The Mani Ratnam heroine

What is it that makes every growing adolescent guy (and even his grown up father) wish that the woman-of-his-dreams is someone like the chirpy, fun-loving Geetanjali (Girija) in Idayathai Thirudathe or the bubbly and adorable Preity (Preity Zinta) in Uyire. Who would not want to have an understanding soul-mate like Chithu aka Chitra (Revathy) in Anjali or Indira (Simran) in Kannathil Muthamittal. Hey forget all this, who doesn't like the brave Roja (Madhoo) in Roja, the strong-willed Shakti (Shalini) in Alaipaayuthe or the stunning Meera (Kareena) in Yuva :-) Ok, pardon me just that last inclusion. So what is it about Mani Ratnam and the magic he weaves around his heroines ?

While jealous peers and obsessed critics fault his supposed fixation with style, they forget that at the heart of all of Mani's masterpieces is a wonderfully etched, multi-layered female protagonist. I need not look beyond Mouna Ragam, one of Mani's timeless classics and a movie I have seen 15 times fully (no exaggeration this) to prove my point. The heroine Divya (played by Revathy) is one of Mani's most interesting character sketches till date - here is a gal who is the apple of her family's eye, used to getting her way in everything, raised almost like a guy - boldness et al. But again all it takes for her to be swept off her feet is a dashing local thug (Cmon, Manohar played by Karthik is not like a glorified Robin Hood et al) and some hopeless romantic stunts. Falling for him like a tonne of bricks, Divya tries to make a proper citizen of the man but fails and loses him forever. To make matters worse, she is then forced into a marriage with a total stranger Chandrakumar (played by Mohan) and has to move to Delhi. Seeing her near-perfect world come crashing down within a few weeks, she is now forced to be someone she has never ever imagined possible. How she copes with a reality that is stranger than her worst dreams and how she rediscovers life is brilliantly depicted in true Mani style. Some scenes which stand out in my memory are

# When her husband asks her what she would like for a wedding present, Divya asks for a divorce

# When Divya leaves the wedding party at home in a huff and then repents for her hasty actions

# When Divya explains to her visiting parents how things are all fine between her husband and her

# When Divya wears the anklet and tries to grab her husband's attention

# When Divya finally sheds her ego and confesses her love for her husband

Where are these real life Divyas? Please don't tell me they are like Santa Claus :-(

The Numbers Series - Part 1

10 of my all-time favorite romantic Tamil film numbers (whew.. that’s a lot of adjectives) Here they are in no particular order

• Kadhal Rojave (Roja) - USP: Awesome SPB, sublime lyrics, the electronic flute
  
• Anjali Anjali (Duet) - USP: Sax and sentimental lyrics
  
• Kaadhalin Deepam (Thambikku Endha Ooru) - USP: Rajini, Madhavi and er.. Madhavi
  
• Andhi Mazhai (Rajapaarvai) - USP: The violins, a song to be heard on a rainy afternoon
  
• Enna Satham (Punnagai Mannan) - USP: SPB, the pauses and silences in between
  
• Valai Osai (Sathya) - USP: Amalaaaaaaaaa...drooooool
  
• Om Namaha (Idayathai Thirudathe) - USP: Janaki and hehe..the picturisation !
  
• Pani Vizhum (Ninaivellam Nithya) - USP: Rich lyrics, listen to it as u jog in the morning
  
• Pottu vaitha (Idayam) - USP: I have no clue but I love this number :-)
  
• Sundari Kannaal (Thalapathi) - USP: SPB agai
  

9 women I'd love to date. Again in no particular order

• Catherine Zeta Jones - a classical beauty if ever there was one
  
• Priyanka Gandhi - there's something about this lassie - deserves much better than that bloke Wadhera.
  
• Perizaad Zorabian - or is it the character she plays in Joggers Park. Whoever :-)
  
• Benazir Bhutto - a woman of substance
  
• Courtney Cox Arquette - Greek Goddess and I am specifically talking of her... chuck de ;-)
  
• Kareena Kapoor - she's got some spunk and chutzpah and I love that in women
  
• Meg Ryan - America's sweetheart and mine too. Hey Meg, you've got mail (from me)
  
• Carrie Anne Moss - she's hotttttttttttttttttt ! Need i say more?
  
• Sushmita Sen - one of the very few cases where brains and beauty overlap
  

Dare to dream, Jupie :-)

8 "Never-do-it-with-Jupie" things on YM

1. Buzz when in the middle of a conversation - If u don’t see anything from my side, it means I am thinking.

2. Use emoticons for no rhyme or reason - I jes don’t get most of 'em :-(

3. Reply with monosyllables like K, Aye, Na esp when I am in TOK mode.

4. Not say anything when I am in LISTEN mode. Silence sucks.

5. Reply to SUP with "the ceiling" - that’s my patented line :-)

6. Set status messages in alien languages

7. Say "You are soooo funny" or "Whoever is gonna marry you is a very lucky person" - more so if you happen to be a friend of the opposite sex (Why is it every gal except "the actual one" feels this way)

8. Change the Environment I have loaded to somethin' else - hurts my ego!!

Supplementary to 8 - 8a. Play chess and beat me at it.

Ramanand Janardhanan

I won my first open quiz for all school students when I was in my Std: 6. From then till now, quizzing has been one of my biggest passions. If it was Balls by Picasso at RECT, then it was the daily afty quiz at Infy-Chennai. Though we tried a lot to make Quizzine at SP a regular feature, the results were far from satisfactory. The quizzing circle at Wipro is pathetic to say the least and so these days I stay content watching THE CHALLENGE in CNBC on Saturday nights (where the SP team incidentally is screwing the corporate world - WTG Dipanjan) and reruns of MASTERMIND INDIA on Sundays in BBC. Which brings us to the reason for this post.

For those of you unaware of the MASTERMIND series, please look t up here. I am a big, big fan of the Mastermind series and gave it a shot in 2001 in Pune where I missed the prelims cut off by 1.5 points. Believe me it was bloody difficult and thank heavens I didn’t make it through since I would have surely been severely exposed. Since then I have watched as many episodes of Mastermind as was possible. I have been fortunate to see some wonderful quizzers be it Mohit P or Amalesh M from Infy and even that wonderful lady, Priyamvada who won Mastermind India 2000. But after seeing a repeat of Ramanand's winning Mastermind India 2003 finals performance today morning, I am beginning to feel very very inadequate. After scoring a massive 25 in his chosen subject of Stories of Tommy and Tuppence by Agatha Christie, he blew the opposition away with a stand-out performance in the GK round to score a cumulative 42 which fell short of Priyamvada's all time high of 43 by just one. I suspect he actually took it easy towards the end but that still does not take away absolutely anything from this masterful performance. And I am not yet done.. On googling for this guy, I came across his blog and my, he writes brilliantly. I had always considered myself unique in my own way - maybe Jack of a million trades - but after seeing Ramanand, I havta to be the joker of the pack. This guy is simply awesome. Check out his pet JaDe project. Btw, he is a Tam :-))

I think I have been in self deprecation mode for too long now. Ain't I de best ? Bye sweetoos !

The Bridge Across Forever

Jonathan Livingston Seagull (JLS) was a masterpiece. I savoured every minute of reading it and was so impressed that strangely, for a long time i resisted reading more of Bach. I didnt want to lose "the feel good" factor. Illusions was strongly recommended but i resisted the temptation. But when i chanced upon THE BRIDGE ACROSS FOREVER while roaming the Sunday roadside market of Pondicherry with my uncle, i cudn't hold back any longer. Ok, the fact that my uncle recommended it was good enough but what clinched it was the fact that it was priced at Rs 10 :-)

300 odd pages later, i understood why this book evokes such extreme reactions and reviews - With good reason too. To cut a long story short, TBAF's about Bach's seemingly endless quest to find his soulmate. Every person who's ever been in love or who's looking for love can relate to this. Bach explores varied emotions like love,insecurity, fear, despair, success, betrayal and handles them with such aplomb - transporting the reader effortlessly into his own world so much so that soon we begin to go through his emotional rollercoaster.The book's "literally" laced with striking metaphors,liberally dosed with flowery prose and takes the reader on alluring trips up and down time. On the downside, Bach does tend to go overbo(red)ard with allegorical references.The stories of flying do not strike a chord with all and the book becomes a drag once Bach and Leslie start on their sermonising tours. Towards the end, one also gets the feeling that the book could have been a good 50 pages shorter.Still, for those people who are on the lookout for their soulmate, this book offers solace and is a real eye opener - it asks to open our hearts, look within and not to give up hope as there is someone yearning for us as hard as we're pining for them :-) How corny !!

A few lines from the book to help you make up your mind:

She reached out and touched my face..."Did you ever feel," she said. "that you were missing someone you had never met?"

"The only thing that shatters dreams is compromise."

"Look in a mirror and one thing's sure: what we see is not who we are."

"We're the bridge across forever, arching above the sea, adventuring for our pleasure, living mysteries for the fun of it, choosing disasters triumphs challenges impossible odds, testing ourselves over and again, learning love and love and LOVE!"

Whodunit ?

"America's leadership must be guided by the lights of learning and reason or else those who confuse rhetoric with reality and the plausible with the possible will gain the popular ascendancy with their seemingly swift and simple solutions to every world problem."

These are notes from the speech that was to be made at the Trade Mart in Dallas on November 22, 1963. Just that they were never delivered. Barely anyone recognizes these lines today. However, "The president is dead" are immortal words entrenched in the memory of people who went through the trauma of seeing one of the world's most popular statesman shot dead by a “mad” sniper.

The murder of John F Kennedy.

My interest in this whole affair was sparked off by Oliver Stone's award winning but highly controversial movie JFK. Gripping plot, convincing performances, excellent direction - the movie had it all. I was so taken up by the whole saga that I must confess I spent a good part of two months in my second year at SP reading a helluva lot of material on the JFK murder. Starting from the Warren commission report to the Clay Shaw case transcripts to the single bullet theory, I suppose I must have read loads and loads of documents but what is fascinating is that even today whilst it is known that Lee Harvey Oswald was the one who pulled the trigger, no one still knows whether he did it all by himself or there were people behind it. Was it the KGB or J.Edgar Hoover and his FBI? Or maybe it was the handiwork of the Texas Oil Barons or Castro or the Cosa Nostra? There is no dearth of evidence but it's been virtually impossible piecing it all together and coming to one firm conclusion. 41 years later, the JFK murder continues to be one the most confounding whodunits in the history of crime.

I am very passionate about the subject and this post might have made absolutely no sense to people who are not aware of this case. However if you are someone who loves a mystery and has time to spare, just ping me and I shall share all the wonderful links I have assiduously collected over the last two years. Trust me, there is so much literature on this case in the net that I wished I was in the business of coding and “in bench” :-)

What a day !

Thursday, August 5th, 2004 11:02
Perfect. Just about perfect. That would sum up today. Maybe the only glitch was that i had to be awake at half past six in the morning since it was gonna be a big day but then once i was up, everthing went on like clock-work. Switching on my CD player to start the day with the sweet strings of Pt. Ravishankar on the sitar, went through the daily ritual - brushing my teeth, coffee with Good Day biscuits, shining my shoes and checking the previous day's answers to the Hindu crossword. By this time water was at just the right temperature for my bath :-) After the bath, switching on telly to catch the day's headlines and finally having to rush through the dressing up and catching EC-9A. My usual seat was taken but got another one by the window and had the mandatory nap :-) It was chilly when the bus finally reached EC, checked the welcome board near Gate 6 and then had the usual idli-vada at EC1 canteen for breakfast. The chutney tasted nice and the sambhar was piping hot. So far so good :-)

I had hardly reached my seat and checked mails when i got the call from Gate 6 that the customers were already in. Never one to be disturbed when mails are concerned, read each one of them before rushing over to escort them to Nagarhole. After flaunting my newly printed business cards, started with the presentation at around half past 9 and went on till quarter past 10 without a hitch in between - not a stutter not a single loong pause to cook up a story nor a question where i wasn't confident of an answer. Then there were some technical discussions which were plainly boring (Greek n Latin are easier) so got a pal of mine to call me up and using that as an excuse skipped out. Came back to my seat to see a scorching fire - had to work really hard and quick to turn around a presentation for a meeting at a customer's premise at 1 pm. Dit it successfully and returned back to the customer meeting at hand just in time for lunch at 1:15 pm. Usually i try and dodge these since the food is awful but i had hand-picked the menu this time so gorged down some delicious paneer, rotis, pulav and rosagullas :-) Even the Pepsi can opened without troubling me :-) Post lunch, we took them on a tour of the campus and i was totally in my elements spinning stories about our amazing training initiatives and security practices. Suitably impressed, we finally packed off our customers at around half past 3.

In no mood to start new work, i sent out a few official mails, updated the BDM on the happenings of the day, cleared some pending Six Sigma work and then visited my usual daily sites - Rediff, Salon, Indiafm, BBC, ESPN-Star, Yahoogroups...Bored and with still a few hours to kill before the 6 pm shuttle, I turned my attention to Yahoo Messenger.. And by Toutatius, chanced to make a new friend D - was nice chatting up with her and finding out that life in B-schools in Inida hadn't changed much. Hey, here's wishing you all the best for your placements in a few months..Till then FUN A LOT FIKAR NOT :-) And then it happened...(how i love dramatising it like this)

Just as i was about to pack my bags at around 5:30 pm, got embroiled in a nasty fight with one of my close friends on YM. Almost 3 hours and a lot of Grrrrs and :-(s later, our friendship strengthened ten-fold. (Di, if you are reading this, you r de best!!) Took the 8:30 pm shuttle but was denied a nap thanks to my seat-mate who insisted on chatting all the way along about how small towns like Bhopal and Trichy were much better places to settle down than Bangalore. Thank God the driver drove really fast :-) Reached home, had a quick dinner, flipped thru ET and watched Friends. Twas the episode where each of them reminisce about their 30th B'days - laughed my guts off though Dad cudn't see anything funny in it - He's getting old :-) At half past 10, switched channels to see a 20-20 match between Lancashire and Yorkshire - War of the Roses - Ian Harvey was in awesome form. Its now 11:20 pm and as i type this away, i am listening to the OST of Passion of the Christ. Should go to bed in another 15. If only every day could be like this......

ps: Dinesh Kaarthik is in the Indian team. Yessssssssss. This merits a separate post.

Group work :-)

Ever asked a B school grad who are the most important people in his/her life for those 2 years? Professors, placement reps, room-mates, (girl/boy) friend....?? Na..

Professors can be booted out by giving bad feedback and you can choose competent people to be your placement reps. Girl/boy friends are available dime-a-dozen and if you have a bad apple as your room-mate, you can still work around it by kicking him/her out or swapping rooms so that you get to stay with like-minded people. But if there is one thing which is not "technically" in your control, then it is the selection of your acad group mates. Most B-schools today lay strong emphasis on group work - and more often than not, to form these groups names are drawn randomly from a hat. Trust me, for all practical purposes, these acad groups could make or break your life - these are the people with whom you need to spend a minimum of 12 hours of group work every week besides the tonnes of assignments and presentations and submissions.

I must admit that i was very fortunate in my first year to be part of some really wonderful acad groups. My Trime 1 acad group, as providence would have it, was full of Tams. We were 5 of us, of which there were 2 pucca Tams, me n my bro Venki and then there was GOD, a Tallu (half Tam half Mallu) and then there were these two Palghat people settled in Mumbai, Suchi and Narayan, who claimed the language they spoke was Tamil :-p You can imagine the kind of riotous fun we had in our meetings and group studies. We used to sit in the Bistro, sing Rajini songs, chat and gossip and do everything but work. Finally when push came to shove, we would fight over who would do the assignment and usually boiled down to either Suchi or Narayan saving our skin. My fondest memory of this group has to be the group OM viva- voce we had with Chacku. Or was it Sesha Iyer and QM ? Oh god, we were asked some really stupid Qs (read: Qs for which we didnt know the answers) and since it was a group viva, i recollect each of us muttering in Tamil to the other and helping out with the answers. The best part was when I forced Suchi to change her correct answer to my incorrect one and ended up getting her the least marks. Was she furious ?? Ha Ha Ha !!

At SP, we also had a system by which every student was Course Coordinator (CoCo) for a particular subject in a Trime. There were a few Professors who did not believe in random allocation and allowed students the liberty of forming their own groups with the help of the CoCos. Marketing, which ran across all 3 Trimes in first year, was one such course where we had a separate acad group. As luck would have it, i was one of the CoCos for this subject in Trime 1 and could not believe my luck when i was told to form the groups that would work across trimes and assignments for the whole of first year. Suffice to say that i was one of my the most wanted guys in campus those few days since every Tom, Dick, Harry and Jane wanted favors.

Realizing the gravity of the situation and the seriousness of the decisions ahead of me (:-P), I ran an in-depth profile analysis to select my own group first. With all honesty, i wanted some real diversity so that the learning process would be beneficial to all the members. After some serious soul searching, i chose a Bong, Anirban (O-neer-bon) from the software industry (someone i cud relate to coz i was under the misconception that all Bongs were profound intellectuals), a hard-working n enthu Narayan (it also helped that he was a Mumbaikar and we expected to be invited to his house for food), an intelligent and down-to-earth Mangesh from the manufacturing sector and a freaky, fun-loving fresher Tushar with a commerce degree from St.Xaviers. It all then boiled down to the choice of the female. I had known a few of my batch mates through e-mail interactions before joining SP and i naturally wanted to bond with them closer. But since i had to accommodate some of my friends' requests, I finally zeroed down on a smart lady, Taruni with a Japanese Honors from JNU. My My, what fun we had in our group.

At the start of the year, we had to select a company/sector which the group would track and apply all Marketing fundae in presentations. As self-appointed leader of the group, i scheduled a meeting when Taruni wasn't around and we "unanimously" agreed to select WIPRO and the IT sector :-) Needless to say, Taruni who knew nothing about even computers (at that time) leave alone software industry, was furious. Till today, she accuses me of sabotaging her grand plans to learn some Marketing in B-school. We had great fun the whole year - We fought like crazies, we gave ourselves nicknames (Raunchy, Nari, Mangy, Tusku, Fishfood and Hitler) and we partied hard.

What would SP have been without these acad groups !!

Relaxxxxxxxxxx

You can keep a man away from his blog but you cannot keep blogging away from him. So if As You Like It doesn't want me, i am sure there are loads of people who would give an arm and a leg for a guest post from me. Neway, this is just for the 21 of you darlings who seem to have visited my site despite knowing there would be no activity here. I happen to be writing this week at OKs where i am a joint contributor (shameless self-publicity) - so u know where to go now :-)

Bye bye sweetoos!!

The unfortunate letters series - 2

Hey old hag,

You did it once in the past when u shifted jobs - i didn't take offence coz i kinda understood. But u r doing it again now - u think i don't know, dont u ? Okie, i know all about January 2005. So will u be honest and tell me or do i need to be kept waiting. Don't u know happiness is the only thing that doubles when shared. We r pals, right ?

Cheerio,
J

**********************************************************************************
Hello Mr.Curious,

Thanks for that compliment that i seem to be managing my time well. Many of the posts are typed on the spur of the moment (I try my best though to "collect my thoughts", "get organised" and "run a spell check" always), quite a few have been ideas at the back of my head for a long time  but nowadays with my lappie back in action (yippeeee), i do type some of these posts at odd hours. For example, the H20 post was done at around 3 am when i couldn't get to sleep :-) Did that answer your question ? Good. Next fanmail pls.

Cheers,
Me
 
**********************************************************************************
Dear u-no-hu,

I..errr..wanted to know if...(Tongue-tied) Chuck de (Shud i - shud i not) Not now atleast. (how much longer Jupie)
 
Have a super day :-)
R

**********************************************************************************
Respected Premji-san,

"Sorgame endraalum adhu namma Wipro pola varuma" Sorry, got carried away. I just meant to say "I love your company and adore you" :-) You were so nice during the MSI, now be a good ol' man and give me a whopping PPR and i will serve you loyally. In case you are a little confused about the %, maybe i can send you my timesheets for the last 2 weeks to help you make up your mind. Or easier still, repeat after me - Jupie deserves a 50% hike :-))))

Kind regards,
Emp no: 93135

**********************************************************************************
Dei PB,

I know you don't read this blog but i will get someone to fwd u this post coz i am way too nice to ask u all this F2F :-)  Here's my wish list

1. Wireless headfones
2. Twelve O' Clock High VCD
3. Loads of chocos

Doesn't it look familiar? Yeah. Its precisely what i asked you last time around when u claimed u had no time to shop ;-) Take care and go to Vegas this time without fail.
 
R
 
**********************************************************************************
My dear dear blog,

I've been hearing from people that u were cribbing about how i rarely give you an off. How would you like a weeks break? Did i hear u say "Good riddance" :-)
 
See ya.
Ciao
Me
 
**********************************************************************************

The unfortunate letters series - 1

I've realised that sometimes when we don't really want to talk directly to people but still want to get some messages across, there are ways to do this tactfully. For example, we could drop some (not-so) subtle hints in letters that weren't supposed to have been read by the intended recipients but somehow got to them. I am NOT saying the following are something like that but... :-)

Dear girlfriend,

First things first. U shud have never married Boyfriend till the deadline was over :-( I know thats not how it is in My Best Friend's Wedding but still... :-(

Secondly a) Having done it, u shud quit trying to keep in touch with "whats happening" here. Its so annoying. OK? :-(
Secondly b) I have still not seen HUM TUM so stop asking me again n again n again. Grrrrr.

Thirdly, I am sure you have read those stupid Erica Jong books (i remember seeing FEAR OF FLYING in ur Chennai pigsty) - that woman spoke some sense too - here's her take on ADVICE "Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn't." So from now on, please advice accordingly :-)

Fourthly, I'm still waiting for those tickets to Singapore or have i been compromised in your latest austerity drive ?

Fifthly, summing up, u r such a pain - why don't they send you on a mission to Mars or Venus, whichever is further, for 6 years with the option of an extension :-))

Love
The-Jilted-One

************************************************************************

Dear Boyfriend,

Firstly a) Please get urself a job in a timezone where i do not have to endure 2 hrs of YM chat with ur better half on a day to day basis.
Firstly b) If you can't shift, i am game - get me a job faaaaar faar away, even Reykjavik will do.

Secondly, i don't like that name one bit. Its unisexual. Please, please dont let her take ALL the decisions.

Thirdly, thanks a million for saying more that night by not saying and jes listening. U r the best (but i am the bestest)

Love
R

ps: NSU is not that great da - ask your cousin to call me up.

************************************************************************
Dear Anon,

I know i said a lot of stuff that day but after a long nights sleep, i am wiser. You have been the catalyst yet again :-p I have kinda made up MY mind but I am NOT gonna tell YOU exactly what you should be doing - coz i have now realised i am not the most competent person to do that. After all i do seem to be "flippant" and "frivolous" so just follow your heart - it will never fail you. Take care and remember i am just a call away.

Forever
R

************************************************************************
Dear Ram,

The dear was put there purely coz my mom wouldn't approve otherwise. I know u r a real bozo and will probably never read this post but if u ever do, its time you returned my 4k back. Asshole ! (Mom, you didn't see or hear that)

Love (purely outta respect for my mom again)
B***u

Those were the best days of my life...

We were 16 of us in the Admissions Committee. We were the envy of most of our batch mates. We were the "chosen ones" - the ones who decided the future of SP. We had our parties - We had our fights - We went through all of it together - we were FAMILY.

Before our farewell, Aparna had this idea of designing a Tee shirt with a caricature of each of us in our characteristic poses. When she was through with it, we loved it so much that we decided we will take a snap along the same lines. Needless to say, lot of the poses weren't very flattering but we were all sports and today this is one snap that brings back a flood of memories. Attagal!! Here it is...


Adcom group snap
Originally uploaded by Jupieee.

Sitting/squatting from left to right

Thiruvalli Rangachari Anand aka TRAsh - Sharp brain hiding behind that lazy allure captured in the pose of Lord Ranganathan himself.

Nandakishore aka Nandu Re - The dancer/musician/artiste of the gang

Jayashri aka Amma - caught in the act - if it was the Kavach kundala for Karna, then its the cell phone for this lady :-)

Pranav Dhar aka Peelu and Neelam Singh aka Neelu - Thick as thieves, pals forever

Narayan Subramanian aka Nari - The sincere, serious, hard working swamiji who had to be persuaded to smile for this photograph

Aparna Sivakumar aka Appu - The creative brains behind ADCOM including this photo/caricature

Standing from Left to Right

Rahul Sarin aka Casanova - Young, dashing knight-in-shining-armor who doubled as Shweta's guardian angel

Shweta Jhanji aka JhaanGE - the "Behn of all Behns" tying the "Rakhi of the day"

Ramakrishnan aka Ki Bro - the smiling (due to relief) "Bhai of the day"

Rajesh Kumar aka Dada - ADCOMs home-bred Kumar Sanu

Ritesh Arya aka Aaloo - "Hic Hic Hurray" was his motto in life

Raghunandan aka Rags - "Show me the beer" was the mantra for this man

Sachin Anand aka Andy - Our Captain with his "usual luggage"

Amrit Pal Singh aka Paaji - "Wots my next funny line" reads the look on his face, always

Kiran Kumar Das aka KKD - Forever lurking behind, doing nothin'

Random musings at five past five

Just back from a 2 hr 32 mts 41 sec conference call. Of course i had a 7 mt break in between when i came back n did some important things..Hold on.. Like commenting on friends' blogs, replying to personal mails..Nothing official about it.. But these conf-calls can be sucha pain u know. Uffffffffff. How many more years am i gonna speak about this 1B$, 3O2OO employees, 30 offices, 91% schedule adherance, blah.. blah.. blah.. Oops. we just hired 6 more ppl so make it 30206. Neway need to unwind hence this post. Don't swear coz nobody is forcing you to read it.

Movie mania: Generally speaking, i seem to have a healthy dislike for sci-fi movies. To quote die hard fans of this genre, I have always lacked the "imagination or class" to appreciate such multilayered efforts. But one movie which beat the trend was Steven Spielberg's MINORITY REPORT. Saw it for the second time again on Star last Saturday and enjoyed it much more this time around. An ingenious concept, brilliant narrative, deft technique, sublime performances..The movie had it all.

I was always a sucker for mush (ok ok some ppl call it chick flicks) and when i heard my CD wala sing praises of this "latest" Pierce Brosnan movie being a "super hit", i fell for it. It takes a lot for me to rubbish a rom-com but LAWS OF ATTRACTION is very mildly put, absolute trash.  Imagine a romantic movie where there is no screen chemistry between the lead pair and comedy sequences are not even half as funny as Johnny Lever's (yikkkessss) - add to this insipid dialogues and a sleep-walking performance by the starcast and what do you have - A perfect recipe for a horrible Sunday evening. Avoid LAWS OF ATTRACTION like the beubonic plague.

Musical ramblings: I have still not got over the Phir Milenge hangover. My mom calls its the official Suprabhatham of 257/1 :-) Prasoon Joshi is the best thing to have happened to Bollywood in the last few years.. No, maybe Mallika Sherawat is..Or is it Katrina Kaif..Chuck de ;-)

Check out Jeene Ke Ishaare - Gulzar would be proud of lyrics like these...

Kuch Khushbuyen Yaadon Ke Jungal Se Beh Chali
Kuch Khidkiyan Lamhon Ke Dastak Pe Khul Gayi
Kuch Geeth Purane Rakhe The Sirhaane
Kuch Sur Kahin Khoye The Bandish Mil Gaye

Jeene Ke Ishare Mil Gaye
Bichde The Kinare Mil Gaye

Meri Zindagi Main Teri Baarish Kya Hui
Mere Raste Darya Bane Behne Lage
Meri Karvaton Ko Tune Aake Kya Chhua
Kahin Khwab Neendon Ki Gali Rehne Lage

for full lyrics

Book corner: Remember, you heard it first at my blog.  Its official now. THE RULE OF FOUR, the book i reco'd looong time back, is selling like hot cakes at all of India's book stores. Stars and celebrities ranging from Naseeruddin Shah to Sachin Pilot, Amisha Patel to Jupe are all planning to read it. Yes. Its out in hard-bound and it costs a whopping Rs. 510 (nobody gets me expensive gifts) *sob* *sob*

Miscellaneous:
Joke of the week:
My friend Mansur whoz joined IIMA this year won an election on Thursday. He successfully contested against 4 other "gentle"men to become the first year rep.

Funny: When i asked him what were the responsibilities of this exalted post, to quote him verbatim this is what he had to say "It means they the pgp office kicks my ass if they're not happy with the batch and the batch kicks my ass if they're not happy with the office"
Funnier: When quizzed on what made him stand for this "It's a big post for the 1st year -  not to mention the fact that i get to meet all the girls in the 1st year"
Funniest: When i asked him how he managed to win, he said "I stood on the planks of honesty, fairness and commitment"

Some things never change, do they ;-)

High point of yesterday:
People call me funny but compared to my bro, i am rank pedestrian. Venki's stories were legendary at SP and he's now joned MindTree here in B'lore. The Ki Bros r back though he refuses to meet me till i promise to share "my women" with him :-p  See, isn't he funny ?

Yesterday he had me in splits with stories of his interaction with Jiju Jolly (now eemajin yeh Mellu sey that), his boss and Ruku Jolly, his boss's sister. Wot's it gonna be today bro - If not for these Mellus, who wud provide us such free entertainment :-) As i say Lage Raho !!

Now will someone pls share with me a nice Mellu joke  :D

H2O

Jetting against the waters on a fast speedboat with the waves splashing on your face.
River rafting down the Ganges.

Sounds exciting? I agree but please count me out of all this - I'd rather sit back and listen to my friends yapping away on how adventurous it was. Its not that I don't like the thrill but I’d rather rock climb or go on a jungle trek.

Yes. The truth is "I am scared of water"

Born and brought up in a town which was pretty much away from the sea, my annual excursions to the beach in Pondicherry and Chennai (yucckkk) during my childhood had been very pleasurable except that I’d rarely ventured beyond 20 meters from the safest spots. Of course, I loved the waves drenching me wet, the shells getting stuck on my feet, the sands making me itchy for a nice hot bath but nothing on earth ever made me step beyond 20 meters - despite seeing kids half my height and age swimming in gay abandon in the middle of the sea (okie, that's another 20 meters further inside)

Looking back, I now remember how jittery I was during that short 5 minute motorboat drive from Juhu to Madh Island -  clinging onto the railing for dear life whilst a fisherwoman, who'd probably gone up and down that stretch all her life, balanced a huge basket on her head and still stood near the edge caring a damn for her safety. Brave woman she was.

Just to illustrate how much I fear water, let me recollect a nice incident from the not-so-distant past. My friends and I were seeing Titanic at Devi (or was it Sathyam) and when that famous scene where Leo and Kate stand at the edge and spread their arms out and enjoy the breeze and the beautiful blue sea around them, whilst my friends were rediscovering their romantic self, my inner voice kept shouting at me "He's gonna fall and the damn fool doesn't even have a life boat."

Talking of life boats, here's another humorous incident. A few months back, one of my oldest friends at work wanted to go swimming at our Corporate HQ. We have a lovely pool out there but more on it later. After a very persuasive lecture on how swimming helped one stay fit, the next five minutes were spent in him drilling into my head all the theory that went into the art of swimming - everything from hand-leg co-ordination to breathing and what not. Finally I was asked to change into trunks and just when we were about to dive into (not exactly, but again I will explain this later) the pool, I asked this million dollar question "Where is my life boat?". My friend tells me that amongst the on-lookers, some eyes popped and some jaws dropped. But I don’t remember any such thing. He exaggerates, as usual. I thought I was perfectly justified in being cautious. Didn't they teach these people at school that "Its better safe than sorry". Okie, now for that twist in the tale. The pool's depth was only 4 feet. You heard it right. 4 feet. But still, I was justified, wasn't I....No prizes for guessing that i didn't get into the pool that day. Went and played TT for an hour and beat the living daylights out of all and sundry. There's got to be a law or something which bans life-endangering sports like swimming and promotes healthy games like TT :-)

So many more stories but I am sure you folks have funnier stuff to narrate. So will leave it here...

Tour De France

A ferocious pull by Brian Charles Lara at the Lords - a masterful diving volley at the net by Boris Becker in Centre Court at Wimbledon - A chip over the bunker by Tiger Woods at the 16th at Augusta - a dizzying spell of potting by Ronnie O' Sullivan at the Crucible - a masterfully taken penalty by Helder Postiga to kick England out of Euro2004.

If there is no ball involved, it ain't sport. Sports does not get more exciting than this.

Or so I thought till it happened. You could pardon me for believing so for I had still not seen the greatest spectacle of them all. Yes, I am talking of the TOUR DE FRANCE. The 2004 edition started off on a sleepy Saturday evening, July 3rd, from Liege and 23 grueling days and 3400 kms later, the event had a champion and I had a new hero. LANCE ARMSTRONG. I've seen Sampras dominate tennis, Schumi rule F1 and the Aussies demolish opponents in cricket but believe me, (this is no understatement) Lance Armstrong was much, much better than all of them put together.

Spread over 20 stages, the Tour De France covers 11 flat stages, 6 mountain stages and then the cyclists compete in 2 individual time-trial stages and 1 team time-trial stage. Its a true test of man's skill, strength and stamina. With just two rest days and 7 stop-over towns in between, the Tour De France is one of the most rigorous events in the sporting calendar. For every evening from that Saturday, I have been glued to Ten Sports watching as the race wound its way from Liege to Charleroi and then to Waterloo, through Chartres and Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat and then the mountain climbs from Limoges and Castelsarassin before touching Valréas, entering Annemasse before culminating in the beautiful Champs-Élysées in Paris. Breath-taking mountains, hidden valleys, rocky climbs, the serene Seine...The last 23 days have simply been magical as I toured France with that amazing man Armstrong.

For the entire photo gallery, please check here.

Happy Birthday Di

What do i wish someone who already has name, fame and pots of gold :-) Being mentally challenged has its limitations, so i will shy away from original poetry like the "Aaj ka Shelleys" and google for a nice B'day poem for you.


BuddyGal
Originally uploaded by Jupieee.

Got it.

Happy birthday to a special friend!
Although I haven't known you many years,
Perhaps because you've dried so many tears,
Pleasure reigns as I these greetings send.
Your happiness should last till all things end!
Because you've been so sweet and understanding
In tough times you've made me laugh and smile
Rejoice in your own specialness awhile:
This I'm not requesting but demanding!

PS: Hmmm.. I might have failed with my greeting card (i know it doesn't match upto my usual high stds) but i am sure the gift compensated. Wotsay? :-)))

PPS: Rgds to Uncle n Aunty and woof woof to Oshi.

PPPS: Sorry for that photo - Ur recent ones would invite undue attention, besides this one is my favorite - chimply cho chweeet.