A Goan Experience!!

I'd been to Goa with 6 of my colleagues. It was awesome fun and I thought I should share it with all you guys! This happened around 7 months back, and we freshers had just finished our first ever project at work. Obviously all of us were excited, and whats more we had got a week off from office, as compensation for all the weekends of work that we had put in! So what do we do - we planned a trip to Goa, on the fly, and within a couple of days the plans were finalised and even the tickets were booked! Talk about plannin well in advance! :) We were scheduled to leave for Goa the next week and before we realised it, the day of departure had come! We had all been working for almost a year now, and even though we had been earning for a year, we never got a chance to really enjoy and spend the money!! This was our first opportunity at blowing up our own money, and boy were we excited! :D

And so, we left Chennai central by the 'Vasco-Da-Gama' express. We were 7 of us - close friends! The journey was fun, especially the rail route after the Londa Railway station. Londa is a station in Belgaum district.. From Londa to Goa, the train passes over the western ghats, studded with 20 odd tunnels. The view from some of the spots was breath-taking! We reached Vasco station around noon the next day. We were received at the station by Mr. Vishnu, he was my mom's old student in the school where she teaches!! We owe him so much... In fact the whole trip was possible partly due to him! He put us onto a Sumo (which we had hired for the entire stay, thru Vishnu), and we were taken to our hotel - The Miramar Residency. For those who dont know, Miramar is one of the many beaches in Goa. Must admit, Miramar is one of the more polished areas in Goa.. Nice place, nice crowd ;)
This is the gang that went to Goa :) From L to R - Venkat, Prakash, Ashok, Kumaresh, Murali, Myself.

We had booked 2 rooms at Miramar Residency from Chennai before leaving, and worth mentioning that the place we stayed was neat! Often, if the accomodation is not proper, it tends to pull down the joy of a vacation! Thankfully we had no room for complaint, in this regard.. The first day, we were already tired and thus we asked the driver to leave us at our own free will - anyway no long trips for the day! We jus walked down the roads, explored more into the city and then of course had a long lovely stroll on the miramar beach. Our cottage was right next to the beach ( In goa you need to search very hard to find a cottage, away from the beach :P ). Among the 7 of us, 3 were absolutely 'No' to drinking.. Me, well i would not say that I never drink :) But frankly i'm not a big fan of drinkin, donno why. I have never found it exciting. Me had beer, and of course i freaked out on the breezers!! I like the bacardi breezers a lot :) lol... My friends still pull my leg for that! 'Comin all the way to Goa and havin breezer, duh!' - was a sentence that my ears got accustomed to! :)
This was a pic my friend took, outside a church at night. Yes thats me standing next to the cross :)

The second day, we went on a 'churches' trip, visiting a number of the famous churches in Goa. Some of them were fabulous! Especially the St. Francis Cathedral.. Had lunch at one of the roadside hotels, and the one thing that we freaked out on, throughout our stay at Goa was the Sea food. It's truly awesome! Fish and prawns were alwez on our table, no matter where we had food!! And a breezer to go with it, yummmmm !!! :) Towards the evening, we were taken to the Colva beach.. And boy, this turned out to be the most exciting part of the trip! Little did we know that on the way back from Colva, we would be discussing about our para-sailing experiences!! Yeah, all of us went parasailing at Colva beach, for the first time in our lives.. It was some experience! The best thing, we got some awesome discounts for the parasailing trips. Indians had special prices and foreigners had to pay some 50% extra! Ridiculous, but then thats the way tourism works in our country.. :P Bargaining is the name of the game, no matter what you do in Goa. We went in pairs of 2, uppp into the sky and over the seas in the parachute pulled by a speedboat!! Awesome the view was.. That was not the end of it. After the parasailing experience, all of us got bolder and we were not in the mood to go home without a water jet-scooter ride! :) I found this much more thrilling (scary) than the parasailing thing! We were taken one by one, for a 400 feet ride deep into the sea along with a rider. He controlled the bike while all we had to do, was sit. This in itself was such a task! He rode the water-jet as rough as he possibly could, and on purpose he attacked every wave that came our way! Man, i really thought i would not make it to the shores!! Everytime the machine went up in the air and landed in the water with a jerk, my groin went for a 6 thanks to my sitting posture!! :P lol.. And in the middle of the sea, zipping at speeds of 80kmph, I had no option but to control my emotions and sit 'chup chaap se' :)
Thats my friend and I, suspended high in the air!! The View from there was awesome!! I liked the background of this snap too.
What an eventful day... With fantastic memories, we retired to our rooms and slept like logs. The next day, we went to a few more beaches - Calangute and Aguada... Some of the beaches were real naughty ;) Gave us a feeling of walking down the miami beach!! :) We went on a dolphin cruise too, on a speedboat at the Aguada beach! It was an hour long cruise right at noon, cos that was the time the dolphins surfaced.. Sighting the dolphins was a tough task, cos dolphins are really shy creatures! But for all our efforts, we did manage to sight a few dolphins within 10 feet from us! And one of them did a splash dive too, right in front of us!! So sweet of them! :) In the evening, we decided to go on the 'Santa Monica' cruise, which is a famous attration in Goa. This is a cruise, where they take you out into the sea in a small ship, with games, dance and traditional Goan stuff onboard! It was fun.. After returning from the cruise, we decided that we wernt jus gonna go and crash into bed, no matter how tiring the day had been, already! So what do we do - we book tickets at the INOX theatres, and watched the 23:15hrs show. The movie was 'Karam'.. Movie was only ok ok, but then, we had our own fun.. Very rarely were we actually watching the movie :P
The Goan folk dance being performed by artists, on board the Cruise! It was time to say Good bye to Goa as we were scheduled to leave the city the next morning.. Sad part was that we did not get direct return tickets by train, from Goa to Chennai. We had to come to Londa to catch the 12:30 train to Bangalore! What we did, we came from Goa to Londa by the same Sumo we had hired.. It was a 4hr drive but like I said, the journey was a nice one!

The wait, at Londa Railway Station, on the way back..

We reached Londa station on time for the train, reached Bangalore by 21:00, then took another train and reached Chennai the next day early morning! End of a wondeful trip!! Each one of us, still carry some lovely memories from the vacation!!

The Sri Lankan Lions, that never really were...

Been a while since I wrote about Cricket!! Cricket being one of my passions in life, well its quite unusual to find johnny boy not talkin about cricket for a long time :) Those who don follow cricket much, don run away yet.. This is nothing too deep into the technicalities of cricket or anything :) Its just a light post, for 'fun reading'. The India-Sri Lanka ODI series has just concluded and who would have ever predicted a 6-1 drubbing of the Lankan Lions?? Coming into the series as the second best ODI team, they return to their country without an identity for themself. Their ranking in world cricket right now, will be the last thing on their minds!

The Sri Lankans were totally outplayed in every department of the game. Whatever they tried backfired, and whatever the Indians tried, came out fantastic and this buried the Sri Lankan ship beneath the ocean floor. The best thing about this series from an Indian point of view, was the talent on display. Every match, a different guy would come and hammer the opposition. They dint know how to respond to the questions raised by the Indians. The trouble being that the questions were never repeated! Every match a new plan, new personnel, new batting order etc etc.. Only one thing was the same, the result - Sri Lanka were out thought!

Well, this is just one series, and lets not create too much hype, which the media is anyway bound to do! Give credit where its due, India played fantastic, agreed. But they aint a 'great' side yet. The series against South Africa will only give us a chance to confirm our faith in this team. For them to be really considered as world beaters, they have to beat England and Australia in their own backyards! Which is still a long way off. But atleast, the team is on its way up and right now, they are on a roll!

Let me throw the focus back to the Indian team of the 90's. Just a humorous flash back! :) I remember there used to be this bowler called Venkatapathy Raju. Quite a decent left arm spinner, but I just could'nt help laughing whenever he came out to bat! For those who remember, he had the tiniest of faces, and this guy would wear a helmet which would be slightly big for one Mr. Inzamam Ul Haq! We literally had to search for his face, inside the helmet!! :D

And who could forget Venkatesh Prasad! Once again, no doubting his abilities cos he was quite successful here and there :) He was one bowler who's speed while running in to bowl, was faster than the speed of the ball which he bowled! :D And whats more, he used to take most of his wickets by bowling the 'slower' ball!! How ironic! I alwez thought that if he bowled his 'slower' ball any slower, the ball might not have reached the batsman! And I have this strong feeling that most batsmen got out to his slower ball, cos they got bored waiting for it to arrive...

There was this stage, when India tried out different combinations of openers in Test cricket and frankly, none of them worked! It was a sad phase. We had openers such as Debang Gandhi and S S Das, who made sure they they drove out whatever little crowd that came in to watch Test match cricket. They were boringly slow, and I never thought it served any purpose. One might argue that they took the 'shine' off the new ball. But I guess the only way these openers managed to take the shine off the ball, was by getting hit repeatedly on the helmet. Yes, believe me, we had opening batsmen who were capable of getting hit on the head, on Indian pitches - repeatedly :) Sometimes it made you wonder if a bat was really necessary in their hands.. The helmets which went into the cricket field blue in color, came back more red, than blue.... Do I need to explain more? :)

How could I forget Anil Kumble's dive? :) He's a great cricketer, no doubt but he seriously has to/had to work on his fielding. It was quiet sad to watch him dive at the boundary ropes. A dive would not be an appropriate word to use, bcos he used to literally skate his way to the boundary ropes, on his laps :) Whats more, the ball would have already crossed the ropes a few seconds earlier! Our man was only successful in getting the wrath of a few live grass, which were no longer 'live'.. Generally, the Indian diving standards were pretty poor in the 90's. Any India-South Africa match of the 90's would be testimony to whatever I have been talking about.

Ok, I guess the post is gettin too long, so I better curtail my thoughts.. All said and done, I am a Big Big fan of Indian cricket. I was just bringing out some really funny experiences and comments that we used to share, among us school friends.. Of course, it is exaggerated at some points, but only to bring out the funny side of things in a more laughable way.. In fact, I am a huge supporter of Indian cricket. Yup no doubts, Sachin Tendulkar is the person I look forward to, whenever India plays. He is master class.. I just go crazy when Sachin is in full flow... One of the most touching comments, which was reportedly made on the BBC a few years back - "Whenever Sachin Tendulkar goes out to bat, the whole of India switch off
their lives, and switch on their TV sets" -> Awesome, isnt it!!!

Wishing the Indian team good luck, for their forthcoming series aganst South Africa. I hope that their winning run continues and if that does, neither will the South Africans be number 2 in the world rankings for long! :)

'MAX'imum Affection !!

Heyyy ppl, work's been keepin me away from bloggin of late. But I'll still find some time to somehow drop in a post :-) And hey, of course I do keep track of my blog almost everyday! First of all, wish you all a HAPPY DIWALI! Ok, this one's been a long time pending post. Always wanted to write one on my sweetie pie, but it was kept on hold thanks to my laziness... So here goes... I'm gonna talk about our doggie - Max :)

In the pic shown above, the time is 6am, and Max has just finished reading the 'headlines' on todays newspaper. Only trouble is that after he reads, no one else can read the paper! :-) Unless of course, someone's in the mood to solve a jigsaw puzzle first thing in the morning! [Have a look at the sense of achievement on his face! He is one satisfied dog! :-) God Bless You, Max]

Max is a German Shepherd, and a big one at that! He's just 5 months old, but I guess he's reached full growth. Atleast we hope so :-) Cos if he gets any bigger, its gonna be hard work! My mom used to take him out for a walk every morning, but nowadays she refrains from doing so, cos it always ends up with Max taking my mom out for a walk :) He literally pulls her along to wherever he wants to go! We've reached a stage where only my dad, my brother or I, can can handle him. He looks very ferocious but trust me, he's a small kid inside! He'll bark like mad if he sees someone new entering the house, but whoever it is, if the person comes near him - our man will lie down and wait expectantly to be fondled! Like most dogs, he jus lovvves attention.

Poor fellow has been having a very tough time of late. Guess why ?? Cos its Diwali! :-) He jus cant stand the sound of crackers. Now thats a very tough demand, keeping in mind the festival and the amount of fireworks that go into it. Max has to live with it, and best we could do for him, was allow him to stay and sleep indoors till the diwali mood kinda eased! :) Yeah he stays indoors these days. But even inside, he gets restless when the neighbours burst crackers. When he used to be outside, Max got into a frenzy everytime a cracker went off! We felt sad for the poor fellow.. You know what, Max 'used' to love the small kids stayin near our house, but the last few days he's been trying to avoid them, and he barks madly at them when they try to approach him. Guess why, bcos he knew that it were the kids who bursted the crackers, and that was reason enough for him to keep a distance! :-) With all the noise around, I wonder what all would be running thru the canine's mind. He must be thinking 'what the **** is wrong with the world suddenly' :) 'It was all silent and calm till a few days back, all of a sudden people just go mad and burn/burst everything! Sigh, Its a Man's world' :-) If only dogs could speak - we @ home, would have been introduced to a new range of bad words for sure... You guys wont believe, even when he is inside the house - when someone outside lights up those 'rockets', Max's head follows the 'whizzing' sound upwards, and he looks up and barks at the ceiling! One thing's for sure - if at all we just leave Max loose on the street tonight, 100% sure there will not be a single soul bursting crackers in our area :) All said and done, its diwali today, and he wont have to suffer the torture for much longer.. Wish he knew that!

I dont wanna delve into the loving nature of Max, cos like all animals - he's very attached and possesive! But some really peculiar traits that Max exhibits - The way he drinks water. Max just cannot stand or sit, and drink water. He has to lie down! Its a very sweet sight. The moment you pour water into his bowl, he goes down to his customary sleepin position, places the bowl exactly between his outstretched paws, and laps the water. Another thing, is that Max just cannot stand people wearing headgear! Lol... Yes its true, he gets mad when he sees people wearing caps, bandanas, or any sort of thing on their head. Don ask me why! :-) The people who suffer because of this -> the 'gas' guy who brings the gas cylinder on his shoulders, the 'vegetables' lady who carries the basket on her head, my brother's friends who wear 'cool' caps, and most importantly - everyone during the rainy season (cos of the umbrella) :-) He is a character for sure!

We have 3 kittens stayind behind our house, and you should see the way Max plays with them! He's so so fond of them. But sometimes he gets soo fond of them that he gives them a smallll nibble, which sends them scampering in all directions! Little do they know that Big brother is just playin with them! There is especially this one kitten - Dark grey in colour, and he's Max's best friend. The way he cuddles around Max is a sight to watch. Its very cute, and this guy is only as tall as Max's knee. The grey kitten sleeps on Max's lap whenever given an opportunity. Unfortunately I could not click a snap when the kittens were playing with Max :( they are scared of us, cos they are too small. Well if you ask me how come they aint scared of big and ferocious Max, search me!

In this pic, Max is seen with his 'best friend' kitten. Our man is busy trying to peel off the coconut skin, and his friend is giving him moral support I guess!
Max is a very disobedient and naughty, but thats cos we have not trained him. Know what my mom says? 'The children in the house aint obedient, how will poor Max be obedient??'.. My brother and I jus stare at her.. :-) And yes, that was just a joke! Another bad habit that Max has developed of late - These days he eats dinner only if he is hand fed by my Mom or Dad!! Talk about babies.. Hope you guys found it worthwhile, getting to know Max a lil better :) Next time you plan a visit to our house, you guys know what to do, and what not to do :-) hehe, jus kidding... Have fun!

Tagged !!! 7 things that I.......

The lean spell, as far as my blogging is concerned, has come to an end. I have been tagged by Shalz. Something had to wake me up, and guess this was just what I needed.. Its not that I do not have anything to write about! So many things in my head that I wanna pen down, but time jus doesn’t allow.. Hopefully I’ll be more frequent from here on!
Ok, here goes.....

Seven Things I want to do before I die:
1. Become really really good at my profession - software. I really admire my superiors at work, who have fantastic technical knowledge.
2. Travel almost all around the world! Most of u might know that i am travel freak :) Wanna go to some specific places - New Zealand, Rome, Cairo, New York City (Rama are u listening), London, Switzerland, Sydney, Paris, Johannesburg and one of the Himalayan hill stations!
3. Watch Sachin Tendulkar score a century from less than 80 balls, against a full strength aussie bowling attack, in front of a packed cricket stadium in India!
4. Do something really worthwhile in music. Maybe bring out my own album, or help in composing music, something of the sort. I know its far fetched, but its a dream i cherish! Music is very close to my heart.
5. Drive a ferrari. If things go my way, maybe even own a ferrari!
6. Find that special person whom I can share all the love with!
7. Hold my baby(as in, child) in my arms....

Seven Things I can do : (Tho there are a lot more!)
1. Put my head down and fight through the rough patches, no matter how tough it gets. Sometimes being thrown into the deep end, tends to bring out the best in me.
2. Make people smile, even if it means that i have to make myself look like a fool, sometimes :) (obv applies only to my friends ) hehe
3. Play any sport, and become quite good at it.
4. Live without food for a day, without even knowing it
5. Keep myself awake through the night, either chattin, browsing, bloggin,working, studying, blah blah blah, etc etc etc :)
6. Say something sarcastic, or tell a lie, and still have an innocent look on the face :) Unless I tell it out, the listener will not know :) lol..
7. Look at the bright side, of even the worst possible things, once it has happened and nothing can be done about it.

Seven Things I say most :
1. Whats wrong with u ?
2. How?
3. Hmmmmmmm
4. Suthom ( Tamil for 'Gone!')
5. Chance ay ille (Tamil for 'no chance')
6. Fooooool
7. What the.... ( I say this to myself, I speak a lot to myself)

Seven Things I can't do:
1. Sit idle for more than 10 mins!
2. Tolerate people who boast. Some people have stuff and they show it out. Thats quite tolerable. Some can only mouth, and that really pisses me off. Never miss a chance to give one back, to such people :)
3. Be without my mobile phone
4. Hurt an animal
5. Leave somethin halfway through, and have a peaceful night's sleep
6. Restrain myself from temptation! I get easily tempted, a lot...
7. Do things without any goal, or do somethin just for the sake of doing it. If i play, i play to win :)

Seven Things that attract me to the opposite sex:
1. Straight forward and frank women.
2. Nice hair
3. Attractive eyes. Girls who look into the eye when they talk!
4. 'Pretty' ranks much much higher than 'beautiful', in my book. I donno , but i differentiate between cute/pretty and beautiful, quite easily...
5.Dress sense! This is quite a major factor. The way she presents herself, matters!
6. Sense of humor. No jokes, no fun! :)
7. Simplicity. Come on, already there are enough complicated things in life! A simple, loving n caring girl - who wont fall for her? :)

Seven Celebrity crushes:
1. Alicia Silverstone
2. Sonali Bendre
3. Steffi Graf
4. Jennifer Anniston
5. Sania Mirza
6. Preity Zinta
7. Catherine Zeta Jones

Well thats about it! About passing the tag onto my fellow bloggers - I do not have 7 torch bearers, but i would like these people to take up this tag post!
1. Vinay
2. Divya
3. Rama
4. Monu

Happy tagging! :)

Bangkok - The City Of Angels

I have always been someone who would get excited at the very mention of the word 'travelling'! I love to see new places, new cultures, how people differ all around the world, and stuff like that. Its so fascinating, to understand the differences in the way people live their lives. Two months back I had been to Thailand and Sri Lanka. It was a kind of an overseas tour, with my family. Yeah, my family loves to travel too! I am gonna talk about some memories about my trip, of course I wont be able to pen down the entire experience, cos that would put you all to sleep :) This post is entirely on the Bangkok part of the tour. Sri Lankan bit, will follow in my next post! :)

Bangkok is a bustling city, although pretty small. The core city is very well developed with hi-tech stuff and lotsa hi-rise buildings, but you move away from the city, and its barren land. We flew Sri Lankan, and frankly speaking, I was not too impressed with their flight. Food would just pass off as O.K, and their air-hotesses were pretty sad ! :-) All over-aged, and over-weight ladies! Anyway, leave that aside, we reached Bangkok international airport by noon, and checked into "D'Ma Pavilion". The hotel was fabulous - luxurious and the service was really impressive. Though it was not exactly 5 star by Thai standards, it would compare to an Indian 7 star! Serious, jokes aside. Below is a snap of 2 Thai warriors I took on my phone... :) kidddingg, thats me on the right, but we have similar expressions on our faces tho :-)

The hotel we stayed in, was located flush in the middle of the city and thus we had no trouble venturing out by foot, to explore more about the city. It was a nice experience. If not by walk, we used to take tuk-tuk's to reach wherever we wanted to go. A 'Tuk-tuk' is how an 'auto' is referred to, in Bangkok :-) To be pronounced as 'took-took'.... Hey you guys might remember the James Bond movie, where he drives one of those tuk-tuks in a frantic chase, all over the crowded Bangkok streets! This was one such Tuk-Tuk, which we took :)

Obviously, we had done our homework before leaving India - with respect to the shopping malls and other important places to visit. One whole day was dedicated to temple visits and boy that was truly awesome. Bangkok is a buddhist country, and there are infinite monasteries and buddhist temples there. Every corner you can see a statue of Lord Buddha. We went to the famous temple, where there was this 100feet long Golden statue of the Reclining Buddha. It was fabulous, the entire statue was made of gold, and to walk around the statue took us a good 15 minutes. Trust me, it was massive. This snap covers just a portion of the golden statue.

The temple visits took place on the second day of our stay. Of course yes, the first day was spent at shopping malls :) My mom was with us, so it had to be that way :) Tourism is one of the biggest sources of income here, and its pretty evident too. You can see people from all over the world, within a radius of 1 or 2 kms! Bangkok has a lot of Huge malls - Big See, Indira Square, MBK Centre to name a few. These places are really massive and if you do not stay together, chances are that you'll get lost. We did not do any major shopping, as in no big time buys. Jus bought a mobile phone (panasonic X200), a few panels for my Nokia Phone, and then of course - clothes!! :) I did buy a few tees and jeans from there :-) Shown below is the snap of a floating market. Floating markets are very common in Bangkok, cos there are lots of canals and waterways, all over the country! People make a living, by selling stuff on boats - usually its just aimed at tourists. And boy, the westerners are fascinated by such things! Most of them bought stuff like crazy, and these people do not know that something called 'bargaining' exists!! We Indians bargain bargain n bargain, till our thoats become dry, and finally at times we end up not buying it, cos we might have felt its 20Rs too much!! :)) The spending power of Europeans and Americans can really be witnessed, in such circumstances..

Thai food, is pretty bland. That too being accustomed to the spicy south Indian food, one really finds Thai food quite bland. At restaurants, we spent most of the time looking for salt n pepper containers :) but generally, the food there tastes goood. We took every opportunity to have food, as it was, in Thailand :) No use going to Thailand, and still having Indian food!! But one thing we just could not stand, was their fish varieties! Man these people do not believe in cooking fish fully :-) Its partly raw and i dint take the risk of having fish, even once, in Thailand. If you are someone who hates the smell of raw fish (most of us do), you will most definitely hate the aroma around Thailand! :-) The whole country, i thought smelt of fish.... Every 15 metres there will be a roadside stall, cooking and selling fish delicacies! Thai people love sea food, have no doubts! Bar the 'fish' stench, everything else was nice... Oh boy, how could I forget the Thai Foot Massage therapy! Every second shop in Bangkok is a foot massage centre !! Yeah there were these lovely ladies standing outside every shop, enticing the tourists inside! What happens inside, I seriously do not know! Before any guesses crop up, no I did not go for a 'foot' massage... hehe

Overall, a lovely country to spend a vacation! Lots of places to visit, and the lifestyle there is totally different from ours. So it really makes for a fascinating experience. We could not go to Pattaya, a famous beachside town, cos we were short of time. I've heard its a lovely part of Thailand too! If u guys get a chance to visit, dont miss it!

Just When You Think That...........

Just when you think
- that you got all the time in the world,
- that the days ahead are rosy and pink

Just when you think
- that no more hurdles you will find,
- that your dog days are way behind

Just when you think
- that the sky suddenly looks supremely blue,
- that dark and gloomy days are gonna be far and few.

And Just when you think
that this was the phase of your life you were yearning for,
Well thats exactly when,
you actually realise that the 'phase' just got over!!

Why does all this happen,
Just when you think that..............................

Sometimes we think too much, and try to save all the fun for the 'last'. And it often happens that we rarely get to enjoy the good times we had actually planned for! Dont ever make the mistake of not having fun, when you get the chance to have fun!!! If u keep delaying it, the only thing which accumulates is 'expectation', and you end up having no fun at all...
Dance while the music lasts!! :-)

Shades Of Life....

What’s in a person's color or complexion? This question might be one of the most clichéd topics ever, in any discussion or debate! Forget all that, I just wanna share my own views here :-) First of all, have no doubts, I am dark and I have no regrets about it (even if I did regret, wouldn’t make much of a difference would it? hehe ). I've released quite a few things as far as attitude towards 'looks' go. You hear people say that 'looks don’t matter', and its just 'how beautiful you are in your heart, that matters', and lotsa crap like that... I call it 'crap' cos only a handful actually mean what they really say in this regard. "Beauty is only skin deep", “It really doesn’t matter how you look", are all feel-good sentences, used most of the time, just to escape a tricky situation!

Do you think how you look, your complexion, and your features, just do not matter? I tend to disagree, mate. The first sign of attraction is always how you look. The inner beauty, your character, what you really are, and stuff come later! That’s the truth, so face it.. This holds true with 'first impressions' only, mind you. People, who already are your friends, will of course know you. It’s quite obvious that at any given point of time, lots of people are looking at you, and framing opinions, without even you knowing it. Some might be liking you, some might find you repulsive, and so on. These impressions are being formed, just based on how good/bad you look. People don’t know what kind of a person u are at heart, they don’t know your 'lovely character', but they can only see how u look from the outside, plain as that. It is your look, which will make people notice you and make them want to know you in the first place. It’s only after this, that they get to know the inner, 'real' you. And this might be where all the above mentioned 'quotes' hold true. Thus for the wise men’s sayings to make sense, a lot of things have to happen, as a precursor!

Let me share a very funny incident that happened, when I was 5 years old. My mom had just given birth to my brother, and he was this Fair, chubby veryyyyy sweeet baby. Like any small kid, I could not tolerate the attention that he was getting, from all the guests, and sometimes even my parents! Very natural, a baby needs much more attention, than a 5yr old. But how was I supposed to understand all that then? I used to ask my mom, why I was not 'white' like George (my brother's name). She used to pacify me with some answer which I don really remember ( cos I was not really intent on her reply, I was busy wondering how I could become 'white') One fine day, my parents realized that I was missing for an hour or so, and thus a search was launched, to find 'naughty' me. Everyone grew quite anxious when a few minutes of frantic searching did not yield any results. After sometime, my mom found an empty Talcum Powder tin lying on the ground. It was emptied to the last bit of powder! And she could see a small trail of white powder leading to a bedroom. When she opened it, there I was, standing at the corner of the room, all smiles! Yours truly had a 'sense of accomplishment' written in Bold, all over his face! I had applied the talcum powder, all over my body! I dint spare my eyes, legs, toes, ears.... I stood there with a barely visible smile, a genuinely innocent face, and slowly asked my mom these very words "Amma, now do I look like George?" Even now, my mom tells me she could see how much I really meant those words! That tells a story in itself doesn’t it? :-) I look back and laugh at all those memories! Truly fascinating, this mind of ours.

All said and done, its been a long 17 years since that happened and I have been through many experiences and situations in life! But all these had just one thing in common, and all my experiences taught me just one thing - to be really happy and proud, that I was 'ME'! If you don’t feel good about yourself, no point in living! How will someone feel good about you, when you yourself doubt the very person you have been all your life! I have no regrets whatsoever... How a person looks, is a totally individual and independent opinion. Someone might have a face that 100 people find 'not-so-interesting', but the same person and the same face, might be the reason why someone else wakes up everyday with a smile on his/her face! Life has a lot to offer, if we care to look around.... :-)

Mera Bharat Mahan !!

Hiii Everyone !!! Happy Independence Day to all my readers, and of course to all my fellow Indians wherever you guys are!!!
Proud to be an Indian!!!I have this liking towards composing Ringtones on Nokia phones. Some of my close friends will know that, while my blog friends might not be aware. Ok its actually not 'composing' as such, bcos I am not creating new music. What I do, I just make Ringtones out of popular hit songs, good music n stuff. So thats how it works. I use the Nokia composer to simulate songs in the form of Ringtones. In short, just like the ones u get downloaded, forwarded, etc.

I have composed quite a lot of Ringtones, and if any of you guys need any particular song, feel free to let me know. I shall do it to the best of my ability :-)
Coming to the point, today is a significant day for each one of us, Indians! If you are interested, I would like to share a tone with all of u all. On a Nokia phone which has a composer, please type in these notes (hope you know to use the composer keys) and I hope you recognise the tune that u hear! :-) Those who do not have a Nokia phone or composer on their phones, but who are interested, please get in touch with me...

The notes of the Ringtone go like this :
4g1 4.a1 8#c2 8d2 8#c2 1d2 8d2 8e2 4.c2 8b1 4a1 8a1 8b1 4.g1 8#f1 4.e1 8e1 8e1 8a1 8g1 8a1 8#f1 4e1 8#f1 1d1 4d1 4.e1 8g1 8a1 8g1 1a1 4g1 2a1 8#c2 8d2 8#c2 1d2
Set the tempo at 100 bpm.
[PS: Please do excuse any mistakes, it is not downloaded or composed on the phone by an expert. Its just me ...]

Jai Hind..

If Not For Dreams!!

I've always been a dreamer, a dreamer much much beyond mundane imagination! I dream a lot, and for me, dreams are not just when I sleep. I just think of a lot of things, when I am wide awake, and I get lost in a series of thoughts! It may range from cricket to music to life to work! Like the wise men say, its just not enough to dream, you have to work towards it. Sadly though, I have not been able to fulfill my dreams, atleast up and until this point of time in my life. Have to admit though, my dreams were far fetched, but then, thats what dreams are meant for :-) If there are some things that you cannot achieve in life, atleast acheive them in ur dreams :-)

I used to imagine a lot, about me playing for the Indian Cricket Team :-) And yeah of course, not just playing but also playin match winning knocks, and you know right, those heroic deeds! I was very serious about my cricket till I left school :-( Not that I do not play cricket now, but I am not thinking about it, like I used to :-( On the bright side, I ended up representing my school, my college, and right now I represent my organisation in cricket. :-) I feel I am at my best, when I on the ground competing against opponents, at cricket! It kinda brings out the best in me. You gotta admit that life in general, and any sport, share so much in common. Most of the things in sports, can be related to our lives. Well some of these things just continue to fascinate!

Next, I had always dreamt about playing music, being part of a band,.and treating a huge crowd to some wonderful music. I used to envy the way fans used to love it, when they saw their favorite stars, live in concert. I had imagined being in that situation too! How lovely it would be.... But sadly it only remained a dream :-( Once again, on the bright side, I do play the keyboard, and I did perform with a band, 4 of my college frnds (included 2 of the best guitarists in chennai), in front of a sizeable crowd, at a rock show! Another significant memory -> I played the keyboard for my church choir at christmas celebrations, when I was 7 yrs old, in front of a 2000 strong audience :-) Have to admit, I was much much better at playin the keyboard when I was a small kid. I kinda lost touch after 8th std :-( Thanks to cricket! :-) I do play still, I just take out my keyboard once in a while and play the songs that I love listening to. Music is my life!

These were just some of my dreams, and it was really fascinating to dream them, being fully aware that I was only dreaming. Its really nice to live a lot of things, in your head. Who knows, someday it might come true! And if it does, you are gonna be best prepared for it, cos you have gone through it all before, albeit in your thoughts :-) But one thing that projects itself, from all these experiences -> when u dream hi fi, even if u fall short in real life, its still some achievement. Do not hold back, when u dream! Let your imagination take wing! Happy flying....

JRO - June Rained Out?

Last weekend was a nice getaway from work. Chennai's biggest rock show, the 'June Rock Out' (JRO) was kicking off and we had decided to go for the curtain raiser event, at the YMCA grounds. One of my friends, learning Music at the Vineyard school of music, had arranged for the tickets and stuff. Everything was set and we were all looking forward to a nice evening of music on Saturday. We were three of us and we reached the venue as usual, an hour late :-) Well things just dont feel nice if my college friends and I make it to any place on time !! So this trip was no exception to the rule :-)

Now coming to the show, the band on stage was 'AZIZ', a two-member band from the UK. One guy on the electric guitar and the other on a table, oops sorry, I mean tabla (bad joke, I know). By the time we reached there, the show had already begun and just as we were scanning the place for a vantage place to sit, all hell broke loose! God chose to answer the prayers of almost every single resident in Chennai, at that precise moment. It started raining nuts, and frankly, its been a while since I saw it raining so heavily in Chennai. Sad part -> I was not enjoyin the rain from the cozy comfort of my home, but I was stuck right the middle of it, with nowhere to run! As everyone started running helter-skelter ( though I dint understand where these guys were running, cos there was absolutely no place to take shelter!), we just stood there half dissappointed, half wondering 'what next' !

Just when we were about to get fully drenched, someone came up with a cracker of an idea. There was this big advertising hoarding, made to stand on the ground, with supports. What we did, we removed the supports, and all the guys lifted the four corners of the hoarding, such that it was horizontal, and all of us (around 15 of us!) took cover beneath it. That was some fun! Best part, we hardly knew the people beneath the hoarding, but we were all helping each other, knowing that if one person lets go, the whole thing would be on our heads, and of course, not to forget the relentless rain! The sight was hilarious, with all us standing in a 'hands-up' pose, supporting the heavy metal chunk, above our heads. All said and done, the purpose was being served! As we expected, the show was called off, and the best news came a little while later, when the organiser announced that the band had agreed to do a repeat performance on the following day, at the Vineyard Centre. Thankfully, it was indoors this time!

Meanwhile, the rain dint look as though it would stop too soon, and we people could not afford to keep our hands up and hold the hoarding forever! Something had to be done, and the carpark was a good 300 mtrs away. After escaping the rains for so long, none of us were prepared to waste all the hard work, and make a dash for the carpark. So what do we do? Enter next idea! We decided to take the hoarding with us, all the way to the car park, walking in unison or else the whole idea would crash (so would the hoarding). All of us took equally measured, calculated steps and started walking towards the car park ( hands still up). Though we did face some resistance from the ppl in charge of the event ( cos they thought we were taking it home, probably), none of us were in a mood to give in, and finally they did oblige. Thankfully we reached our cars, safe and 'dry' :-) Some experience it was. And when we finally put the hoarding down near the carpark, guess what the haording was actually about? It was an advertisement for a social activities club. And it read, in huge letters 'Acts Of Mercy'. Our minds thought the same thing - 'How Apt' !!!

Well some of u guys might think if it was worth all the trouble, to just avoid getting wet! Well, it was not just about being dry and stuff, it was about a lot of fun! Getting wet would also be fun, true, but this was fun too! The repeat show took place, as promised, on Sunday and we did go for it. The band 'AZIZ' was too good. Just two members and they produced some amazing music, trust me! The guitarist used all the available sounds from his processor, tricks which included plucking the strings with his teeth and stuff. But I liked the tabla the best. He was too good, and trust me, the tabla sounds really amazing. It is an instrument which has really fascinated me. I have always been a big fan of fusion. Love it when there is a small piece of tabla or a flute, in a western song! This performance was just the treat that I had wanted. Lovely music at the Vinyard centre.

All in all, a fun filled weekend, and it left me asking for nothin more!

THE ASHES - It Doesnt Get Bigger Than This !

This is gonna be my first post on cricket! Actually speaking, i was not doing justice to my favorite sport. A post on cricket should have been right up there, along with my first few posts! Anyway, thats past tense now. Whats present tense -> Well its the hype surrounding 'The Ashes', which is building up all over England. And i would not be punished if i say, 'all over the cricketing world', too! Its nice to see that atlast, The Ashes is even considered to be a competition, between two teams! Previously, The Ashes was just a formality, where the Australians either invited the English home, or accepted the Englishmens invitation home, in order to remind them that they would be keeping possession of 'The Ashes' for a further 2 years! :) Such was the one sided nature of the competition.

By any chance, if you think that this is the first time that such a hype is created regarding The Ashes, you are badly mistaken. Every time, hype did exist, but the only difference - it was only the Englishmen who created it themselves. The only people who believed that it would even be a competition, were the 11 players who took the field! The way the matches turned out, one was left wondering if even those 11 had harboured any hopes at all ! But this time, refreshingly, the story is different. There is a genuine excitement surrounding the most prestigous series in Cricket. People all over the world realise that this English team could give the Aussies a real run for the trophy! The English tabloids, not to mention, are going crazy with predictions of an English win. The difference here, is that even people outside England, are giving them a decent chance. But if you ask me, i will say that its gonna be Australia with the Ashes, yet again! And this time, with the 'ashes' of a million dreams, and not just 11!

Coming to the cricket part of things, my gut feeling is that this is gonna be a closely fought series, atleast compared to the previous ones. Though my heart wants England to win, my mind shouts 'Australia'. If England are to harbour any thoughts of an upset, their key players - Trescothick, Vaughan, Flintoff and Harmison - have no option but to fire on all cylinders. Of course, there is the ever so charismatic Kevin Pietersen, who could change the game on its head, if he stays at the crease for a good part of the day! I think England have made a good decision by including him in the team. I am pretty sure that the Aussies are wary of him. They realised the potential threat that he is, during the ODIs. Including him, was a step in the right direction.

Trescothick has to fire against the Aussie bowlers if England are to post good totals consistently. He has been a sitting duck in the past, for Mcgrath and Co. Vaughan has been a consistent performer against Australia, and goes without sayin, his contribution is vital. But its in the middle order, where all the difference in this English team, has come from. The top order is pretty much orthodox, but Flintoff and Pietersen, right in the heart of the England batting line up, have the potential to destroy attacks. Their consistency will determine the Ashes scoreline. If both these dynamites decide that this is the right time to explode, the Aussies could well be in store for some ball fetching. Coming to the bowling, Harmison has to be the Man. If he doesnt fire, i am pretty sure Australia will rattle up a huge score. Once that happens, England will be playin catch up! And this, no team on planet Earth, has managed to do, against the champions. Restricting the Aussie batting order, seems to be England's only hope. For the Aussies, Brett Lee looks in menacing form. I have a feeling that Lee (My Fav Bowler) will rip through England atleast twice in this series! Finally, my prediction - its gonna be the Aussies 2-1, or Aussies 3-1.
All said and done, The Ashes is about the begin! All the talking, hype, gossip, media, headlines, predictions etc, can come to a halt. Its time for Action.... Let the games begin!


PS 1: Feel free to include your predictions in your comments... Lets have some fun! General comments are welcome too !!
PS 2: No false assumptions that only ppl with expert cricket knowledge can comment!! All are welcome!

College FlashBack

This post was triggered by an article on my college-mate, Sathya's blog. He had written about some of his funny experiences in college, and I just could not help thinking about some of my very own 'really funny' memories from college! So here goes..

We had this sir in college, who was addressed as 'T.R'. Before you guys start wondering too much, it was because of the similarity in looks :-) He was the ultimate "comedy-man" anyone could ask for! A crowd puller, in his own sense. Just the thought of attending his class, made us wake up early in the morning with a smile on our faces. His english was next to horrible but the man used to deny that to the core. You know what, when a friend of mine tried talking to him in Tamil (cos he was tamilian), you know what he said, " Actually I am more comfortable speaking in the English, so please avoid Tamil in the" !!! Now that requires guts!! :-) The guy who had tried speaking in Tamil was embarrassed to the core, and yes, true to college life, he got teased all through his college life...

Moving on, another thing that made T.R one of the most popular people in college, was his inclination towards 'articles'. Yes you heard me right, the man just would not be able to sleep if every sentence of his did not contain atleast 3 or 4 articles !! He was one person who could start a sentence with an article, and end the same with an article too :-) Invariably, all his sentences ended with 'the'. How it made sense, dont ask me! I'll quote some examples, cos I know all u guys are pretty confused. "What is the time of the?", " Where is Vinay in the?", " All of u listen of the " lol. You wont believe, a friend of mine and I, used to go late for his class as usual, and guess what my friend used to ask him, standing at the door? " Excuse me sir, in the " ..... Any guesses what our sir's reply would be? " Yes yes, come in the ". :-) The entire class would burst out in a fit of boisterous laughter! Such was the fun we had.

Then there was this incident when a friend, sitting next to me, was caught talking to another guy. At this point of time, T.R was in full flow, deep into a tough part of our syllabus. He noticed that my friend was not paying attention (He probably was not looking at anyone else in class! Cos none of us were listening). And he got so wild that he threw his chalkpiece at him (That it hit some other guy, is a totally different story). T.R just jumped off the dais and came running towards the horrified student and asked him to stand up first. He was sooo angry that he dint know what to say (Otherwise also he doesnt know), and guess what he screamed - "You fool, take it down the board of the chalkpiece in the notebook of the!!!!! " lol. I agree that it was not word by word what he had said, but then, no one knew what he had said exactly either, not even T.R.. :-) This was the closest that we could make out, that too after a great deal of effort!

All said and done, heart of heart, he was a nice man and all of us from Crescent Engineering College were extremely thankful to him, for having added colour, to our already colourful college life!!! :-) Miss those days !!!

My Weekend Trip !!

Sorry for the delay guys , this post did take some time coming. It can be partly attributed to the fact that I had gone to my native place, Cochin, last weekend. Yes, that is exactly what this post is going to be about ! :) I am a malayalee but I was born and brought up in chennai. Thus we always made it a point to visit our native place atleast once every year. Most of my cousins and their families, are settled in Kerala. I have attached some pics that I took on my phone when i was there. The kids in the second snap, they are my cousins.. Absolutely adorable!!

Kerala is one of the most breath-taking places in our country, no doubt! Everything you see there, is so natural. The place where we stay in kerala, my cousin's house, is in a remote part of town, a typical village. But its fun all the same. Life is so different in those parts. Every house would be separated from its neighbour, by atleast 300 metres ! In chennai, u can expect atleast 3-4 buildings within this area! Each house is surrounded by paddy fields, small canals with 'always on the move' water, lots of trees etc etc. You wont believe, most of the houses grow their own vegetables, and hence rarely do these people goto the markets!


The Lifestyle there is so different from what we are used to, in the cities. By around 8pm, all shops are closed and life almost comes to a halt! Houses are no longer lit up, streetlights are also switched off!! All of a sudden, the whole place just goes silent. Believe me, a walk on the 'roads' at this time can seriously send a few shivers down your spine. But when I say 'quiet', its only the sounds of human habitation that are missing. This is the time when all the insects, frogs, snakes, etc etc in kerala come to life! They are all very much alive and they make it known to every passerby, that they are alive!! Spotting a snake crawling along the road side, is no rare sight in Kerala. People there are pretty used to it, and the snakes are jus allowed to carry on :) Pretty scary isnt it! The very sight of snakes and i'm off like a rocket :) According to the people there, unless you stamp on them unknowingly, they will not bother you. I guess its very true but then, this is not the time for experiments!!


In short, I spent a lovely 3 days at Cochin and it was a much needed break from my daily work routine! If anyone is looking for a holiday spot, to spend quality time, make a trip to Kerala. You'll realise why its called "God's Own Country!". By the way, I do not have any tie-up with the Kerala tourism board or somethin like that!!! :-)

My First 'Tagged Post'

My college/blog friend, ullu boy, tagged me and hence this post !

Three Names I Go By : (Forced to go by, at times)
Johnny Boy - Its the way my mom calls me sometimes ( when in good mood that is), and my close friends call me by this name..
Monne - Looks like my friend Ramakrishnan has taken a liking to this name :) Actually 'monne' in malayalam ( my mother tongue ) means 'boy'.
Bull ( very rarely tho ) - Got this name in office, for 2 reasons
1) cos of all the gymming that I did before joining L&T :) After college during the hols, we friends used to gym regularly as we had nothing else to do!!
2) cos of some 'huge' sixes, when we used to play at our office grounds, every saturday :))

Three screen names:
backinurface - Well this is my email ID at most mail servers. Many people do not know the reason behind this name, 'backinurface' is a song, by one of my fav bands 'Def Leppard'
summer spice - Used to be an old chat ID, disposed it long back :)
Johnny boy - My fav screen name :)

Three Physical Things You Like About Yourself:
My Biceps - Results of a lotta hard work at the gym :) considering how thin I was when I was in school!
My Triceps - ditto
My Palms - Jus like that :)

Three Physical Things You Don’t Like About Yourself:
My Left Shoulder - Its such a pain 'near' the neck !! :) My left shoulder has been hurting badly, past few months!
My 'Beard' - lol, I hardly have one, but whenever it sprouts up, I make sure I take it off! I hate hair on my face, and thankfully, I am not blessed with much of it!! :) One of the few things I dont complain about, at all!
My Eyes - cos there is nothin special about it :) lol, jus kiddin, added for the sake of completing 3 points, I hold nothing against my eyes!!

Three Things That Scare Me:
Riding the bike with lorries/buses on either side -> this is a worst case scenario, your probabilities are very bad!
Phone Bill - This time, my dad's gonna kick me out the second he sees the phone bill. Thanks to blogging, I have been on the internet for hours together!
The sight of my friend 'Regi' running in to bowl, when I am batting. Eventually his bowling turns out to be very 'friendly' :) but the look on his face, gives the impression that he's gonna bowl at 150kmph! Actual speed - 50kmph. In fact, he runs in to bowl faster than his actually bowling speed :-) kiddin dude...

Three Things I Want To Do Badly Right Now:
Night study at Rama's house, atleast just once more! To bring back memories of how we used to 'study' the night before university exams....
A trip to college by car (4320) with all 8 of us friends, aboard !! And all the chaos that comes with it too.. haha
Get through with this post real soon !!

Three Places I Want To Go On A Vacation:
Switzerland
New Zealand
Somewhere in the Himalayas ( such that I get to return back ! )

Three Kiddy Names I Like :
Mollu - kiddy name for a small girl
Chakkudoo - general kiddy name ( usually comes with a lot of affection )
Waawa - kiddy name for a child(All these kiddy names are malayalam words ) :-)

Three Things To Do Before I Die :
Drive/(Maybe own) a ferrari....
Score a 100 in a cricket match, in front of atleast 200 spectators :-)
Make sure I get a 6 pack !

Total Number Of Films I Own On DVD/Video:
Not much of a movie collector. I might have a few VCDs and maybe 5 DVDs. I dont much care for watching movies on disc. Prefer going to the theatre!

Three Of Your Everyday Essentials:
An hour of music
A glass of juice
And a lot of FUN :-)

Three Things You Are Wearing Right Now:
Shorts..
Actually , thts it... I am at home, and I live in chennai, and its summer... need any more explanations ?? haha ....

Finally, the tag post comes to an end !! Heaving a huge sigh of relief ?? You are entitled to, so go ahead !!

A Lighter Shade Of Life

The lovely things one can associate with babies, is truly endless isn't it! The very thought of carrying a 'small bundle of life' on your shoulders, is such an emotional ride in itself! You tend to realise that the wonders that technology brings to us everyday, come a cropper, in comparison with the wonders that accompany a new born baby!! Just a simple observation of new borns, their behaviour, the things they do, the way they look at different objects, and there is sooo much to learn!!! Its so fascinating. And trust me, your learning never ends!


It must be pretty obvious now that I am totally bonkers about small children. I jus love spending time with kids, especially babies. Till they become around 2 years old, thats the age group I just adore! After that, they tend to get a little (understatment to the core!!) naughty. Carrying a baby in my arms, is one of the best feelings on earth that I can ever think of. Putting a baby to sleep on your shoulders, only to find saliva dripping down onto your shirt like 'waterfalls in slow motion' - well these are feelings best experienced in flesh, than written about! The sweetness that comes along, with these things, is jus beyond compare. My best attempt at putting it down in words, will not come anywhere close to the real thing, trust me. Another thing that I really adore, is a baby's feet. They are soo tiny and soft !! So damn cute. Whenever u place your finger in a baby's palm, without hesitating, they tend to wrap their teeny weeny fingers around it! It gives an idea of how dependent they are, it gives the child a sense of security when they wrap their fingers tight ('tight' by baby standards!) around a single finger of ours. Amazing isn't it!


New born babies look upto their parents, for life. They try to express this in whatever little way they can! You can see all the innocence in the world, in a baby's eyes. I wanted to share one more thing, though it may sound very funny, and very trivial to some. My mom tells me that when I was a kid, I used to do soemthing very funny, whenever I got the chance to meet babies. I used to lie beside them, looking continously at the baby, waiting for them to yawn!! Guess why ?? So that I could smell their mouths :)) Well it may sound disgusting to a few of my 'highly refined' readers :) But come on guys, we are talking about babies barely a few months old. I might find it difficult to reason out why it attracted me so much and stuff, cos these are not things that u associate a 'why' question with ! But the smell is somethin I jus adore, simple as that! Maybe it has to do with the sweetness of a baby's yawn, whatever. Believe me, given a chance to see a baby yawn, I would not miss the opportunity now either :) And I dont mind being made to wait, for the yawn to come :) With babies, trust me, yawns take a long time coming :)


Before I realised, the post has become quite a long one. Well, I do know that some of you all would not have liked reading through this huge block of text. Few of you may even feel its too kiddish for me, to write about this. But I just spent some time and reflected back on the things that I liked, in life. And this brought me to the conclusion that if I did not write about babies and small children in my blog, atleast once, then the very meaning of having my blog would go down the drain. Thanks for the patience!

FOREVER - MICHAEL JACKSON

Michael Jackson is undoubtedly one of the most talked about personalities of our era! Unfortunately, of late, he has been hogging the limelight for all the wrong reasons. But let us not delve into that side of his life, the matter is in court and there are people to enforce the law, if he is proven guilty! There is so much more to 'MJ', loads and loads to talk about the man, and his music! I started listening to western music sometime around my 5th standard. I used to know only those songs which they played on the music channels like MTV and stuff. And obviously, those were Jackson's hey days so u can imagine the number of his videos that they played on TV.

I was immediately attracted by his music, and I used to yearn for his songs, whenever I switched on the TV. Great foot tapping numbers, and music that kindled a spirit of enthusiasm in the hearts of all listeners. The energy in his music - the voice, the dance, everything gelled so well and the result was a very tight package! I did not have much exposure to his vast range of music, other than the videos they used to play on TV. And it was only during my 10th standard, that I got introduced to Michael Jackson's music, in all its wonderful shades! I am very thankful to my very close friend, Ramakrishnan, in this regard. When we became good friends in the 10th standard, I had a better overall know-how of the western music scenario, than him. But he used to take me apart, when it came to one specific artist , 'MJ' !! There was a stage when he literally was crazy about MJ and his music. He had every album , and every single song ! As a matter of fact, as time rolled by, I started realising why this guy was so awestruck by MJ, he had reason to be! It has to be added that at present, the scenario has changed, and Rama has become an 'authority' in music. He's a fantastic guitarist and his knowledge of music, is way beyond mine! Some things 'do' change ! :) Really proud of the guy!!

Through the tapes and CDs that I got from him ( most of which are still with me, Rama hope u are not listening! ), I started listening to a different side of Jackson's music - the mellow songs. Until then, my understanding of MJ, was that he was just famous for fabulous foot tapping music. But I went on to realise that Michael Jackson was much much more than just pop music! His slow numbers are too good!! The lyrics make so much sense, and the melody attached to it, just blows your head off! Songs which immediately come to mind are - 'Stranger in Moscow', 'Will you be there'(Free Willy OST), 'Heal the World', 'Earth Song', 'Man in the Mirror'. There is so much meaning conveyed by all these songs! The videos are so emotionally attractive too. Considering all this, one tends to wonder that if MJ really meant a small percentage of all that he sang, then is it the same person who is being accused of all these outrageous crimes!! Its indeed a point to ponder!

After decades of enthralling fans with his amazing music, it looks as though Michael Jackson is on his way out, atleast as far the music scene is concerned. His last album "INVINCIBLE" , was relased in 2001, after a gap of 6 years. The album did prove to be a hit, but my personal opinion was that it was not as good as his previous albums! Some of the stand out songs that i heard, from "Invincible" were 'The Lost Children', 'Invincible', '2000 Watts', and 'Unbreakable'. Hope he does bring out one more album to once again re kindle that excitement amongst his fans! The man may fade, but the legend remains! The 'King Of Pop' will continue to rule the hearts of music lovers, for years to come!

MY WEEKEND !!! :)

My weekend started off very slowly but it soon looked as though everything was happening too fast! Finally I ended up watching 2 movies in 2 days, and both - second shows! Talk about relaxing on weekends! On Saturday, I had to come to office, since we had a java training programme going on. The class dragged till 6 in the evening, so the whole of Saturday was spent in office. Actually the week long Java training was very very useful. We had a nice trainer who catered specifically to the needs of a beginner, like me! I sure did carry a lot of positives out with me, at the end of the training.

Got back home around 7 and I just about started listening to music when I get a call from a colleague, informing me that we might go for a movie. The 'keep yourself free' kinda warning :) Things so turned out that we ended up watching a Tamil flick “Ullam Kekkume more ". I had gone with my colleagues at work, the only thing we enjoyed through the movie, was each other's company. The movie was nothing to rave about, and the phrase 'very ordinary' would serve as a compliment! You won’t believe the shock i got halfway through the movie, when i suddenly recognized a familiar face, on screen! Yes, it was my dear friend, Rohan Lean, strumming away on his guitar and singing ' Who the **** is Alice?' , uncensored :)) By the way, for those don’t know, Rohan is an amazing singer, he's got a super voice ! I proudly spread the word around to my colleagues that the man on screen was a good friend of mine!

Sunday was another hectic day in the making. I met up with my college class mates, for a get together, at Dhaba express. It was real fun, reliving those good ol college days! As expected, we ended up trippin on each other and laughing our stomachs out! After a heavy lunch, we went to barista for some cold coffee, and got back home around 4.

It had been around 2 months since i went to the gym, and I was really determined to make sure I went and paid the fee for this month, cos once i do that, my conscience would make sure I get up early in the morning and go! So i went to the gym, joined for the month and worked for an hour. It felt real good to be back to gymming ways! I met my school friends Asif and Rohan at the gym, and that was where our sunday night plans evolved. We decided to go for a movie, and finally four of us - Asif, Rohan Regi and I went to sathyam and watched 'Kingdom of Heaven'. The movie was an 'Ok Ok’ one. Nothing great about it. Especially movie buffs who would have seen flicks like 'Gladiator' and 'BraveHeart', would not care much for this movie! It was 2 am, and finally, an exhausting but fun filled weekend came to an end!

The Ribbon Cutting Ceremony !!

Heyyy people !! So finally johnny boy starts blogging.... Well this was a long time overdue venture. A good dose of laziness coupled with some tight schedules provided for the delay! Now that its up and rolling, let me start with a few explanations. First of all the name of the blog - yeah guys, no prizes for guessing, it is well and truly derived from the name of Bon Jovi's 2003 Music album. The album boasts of a re-make of most of Bon Jovi's greatest hits. Being a great fan of Bon Jovi, I guess it is only apt that I handpicked this name, for my blog. I hope this name, feels right !

This being the introductory post, I would like to give a sneak preview of things that can be expected on my blog. Firstly, I hope this serves as a medium to keep my friends, far away from me, updated on the goings-on , at my end. I will be writing in, narrating the things happening in my part of the world, anything worth mentioning is a certainty to be put up here! Apart from this, I wish to write about music, and then the sports scene, especially cricket, and also some of my views on 'life'... Hope u all enjoy your time here, and expecting a good response from all my visitors!

Happy reading !!
Johnny boy