I wanna fall sick

Often people hate to fall sick, but I would love to…just for the following small pleasures I get, when I fall sick..Some how all these great things always keep my spirits high and always help me fight all my pains….

- First of all, I don’t have to wake up early and hurry up with the daily chores and rush to work…I would be let to sleep, sleep and sleep…
- Around 9.00 am, mom and dad would come to my bedside and warmly wake me up to check if I was feeling better and spend their precious 15 minutes cajoling me to have some kanji (porridge) before the first round of medicines.
- That lazy stroll around the house!! Just to get back to my cozy bed, underneath the warm blanket & hugging those soft pillows...
- Appa’s get well soon kiss on my forehead, before he left to the office… and his call every other hour to check if I was fine…
- Amma’s day off from the office just to sit beside me all day….
- Dear paati would get me my ilaneer (tender coconut) or saathukkudi (sweet lime) juice or that barley thanni … (Always wondered how my darling 80 yr old was so energetic and full of life)
- Calls from all my dear friends, one after the other just to make me feel on top the world... (oops I hate to miss these calls )
- That small nap before its time for amma to feed me with rasanjaadam or thachimammu (literally spoon by spoon) and then my second course of medicines
- The comfort and luxury of paati’s lap and mom gently pressing my tired legs
- The long afternoon nap till my dearest brother calls to find his didi's haal..
- The uncles & aunts’ visits in the evenings… just to assure that… We do care for you…
- Then the poor Project Manager’s deliberate call to find out if I was fine..(Obvious enough to find if I would check in the next day), but tragically I would request for an extension (another day’s pleasure.)
- Can I miss the late evening chats with fellow colleagues?…(of course I need to be aware of what’s happening at work too …)
- That long awaited high fever which would draw everyone’s attention to me.
- The thermometer and the piece of white cloth dipped in ice…
- The lukewarm milk with a tinge of turmeric, pepper and sugar before the last course of medicines.
- Mom’s prayers(with that lil tear hiding beneath her eyelids)…to give her all my pains (moms are really amazing aren’t they?)
- Seeing tired mom and dad wide awake till I fall asleep late in the nite
- Finally, my good night kiss...!!!

But sadly even a small cold, when I am away from home seems to be really killing…How I wish I were at home now!!!...

Madras - Marina Memoirs

Madras and Marina …these two words have always been fascinating through out my life… mebbe it’s just because one’s hometown is always special or simply because and they have never lost their charm…Every time, I get back home… I make it a point to go the Marina…(it really feels proud to say it’s the second longest beach in the world) …And as ever… this time was yet another memorable evening at the Marina…

Just the four of us, mom, dad, me and my lil brother...set off in our car… My brother’s long time dream to drive the car finally came true…. It was a fantastic drive, with HH and LL’s (the colonial cousins) Melodious score in the background and our sweet little nothing chitchats on the foreground…

Yipppie…we reached Marina…I really thanked the rain God, for having mercy on us… It had rained that afternoon, leaving the evening to be really pleasant and cool. Just setting my foot on the sand made me feel so refreshing…and we set off towards the water…watching those kites, those shooting the balloons, frisbies flying here and there…breathing fresh air, enjoying the chilly breeze…

I bet… we can never get this kind of a pleasure at the pubs or shopping malls or theatres or recreation clubs or even the so called amusement parks…

We then sat down and our chats continued in the sands of marina… with me relishing the one and only pattani sundal with a generous spread of maangai topping… By the time I finished this, there came our man with the pink color panju mittai (cotton candy)… how could I miss that??

Eh…what’s the fun, if you don’t get yourself and your clothes wet in those salty waters… That’s any kid’s favorite…so is mine… holding on to dad’s caring hands (just incase u slip…dad’s there to pull you back) and watching those waves … merely closing your eyes and hearing them come closer…Somehow… it makes one forget all the worries…and its truly truly truly entrancing…

As it started growing darker, dad had to set his timer on… to get back to the sand… And I kept on saying… only till thaaaaaat wave came down… thaaaats the laaaaaast wave… last 2 minutes… just last two minutes, for nearly 15 minutes… but only till I saw the sonpapdi man coming near mom…(another type of white cotton candy)… Then I had to rush, else I would have missed on my favorite...

Then we walked back to the car park… but how could one miss the pineapple and maangai pieces, with that lil sprinkle of salt and pepper… and of course the Bhel poori and Paani poori… those poor vendors also have to be benefited!!… Atlast... even the meal I skipped to enjoy these little wonders... dint matter :-)

Finally as I bid my adieu to the Marina… dad got me the best ice-cream….the grape kuchi ice …and then I got back to the car licking my kuchi ice and was really happy that the color had stayed on my tongue for sometime... And off we set …for our drive back home…

It was a totally relaxing and refreshing evening…cherishing moments on our way back.... now the background score was by ARR (Thendrale, Thendrale mella nee veesu )… this was not all…the best part was….I was lying on mom’s shoulders and was just tossing off… when I heard mom say…. "Idhukku kalyaana vayasu aayiduthu, innum ippdi china kozhandaiya irukku…” and I sprang up to say… “Mom, I am still a kid”… and that left all of us with a smile on our faces…

Miss you Marina…!!!

Exam fever

Goooooosh…. these exams really drive me crazy….. Those cramps in my stomach, sleepless nights, my lil tummy forgets to get hungry…. Ooooooops… and it feels as though by brain is getting baked in a highly pre-heated oven….

Exams are still a nightmare… No more writing pads with my “Pillaiyaar Swami padam “ on the rear side, no more magnetic pencil boxes, no more Omega geometry boxes, no more jhanjhats about the filling Bril ink in my fountain pens… no more hunting for Luxor sketch pens to highlight my answers…. But then… my Natraj HB pencil still has to be sharpened and my Faber Castel Eraser still needs to be fresh out of the seal...

Exams seem to be a lot easier these days… I don’t have to derive any equations, certainly no more theorems to be proved….don’t have to draw any more graphs… don’t have to remember the parts of the animal and plant cell for my Biology papers… don’t have to write pages and pages of history on my Geography paper…don’t even have to remember Shakespeare’s quotes for my English papers… But then I really found them much more interesting…. and it was definitely more fun, when my class teacher gave back the papers… to let me count my marks…. A 93 and a half would simply be 94/100 …. For sure my teachers would always… miss off a few half marks here and there… so an 89 would easily run into a 93 or 94 …. And that would easily push me into the top 5 rankers in the class…

These are the days of the OMR sheets… I just have to sit and shade those 80 odd circles… and then these dark circles decide my bright future…. Isn’t that really funny… These objective questions always make me wonder… “Why is my life not laden with me so many crisp choices/options ….?” But then … I am happy… I don’t have to play “Inkey Pinkey Ponkey, father had a donkey, donkey died, father cried, Inkey Pinkey Ponkey… Ponkey ” OR “In Pin safety Pin , In pin Out” (This is what I do at my exam hall these days) ….with my wonderful life…. These OMR answer sheets barely fetch me any marks….Of course they are just enough and somehow I am saved from that deadly demarcation (Pass/Fail)….

Sadly, I am now waiting to pen in pages and pages at the exam hall… to get back my 89s and 94s… It’s really long since I have seen these figures on my mark sheets…. But then…. Yippie… hope that’s not far away…. :-)

Just an after thought: - At times life seems to be a lot easier, sweeter and simpler, when we just have to choose amongst a few (two) options… Isn’t that really really really true… ???

Smiles…!!!

Parama Vetti - Jobless

Oops its already 3 long years since I have started working.... but never ever have I found it so dragging... Can you imagine?? a Monday and Tuesday... have been so dragging... Its not like 8 hours.... its 28800 seconds...

Seriously where are those client calls? How come there are no production abends? How come all the jobs are running fine? How come there is not a single change control request?? Worst of all why is the client not approving any work requests?? Is my client running out of new Business requirements?? Will there be no more conceptual designs and detailed designs?? What about the coding and component testings ??? Eh... then the Integration and System testing ??? The User Acceptance testing would be a big NO MORE...!!! .... Holy me... no more peer reviews and defect tracking...This also means... no more Time and Cost estimations....Gosh, not even a single team meeting !!!

This really makes me wonder... am I a software professional.... :((

Nyways....Am really thanking Google swamigal, yahoo-messenger maha periyava for adding more life these days... and a biggie biggie thanks to my eMBeeAy exams for really keeping me busy....

Ooops... I better pack up now..." kadamai, ennai azhaikkiradu.... makkal waiting on chat ....heee heee heee"

Clouds of gloom

Life at times, seems to move at a very slow pace … Oops… this reminds me of the theory of relative motion… I still remember, my physics teacher say, “Imagine you are sitting in a train that is stopped at a railway station, with another train facing the opposite direction on the track directly beside you. When the other train starts moving, you will taken by a surprise! And will feel your train has started moving, when it still had 10 minutes to move… Now after the train has passed from the front of your window… you will know you are still there at the station…”

Conversely, ever since I have noticed, I have always found that my train is always at a stop, while the other trains were always running ahead of me… I always used to compare the pace of my life with the people around me…

Life seems to be at a stop again… some of my team mates have gone onsite… some close pals have set their wings off and ventured into interesting fields… some have crossed oceans to fulfill their Master dreams… some of my friends are happily married ( haa haa… an oxymoron there)…. some of my juniors are already proud mothers… Their lives always seemed to be thrilling….

But here I am … still sitting and cursing life… for not being exciting … for not being challenging and I having to lead yet another boring routine… I was only empathizing… "Is this what I wanted in Life” … But eh hold on a second... who is responsible for all this???.... Why can’t I look at it with a positive mind…? Why can’t I make it sound more interesting…?

Somehow Life was always an accelerating treadmill where I had to run faster and faster just to stay in one place. I have had no time to appreciate the small miracles in life… and now this slow pace has made me feel the life around me…. At times I hear my conscience saying “Ye Meri Life hai, mujhe apne dang se jeene do" (This is my life and let me live it my way)

Now I have all the time with me…. to read my favorite book, to listen to my favorite song on the radio, to cook my own food and relish it, to day dream as long as I want to… to watch that little bird sing through my bedside window…. Eh I even have the time to workout at the gym, to get drenched in the rain… to watch the kids on the street play “Crocodile, crocodile, can we cross the golden river…” Mebbe will also find some time to join my driving classes, and the long awaited western violin classes… And the most of all… I have started spending more time with myself… I have started doing those little interesting things…

Guess I have started living my life…. “Now I feel…. Mebbe This is what I wanted”… I would never want to compare my pace of life with my neighbors… Bcos now I know… they are missing all these small wonders… :-)

Sometimes there are clouds of gloom.
But these are transient all;
If shower will make the roses bloom,
Oh why lament its fall?
Rapidly, merrily … Life’s funny hours flit by
Gratefully, cheerily…enjoy them as they fly.

--Thanks to those verses of Charlotte Bronte

Lines I really liked…

Thats a favorite hobby of mine.... collecting verses as and when I read them... a few of them are

“ Grant me serenity to, Accept what I can’t change,
The courage to, Change what I can, and
The wisdom to, Know the difference.”


“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light ,
But by making the darkness conscious”


Those who can't laugh at themselves leave the job to others.

“ Nothing is all wrong.
Even a clock
That has stopped running…
Is right twice a day.”


“Don’t be afraid of pressure.
Remember that Pressure is what turns a lump of coal into a diamond”


“I can’t do it” , never accomplished anything,
“I will try”, has worked wonders.



"Difficulties Mastered Are Opportunities Won"
~Winston Churchill


“Don't CRY because it's over; Smile because it happened.”