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