limerick kicks (or the one where I am back!)

[...Yeah, she didnt tell me that either. Iam a mallu for heaven sake! We have no saying which revolves around rugs and lemonade. Ours got tigers and coconuts. She told me that when life gives you a lemon, you make lime pickle; and if you are still depressed, find some toddy to go along with that - Tys-on-Ice (http://tysonice.blogspot.com/2009/01/lend-me-your-year.html) ...]

once there was this dufus
whom destiny's dark hand always chooses
to put him in a state
where it is his fate
that even while winning he always looses!

doesn't take a brilliant mind to see
that indeed, that's me
who was lolling down south
with tongue hanging outta his mouth
and suddenly found himself in delhieee!

replanted in a whole new place
navigating the bloody maze
found that it wasn't easy
and drove me a little crazy
to browse, connect, blog or interface!

but slowly i got the knack
of juggling forth and slack
work, life , play and party
along with my online repartee
and today got my groove back!

[...and yeah, a few words from your sponsor before you log off. this is a true post even though the tone maybe flippant and rhyming a bit strangled. I have moved yet again; this time to the capital. Wish I could say it was in saerch of truth or some other crappy higher calling but its due to the emergence of...ah darn! it's work..dat's all....

...working on a post with vignettes (funny of course) of life here for the last four months and hope to post it soon...bear you me with...I mean if there is any one out there still reading this or feeding on this...are there any? or is this blog just a pale echo reflecting in the chasms of a Web 2.0 graveyard in between broken links and unpinned feedlets? Must...resist...manic...depressive...state. O 'ell, its 4 in the AM and time for me to wind up what I believe is the most personal I have been in this blog for a long time...H]

bangalore mudde update

its a puzzle...
there has been an update to the status of the pack who made the pact....
answer these questions and you have the answer...
actually, answer any one and you have the answer...
oops...you already have the answer!!

1. The tragic and true story of a family dealing with AIDS is re-told in this heart-wrenching made-for-cable drama. Amy Madigan and Dennis Boutsikaris star as Roxy and Vinnie Ventola, a successful television screenwriting couple.

2. In some versions the seventeenth and eighteenth lines read Two little Soldier boys playing with a gun; / One shot the other and _____________

3. Organized into several chapters of two-column text and complemented by attractive full-page charcoal drawings, the book is similar in style and format to the author's recent volumes on hibernation and symbiosis. Facklam is adept at raising questions and providing clear, smoothly paced, interesting narrative. Her well-crafted blend of information and ideas makes for pleasant read-aloud material--a rare feat for nonfiction. Which book?

....finally!!!

xkcd

Megha and I first met at a party at her friend's. We hit it off with a bang, right away, opened up to each other, shared secrets, and talked about everything. Around us, the party waxed, but we hid from sleep together, talking through the deepest hours of the night. The dawn found us curled up on a couch, asleep but still together.

That experience, connecting with a stranger and falling recklessly in love is one of life's greatest joys...And now that you're married, you'll never experience it again. It's the price you pay for everlasting love. It's a small one, but I hope it stings a little. Anyway, I wish you and Megha best. ...Hey, man, you ASKED me to do a toast!

bangalore mudde

in remembrance of the pact...
sep 2004...



church street, bangalore

me, mush, guldu.....because:

One Bro makes a solo attack, A second Bro provides a crutch, A third Bro rounds out the pack, But a fourth Bro is one too much

iphonofilia

[I wanna take you home, I wont do you no harm, no...You've got to be all mine, all mine...Ooh, foxy lady - Jimi Hendrix]

Yeah...She's MINE!!!!

migration

temperature: 38-40 c
conditions: humid
smell: stinks!!

mood: commie ci commie ca

work: great
people: awesome
---------------------------------------
Balance Sheets got enough to hold me here for a while...lets have a closer look next quarter :-)
---------------------------------------

-
Posted from Chennai

....and be damned!!

published!!!

Click on the pic for a larger view
Link: http://desicritics.org/2008/05/30/154057.php

ephiphany

"Cause all this time
I've just been too blind to understand
What should matter to me
My friend,
This life we live is not what we have
It's what we believe in "

-It's Not My Time, by 3 Doors Down

fever, heat, lazy, cold/rockin', trippin', partayy, bored

[a vacation is like love - anticipated with pleasure, experienced with discomfort and remembered with nostalgia]

its been a month in gods own country and things have been peaceful so far. Unless you count the countless bandhs and hartals dotting the collective calends of an average mallu. Well, we have got used to it and online sites and local hallmark cards have started to come out with cards to wish people on the occassion.

See it went like this. Monday the BJP called a bandh because of inflation. Tuesday early morning one of the students got roughed up in a bus, so the Communist students wing went on immediate strike. Wednesday the private bus operators went on strike state-wide over rising petrol prices. Thursday was actually peaceful, but by 11 in the morning the govt staff went on strike over alleged retirement age changes. Friday “Kuruvi” was released at Priya Theatre, so noone turned up for work/study.

Have been tasting the wonderful cuisine back home for a month now so much that the novelty has kind of worn off. Nothing compared to the day when I landed bleary eyed at 9:00 AM at home and proceeded to demolish an entire casserole of Appams and a basin filled with stew like LokSabha MPs voting on the Women's Reservation Bill.

Thank god for providence (is that redundant?) which made sure Sujay and Ajay were here for the last whole month and I was never deprived of company (or beer, for that matter!) Also, Sandy, Dillon and Rohit dropped in and so did a slew of other school friends.

Got sick too. Last few days, what started of as a sore throat developed into a cold and fever. The upside? lot of my friends (mainly of the feminine gender) seem to think i sound a really sexy. Hmmm...researching on google to keep the voice and chase the cold away...

The heat has started to drive me crazy though. The mercury constantly touches 40 and the humidity is too much to bear. Have taken more cold showers than a prison inmate in for life.

My dreams of staying at home peacefully in the company of friends, beer, PSP and Internet were shattered by mom. She had planned a plethora of visits...grand mom's, relatives, temples...phew...along with that, managed quite a no: of trips with friends too. Keep watching this space for more updates.

To come to the last part...well...bored is what the general feeling is. I am not a workaholic but when your mind starts to think nostalgically about that period in 3rd semester when I was planning CIP, Getting the Forecast designed, Compeering for the Seminar and Creating the Grandmasters quiz at the same time (Ah! h ever so humble me!)...I seriously doubt if I am turning into one

life...redux!

[everyone has a george carlin moment in their life....everyone. i detail mine...]

most unfair thing in life is the way it ends. I mean, life is tough. It takes up a lot of your time. What do you get at the end of it? A death! What's that, A Bonus?! I think the life cycle is all backwards. You should die first, get it out of the way. Then you go live in an old age home. You get kicked out for being too healthy, go collect your pension, then, when you start work, you get a gold watch on your first day. You work forty years until you're young enough to enjoy your retirement. You drink alcohol, you party, and you get ready for High School. You go to primary school, you become a kid, you play, you have no responsibilities, you become a little baby, you go back, you spend your last months floating with luxuries like central heating, spa, room service on tap, then you finish off as an orgasm!! Amen.

The Class of 2008

[ It's a long way to the top if you wanna rock 'n' roll / If you wanna be a star of stage and screen / Look out it's rough and mean ]

Summer of 2006: The young ,energetic lot of SITM 2006-2008 is ready to take on the world ....

Summer of 2008: We have been unleashed into the outside world...Battle scarred and hungry for success. We are ready to take on the world but it is a different thing whether we want to. Ruling it seems more easier.

We have, as a batch, had our struggles, sorrows, triumphs, victories, heartbreaks, joys and exhiliration. In the two years at SITM, we found much more than what we envisioned we would, we realized where we stand in the world, we gained new perspectives and regained focus.

How do you measure the success of any batch? Is it by the salaries that they are offered? The achievements they mete out or the benchmarks they set and reset for the future batches? It is not with pride but with humilty we say that we achieved all this, a 70% increase in Highest Salary, Focused media attention on events and achieved academic and extracurricular merits.

But, we do not believe that this is what measures our success. Our success lies in us...Each of us...THE CLASS OF 2008

[This is the snippet I wrote for the for our class's home page as an intro]

Almost an MBA

(In the beginning, there was discovery, a confusion of elements, a first snowfall of impossible change. Old lives undone, left behind, strange faces made familiar, new nightmares to challenge sleep, new friends to feel safe with. Only then comes control, the need to impose order onto chaos through determination, through study, through struggle, all in defiance of a thundering truth. They're here, and the earth shudders underfoot)

What does it take for a man to find himself? Does he need Tragedy? Love? Triumph? Falls? Ups? Highs? Near-Death? Or Death?

None of these in my case. All I needed were 18 months in the sweet hell of a business school. The 18 months of all the experiences in the first passage…Well, almost all except death.

It seems lofty to pronounce that the 18 months at my school were life changing but hell, they were! I went in as a raw unpolished stone and came out after 18 months as…no, not a diamond, but a shiny cube which reflects and refracts the world around me. It made me aware of the world, helped me connect with the web of human activity (Human Activity systems, as Konher put itJ)

As my long ago previous post showed snippets of what my initiation into MBA was let me continue and dive straight into more incidents.

Almost an MBA (Part II)

1400 HRS, 23.11.06 – Dereliction of Duty

“Bloody, what do you first years think of yourself? Its bloody work that you are ignoring not some bloody assignment…”

“6…7….8…” Sharma counted under his breath. Audible only to me and Prashant “Jugadu” Anand

“If I hear more bloody complaints about your work or bloody non-work I’ll dissolve the junior editorial bloody team”

“9…10…11…” It was Jugadu’s turn to count now. I could detect the upsurge of bottled up laughter inside me and Saurabh “Cisco” Sharma next to me.

Anymore of the famous “bloody” word from the head and we would guffaw right there, right now. In spite of the fact that we were there for a serious dereliction of duty. We as members of the editorial tam from first year were supposed to be de facto correspondents of any major events. Like the National telecom Seminar 2006. This found us sleeping in the back rows of the Vishwabhavan while the senior committee was sweating it out, trying to capture every word of the delegates.

“Bloody get out and finish the report now!!”

“12”, Finally... Out of the room in 12 Bloody Counts!!

2100 HRS, 08.02.06 – Work & Fulfillment

“….and that’s why I insisted that both the streams are a good bet for the kind of intern profile you are offering us.”

“Hmmm…” SK, Director, Project Management-Asia mused “I think I am ok with that then, Harish. I will expect the resumes in mail by tomorrow 9:00 AM then?”

Thoughts swirled in my mind, “College opens at 10, Need to finish TBM PPT by 10:30, need the latest sign up list”

“Yes Sir, Definitely” I replied.

Madhav’s message when I was voted into the Placement Team flashed in my mind. ‘Congrats, someone deserving made into the team. Sorry abt ur personal life though!’

It was epiphanical. Here I was, at 9 in the night on a con call with the director of one of the worlds leading telecom companies and trying to convince him to consider both streams in our for internships.

Although, looking back, I don’t have any regrets of joining the team. To the novice, Placement Team, in any business school is the group of 6-8 students who handles with varying degree of autonomy, the entire placement process of the current batch. Internships, final placements, process, recruitment days et al. I say varying degrees of autonomy because in some cases they are just glorified clerk and in some, like my school, they have a great degree of freedom.

Back breaking grueling work, managing the aspirations of the batch at one end, pressure from the management at another and at a third vicious end the corporate who expect nothing but the best! This is what makes the life of a Placement team member…worth living. We live for the day to erase the hundreds of inscriptions of no: s, action items, plans and names and just see “Shop Closed 100% Placed and Mission Accomplished” on the huge white board.

I had the feeling twice…both after Summers and Finals…and nothing in my 25 years on earth have come close to that euphoria!

101°C

I am in Pune now. I left Bangalore 3 months back. No, I didn’t runaway, nor was I chased away or expelled or expatriated. I left because it was time for me to chase my dreams. I left because what I was doing there, going through there was mind numbing. The daily drivel sapped me not only of energy but also free-will. How much ever a city is attractive its like a gilded cage which cannot but hide the fact that it is, indeed, a cage, bereft of freedom.

16.06.06, 2000 HRS, Clear Skies, 24°C, Bangalore Cantonment

One of the cool Bangalore evenings you always dream about. This time it was different. The train was moving away. I could see the distance already. I am going away from my family, my friends, my Bangalore…chasing a dream…I could see the sight of Ashwin, Divya, Vinay and Musheer fading away as the train rounded the corner…just the sigt was fading not them…

17.06.06, 1836 HRS, Partially Cloudy, 28°C, Pune Central

I took my Pulsar on to the slick wet pavement. I could feel the pulse in my hand, the trembling and slight muffled roar of a crescendo waiting to be unleashed. He was impatient too, being shackled inside a railway compartment for 28 HRs can do that for anyone. I gave him life and he roared. We rode into the bustle, wind running its dew laden hands through my hair, the machine a part of me, unbridled, free, joy

18.06.06, 0900 HRS, Slight Drizzle, 19°C, Apartment B403

We woke up together and we knew it was for real. After eons of separation, the half smile and the hug in the morning was enough to tell me that the choice I made was right. For now, I need to make coffee…

19.06.06, 1100 HRS, Sunny/Cloudy, 28°C, Convention Hall

Induction day was supposed to be hectic, demanding, grueling and taxing. Assignments, Presentations, Verticals, ARPU…it was al that an also provided insights into the minds of the other 101 people around me who make up Batch XI in this prestigious institute…Like this?

“Ma’am…”

“Yeah??”

“On the induction form it says I have to enter any two identification marks, but I don’t have any!”

“What do you mean? There is a mole on your forehead…write that!”

20.06.06, 1030 HRS, Warm/A.C, 17°C, Convention Hall

“So…in 80s when we had to give a Scooter as dowry for our son in law we booked it when the daughter was born, can you imagine the state?” No, we couldn’t. This was Airtel VP talking to us as a part of our induction to Symbiosis. A dynamic exuberant persona not unlike the 12 others from the various walks of corporate life who addressed us during the weeklong program.

18.06.06, 1500 HRS, Heavy Drizzle, 6°C, 5600 FT ABOVE SEA-LEVEL, SINHAGARH

We sat watching the mist roll by the mountains as the cliffs themselves sat nonchalantly. We sat under a thatch roof, 6 of us who had separated from the rest of the class while trekking Sinhagarh. Hot piping tea, smoke and silence. The place seemed untouched by human hands since 19^th century where Marathas fought their guerrilla wars. Suddenly, burst of a Himesh Reshamiya song from the teashop owners mobile shook us out of our reverie. Well, something’s’ spoiled…

03.10.06, 1730 HRS, Sunny, 18°C, Convention Hall

“So, much as we would like to select all of you, I’m afraid that our requirement is for just two”, said HR Manager from HP, “So, we have the names with us here and we would leave the honor of announcing it to your Placement Team”

I was pacing in the library after this announcement. In two minds, whether to wish I get through HP for my Summer Internship, which would mean a prestigious start to my career or to stay in Pune where I could be closer to her. Suddenly, Mohit and Diggi rushed in and the enveloped me in a crushing hug. “Congratulations Dude!!!!, You got through”

Three months into college. First company that came in for summers. I was in!

fireheads!!

the fireheads
(from l to r; vinay "headbanger" raj, musheer "miths" alam, harish "argus" menon)

connecting people

[if you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell 6 friends. if you make customers unhappy on the internet, they can each tell 6,000 friends - jeff bezos]

Here’s my formula of customer bliss:

a faulty nokia 6670

+

complaint letter loaded with sarcasm and diatribe

hi,

i am writing this mail to explain in detail the trials and tribulations that i am facing with the nokia 6670 handset that i own. i bought the said handset on 30.05.05 and used it without any issues. on 23.03.06 when i was on a call the display suddenly went blank and it wouldn’t respond and nor was i able to restart it.

i took it to the nokia care center in infantry road, bangalore and gave the handset for repairs. i was asked to come after a week to collect my phone. after a week, i went there and collected the phone which they assured that will be working fine now. indeed it did, but only for a day. the next day, when i was out-station the issue resurfaced and i suffered for a week without a phone. as soon as i came back i went to the service center where i was again made to book a job sheet (for the second time) and was given another phone (a nokia 2650) while mine was being repaired.

a week later, i again went to the service center where i was told that the phone wasn’t ready. i wasn’t ready to continue using the stand-by phone and insisted on action. then, mr. rajesh nair provided me with a replacement handset which was a supposedly refurbished one from nokia. i want to bring to your notice that this said handset wouldn’t start when it was switched on and he had to give me a new battery for it. i used it fine for a day and after which, believe it or not, the phone faced the same issue. i brought it back and was convinced enough to do a re-flashing of the phone, thinking foolishly that it will resolve it. i went on a business trip again and after 2 days of functioning the phone died out on me in the middle of a conference call giving me a lot of mental anxiety.

that i was livid would be an understatement. i reached the service center again after only a week and upon faced with this dilemma; mr nair promised me a brand new handset. this was not presently available and he asked me to wait for a week. partly assured that my troubles were over, i agreed to one more week of limited connectivity and collected a new handset last week. my troubles were far from over! the handset was having the same issue again!!

in between all this visits to the service center, i had seen at least 15 (i am not exaggerating) nokia 6670 phones with the same issue and i am convinced this is something to do with the architecture of the phone. i gave the handset back to your service center yesterday and asked mr. nair to provide me with a replacement of a different model as my confidence in the handset was severely shaken! he said that it is not in his powers to replace it with another model and i was asked to write this mail. i am convinced that i am entitled for this considering the mental agony, loss of productivity, wastage of time and financial losses i have incurred due to the inability of your service center to correctly diagnose and rectify the problem associated with your handset. i request you to take my request into consideration and provide me with a solution asap.

sincerely,

harish menon

=

a brand new nokia 6680!!

road, rubber and rock n roll

long stretch of 4 lane expressway...
burning rubber at 125 per hour...
group of people who you would give your life for...
drag race in the middle of the highway...
old monk, 100 pipers and talking till the wee hours...
pure bliss....

That was our trip to Yelagiri

doppelganger

there’s a nifty tool called msn polygamy which lets you run 2 instances of messenger on your computer. you can login with 2 different ids at the same time. i usually login with both my official and personal ids. what i have done is; i have added one id in the other’s list.

sometimes, i open a messenger window and chat to myself, from one id to another. the chat heats up so much that i have pretty intense conversations.

it freaks out the people around me…

sometimes, i don’t even remember typing some of the replies and feels like i am chatting with someone else…

that’s freaks me out…

do you have any weird stuff like this that you do? the comments section is open...

decisions

steve jobs once asked john sculley:
"do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water? or, do you want a chance to change the world?"

i think. contemplate. i imagine.
roar of the wind that blows from the frontiers unconquered.
the battle of "what i want" vs "what i got" rages in the arena of my mind.

the return of the cup

[never forget where you’ve come here from, never pretend that it’s all real, someday soon this will be someone else’s dream – from “never forget" take that ]


there are some objects which, even though are lost, come back to haunt us as memories. little did i know when i wrote the final chapter of the cup that the story was far from over.

one day, i was coursing through the drudgery of reports, analyses, feedbacks and monitors, which i call work. mush was online and i was chatting with him intermittently. i got a ping from him. “dude, nishant was asking for my blog address”, he said.” wants to read my poems” nishant was our operations manager in windows xp. he was the guy responsible for making the project what it was and someone who was there from the day of its inception. above all, he was someone who we all looked up to. even though mush had left the company months ago he still chats with him regularly. i said that was cool and thought nothing of it.

later i saw him standing near andy’s cube. he, dee and andy where talking. i went over there and we were just chatting when he said that he read my blog. he then went on to give me insights about the previous post and was generally pulling my leg, which he does often, about me being the tree etc… in between the conversation he asked,” where is the cup?” “oops” i thought to myself, “will that thing never leave me?” out loud i said, “its still there. where motu took it” “hmm ok, i am taking it” that was his style, that made us name him tiger. i took the cup and gave it to him and he took it home. kind of was relieved. at least it’s away from me now.

prudence stops me from saying that this is the end. nishant was saying something about the cup looking the right size for sandy to punch him. maybe that would make another interesting chapter in the story. till the next one……..