankles. Taking the size of the room into consideration and doing a quick calculation using the formula time = distance/speed, i realised that there wasn't enough time for me to bend down and pull up my pants until the rat reached me on the next round. So, there was i was , with my pants down and jumping up such that my jump exactly coincided with that point of time when the rat was near me. But, i wasn't good at skipping and hadn't played the game where two people on either side of you rotate the skipping rope and the person in the middle jumps up to avoid the skipping rope. So, i knew that it wasn't going to be long before i misjudged my jump and landed right on top of the rat! The animal lover that i am, i wasn't interested in harming this little guy. So, i had to do something and it better be fast.
One option was to just open the door and run out. But, this wasn't the kind of restroom where you have a big room with wash basins and the WCs were inside this room. This was just a room WC. You open the door and walk out to the full view of the airport. I couldn't do this because my pants weren't where they were supposed to be. So, i took the drastic measure of jumping a little higher once and jumping on to the closet (hoping that it was not a low-quality one!). It survived and we (the rat and i) did too! Some more calculations later, i jumped on the floor and managed to run out of the room leaving the rat inside to finish off his marathon practice.
Once out of the room, i went to the airport security and asked to meet the airport doctor. He told me that a new doctor had been appointed the previous day and he was on leave that day! He wanted to know what had happened and i explained the situation briefly to him. He said" Sir, it must be the common rat, nothing to worry. Nothing will happen"!!! Common rat it may be, but there was nothing common about a rat in my pants!
it was time for my flight to leave, so i had to leave the airport after writing a complaint in the suggestion box. But, i guess it will be passed on as toilet paper in the restroom!

Moral of the story: Never ever be stuck in the middle of a rat-race!

Tips and tricks for making Tambola/Bingo/Housie interesting

One of the most popular pages on my site is the one about Dumb Charades. I remember from back in school/college that dumbcharades was one of the most popular games played within a group, of course next to Antakshari. Another game very popular in India (and, as i found out, very popular in Cyprus too) is the game of Tambola. It is also known as Bingo or Housie.
When i was working/staying in bangalore, our apartment used to organise Bingo once a month with the tickets priced at 2 rupees each. We used to be 5 guys (fresh from college s/w engineers) staying together. While other bought 1 or 2 tickets each, we used to go and buy 10 to 15 tickets each , virtually dictating the way the event was conducted. Others didn't complain, for we contributed to the big prize money in the pool. But, more often than not, we cornered most of the prizes due to the heavy probability in our favour.
I have been conducting Bingo sessions in our outdoor events at work for few years now. I do it a bit differently and as far as i know, it has been well received. Traditionally Bingos (or is it Bingoes) have cash prizes for the first five, the three rows and a full house, the cash prizes coming from the sale of the tickets. In the tambola events i organise, i do give out cash prizes, but also lot of other small gifts which can be souvenirs, fridge magnets, tshirts and pracically anything else which is not so expensive. If i do manage to get sponsors, then the big gifts come out. So, if you are organising a bingo, try to get a budget for it and then buy many small gifts and give them out apart from the cash prizes. if you don't get a budget, make a guess as to the amount of money you will collect and then pre-buy gifts for that amount.
Now that you have so many gifts, how are you going to give them away if there are only 4 prizes (3 rows + 1 full house)? This is where you have to do things differently. i have given below the list (in random order) of all bingo "events" for which i have given away prizes. You can pick and choose from the list below based on the number of gifts you have, your interest level in organising the event, the time available for the event (more the prizes, more the time ) and the interest level of the players.

• Anyone with the number 1 on their ticket. If all players have bought the full column, change it to - Anyone with number 1 on their topmost ticket - i usually start off with this one giving all the ppl 1 cent/1 rupee as a prize!
• Apart from the three rows, you can also give a prize for the first 4 columns i.e. the first and the last number on the first and the last row.
• If you are playing Bingo with a group of really enthusiastic people, you can also add prizes for the 5 columns on a ticket. Each column is not defined as the column appearing on the ticket, but as the respective numbers. Eg: 1st column would be the 1st number on each row irrespective of where the numbers actually are.
• It will be a morale-booster to also have a unlucky-one prize for the one who is the last to get a number on his ticket.
• If your group contains people of both sexes and of different ages, you can give prizes based on boys/girls or kids/parents/grand parents etc i.e a prize to the kid with the most/least number of numbers marked on a ticket.
  
• You can also play around with mathematics (if you have people buying an entire column) such a 1 number in 1 ticket, 2 numbers in another ticket and 3 numbers in another or any such combination.
• You can give prizes for combination of numbers in the rows i.e. 1 number on a row, 2 on another and 3 on the other.
• While selling tickets, give discounts to people buying the entire column ( 6 tickets). This will encourage people to buy the set which gives you more options to give prizes.
• Giving away absolutely junk prizes in the middle will keep the audience entertained. Eg: After giving away lot of prizes, the person to receive a prize will be looking forward to a goo prize. Then you can suddenly call for a combination which you expect many to have and call all of them to get a prize. You could then give each of them a chocolate or something equally silly!
• If you run out of allocated prizes for the first session on Bingo towards the end, but people are still interested, you can always give out free tickets for the next session as a prize.

Hope these tips help you in organising a good game of Bingo!
Btw, if you don't have the cards to play, you can check this post for a link with which you can print Bingo cards for free.

Technorati Tags: bingo tambola housie party games bingo cards

Photo of surya jyothika and their daughter Diya

Celebrities never cease to amaze us ordinary folks. It's not only them but their entire family tree which fascinates us. The world went crazy over the wedding pictures of Surya and Jyotika. It was but obvious that the craze continued with their offspring too. So, now we have the photos of surya's and jyothika's daughter taking the online world by storm. Maybe, these were released in competition to the photos of ajith and shalini's daugher , Anoushka ??


Diya celebrated her first birthday with mom and dad and it looked to be a Surya/Jyotika/Sivakumar family affair.

Photo of ajith, shalini and their baby Anoushka

Look at the people around them. Look at where they are "all" staring. Why are we so obsessed with celebrities ?

Choosing a baby name - Easier said than done

Maho Arnaha Saraswati Pra Chetayati Ketuna Dhiyo Vishwa Vi Rajati.
Asmantsu Tatra Chodyendra Raye Rabhsthavaha TuVidyumna Yashsthavaha

What do the above lines mean to you?
If you are a follower of/believer in the vedas, you would recognise the above as lines from rig veda and would start on trying the understand the meaning conveyed by the lines. If you are a quizzer, you would look at these lines as a probable source of esoteric questions which you as the quiz master would only ever know. But, if you are an expecting parent, then these lines would be a treasure trove of possible unpronounceable names which you would carefully note down in your "Big book of names for my baby"!
This is where Confuso-Kiddo-Name-o-graphy, the art of getting confused by writing down too many baby names, comes into the picture. Recently, my friends had a kid and when we visited them in the hospital, i saw a fat book lying beside the bed. On picking it up and looking inside (i didn't see the cover), i saw lot of strange words and their meanings. I was wondering as to why she was reading Rosenblum's word-list for GRE. Then, on seeing the cover , i realised that it was not the rosenblum book, but a book on Hindu baby names written by "I-shall-unlock-all-the-cages-in-zoos" Menaka Gandhi.
The book was in fact, more confusing that a GRE word list. I guess what Menaka would have done is to copy over the english transliterations of all the holy writings of Hinduism into Excel, then sorted them and then added a random meaning to each one of them. Well, a normal person wouldn't anyway know what a name such as "Caksusa" really meant. He would just go by what is written in the book. It must be the easiest book she must have ever written!
Sometimes, being born an Indian has many disadvantages - for the parents. They have the unfortunate task of naming the child according to zillions of naming conventions. Imagine if the child is Cypriot, they have just few names like Andreas, Christos, Nicos and the feminine forms of them. So, it is pretty easy to choose amongst them. Parents who are a bit religious and want to do things the traditional way would rely upon numerology, the baby's horoscope, vaastu (the location where the baby was delivered and the direction the mom was facing when delivering the baby) , vedic mathematics and few other dozen rules. After doing all the above calculations, if they end up with a restriction that the name should start with the letter "Q" or "X", they immediately turn modern and name the child Pinky, Rocky, Sweety etc.
Americans have it easier still. They can name their children bush, gate, forest or based on practically any word taken from a regular dictionary. Take the case of Tiger Woods. Earl and Kutilda, tiger woods' parents were going for a walk in the remote forests of Vietnam. Kutilda was heavily pregnant at that time. When they went around a corner, Earl suddenly saw what he thought was a tiger and yelled out "There is a tiger in the woods". Kutilda went into a shock and delivered a healthy baby. Considering it a good sign, they named the child "Tiger Woods".
Back to our case - We Indians have to consider a lot of things other than the above mentioned factors in naming a child.

• In today's global village, we have to even consider how americans would react to the name. What if the name was "Manish Bhatt". Americans would be talking about Manish's butt whenever they refer to him. We can't even name our kids with our favourites like Raghunathan Ramakrishnan or Somasundaram Pattabbiraman, as americans find it difficult to pronounce anything more than 2 syllables.
• We also have to think about the possible nicknames that could arise from the name when your kid goes to college. If there are many possible nicknames, rest assured that the one with the most vulgar meaning will be the one with which your child is christened in college.
  
• You also have to attend french classes, german classes and classes of few other popular languages to check if the name you have thought of doesn't have any unintended meanings in these languages.

After all this confusion, many parents give up and name their kid some shit, i mean Samchit!

Technorati Tags: baby names naming a child hindu names

The ordeal of eating at Hotel Saravana Bhavan

Hotel Saravana Bhavan started in Chennai in the year 1981 (almost as old as me!) with the K.K.Nagar branch. We moved to K.K.Nagar in the year 1990 and from the first time i tasted the famous Saravana Bhavan sambhar, there was no looking back. I was addicted to it.
Back then, when there was no concept of pocket money/allowance, it was hard work trying to "collect" enough money for a visit to the hotel. There was a tacit understanding with my mom that any "unattended" coin with a value of <= 1 rupee could be claimed by me as mine. There were other sources of income too. I would always immediately respond to anyone's call for help in recovering coins which would have fallen behind tables/shelves. I would attempt (or rather attempt to attempt) to recover those coins, but ensure that i make back-breaking groans and moans when i do so. This would immediately prompt my mom to say "It's ok. Leave it if you cannot reach it" and the coin would be forgotten. But the location would be promptly stored in my mind and when the time/need arrived, i would go over and, with the slightest of ease, recover the valuable 50 paise. So, once i had collected 7 rupees (the price of a sada dosa back then), I would run over to Saravana Bhavan and enjoy a sada dosa with the three types of Chutney, the sambhar and the Molaga Podi. Pure Bliss!
But, when my brother started growing older, there was competition for the stray coins. My mom, realising the rising inflation along with the competition from my brother, increased the threshold of coins defined as "stray" to 2 rupees! So, from then on, the only hotel i swore by, the only hotel which i considered worth visiting has always been Saravana Bhavan.
So, it is no surprise that i look forward to this whenever i visit Chennai. I was in Chennai last week and had been to Saravana Bhavan. Then began the ordeal!
It was around 7 in the evening and the place was full of people. So, it was tough to find a place. I had to wait a few minutes to find one empty seat on a table of four. But, considering the humidity in Chennai in summer, this place was a wrong choice as it was far away from the reach of the ceiling fans. So, i didn't place my order and was on the lookout for a better table. To my luck, a place on the other side of the room (just below a fan) was vacated. So, i jumped up and walked across the room. But, it looked like i was not the only one with this idea. Another guy, who was unfortunately nearer, occupied this seat before i could go over. Disappointed, i turned back to go to my place. But, even this was gone now as it was forcible occupied by the family on the next table who decided to give a separate chair to a child not even tall enough to reach the table. No wonder there is so much competition in India for everything! So, i was back on the waiting list. Luckily, all this action was seen by a waiter who was kind enough to come over and volunteer to find a good place for me. True to his words, he found a good seat - right under the fan. After thanking him a lot, i sat down to enjoy a good meal.
Now, i had to order stuff. In the past, when i had been on month long home leaves, i usually start ordering based on the serial number on the menu and go one by one. But this time, I was in India for just a week and it was already the 4th day into this week. So, this concept would not work. I had to go for plan B which was to either choose according to my likes or according to availability. If i were to go based on my liking, it had to be one of the dosas accompanied by the sambar. What i meant by "availability" is the probability of getting that particular item back in Cyprus. Yes, we do get Dosas in the Keralam restaurant in Cyprus, but i have to drive a 100 kms and pay a humongous 14 dollars for a single masala dosa, but theoretically, dosas are available and so they are out of consideration. Then, it had to be the famous Parotta kurma. So, i ordered it. You can never have only one dish in saravana bhavan. So, for the next item, i chose the 14 idli sambhar dish. Nowadays, you might have to request for a magnifying dish as an accessory to see the "mini" idlis. The main course was done. A dinner at Saravana Bhavan is always finished with the famous "Masala Milk", yellow in colour with the "paal edu" (that which many hate to have in their glass of milk, but which i love!) floating on top.
So, after having ordered for the Masala Milk, i went over to the wash basin. When i returned, the inevitable happened. My seat was gone, taken over by the next saravana bhavan enthusiast. Now, do i just leave and hope that my bill will be paid by this guy? But, i havent had my glass of masala milk!! There is no way I am going to leave without it. So, not knowing what to do, i slowly wander near by hitherto seat. The friendly waiter comes into the picture again, smiles and offers another seat and even brings over my water glass to my new seat.
One hour and three seat changes later, i finish my dinner. Yes, it was an ordeal, but it was worth every bit.

Introducing Drahul Dravid

Yes, it is official now. Rahul Sharad Dravid, the ace Indian cricketer has officially changed his name to Drahul Dravid. Drahul called a media conference yesterday and announced this to the world. A few days back, Rahul Dravid and his family had gone to their native temple in Indore, Madhya Pradesh for this name-changing ceremony.

Rahul was very emotional about this ceremony and he wanted to attend the function in his Indian cricket wear. As seen in the picture above, the moment the priest confirmed that the name had been changed, Drahul burst into tears. Few of his Indian cricket team colleagues (who wanted to remain unnamed) also attended the ceremony. When asked on why he started crying after this ceremony, Drahul said that the thing that worried him the most was the expense that his fans have to go through to purchase posters of him with the new name. Drahul also said that once the IPL was finished, Drahul would personally add the D to all his posters owned by his fans, as he felt that he would anyway have nothing else to do after the IPL finishes.

Drahul also said that numerological or astrological reasons were not behind this name change. He said that he had to change the name to indicate clearly his style of cricket. He didn't want his name to be just because selectors thought that he could play an aggressive style of cricket. Drahul also said that he had always learnt batting as an art form where the face of the bat should point towards the pitch such that the ball, on hitting the bat, falls within the pitch (and within half a metre of the batsman) and rolls to a stop within a metre. (Given below is a photo where Rahul Dravid was expressing his frustration because of Sachin Tendulkar's inability to understand this concept)

He said that this talent was limited to very few cricketers around the world and this is the talent required to produce a draw in test cricket. So, by changing his name from Rahul to Drahul, he was clearly communicating that he should be included in the squad only if the required result was a draw. He also added that his dad had recognised this talent in him the moment he was born and hence put Dravid as his last name. But the world had failed to see the draw in dravid and that is why he had to change his first name to drahul to double-emphasize. Drahul felt that this name change would bring about a change in his image.

Technorati Tags: rahul dravid IPL Bangalore royal challengers

India's very own dumb blondes

Okay, they are not blonde, but they do represent what "dumb blondes" are supposed to be famous for - their dumbness. Yesterday's episode of "Kya Aap Panchvi pass sey tez hai" was a special episode with stars from TV soaps making their appearance on the show and wining money for charity.
Sarah Khan(Sadhna) and Parul Chauhan (Ragini) of “Sapna Babul Ka….Bidaai” were on first and right from the start, they seemed to be perfect candidates to fail a 5th class exam. Usually on the show, insets are shown about the educational achievements of the participants to embarrass them further if they don't answer a question. But, this was not the case for these two. Maybe, the producers knew that even after "preparing" them for the show, they would make a fool of themselves, that he decided not to embarrass them further. Or, they became models at such an early age that they didn't have time to complete class 5. How else would you explain the following responses:
Question 1 - Find the number of common nouns beginning with the letter "B" in the following sentence: In Bombay, I met Billoo with a basket in a blue bus.
So, the stars (the two girls) start thinking aloud. Parul says, "Basket and bus must be the two common nouns". But, the smarter Sara says, "What about Bombay, it is a common place, so it must be a common noun"!!!!
The producers then realised that their questions would prove too tough for this pair, but it was too late. Maybe they should have put Timbuktoo instead of Bombay, then Sara would have said, "Timbuktoo is not such a common place, so it cannot be a common noun"

Question 2 - Neil Armstrong was the first person on the moon. Which country does he belong to?
Parul is quite confident and she says "America". Shah Rukh, who is aware of their dumbness, wants to take them for a ride and says, "That is the name of the continent. I am looking for the name of the country". Immediately, the smart Sara says, "New York?". Shah Rukh then realises that any further discussion would embarrass the entire TV fraternity, so he accepts America and closes the question.

Question 3 - Which is the only mammal which can fly like a bird?
Parul, who has until now been overshadowed in being dumb by Sara, decides to take matter into her own hands and confidently says, "Kangaroo". Shah Rukh, desperately containing his laughter, goes to the center of the stage and imitates the movement of a Kangaroo and asks, "Are you sure that a Kangaroo flies like a bird?".

The producers by then had decided that they had had enough of this smart duo and decided to end their round and call on the next group. Now, i realise why TV soaps are so slow and prolong each and every scene. It is not the intention of the director, but it is the adaptability of the TV stars that is the problem. They seem to be so dumb that it takes them forever to understand and show an expression and the director has no other choice, but to capture the entire thing on camera!

Technorati Tags: kya aap paanchvi pass sey tez hai shah rukh khan are you smarter than a 5th grader quiz star plus

The new mumbai Indians cheerleader costume

An exclusive sneak peek at the new costume that the cheerleaders would wear at the Mumbai indians - deccan chargers match today in Mumbai. These costumes were designed by the famous gay (oops, guy) Karan Johar.

Technorati Tags: cheerleader costume ipl cricket

Are these games still played?

The post "Games we forgot" on hawkeye was one of those posts that you back to your childhood days and bring back fond memories. There are a lot of games mentioned in his post and i remembered having played many of those. If you can't recollect any of the games mentioned below, check out his post.
Kings: I remember having played this game event until the end of high school. It is a fast paced game and i was good at it, as it required the person inside the circle (or whatever field) to be pretty athletic in avoiding the ball. Of course, I have had embarrassing moments in school when, out of over-enthusiasm, i do too many acrobatic stunts and end up with my pants torn in all the wrong places!
Chains: This game was very popular in my apartment, but only when the girls were also present. Contrary to other games in the same category, there was a great demand to become the catcher, because the catcher would first "choose" the girl who he wants to hold hands with, make her out and enjoy the rest of the game holding her hands!
French Cricket: This was played when we didn't have the required strength to play a proper game of cricket. A good cricket player would have lot of fun in this kind of game, as it was almost impossible to get a good cricket player in this form of the game. The others, pity them, as they would be spending the entire time running to all parts of the "open" field, as there was rarely a n"end" to the field.
Hide n' seek (Kannam M/Poochi): This was a standard game, but we used to play it on our terrace. Thinking of the places i used to hide in gives me the jitters now, as our terrace was the fourth floor and i used to climb on top of the tanks and even down the water pipes by the side of the building to the sunshades on the windows of the third floor flats.
Hand Tennis: The usual rules of tennis, except that the racquet is replaced by the palm. Our moms used to be the water-moms. The water was not for drinking, but for cooling the reddened palms.
Chalk Cricket: We used to play this at school, where a ruler replaced a bat and a chalk replaced a ball. The chalk (usually 1/2 a chalk) was placed vertically on the table (serving as a pitch) and it had to be flicked towards the batsman (which constitutes a delivery). We even had different scores based on which girl you managed to hit, ranging from +6 (the highest) to -2(the lowest). Few of the girls also knew this scoring system and we have had many an argument for the validity of the rating.
Unfortunately, the games which people (from the South) usually recollect are Goli (marbles) and Gilli-Danda, both of my which i have never played! I am sure that there are many more that i have played and forgotten and i hope that some blog post comes along the way which refreshes my memory.

Chennai Super Kings beat Punjab Kings XI at Mohali

Way to go Chennai Super Kings. Dhoni and his men couldn't expect a better start to the tournament. Though this defeat wasn't as convincing as the way King Khan's Knight riders smashed the Bangalore Royal Challengers, it was good enough to get the players into the groove for the rest of the tournament.
Mike Hussey showed the way for the Chennai Super Kings with a brilliant hundred. When the Punjab Kings were chasing and Kumar Snagakkara and James Hopes were having a partnership, things looked to be pretty even between the sides. But once hopes was dismissed, it was pretty easy for the Super Kings.
Great start Chennai Super Kings, keep it up. Vijay and Nayanthara will be proud of you! On the other hand, someone should teach Preity Zinta hot to cheer in cricket. The moves Preity Zinta were making would fit better in a boxing ring and not in a cricket stadium and it looked so artificial!

Technorati Tags: IPL cricket indian premier league cricket chennai super kings punjab kings XI mohali chandigarh cricket

Kolkata Knight riders beat Bangalore Royal Challenge in the first IPL t20 match

badly, very badly, in fact miserably! But, what can they do? Poor Vijay Mallya. When he purchased the Bangalore team in the Indian Premier league, I guess that he wouldn't have had an idea that his iconic player in the twenty 20 matches, the player for whom he would have to pay the highest money, would have been Rahul Dravid, of all the cricketers!
Yes, Rahul Dravid is a good cricketer, but this is 20-20, not the bend-forward-show-the-full-face-front-foot-defence game! Even i wouldn't have Rahul Dravid in my team for the Galli cricket 6 over matches! When the Bangalore team went in to bat today at the Chinnaswamy stadium, I almost fell off my sofa seeing Dravid and Wasim Jaffer walk out. What are the two test players doing in a wham-bham-thank-you-maam kind of game?
But Vijay Mallya, you have something to rejoice. There are lot of Bangloreans going to get drunk today with the sadness over this miserable loss and you can hope that they buy your liquor! You can also hope that Shah Rukh Khan and his Kolkata Knight riders will purchase your liquor in the party tonight.
I am obviously a supporter of Chennai Super Kings and i hope that the combined power of Dhoni, Muralidharan, Mathew Hayden and Fleming would be enough to crush the other teams.
Long live IPL, Long live Chennai Super Kings!

Technorati Tags: IPL indian premier league bangalore royal challenge Kolkata knight riders chennai super kings Vijay Mallya Shah Rukh khan

Indian Premier Cricket League - IPL player auctions today

The auctions for the players to play in the different teams of the Indian Premier Legue (IPL) will be done today. It is expected to start at 11 am today (Feb 20). The auction is under the observation of many international auctioneers also, as it has an interesting format with various limitations.

• There are a total of 77 players to be auctioned off.
• Each owner has to spend a minimum of 3.3 Million USD and a maximum of 5 million USD on his/her team. This maximum cap is what that makes this auction interesting. You have to get into a lot of permutations and combinations to compose your team, much like playing fantasy cricket online.
• bids up to $100,000 – in increments of $5,000, bids from $100,000 to $250,000 – in increments of $10,000, bids from $250,000 to $500,000 – in increments of $25,000, after this, no set increments.
• Tendulkar, Dravid, Ganguly and Yuvraj will not be auctioned as they are icon players for their respective areas.
• Each squad must have a minimum of 16 players per squad. This will include a maximum of 8 currently available foreign players per squad. Each team can have a maximum of 4 foreign players in the playing XI for each match.
• The squad will also have to consist of a minimum 4 under 22 players from that area.

I shall keep updating as soon as the news come out!

The teams so far:

Anil Kumble	Bangalore	USD 500000
Jacques Kallis	Bangalore	USD 900000
Zaheer Khan	Bangalore	USD 450000
MS Dhoni	Chennai	USD 1,500,000
Muttiah Muralitharan	Chennai	USD 600,000
Jacob Oram	Chennai	USD 675000
Matthew Hayden	Chennai	USD 375000
Stephen Fleming	Chennai	USD 350000
Daniel Vettori	Delhi	USD 625000
Chris Gayle	Delhi	USD 800000
Shoaib Malik	Delhi	USD 500000
Mohammad Asif	Delhi	USD 650000
Adam Gilchrist	Hyderabad	USD 700,000
Andrew Symonds	Hyderabad	USD 1,300,000
Herschelle Gibbs	Hyderabad	USD 575000
Shahid Afridi	Hyderabad	USD 675000
Shane Warne	Jaipur	USD 450,000
Grame Smith	Jaipur	USD 455000
Younis Khan	Jaipur	USD 225000
Shoaib Akhtar	Kolkata	USD 425,000
Brendon McCullim	Kolkata	USD 700000
Ricky Ponting	Kolkata	USD 400000
Mahela Jayawardene	Mohali	USD 475,000
Kumar Sangakkara	Mohali	USD 750000
Brett Lee	Mohali	USD 900000
Sreesanth	Mohali	USD 625000
Sanath Jayasuriya	Mumbai	USD 975000
Harbhajan Singh	Mumbai	USD 850000

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Hindu is a religion; Hindi is a language

Oh! westerner, please understand this. We don't speak Hindu, neither are Indians Hindis. Hindi is the most widely spoken language in India, but that doesn't make us Hindis. A majority of Indians are Hindus (acc to the latest census) , but that doesn't mean that we speak Hindu. We also don't speak Indian, by the way!
I understand the situation that you are in, with the people of Spain speaking Spanish, people of Germany speaking German , the English speaking English and so on. But, we don't ever ask you "Do you speak Christian?", do we?
I am an Indian first and everything follows after. The religion i follow is Hinduism and you know what, i don't speak Hindi! Not all Hindus speak Hindi. Similarly, not all Hindi speaking people are Hindus!
I am sure that you must now be in the exact situation you were in, before reading this post. But, the main idea was to convey the message that Hindu is a religion and Hindi is a language. Don't mix these up.
But, why this post suddenly ? I have recently become a big fan of the Jeopardy Quiz Show shown on MBC 4 every morning. Yeah, this is not the same season as in the US but a rerun of old seasons, nevertheless, the topics are interesting and the questions, smart. One of the questions today morning was

Hindi faithful make regular pilgrimages to & bathe in this 1,560-mile river of Northern India.

The answer to the above was obvious. "What is the Ganges?" But the point is, it is not the Hindi faithful who go there, but the Hindu faithful. How can such a reputed quiz show ask a question like this? But its ok, they are pardoned. They set thousands of questions, so one mistake can be ignored.

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All you wanted to know about South Indian Weddings

or to be more precise, a tamil wedding ceremony. Head over to Krishashok who took time off from doing jalsa and showing jilpa (not to be confused with Shilpa) to write an excellent article on Tamil Weddings. A must read!

Did harbhajan say maaki or monkey to Andrew Symonds?

Now the issue is whether Harbhajan Singh said maaki (in Hindi) or monkey (in English) to Andrew Symonds. To the casual reader, this issue might see very trivial and not worth the exposure it is getting. But, there is lot more to it than is visible on the surface.

Harbhajan had indeed referred to Symonds as a monkey, but he wasn't aware that this would be considered racist. So, his team of lawyers along with BCCI had decided to take the approach that Harbhajan had in fact referred to Symonds as a white monkey and not a black monkey, but the Indians didn't know how the australian legal team would twist the case to a racism abuse. So, for the past two days they were investigating alternatives for their defense.

This somehow leaked to the media and they started talking about it on television. One person who was watching this felt that he could help the Indian team in this situation. He was Javed Akhtar, the noted bollywood lyricist and scriptwriter. He felt that he could help because he was so much into writing rap crap in english for bollywood movies, that he could definitely could come up with some alibi in English for Harbhajan.

So, Javed Akhtar started searching for homonyms for monkey in English. The only one he could come up with was mucky. But mucky meant dirty and australians would consider this more offensive than monkey as they were known for maintaining cleanliness by covering all the dirt on their faces with sun-screen lotion.

Then, out of the blue, an idea struck him. Why not look for a homonym in hindi? It was much easier to form words out of the given syllables. So, the first word he got was makki, meaning a fly. But, he didn't want to use this, as he wanted to bring the australians down to earth and not on cloud nine like a fly. Javed was frustrated and the team working with him started swearing at Harbhajan, as he was the one responsible for all this mess.

Like all hindi speaking people, Javed started referring to all the relatives of Harbhajan as he started swearing. The moment he said "Saala Uske Maa Ki" , a BCCI member jumped up from his chair and shouted "Eureka, monkey mil gaya". Then, Javed realised what he had said and jumped up in joy.

Thus, the indian defense panel decided to use "Maa Ki" as an alibi. And the rest is history...Harbhajan was not charged with racism as swearing at one's mother or any other relative, in Australia was all in a day's work for their citizens.

QED.

Technorati Tags: harbhajan singh andrew symonds ricky ponting australian monkeys racism symonds monkey maanki maaki

Oh, you Australian Monkeys!

If Harbhajan Singh had called Andrew Symonds a monkey, was he being racist? This actually depends on which monkey he was referring to, when he was referring to Symonds as a monkey. Was he referring to the White Faced monkey or the Black Spider monkey? We may never know. One thing is sure. He wasn't definitely referring to Hanuman.

So, why does it matter which monkey he was referring to. When i think about this, I get doubts as to what racism actually means.

A standard definition of racism:

• The belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others.
• Discrimination or prejudice based on race.

I am confused! So, if race is the main concern behind racism, why does calling an australian a monkey amount to racism? Race is often equated to colour and looks, as different races do look different from each other. So, if you say to a black person: "You blacks don't deserve any better" or if you say to a white person "You whites have got no brains", then this is racism, at least from my understanding of racism, because you are insulting a black based on his black colour and similarly for the whites.

So, if calling a australian a monkey is racism, does that mean australians have more in common with monkeys than rest of the human beings. So, referring to them as monkeys would be insulting them because of this unfortunate similarity (as seen below). So, it actually didn't matter whether Harbhajan was referring to either of the monkeys above, just calling him a monkey was enough. Case closed.

Not exactly. I am still confused. In fact, most of the Indians are confused. Indians are used to complaining against racism whichever part of the world they go. Indians are stuck between the so called whites and the blacks. Being white is considered superior in Europe and other western countries and being black is superior in Africa and other parts of the world, but where does that put us? We don't fit anywhere. In ayia napa here in Cyprus (supposedly the clubbing capital of the world), whites are welcomed for their cash and blacks are welcomed for their party-atmosphere creating capabilities, but we indians are considered good for computer-related jobs only. But,we have one advantage that the whites and blacks don't have. We can be racially discriminated against in the lands of both the whites and the blacks!

In my opinion, Indians are the most racist in the world. We practice racism on a day-to-day basis, the most prominent being the north india-south india divide. okay, the east indians also complain, but that is more of a geographical racsim, so we shall leave them aside. North Indians are fair and south indians are dark, so ? Actually, the only people who can "practice" such racism in India are the Kashmiris! They are fair! Everyone else in india is dark compared to them. When i joined BITS Pilani, there were many girls from Kashmir in my batch. They would have been the perfect candidates for "Fair and lovely" not the pyts from bollywood.

I started off with Australian monkeys and went on a totally different track to kashmiri beauties. I am confused!

Technorati Tags: harbhajan singh andrew symonds ricky ponting australian monkeys racism

Tata Nano and Hamara Bajaj Lite - The 1 Lakh small car

Okay, the bajaj one is more than 1 lakh, but it is targeting the same segment as the Tato Nano/Jeh. So, i guess that it is okay to bring them together.

Tata and Bajaj are making it easier for the common man to purchase a car now. When a bike costs 50,000 Rupees, who wouldn't like to go for a cosier option by paying another 50,000 rupees. This move by Tata and Bajaj has lot of implications:

• The Indian cities would now definitely feature of every edition of "The Amazing Race", "The crazy Race" or whatever new series the american channels can think of. Even now, it is fashionable for people to show a segment where a foreigner is shown driving on the Indian roads. Now with the Tata Nanos and Bajaj Lites replacing all the motorcycles, more mayhem is assured on our roads which translates into more dollars from all the foreign tv shows coming to India.
• It is said that 1 in every 5 mile of the highways in USA was built straight so that it could be used as a landing strip in times of war. The Indian government was very impressed by this concept that they "customised" it a bit and implemented here. On the Indian roads, 1 in every 5 km is pot-hole free so that people can use that part to stand on when the other sections gets filled up with water during excessive rains. The other 4 kms were designed so to stop any advancing armies which don't have the capabilities to negotiate such obstructions.
• With respect to the last sentence of the previous point, Pakistan and China have already placed orders for thousands of Tata Nanos and Bajaj Lites, which are cheap options for their armies to use when invading our country as these vehicles are built for Indian roads.
• Demand for land of a particular type has sky-rocketed after these announcements. No one even wants a petrol bunk to be allotted to them now. All of them are now crazy after allocation of parking lots, as soon, every tom, dick and harry in India will be driving around in small cars.

So, the small cars are not only stirring the Indian media, but the media of other countries are also getting interested. Tata and Bajaj, a good move!

Technorati Tags: tata nano Hamara bajaj lite small car 1 lakh car india india

Chakde India - The India Quiz Finals

If you haven't yet checked out the prelims questions of Chakde India Quiz, then you can do so at this link.

Posted below are the questions from the final. You can send in your answers to rajaram.sethuraman@gmail.com or if you have come here from a post on a quizzing forum, you can reply to my email on that forum.

1. The name of which Indian deity has made its way into the English language and has come to mean “a massive inexorable force or object that crushes whatever is in its path”? Ans: Juggernaut from Lord Jagannath
2. At which popular religious destination in India can you find Ram Jhula and Lakshman Jhula? Ans: Rishikesh
3. Which character in Hindu mythology got his name from his pot shaped head? Ans: Ghatotkacha
4. Which Indian musical instrument's name when translated into English means Royal Flute? Ans: Shehnai
5. What was the new lifeline introduced in Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) 2 apart from the three which were already present? Ans: Flip the question
6. Who along with Batukeshwar Dutt was arrested in 1929 for throwing bombs in the Central Assembly at New Delhi? Ans: Bhagat Singh
7. Of what’s English translation is this the first line. “Thou art the ruler of the minds of all people, dispenser of India’s destiny” Ans: Jana Gana Mana
8. On March 16,2005, Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri, were found not guilty on all counts by a Canadian court. What crime were they accused of? Ans: Air India Kanishka Bombing
9. On 14th January every year, during the Makar Sankranti, what international festival is held at Ahmedabad? Ans: International Kite Festival
10. Oh, Creator of the universe! We meditate upon thy supreme splendor. May thy radiant power illuminate our intellects, destroy our sins, and guide us in the right direction." What is the significance of the above prayer? Ans: Gayatri Mantra
11. Identify the character. Ans: Shikari Shambu



12. Her mother's name is Bonnie Pandya, a Slovenian American. She is the second person of Slovenian descent to be sent to space. She apparently likes Samosas! Who? Ans: Sunita Williams
13. Originally introduced from India, it is the word for an open portico or light roofed gallery extending along the front of a dwelling or other building, and erected chiefly as a protection or shelter from the sun or rain. What word? Ans: Verandah
14. What started initially in 1984 between Esplanade and Bhavanipur, now covers a distance of 16.84 kilometers for Dumdum in the north to TollyGanj in the south? Ans: Kolkata Metro
15. Which famous jewel's name means "mountain of light"? Ans: Kohinoor
16. Kiron Kher had an unique credit in the titles of "Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge". For what? Ans: Credit for title-writing, as she suggested the title. “Title Suggested By”
17. What is full form of T.T.E as in the guy who checks the tickets on our trains. Ans: Travelling Ticket Examiner
18. In August 1990, in a test match between India and England at Manchester, Sachin won the man of the match award. He was presented the award by X. The next day, the Manchester Police issued a warning notice to X and also said that they would not consider this as a serious offense just because of the situation this time. What was the warning issued? Ans: A bottle was champagne was given as the man of the match award and sachin was a minor then. It is legally forbidden to give alcohol to a minor.
19. Jermaine Jackson, Dirk Benedict, Ian Watkins, Danielle Lloyd, Jack Tweed, Cleo Rocos, Jo O'Meara, Jade Goody, Carole Malone, Leo Sayer Day, Jackiey Budden, Ken Russell Day, Donny Tourette and? Ans: Shilpa Shetty (Big Brother Celebrity Series)
20. What does the W/L sign seen on Indian Railway tracks indicate? Ans: Whistle For level Crossing
    
21. Connect Pavo cristatus, Panthera Tigris, Mangifera indica and Nelumba nucifera. Ans: All are National Symbols. Peacock, Tiger, Mango and Lotus
22. Complete the list: Meenakshi Temple in Madurai, Brihadeshwara Temple in Thanjavur, Arunachaleshwara Temple in Tiruvannamalai, Golden Temple in Amritsar, Bahubali Gommateshwara Statue in Shravanabelagola, Mahabalipuram near Chennai, Lotus Temple in New Delhi, Ranakpur Jain Temple and _________. Ans: Taj Mahal. The list of all Indian monuments which appeared in the original list of the new seven wonders
23. What is the planet Rahu responsible for, according to Hindy Mythology? Ans: Responsible for causing Solar eclipses
24. Identify the product for which this print ad was prepared. Ans: Fevicol



25. This message from the Mumbai Police was put on something and placed randomly on the roads of Mumbai. What was it placed on? Ans: 1 Rupee coin





26. There are 5 of these labs at different locations. The largest lab consists of fourteen major geometric devices for measuring various parameters. Each is a fixed and 'focused' tool. The largest instrument here is 90 feet high and has its shadow carefully plotted. Its face is angled at 27 degrees, the latitude of Jaipur. The Accuracy of the largest instrument measuring time is about two seconds. Ans: Jantar Mantar
27. The proposed name for this institution was ‘Imperial university’ which was not selected. The Maharaja of Mysore laid the foundation stone in 1911. How do we know it today? Ans: Indian Institute of Science
28. When asked 'Why are you so sure that the first man, Adam, was an Indian?', he replied 'Who else will stand beside a naked woman and eat an apple?'. Who? Ans : Osho
29. In the Ramayana, Vishwamitra takes Rama and lakshmana with him to slay the demoness Tataka. During the course of the Journey, they often slept on the banks of Sarayu river. Vishvamitra did something to wake Rama up every morning before dawn so that he can do his rites. What did he do? Ans: He composed and sang the Suprabadam
30. According to the legends the Gods & Goddesses pleaded with Lord Brahma to create another 'Veda' which would be simpler for the common man to understand. Lord Brahma created the 'Panchamaveda', an essence of the four other vedas. It is believed he has taken 'Pathya'(words) from the 'Rigveda', 'Abhinaya' (gesture) from 'Samaveda' & 'Rasa'(sentiment & emotional element) from the 'Atharvaveda'. After creating this he gave it to Sage Bharatha & asked him to popularise this on Earth. What did this lead to? Ans: Bharatnatyam
31. What was carried in a third class compartment numbered 2949 to Triveni, Allahabad on February 12, 1948? Ans: Ashes of Gandhi
32. The members of the Muduvar tribe, which inhabits the mountain ranges around Valparai (Tamil Nadu) and Munnar (Kerala) in the Western Ghats, have a unique method for calculating their ages. What is it? Ans: They calculate their age with the blossoming of the Kurinji flower, which blooms only once every 12 years
33. Bulgar, Gansu, Taklamakan Desert, Kashgar, Kokand, Karakum Desert, Merv. Which music band? Ans: Silk Route
34. Who is missing? Ans: Zakir Hussain



35. In an economic times article which was talking about business and marketing opportunities in India, there was a statement “There are three main religions in India. Hinduism, Islam and ____”. Which was the third that they mentioned ? Ans: Cricket
36. What is the name given to the class of tourist trains modeled on the “Palace On Wheels” but meant to serve tourists with a budget? Ans: Village on Wheels
37. Manoj Singh Naruka became a celebrity (for the wrong reasons) last week because of his Orkut community. What was his community's name? Ans: I hate Mayawati
38. Which famous politician played the role of Santa Claus at Beur Jail in Patna during the Christmas celebrations in 1998? Ans: Laloo Yadav
39. In Hindi it is called Saunf what is it called in English? Ans: Fennel Seeds
40. It is the national game of Bangladesh, and the state game of Punjab and Andhra Pradesh in India. Ans: Kabaddi
41. Which company is the manufacturer of the 155mm FH-77 B howitzer artillery system?Ans: Bofors
42. Which tree takes its name from the caste of merchants who often conducted meetings under these trees in the marketplace?Ans: Banyan from Baniya

Special Topics: Cricket

1) Who was the vice-captain of the Indian cricket team for the twenty20 world cup? Ans: Yuvraj
2) What is the contribution of Paul Hawkins to the world of cricket? Ans: Hawk Eye
3) Amay Khurasia had an unique claim fame in the 1999 world cup held in England. What? Ans: Didn't play a single match

Special Topics: Indian Mythology

1) Ten warriors survived the Kurukshetra war. Satyaki, Yuyutsu, Ashwathama, Kritavarma,Kripacharya were five of them. Who were the other five? Ans: Pandavas
2) Who is on the Flag of Arjuna? Ans: Hanuman
3) The 100 Kaurava brothers had one sister. Name her!Ans: Dushala

Special Topics: History

1) Which company manufactured the rifles whose “greased” cartridges was one of the factors leading to the 1857 revolution? Ans: Enfield
2) Which Indian King was the first to use rockets in warfare? Ans: Tipu Sultan
3) Which famous Indian king was called Sandracottus by the Greeks? Ans: Chandragupta Maurya

Hope you enjoyed this quiz. You can find hundreds of other quizzes on my quiz page. If you want your quiz blog/site listed on that, just drop in a mail.

Technorati Tags: india quiz chakde india quiz blog quizzing website

Flight of fancy or was i on it ?

Well, it turned out that i really flew and it was not a dream. But, the flight on the low-cost carrier Spice JetBut turned out to have all the ingredients of a "spicy" dream.

I had to go to Pune from Chennai and the first option that turned up on makemytrip.com was the SpiceJet flight which had, incidentally, been started only a week back. The price was too tempting to let go and after a few exchanges of mails with friends about low-cost carriers, i went ahead and booked tickets for me, vidhya and my mom from Chennai to Pune and back.

It has been more than 7 years since i went on a domestic flight and i don't remember anything from that experience. So, practically for the first time, i was walking into the domestic terminal at Chennai Airport. We went through a big lobby and within 1 minute, we were at the boarding gate. Or was it a boarding gate? It just looked like normal door out of the building. But, there was a Jet airways person next to it and there were people queueing up. So it must be a gate.

But, where was the SpiceJet gate? There was just one door and Jet Airways was next to it and our flight's boarding time was just 5 mins away. It was just then that i saw a remarkable manoeuvre from the staff of the Jet and Spice Jet airlines. There were lot of those wooden stands (from where people make speeches, i forgot the word for it) with the nameplates of the different airlines. As soon as the last Jet Airways passenger went through the gate/door, in one swift move, the Jet airways person moved her "stand" away from the door and the SpiceJet person rolled over his "stand" next to the door.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, SpiceJet is happy to announce the departure of its flight to Pune. Passengers are requested to proceed to the boarding gate."

So, this is how the same door becomes the boarding gate for the different airlines. Didn't know that! So, we are in the flight and comfortably settled in. Even after i explain the intricacies of low-cost carriers, my mom is not able to comprehend a flight without food. But, it was good that water was free and my mom was happy!

After some time into the flight, the flight attendants brought some food for sale. With it was also Litchi Juice costing around 30 bucks. Litchi juice of all juices! if they had brought Mango Juice, Orange Juice or even Lemon Juice, it would have been ok, but how may people actually drink Litchi Juice? I decide to skip the juice and dozed off for the rest of the flight to Pune.

Once we landed at Pune and people started disembarking, i looked out of the window and expected to see a bus/van to take us from the plane to the terminal. I had been expecting too much. It seems that you have to get down from the plane, walk across few parking lots (meant for other planes) and you enter the terminal, just like you would do in any railway station.

As we were standing inside the terminal getting used to the small building and contemplating on our next move, there was an announcement: "Ladies and gentlemen, this is the last and final call for spice jet flight xxx to coimbatore. Passengers are requested to ...". Interesting, we thought. There are people who fly to Coimbatore even from Pune. A few minutes later, another announcement: "Ladies and gentlemen, this is the last and final call for spice jet flight xxx to coimbatore. Passengers are requested to ..." !!! I never knew that there could be many instances of "last and final"!

The stay in Pune was very eventful and it requires a separate post. So, we finished whatever we had to do in Pune and the next day, we were on the return flight home. We were one of the first to board the flight at Pune. Looking out of the window, we saw a big group running very fast towards the plane and crowding at the base of the stairs up to the plane. Vidhya and I were discussing that this flight probably had a unreserved section and these people were the poor ones who were without seat numbers and it was a matter of "first come, first seated".

But, as one soul entered the plane in the front, we realised that this was not the case. In came a scantily clad middle-aged man accompanied by a twenty something. Ah, this has to be a sadhu. He fitted the profile perfectly. I was right. He sat in the first seat and everyone entering after him (this was the big group) managed to somehow find enough place in the cramped aisle to prostrate completely before him and get his blessings. There were many foreigners also in tyhis group. I thought Indians went abroad and took the jobs/money of foreigners, but now i realised that we invite them to our country and do the same, saving the cost of travelling abroad. I watched the faces of the people go by. They were on cloud nine, on seventh heaven whatever you want to call it. Even an autograph or a kiss from aishwarya rai would have paled in comparison.

There was a couple seated behind us and they were on the edge of their seats to get a glance of the sadhu. I asked them who this was and they said in unision "guruji, sarath babu guruji". Had Sarath Babu changed professions because of low returns from films ? No, it wasn't the actor as i remembered him from his films and guruji looked a lot different.

So, after a few dozen people had finished getting their blessings, the plane was ready to depart. Until then, the air hostesses had a tough time getting people to move towards the back to their seats. It was Deja Vu! When i was in school, our school bus conductor always kept shouting at the boys to move to the back, away from the girls' seats in the front. Anyway, after all was finally ok, the captain announced the departure.

Then, out of the blue, a guy starting running towards the front of the plane. Vidhya panicked "Was this a hijack attempt?". I didn't think so. The plane had not even moved and it was too early for a hijack. But, you never know, this guy could have been one of the low performers in the "School of Hijacking" and in his eagerness to pull off his first hijack, could have acted a bit too early. But, it was not so, thankfully. It seemed that he had suddenly developed some mysterious sickness and was feeling very uncomfortable and had to get off the plane. The air hostess tried to explain that it was too late now as they had already got the clearing for take-off. He started getting agitated and demanded that he disembark from the plane. The captain relented and asked him to get his baggage.

So, he got off the plane and the captain announced that there was some paperwork to be done before they left and it would take another ten minutes. Then there was an announcement "Ladies and gentleman, please check whether all your cabin baggages are still inside the plane". Everyone panicked! Though he had gone out in clear view of everyone carrying a dark blue bag, my mom insisted that we check all our baggage even though none of our bags would seem dark blue, even to the colour blind! Imagine a hundred people jumping out of their seats in unison, opening all the overhead lockers and jumping up and down to check whether all their bags were there. After a few minutes, all were satisfied that he had not taken any other's baggage with him.

Suddenly, an Eureka moment came for Vidhya: "Whats the point in checking whether he had taken anyone else's luggage? What if he had left a piece of baggage behind? a bomb?". A perfectly logical question from Vidhya (was the moon blue? I peeked out to search for it, i couldn't find it). So, for the rest of the journey, any ticking sound from a watch would get nervous glances from my mom.

We were in the air, finally. After the seat belt sign was switched off, people started to throng the front row preventing the air hostess from bringing the Litchi Juice. Then, one smart gentleman, seeing the opportunity, decided to stand next to the guruji and act as the coordinator and started issuing coupons for the visit to the first row (well, almost!). The air hostess begged, pleaded and tried every trick in the air-hostess' guidebook to get the passengers back to their seats, but nothing worked. Then, a knock on the cockpit and few words were exchanged and an announcement: "Ladies and Gentlemen, due to the prevailing turbulence, we request all of you to get back to your seats and fasten your seat-belts". I settled back in my seat and looking at the crystal-clear sky through the window, dozed off for the rest of the flight.

Fun with sparklers during Diwali

The money i decided to buy crackers with wouldn't get me much more than a few packets of sparklers. Thankfully, it was Vidhya's brother's "thalai-Deepavali" (First Diwali after marriage) and he had purchased umpteen crackers to blast.

But, I had decided to put the sparklers i bought to good use, though i wasted many in the process. We tried many long exposure photographs using the sparklers. The one below was for a duration of 10 seconds, but it took few photos to get the J's orientation right.

Next, the duration was changed to 20 seconds and i tried to write Vidhya's and my name. I just managed it before the sparkler finished, though it was tough getting the H and Y right.

We did try a lot other tricks too, the heart shape being the most common attempt for any long exposure "light" snaps. The next one was done using the "sattai" or the rope which emits a streak of fire when lit at one end.

Diwali was fun. The view from the terrace was awesome. The photo below gives an idea of the number of rockets which can be seen at any instant.

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Rangoli in the Kholu for Navratri

We reached India just in time for Navratri celebrations. My mom, as always, had elaborate plans for the kholu. Navratri was a total relaxation time for me as i had nothing else to do but to eat all the snacks which Vidhya and mom brought back from their trips to the neighbourhood.

My mom had set up a big Kholu occupying our entire living room and she had also done a massive Radha-Krishna rangoli. It was awesome and as i had written before, it deserves a separate post of its own. Below are some of the pictures i had taken of this awesome rangoli. My mom had a picture as a reference for this rangoli. She first drew the outline by chalk and then filled in the gaps with different coloured powders.

There was also a mini-kholu on the side which contained, according to my mom, dolls which couldn't be accomodated in the main kholu. There were reporters from some local daily who had come to take photographs for a competition for the best Kholu. Well, we didn't hear back from them, but i would definitely like to see the better kholus.

She had also prepared decorated plates for display in front of the kholu. These were made with lot of chumkis, grains soaked in coloured water and fevi-kwik!

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The mighty Cauvery

Watching the river Cauvery(or Kaveri, however you want to spell it) puts one in a spell. It, being one of the major rivers of Tamil Nadu, provides water for irrigation for almost the entire area of Tamil Nadu known as the rice-bowl of India.

Last year when i had been to India in the summer months, the river was dry and just 2 days before i travelled to Trichy, the gates at the Mettur dam had been opened. It would have been a wonderful sight watching the first waves of the water enter Trichy. I was in trichy early this month and Kaveri was at her best with lots of water with a good flow. Below are some of the photos of this grand river of Tamil Nadu taken last year.

I took the photo of Malai-Kottai from the main bridge over the Kaveri (Chennai route) very early in the morning.

We also visited Mukkombu which is a main tourist attraction near Trichy. Mukkombu is actually a place where a dam has been constructed on the Kaveri. This dam is actually split into many sections because of the presence of an island in the middle of the river.

There were many people fishing from the dam using nets. There were hundreds of small fishes just next to the dam eagerly jumping to be caught!

Kaveri starts from Talakaveri in Kartanaka and finally flows into the Bay of Bengal at Poompuhar or Kaveripattinam or Kaveripoopattinam. This place was originally called Kaveri-pugum-pattinam i.e. the place where Kaveri enters. This town is also my native place and every time i go for a vacation, we try to make a trip to our "Kula Deivam" temple in this town.

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Back from vacation

Back in Cyprus after a month long vacation. In fact, the time in India during the vacation was more hectic than the regular working time in Cyprus! But, the vacation was great. I travelled a lot, visited beautiful villages in Tamil Nadu, went on a low cost airline, went to Singapore for a vacation within a vacation, attended my brother-in-law's wedding and much much more. So, there are lot of posts and photos in the pipeline...

Diwali rockets have sky-rocketed

This is my first Diwali in India in six years and i was quite surprised by the relative lack of excitement visible on the streets considering that Diwali was just around the corner. Where are the crackers? Where is the noise?

Back then, when we were in school, my brother and i used to be allocated a budget to buy crackers. We would then do lot of complicated mathematics with the price list to arrive at an optimum combination of "hardcore" bombs and soft ones like the traditional flowerpot, pencils etc. It was important that we start bursting crackers before the "rest of the gang" and we had crackers left to burst after the rest had burned out theirs.

This year, i didn't have much of a company and i too wasn't very keen on bursting a lot of crackers. So, the purchase was put off until yesterday evening. Yesterday, i got the details on the good places to buy crackers and visited those shops. The first one i visited "theoretically" started around half a km before the actual shop, as the queue extended until there. I was in no mood to start an hour to purchase a few crackers. A similar story unfolded in all the other branded shops i visited. So, i went back to the "local" shops though i was told that the crackers might be a bit expensive there.

I had budgeted approximately 500 Rupees for the purchase, as i just wanted to have a feel of the crackers. I wanted to buy the entire course of crackers starting with the sparklers and ending with the rockets. I first asked for a pack of sparklers. Out of curiosity, i asked the shopkeeper for the price. He said "125 Rupees, sir". 125 rupees for a pack of sparklers! My purchase had almost finished as soon as it began! I was very careful in the further purchases enquiring about the price of each item before purchasing it. Good that i had forgotten the big shopping bag which i had intended to bring. Otherwise, it would have been an embarrassment if i had given the bag to the shopkeeper for the very few items that the 500 rupees would have got me. In fact, the number of items i got for the amount fit into a small plastic cover which usually fits two aavin 500ml milk packets!

Anyway Happy Diwali to one and all, while i go out for 5 minutes to burst the crackers i have bought...

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It is cold in Chennai - El Nino?

Chennaiites are not used to the weather being cold. Even when it is a pleasant 20-something (deg C), you can swarms of chennaiites out for their morning walk wearing their monkey caps or their shawls. You can even see people sitting around a fire to keep themselves warm from the cold 20 deg outside!

But, this time, it is really cold in chennai, really cold. Why else would a sane chennaite like me get up in the middle of the night and switch off the fan? Agreed that the electricity board does that often, but no one would do that in the bedroom. It is an open invitation for all the chennai-born mosquitoes to come and have you for dinner! But, i was forced to do so. I was never prepared for this and hence i don't have a quilt or something similar. So, i had to switch off the fan and put up a brave face against the mosquitoes.

As a result of this exceeding cold climate, the sale of monkey caps sky-rocketed and monkey caps manufactured by world renowned brands like rheebok, odidos and nikey started making an appearance on the streets of T.Nagar. Tamil Nadu police had even relaxed the rule in the mornings for two-wheeler drivers (which forced them to wear helmets), as they anyway wore 2 layers of monkey-caps which was equally thick.

While the scientists and other equally bright scholars at IIT Madras were blaming El-Nino for this phenomenon, Jayalalitha made a statement on Jaya TV:

"My dear brothers and sisters of Chennai, don't believe the statements made by the scientists. They are in connivance with the minority DMK government. It is not "E" "l" (pronounced eee-yell) Nino which is responsible for your suffering, but EEE-Yell-ThamizhThanniMagan (Cousin of ThamizhKudiMagan) who is responsible. EEE-Yell-ThamizhThanniMagan is the minister of state for caps and his son has recently started a factory manufacturing monkey-caps. To increase sales, their TV channel started showing lower temperatures in their weather forecasts thus leading people to believe that it is actually cold. It is not! Throw away your monkey caps. Even I have removed my shawl to prove that it is not cold (there was a highly greyed image of Jayalalitha shown without her shawl)"

Whether it is El-Nino or EEE-Yell-ThamizhThanniMagan who is responsible, I don't care! But, it is cold in Chennai!

Technorati Tags: chennai India El Nino Jayalalitha

It is vacation time!

It is home sweet home for a month, as I am in Chennai now on my annual vacation. It's been 4 days now and it has not been the usual "home sweat home", as the weather, surprisingly, is quite pleasant with intermittent drizzles. I was here in april for a one-week short vacation but this time, I managed to get time off for the full quota of 1 month.

It is Navratri time here in Chennai. Since we are here this year, Vidhya didn't create the kholu back in Cyprus like she did last year. My mom has kep a BIG kholu (deserves a separate post with photos!) and my house has been seeing a steady stream of visitors, keeping me confined to the interiors of our house.

This vacation looks to be a very hectic one going by the places we are going to travel to. Another reason is that Vidhya's bro is getting married and we have a lot of shopping to do. Like last year, i have an opportunity to witness a grand indian wedding of a close family member. As always, we have a pilgrimage tour for 5 days planned early next month before Diwali. I am looking forward to Diwali, since it will be my first Diwali in India in 5 years. Luckily, i will be back in Cyprus on the day of the Diwali Party. I am planning a 3 day vacation-within-a-vacation to Singapore along with my parents. lotsa things to do ...

With all this, i try to get in a few hours of badminton a day. And, I am supposed to be on vacation taking rest....

India win again Pakistan in the final and are the twenty 20 world champions

Wow, this was some amazing final. After India's poor showing with the bat, everyone felt that Pakistan would easily overhaul this total and win the final. But, it was not to be so. The Indian bowlers though wayward at times, kept their cool and somehow managed to win by a narrow margin of 5 runs. This was a good game for India and more importantly, a good one for the twenty 20 version. This version is here to stay and it is the future.

Guess what, I didn't have to cook up any false reason to go home early. Amdocs decided to screen the big final on the big screen for all to watch. Way to go Amdocs!

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India Pakistan final at the twenty 20 world cup today

Leave alone the mother, it is the grandmother of all cricket matches! An India Pakistan clash at a final of a world cup, it is the dream of every Asian cricket fan.

India will grind to a halt today starting 5.30 pm (luckily, it is almost the end of an office day). Poor me, the start is at 3 pm local time here in Cyprus. I am still working on the pretexts i can give, to leave early. I hope that this match turns out to be as exciting as the India Australia semi-final clash and i hope that someone hits six sixers in an over just like Yuvraj did the other day.

All the best India!

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Karunanidhi adds fuel to the Ram Setu controversy

Everyone is talking about it, every news channel has a debate on it, whole of India is talking about few kilometres of sand somewhere in the middle of Palk Strait between Sri Lanka and India called Ram Setu (or Ram Sethu in some cases). This sand bar is mythologically supposed to be the bridge that Lord Rama built to cross over to Sri Lanka in search of Sita.

What i don't understand is none of the TV channels ever called me to take my opinion. How can they not take the opinion of RajaRam Sethuraman!! My name is in the midst of this entire controversy (or the other way around, whatever!) and no one asks me for my opinion! The next time, you hear Karunanidhi asking which engineering college Ram studied in, just say to him that it was in BITS Pilani and I am sure that he won't say anything more.

Not many know that I am a direct descendant of Lord Rama and that it why I am named so. Unfortunately, there is not enough freedom of speech in India for someone like Dan Brown to write about Ram's bloodline like he wrote about Jesus' bloodline in the Da Vinci Code. But why, you may ask, am i a dravidian now when Lord Rama was an Aryan? Elementary, my friend! It gets damn cold in Ayodhya in the winter months and my ancestors decided to move down south to the much warmer areas. So, in all aspects, I am a dravidian now.

Looking back, i regret ever being an Aryan. They do whatever they can to put down the dravidians. Yes, Rama the king existed (how else would i be here now!) and an evil Sri Lankan had indeed kidnapped his wife. So, Rama had travelled down south to rescue his wife. But, centuries later when Valmiki decided to put this story on paper (or whatever was the equivalent at that time), he wanted to add glamour to the story and in doing so, the true nature of aryans came to the fore. Why else would he write thus "Rama marched south and took the help of the monkeys to cross over to Lanka"! Did only monkeys live in the south? or were rama's forces primitive enough to know only to communicate with monkeys?

This attitude still prevails today. Recently, the Indian Railways decided to remove Idlis and Dosas from the menu on the trains. Yeah, the South Indians have to survive by having Hot Jalebis with milk (yuck!) for breakfast like i had to during my stint at BITS.

But, don't worry, my dear Dravidian friends, the time is ripe for a revolt and who else but Rahul Dravid to captain us on this holy war. Rahul Dravid had timed his resignation to perfection. In a way, he knew about this impending struggle and had to resign because, according to BCCI clauses, you cannot be a part of more than one organisation. Forget about Karunanidhi and his DMK, let us march with RDMK (Rahul Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) led by our beloved Rahul Dravid.

And, anyone who dares to make any further comment on NDTV about Ram Setu, talk to me before you even utter a word ...

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Yuvraj Singh hits six sixers in an over

First, it was Herschelle Gibbs, now it is our very own Yuvraj Singh. It was the penultimate over of the Indian innings and god only knows what came over Yuvraj Singh, he just broke loose hitting poor Stuart Broad for six sixes in the over. In case you missed the India England match yesterday, you can watch the video of Yuvraj Singh hitting six sixers here.

All you Singhs/Sardars/both, it is party time. Go ahead, shed your apprehensions, raise your hands and dance!

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Happy Ganesh Chaturthi

So, it was Ganesh Chaturthi the last weekend and like last year, Vidhya made a Ganesha idol, only that this year Lord Ganesh turned out to be a little fatter than last year. I hope that this is a sign of prosperity in the year to come :-)

This year, there was an extra member added to Ganesha's family, his friendly rat!

Next year, we should think of changing the colour of the clay we use. We might get a cool looking Ganesha then!

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I hate Mayawati

so says Manoj Singh Naruka in his orkut community named "I Hate Mayawati". NDTV and other TV channels having been showing reports that Maywati is pissed off by "fake" profiles on orkut and demeaning comments written by the authors about her. There was also a report which said that Google acknowledged that fake profiles are against the policy of orkut.

Assuming that creating a profile with the name of someone is against the policy of orkut, is having a community which speaks against a person illegal? This community was shown on NDTV and I am assuming that Manoj Singh is already a celebrity for all the wrong reasons. I don't know anything about Mayawati, in fact i don't know and i don't care about Indian politics, so i don't have anything to say for or against her , but does this mean the end of freedom of speech in India ? or some might ask, was there ever such a thing as freedom of speech in India?

In fact, my neighbour has always wanted to start a website http://www.ihatemayawati.com/, the mayawati in question is not the UP Chief Minister, but a lady called Mayawati Rama Devi who lived from 1882-1923. It seems that this Mayawati had slapped his great-grandfather who had accidentally bumped into her on August 10th, 1902 at the local market. Though his great-grandfather had apologised saying that it was an accident, she started shouting and as always in India, a crowd collected and boo'ed him. He was "greatly" insulted by this. This story passed on from him to his son to his son and finally to my neighbour. This was regarded as a family insult and my neighbour had always wanted to take revenge. But, with the current circumstances where uneducated accomplices of politicians go witch-hunting, where constitutional rights take a back-seat, having a website called ihatemayawati.com, though intended for Mayawati Rama Devi is an open invitation for trouble.

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Kerala celebrates Onam

To all the Mallus, whether you are Nairs or not, Happy Onam !

Happy 368th Birthday Chennai

Chennai (w.k.a Madras) is celebrating its 368th birthday today on August 22nd. There are lot of activities like tshirt design contests, quizzes etc being organised in Madras in the coming week. Wish i were there now!

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It's cricket world cup time again - Twenty20

Even before the wounds from the cricket world cup had a chance to heal completely, we have another one just around the corner. It is the twenty 20 format this time. The twenty20 cricket world championships were formally inaugurated recently in South Africa and will start on September 11th with a match between South Africa and West Indies in Johannesburg.

India is grouped with arch rivals Pakistan in Group D. Maybe, they did this so that fans are assured that they will play against each other. During the world cup, the organisers committed a blunder by assuming that India and Pakistan will get through the preliminary round and planned for their clash in the Super-8s. This time though, they learnt from the experience and put them both in the same group.

So, who do you think will win the Twenty20 cricket world championship ? Take this poll and let us know.

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The unknown past of a celebrity

This video uncovers it all...

I originally had the flash playing in this post, but few complained that it was too obnoxious a sound to be playing continuously whenever this page is opened.

So, I am linking to the swf file. Right-Click and then Save-as on your PC and then view it in a browser window.

Click here to download the swf file.

The Best of the new seven wonders

Last week, the new 7 wonders of the world were announced to be the following monuments: Great Wall of China, Petra in Jordan, Christ Redeemer in Brazil, Machu Picchu in Peru, Chichen Itza in Mexico, The Colosseum in Italy and the Taj Mahal in India. According to the new 7 wonders website where these were declared:

All the New 7 Wonders are equal and are presented as a group without any ranking.

But, I am sure that everyone would be interested to know as to which the "best" wonder of the world is (from among the list above). This information has not been revealed, so lets try to decide ourselves. So, i have created a poll above with the list of the new seven wonders. Vote for whichever monument you think deserves to be called the "best" wonder of the world.

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What i learned from driving in India

Before i moved to Cyprus six years back, i had been driving motorbikes (or motorcycles or just bikes as they are called in India) and cars for more than 5 years then. This experience proved to be invaluable in being able to drive comfortably in Europe and the US. Driving in India is an enlightening experience, especially for any non-indian who is coming to India for the first time and lands up in any of the crowded metropolitan cities.

As part of the Group writing project currently on at Middle Zone Musings, i decided to pen down whatever i have learnt from my experience of driving in India.

• Indians are way ahead of the rest of the world in nano-technology. USA and Europe might be taking big steps in nanotechnology, but India is already light years ahead. Imagine, in the US, they have six-lane highways where you might find, if you are lucky, vehicles on four, or maybe if you are really lucky, five of the lanes. But, in India, we have single lane roads (ok, we actually don't have lanes, only roads) where, on a normal day, you will find a lorry, 2 buses, 3 cars, 4 vans,5 autorickshaws, 6 bicycles, 7 motorcycles and a few stray dogs within a range of a dozen square metres. Do you really need more inspiration for nanotechnology?
• Now i know why cars are damn cheap in India as compared to US or Europe. In fact, you can get a new car for under 4000 USD in India and in the last few weeks, many Automobile manufacturers have been announcing sub-2000 USD cars in India. Such a car would be an impossible dream in US, that even sci-fi movie and fantasy movie makers would not dare to project such cheap cars in movies lest the audience dump them for being over fantastical. So, why are cars cheap in India? To understand this, we need to look at cars being sold in the US. Cars are always released in many models, the basic one and the X-one which has many extra features like Bose Audio Systems, Rain Sensing Auto Wipers (or is this on the basic one?), anti-theft mechanism, and the like. So, you expect the X-one to be a lot costlier. In India, a similar X-model would have the following extra "fancy" features: Rear-View mirrors, Seat Belts, Rear Window Wipers, Child Lock and Air bags. The basic model is a car that runs, that's it. No wonder, they cost so less in India.
• Indians were the first in the world to introduce indicators on cars. The world was used to drivers pointing their hands in the direction they planned to take a turn. It was the same sign used in India too. But, the situation in India was different. Since the cars and other vehicles in India loved each other and travelled a few millimetres away from each other, showing a hand sign was an indication that you wanted your hand amputated. The growing number of hand amputations led the government to fund research and thus they came up with indicator lamps for the cars!

If you commute a lot to work daily and feel stressed out by this, take a vacation in India and drive around the cities. When you go back to your country (unless you are from Thailand!), you will feel as if you are driving in space with the whole highway built just for you. Enjoy!

If you are interested to participate in another group writing project, check out the Friday the 13th Group Writing Project.

Technorati Tags: India, driving in India, cars, traffic

A Good Indian Wedding

My only cousin got married a few days ago. Probably, I am one amongst a handful of Indians of the current generation, who has only one direct cousin, including the father's and the mother's side. So, this was an important occasion for me to attend. Luckily, the wedding coincided with my annual pilgrimage/vacation to India.

This was a good Indian wedding, which I was expecting it to be, considering the importance of this wedding to me! So, what makes a good Indian wedding? It may be similar to big, fat Greek weddings, as in, Indian weddings are big, in scale, in money spent and also in the number of people attending. Indian weddings definitely make one feel fat, with the dozens of varieties of food items on offer during the course of the two or three days of the wedding.

Ironically, Greek weddings are neither big nor fat. I had the opportunity of attending the wedding of one of my Cypriot (Greeks known by a different name) colleagues. Her wedding was held at a “family” church with around a 100 people attending, with more than half of this number being the neighborhood kids! She was so tense before the “walk to the altar”, that she was puffing away at cigarettes just outside the church, to calm her nerves! The strangest part of the wedding, at least for me, was that the entire wedding process, that of the priest solemnizing the marriage and the “I do” sessions were held with their backs to the audience. So, we spent the entire time sitting in the church watching the butts of the bride and the groom!

Back to the good Indian wedding, my cousin’s wedding was very good and it followed a very good schedule. It started off with very good Tiffin early in the morning and 3 or 4 cups of good filter coffee in the few hours after. All this while, something was happening on stage (mandap), something related to the marriage, I suppose. By then, it was time for a good heavy traditional lunch (Sambhar, Rasam, Butter Milk etc). Lunch was followed by a brief afternoon siesta for 2-3 hours. By this time, the bride and the groom had spent many hours in front of the “smoking altar”, cleansing their sinus cavities in this process. I came to know, that the couple had been officially married in the time I had been away for lunch. Next, it was evening snacks time, Pakodas, Badushas and some mixture, of course with the usual servings of filter coffee. Then came the reception. “Reception” in an Indian marriage is done to show off to the public, that the couple is still happy and smiling in spite of having gone into wedlock. When it is time for “reception” for the couple, it is time for dinner for the people attending the reception. The “reception dinner” is usually the best of the lot, as this is the time, when the work-bosses of the parents or the couple, good looking friends of the bride, the not-so-good looking friends of the groom who came to look at the good looking friends of the bride and other socially and economically relevant people attend. Needless to say, it was good.

My cousin has no brothers (If you hadn’t concluded this after the first line of this entry, go and practice old Infy question papers). She has 3 cousin brothers and I am the eldest of the lot. So, I had additional responsibilities, the foremost being that of ensuring that the quality and quantity of food being served at the wedding was adequate. So, there I was, at least 15 minutes before each session, first in line for the pandhi (serving). Not only had I to check the quality of each and every food item, I also had to ensure that everyone got whatever quantity they asked for. So, I had to keep asking for more servings of almost all items to ensure that there was sufficient for all. I had to different kind of tests too. For example, when I was eating the payasam at the end of the dinner and the seats to my either side had been vacated as far as the eye could see, I wanted to test their responsiveness to unplanned requests (thanks to my company’s customer satisfaction survey for giving me the idea of this test). So, with a cup of payasam in my hand, I shouted “One appalam (papad) please”. The guy with the appalams almost fell down in surprise. Good that he actually didn’t, for if he had, all the appalams would have been crushed. Surprised, yet cheerful, he handed me an appalam and asked “Sir, do you need some rice to go with the appalam”. Good guy!

Finally, after three days of the same tough routine of getting my responsibilities right, the good Indian wedding came to an end and may the couple live happily ever after.