It Doesn't Take Much !

There have been a few things in the recent past that has made me sit back and realize that it doesnt take much to entertain, captivate and grab the world's attention.. Sometimes we try too hard, eventually leaving behind who we are in our quest for greatness.. Yeah, it works from time to time but then most of the times its the simple yet creative things that really work.



I have really been captivated by the latest Tata Docomo Ad. Its a piece of brilliance. Especially the latest ad, shot in the train with everyone ending up humming the Docomo tune, its just awesome! I couldnt manage to find that specific video on Youtube, but then I found this which has that mesmerizing tune. A little attention to detail and you will realize that the music grabs your attention though there are hardly any instruments in it. Just the way it clings on to your lips and makes you feel entranced, is a thing of joy isnt it? I so love it..



This is a video clipping from the 'Britain's got Talent' show. Amidst all the exquisite, highly talented and professional artists - this father and son pair rock the stage with their simple yet extremely cute dance performance! Their expressions, the lil guy's air of confidence in his walk, their chemistry, it all just adds to the whole performance. The two of them have weaved magic with literally nothing but happiness, energy and emotions. They have made a crowd of over a thousand, stand up and applaud their performance genuinely. Trust me, its an honor to be able to entertain. To be able to face a crowd, and do your thing with pride - takes courage and attitude. These 2 chaps have not only entertained, but also lightened the hearts of millions! I look upto to such people with respect and admiration!

BACK......

Yeah... Its true :P Not that its gonna affect the Earth's revolution :) Going through a few of my friends' blogs actually triggered this move of mine... Positive or Negative motivation? - Thats for you to wonder ;) I just logged into Blogger and realized that my last post trickled along 2 years back! Quite a shame, I agree...

This time, I promise a more dedicated and uninterrupted flow of posts. Just like last time :) Naaaah, I am kiddin.. U can trust me on the posts coming in regularly. Credit goes to a few of my friends for inspiring me, my fellow college-mate bloggers, and the dull and boring subjects of 5th Semester :D

A lot has happened since my last post, and I shall try my best to put in most of the interesting stuff here :) One thing's for sure, I will not run out of topics! For the uninitiated, I quit my job with TCS in 2008, and I am currently doing my MBA in good ol Chennai.. Yeah, back from Bangalore :D I am planning to put up few of my clicks here, and use this as a kinda psuedo photo blog too.. Hope I succeed in carrying out the ideas I have in my head. More to follow sooooon... Hang on...
Once again, thank you for your unrelenting patronage of this little blogspace :)

Tagged - 8 Random Facts

The post finally trickles along, after another long hiatus! Its been that sort of a month actually. Lots of things on my mind, but only few successfully made it to the execution phase. Heheh, life's like that huh? Yeah, I heard u say that..

Anyway, coming to things at hand, I was tagged by Satish. The tag goes like this - I need to list down 8 random facts about meself.. And then, I tag 5 other people - which I will not be doing cos I am pretty sure no one visits these days, for good reasons mind you :P lol..

Here goes:

1) I am a very very positive person. You'll rarely (read never) find me without hope :) You might see me down, and you might see me upset, but you can bet your life that the last line I speak to you will be a positive, optimistic one. If not, check again, you might not be talkin to me :) I will never lose hope as long as a sniff of life still remains within.. I strongly believe that hope drives the world..

2) Mad about music. One day in my life without music would probably be the day I die, and that too only if I die early in the morning.. lol.. Or else, some amount of music wud have found its way into my life, somehow! Either thru the TV, my MP3 player, the radio, my phone or... Love music beyond description. I can get lost in my own world listening to music.

3) If not for sports, I wud have said that music was the single most fascinating thing in my life. But now, I am still undecided :) Actually, I have realized there is no 'one single thing' in my life. Hehe. A big time fan of all sports - especially Cricket. I play a lot of cricket. Apart from this, I follow and play Tennis and Table Tennis. Formula 1 and soccer, watch a lot of it on TV. Actually I kart quite well :)

4) Love to sleep. I can sleep at any time of the day or night. And wake up, in similar fashion too heheh.. Funny I know, but sleep - though I love sleeping - is something I can control, manage and fit in according to the other things I havta do for the day :)

5) Have taken to photography of late. And yes, my *new* Canon S3IS has got a lot (read everything) to do with it. lol.. Will be putting up a lot of pics I took recently, in this space. So... Be warned.. :D

6) If I appear to be very silent, it means I dont know you really well. Simple as that. I am not someone who can jus be really close friends over night. But once I get to know someone, there is no looking back. I love to make friends!

7) Very very lazy. I have this stupid habit of postponing things. Yeah, most of us have it, but mine I am sure is an extreme case. I need to work on it, and make a conscious effort to eliminate the bloody disease! lol.. It has gotten me into enuf trouble already.. The trouble is, point no. 1 in this very article works against me lol.. No matter how lazy I get, I still remain confident of doing whatever I had to do. Which is not a good idea at most times.. :D

8) I talk a lot. U might have guessed that by now. I was only asked to give 8 points. And I end up giving 8 essay answers.. If only I had given the essays when the question papers in school begged me to do so.. I talk a lot, and I write the way I talk.. And hence I write a lot too. Ok, time to stop. You see what I mean? :P

Okie, thats it! No tagging anyone, to save myself the embarrassment! Heheh.. Will come up with an entertaining post hopefully very soon! Trust me, I am really working on point no. 7! If u still dont believe me, come back n check :P

Adios!

The Genius Bids Adieu...

Finally the curtains were drawn, on one of the worst World Cups ever! A sad end to a sad story actually. Being an avid cricket fan, I was really disappointed at the turn of events. What was dished out on the field, was pretty ordinary.. And off the field, it was pathetic! I must give credit to the Australians though. They played some fantastic cricket all through and they were the rightful winners. (I was supporting Sri Lanka though he he) I wonder from where they got the drive, to play at such a high level in a poorly organized tournament!

The tournament did not start off well, with India and Pakistan both being packed off in the first round itself. India - thanks to some indifferent cricket, and Pakistan - due to its usual extremes when it comes to playing. The Pakistanis either play like possessed people, or they hardly play like 'people' at all! Add these to Woolmer's murder, ticket prices being exorbitant, no musical instruments allowed into the grounds (in the Windies?? U gotta be kiddin me!), sub standard cricket, a world cup spanning whole of 50 days.. And you'll realize what I mean! Anyway, lets not brag about the tournament, its over now. That was not what this post was meant for! It was the 21st of April, that triggered this post of mine. If you're still in the dark, it was Brian 'Genius' Charles Lara's adieu to cricket!

No prizes for guessing where this ball ended up!!!

I have been a Lara fan ever since I started watching cricket! Which would approx be 12 years back.. No doubt, he is still one of the most controversial players around but still the moment he stepped foot onto the cricket field, the whole world chose to ignore all of that! Thats the influence this man had on the game. His batting was pure fluent poetry in motion, of the highest honor that too! He was part of an era where he battled for the title as "Worlds Best batsman", with our own Sachin Tendulkar! The debate still goes on, and I think its fair to say that its a 50-50 call. Both were brilliant in their own ways! My heart says Sachin, but had I not been an Indian, I have a feeling that I would have vouched for Brian Lara! Some of feats can never be matched by Sachin, no doubt. His temperament was a notch higher, and Lara could bat on and on and on! Scores of 400 and 501 are testimony to this fact :) He revived a sagging West Indian cricket team, and almost single handedly made the world stand up and notice the Windies cricket team! He was more of a match winner, than Sachin was. Sachin would probably edge Lara in consistency (90's), elegance and grace. However, Style - was all Lara's! His high batlift, and that lovely bat swinging down, belting the ball, and landing the bat behind his back - wow what a sight to behold!

See what I mean????

He tortured bowlers the world over. Even the 'great' Glenn McGrath admits that the one batsmen he feared bowling to, was Lara! When on song, he could hammer u all over the park. This was something, every bowler silently knew before running in to bowl! :) Rightly called 'The Prince Of Trinidad', he was the single reason why Caribbeans turned up in large numbers every time cricket was played in the Windies! A Lara special, was foremost on their prayers whenever they flocked the stadiums to watch the cricket! A Windies win, came second! I don't think I need to say more! :)

All said n done, the glorious chapter has come to an end. We will not see that bat lift so high again! This very thought bought a tear to my eye, and thats when I was convinced that I should start blogging again. His final match was an emotional one, things dint quite go his way that match but that dint change anything one bit! He was given a rousing send off by the crowd, and tears were lining up in his eyes, for all to see! What a sad moment :( The Genius might have retired, but his legend remains forever! He'd given some of the best memories to cricket, and he'd never be forgotten!

Hail the Prince!

The 'Bundle' Of Life !!!

Technology has reached dizzying heights, software has developed way beyond our wildest imaginations, travel and living has advanced like crazy and the list goes onn.. But the ONE thing that has always fascinated me the most, has been the small bundles of life, babies!! Yes, even a peasants family can bring into the world, the same angel that any millionaire could have! This miracle of God is something way beyond technology, money, knowledge, power, status, religion, nationality - say what you want - its still way beyond it!

My passion for the little ones has driven me to post yet again. This time ofcourse with some snaps to support my stand... The pics that you will be seeing on this post, were all taken on my mobile phone! Mobile photography is something that I am crazy about! My friends would know best about this, lol. The way they get irritated when I start clicking away to glory, taking snaps of trivial things too! :) My mobile is not THE latest one in the market, so please adjust with the picture quality n stuff lol. Instead try to imbibe the sweetness from the expressions and the implicit beauty of the pics!

Thats Mariam, cozy as ever. Thats what I call 'deep sleep'!

Let's joooomm in a little bit!! ;-)

Okay, these pics were taken when I was at my native place, Cochin! The sleeping princess is my niece 'Mariam'. Isnt she such a doll? Wow I jus love this snap. The 2 pillows are kept on both her sides, to prevent her from rolling and falling off the bed :) And to imagine that the pillows are bigger than the child! So cute.. The way the baby curled up inbetween the pillows was a really adorable sight, and I just could not resist clicking! Those pillows which would otherwise seem so insignificant to us when we use it everynight, now seemed to have that magically cute thing associated to it, didnt it?

The million dollar smile! I would'nt mind travelling miles to see this one!

This pic was taken a few minutes after the previous ones were taken! lol, yeah its the same place, same baby! Have a look at that expression on her face! Soooo amazing.. I can keep looking at this snap for hours together, without even realizing it! I was guilty of waking her up, cos I was crawling all around her with my phone, tryin to click different poses of hers when she was sleeping :) And yes, my silly self accidentally woke her up, but thankfully I managed to make her laugh and smile tooo! And what a laugh that was!! Soooo adorable.. But hey, pls dont underestimate the things I had to do, to make her happy. Wonder how i might have looked with all those funny faces! "Already it looks funny by itself " - I can hear you all saying.. Jus shuddup ok! :) Anyway, thank God, the cam was focussed on her face, and not mine! lol...

Amma doing what she does best! Doesnt the expression on the child's face say it all? So cute!!

Thats my mom with one of her old student's son. Man, does she have her way of handling babies! I guess I got this attraction towards babies partly because of her. She can make ANY baby stop crying, and she manages to put them to sleep too (Not by talking!)... She is just awesome with a baby in her hand. Probably I was totally mesmerised by the way she handled them..

She is not called a 'baby' just cos of her age, or else she is every bit one!! Lowe this snap..
For a change, this time its not a 'baby' as such, but she's my grandpa's sister. One of the sweetest 80 year olds, made to look like a small babbiiee, inbetween two 'tall' brothers!! lol... Yeah dats me and my bro flanking her on both sides! Women might not get much mroe safer than that, lol.. Jus kidding.. But hey in this pic, pls dont think she is sitting or kneeling.. She is very much standing, and there are not photoshop tricks here! :) Have to mention again, she is a reallly sweet granny. She lovvvves usss sooo muchhh!!!

That's me holding Sara! (I've put her to sleep, note da point..) lol..

Back to the real 'babies'. Thats my cousins daughter, 'Sara' and me, in the pic above. It was her baptism ceremony, and thats why yours truly was in full formals and all.. lol.. The place - Days Inn Shaan, Chennai. The actual 'baptism' ceremony was just about the only time when that child was not in my arms, lol... That too the priest insisted that the baby should be with him, for that 15 mins when they pour holy water on the child... :) Rest of the time, I had the privilege of 'handling' her..

Thats me and Aadhi. He is never short of an expression on his face! :-)
Well till now you guys saw girl babies and my wonderful lil experiences with them. Now here is one cute fellow who is an absolute sweetheart, Thats "Aadhi" and me in the pic. He is my colleague's 1 yr old son. The snap was taken when I had gone to my colleague (GR's) house. A cute house, very cute family and of course, an adorable child! He can be notorious at times, but he is such a cute chap. He's got that 'scientific, always thinking' expression on his face!! One thing about him, you'll probably know it 5 mins in advance before he starts crying! His face swells up, the cheek bones suddenly appear prominent, those million wrinkles appear one-by-one on his chubby face, his lips curve into an 'S' shape and the eyes start growing smaller and smaller. When all these happen, it's time to look out for his mother, or else, say your prayers :)

Hope you people did not mind the HUGE post :) It was a topic I truly loved, from within my heart! I had a tough time trying to stop my hands from flying all over the keyboard. The words jus kept (keep) coming and coming and... . There are still lots more snaps with babies! Probably I'll put them up in another post, cos this one is gettin jus tooo big! lol.. Like I always say, that feeling when a 'bundle of life' sleeps innocently on your shoulders - is a feeling beyond compare! Nothing comes even close, in comparison! Seeya around!

A Different Post :-(

When things don't go your way, they really start going awry one after the other, don't they? Its a kind of a chain reaction straight from the dark side of life. You can compare it to the cycles in a cycle stand. If the first one in the row has a wobbly stand, no matter how sturdy the remaining ones in the line are, once this one falls down, invariably every other cycle ends up on the floor. Well I guess today was just that sort of a day for me. Nothing has been going right, and thankfully the day has almost come to an end. Actually the end of the day is in my hands, it is just that I have not been able to sleep and get the day done with!. Its 1 am now and its not out of my own free will that I am awake. I am just not able to sleep. I tried closing my eyes, thinking about some of the good things in life, but somehow the 'good things' did not seem so good after all. No wonder they say that everything is in the way you look at it,right? It was just not working for me, and hence I decided that it was time to stop 'imagining that I was alright'! I got up, switched on the comp and decided to talk to my best friend. And who is that? Of course its ME. And how do I talk to myself - by writing, how else? This is one of the best ways for me to fight through a rough patch - pour out everything on my blog, and lighten my heart in doing so!


Probably this is one of those times when I really miss having a girl friend. Someone whom I can demand time from, and someone who I can wake up at any hour of the night to pour out my mind. Everyone needs someone to talk to, at certain points in their life, don't they? Unfortunately, my 'certain points' alwez crop up at unearthly hours, when I am the only one around! Well. lets get down to the facts, I dont have a girlfriend and I have to adjust with my best pal computer screen right in front of me, who seems to be displaying exactly whats on my mind in the form of letters! Its really soothing to see my sad state right in front of my eyes, growing bigger n bigger as my keyboard gets to know more about the helplessness of my situation! Actually I do not blame anyone for this situation. Its just a bad day and I am feeling its after effects, at 1 in the night! Most of my friends are asleep, and the rest are talking to their boyfriends/girlfriends, and the remaining rest have some other work to do!. The remaining 'remaining' some whom I can talk to, are in the US of A right now. Sad isnt it? But thats life. When you really need someone, the only person who will be there for you, is you. And that my friend, is the truth.


Talk about seeing the glass half full, and not half empty. What if there is absolutely no water in that glass? How would you call that? You got no option but to call out the facts, and admit your situation. The god damn glass is empty, and thats all there is to it. Its absolutely useless to pretend as though everything is just fine, and just carry on with life. Its much much better to realize the problems and try to sort it out, rather than remaining oblivious to the whole thing. My stomach is feeling a bit woozy, and I wanna puke but it just aint happening. The sensation remains, but sadly it remains only as a sensation. Wish I could puke and get it done with, but then I wished for so many other things too. Nothing happened. Maybe its not a day for wishes, its more of a 'take-what-comes-along-your-way' kind of a day. And what has come along my way, is nothing but bad luck! Still you gotta take it all and carry on, expecting more n more bad luck along the way. Sigh.. .Wish there was an option to pause life, and take a look at people around. Maybe some solace somewhere!


All said n done, the day will be over in a few minutes as the shutters in my eyes slowly roll down, on what has been a forgettable 10 hours. It could have come down much earlier, if only I had been ignorant to the troubles around me. But now, I have stayed up, given vent to my feelings and I feel much better. I really do. I will go to sleep now, and when I wake up tomorrow morning, everything will be forgotten, and my slate will be a fresh one. Its a new day and of course, its a new beginning. Nothinz gonna hold me back. The show must go on, and so it will... This funny life just keeps continuing... See you around next time, when I need someone the most, again.....

T. Nagar - Traffic Nagar??? :-)

It’s been a long time since I uploaded something, in fact anything on my blog! Well I have absolutely no excuses this time :-) It’s been out of pure laziness and nothing else. Work has been keeping me on my toes, but still no where near 'hectic'! I'd wanted to write about a helluva lotta things but I jus kept procrastinating.. Knowing me, not too surprising huh? :-)

I thought I'll share a torturous experience I'd been through, in T Nagar last weekend! Thinking about it now, it’s quite funny but I guess I was really stretching my limits of patience on that crazy Saturday evening. It was one of those situations where I really felt sad for myself :-) Guess that just about sums up my frustration, doesn’t it? :-) I had to go to T Nagar cos I wanted to get a birthday gift for my mom. I was with a friend of mine in my car. If not for her I might not have come out of that beehive of a place, without bruises! The people walking on the road were literally driving me nuts. They walk on the middle of the road as though their father had built it especially for them! :-) And if you honk, they give a reaction as though I was disturbing the 'peace' and 'serenity' around! lol... Mann, talk about having a bad time!

In an attempt to park my car in any little space available, I must have gone round Panagal park about 3 or 4 times.... seriously, not kidding!! But all to no avail. Had it been some temple instead of a park, I would have had the satisfaction of getting some blessings atleast! After a few unsuccessful attempts, I'd come to realize that any further attempts to park the car on the main roads would only end up with me in some mental asylum... And with this decision in mind, I stepped into a side lane, only to realize that every single spot by the road 'sides' had already been taken. Why I say this is coz the road itself was barely a few feet wide, and to park the car along its 'sides' really needed talent! :-) To my bad luck, after 15 mins of frantic driving (which must have covered 10-15 feet), I reached a smalllll lane where I could see cars coming only in the opposite direction and every driver in each of those cars had something to say to me! I could not exactly figure out what they were saying, but very quickly I realized that it was only good that I dint hear them! Yes, I was in a one-way, in a lane which could barely hold 2 cars side by side at a time :-( My mistake, yes.. I didn’t notice a signboard, which said 'One-Way' at the beginning of the road. Actually I was sooo frustrated seeing 'No-Parking' boards one after the other, that I had given up even caring to look at any boards! It was a mistake, and boy was I made to pay (sweat) for it!

I was left with no option but to reverse and get back to the nearest intersection. Driving forward in those roads in itself was a monumental task, so you could imagine driving in reverse gear in that lane! Finally don’t ask me how, but I did manage to somehow get back to a legal road, and by this time I had given up any hopes of getting anything from T Nagar. It began to dawn on me, that by the time I manage to park my car, step out, and buy gifts for my mom, her birthday would be over! :-) (Her birthday was on Sunday, July 2nd). Actually more than me, my friend sitting next to me was beginning to lose it! She had cursed my driving, shouted at me, called me 'blind', and what not! :-) I felt really sad for her :-) I could understand her frustration too.. But it was all in a good vein and we had a nice laugh that day! Gosh yes, the moment I got out of that one-way, I raced away along one of the roads. Best thing is that I dint know where that road led to, but I had seen a traffic board which said 'T-Nagar' pointing to the opposite direction, so I knew that wherever this road led to, it went away from T-Nagar... And thats alll that I wanted to know! :-) lol..

Moral of the story: If ever you want to go to T Nagar for shopping, please do not choose weekends. And if at all, you have no option but to go on a weekend, and if its sooo urgent, please do not choose anytime thats anywhere near 6pm - 7pm. And still if you have got no other option but to go in the evening on a weekend, please do not take your car and go! It doesn’t make muchuva difference if you've got a driver, cos he is also gonna the drive the same car, on the same road only. Spare him a thought! lol.. And still, if you 'have to' go to T Nagar on a weekend, in the evening time, in your car.... Well, God Bless You... :-) You will certainly write a similar post on your blog too.. :-)

Hehe... Well, that’s enough of grumbling for a year I guess... This post was not written in an irritated tone or anything! I was in fact smiling thru it. I had a nice time ridiculing myself, and we did manage to have a good laugh. For the record, on the same day I'd managed to get gifts for my mom, from spencers! :-) It made me realize somethin that I had only heard about, before! No matter what the situation is, and no matter how difficult or irritating things are, it’s only the way you look at it that matters! So true.... And also, it really does matter the company you've got! Thankfully that day I had someone next to me, who also saw the lighter side of things.. A Saturday which started looking like a forgettable day, ended up being a funfilled one! Thanks to T Nagar :-) After all, nothin on earth is actually 'bad'! :-) Have fun people!