A Love Story (in 55 Words)

She met him at a party and they couldn't take their eyes off each other. Lust turned to love and they discovered they were soulmates. Then her parents found her a "suitable" boy working in the US and his parents married him to a "homely" girl who didn't party. And they lived happily ever after.

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Thanks Rohan for this different tag. :-) I am passing it on to tag to Harini, vettymax, jinguchakka, eroteme, littlecow and kaps. C'mon ppl its story time! :-)

Updated: Check this out. It has a great collection of 55 word stories

Different Strokes

Working in a software firm is fun. Especially if you have the time and energy and inclination to analyze the people who work there. Of course you can observe people anywhere, but it's more easy in this case since s/w techies spend 23 and 1/2 hours out of 24 at work and since you are one of them too and since brains do not co-operate to working continuously you can have some fun on the sly. Or if your company blocks IM you can analyze people. :-)

The most common category which is the majority in almost all companies is the Bored Bachelor. Most of them would have relocated from their hometown and are staying away from their family. They look for houses which are very close to office to save money and time on conveyance. They don't have a life outside work and so spend every awake minute in the company - working or working or working or playing TT or working or having free coffee and Cola or working. They are the kind who try too hard - to impress managers, PLs and psyche hapless co workers.

The True Nerd is a smaller category that is sometimes confused with the above. They are geeks at heart, swear by Slashdot, know all UNIX commands by memory and play with GreaseMonkey. They can also be found always in office but mostly contributing to some open source project or checking out the source code of Google. It is not that they don't have a life, but their life (un)fortunately revolves around computers.

The Social Butterfly is another important kind. They usually dress to kill and have a jaunty air about them. When they open mouth, foot gets inserted automatically 'coz they try to funny always. Despite that there is always a crowd around them (mostly of the opposite sex) who genuinely enjoy the company. They flirt endlessly and enthu is their middle name. They are usually responsible for introducing some semblance of fun in the company.

And how can I forget the little HomeBodies! They are ones who are staying with their family. The first thing you notice about them is the huge lunch dabba they carry with them to work that their mother/wife has lovingly packed for them. They come on time to work and try to leave early (but not always, c'mon you have to give moms a chance to boast to the neighbours "My son/daughter works soo hard. The boss simply can't do without him/her."). Any dinner plans or party has them raising objections that they can't go home late or drunk or both. These mamma's boys/girls are sometimes Bored Bachelors as well, but they don't have a choice to stay late 'coz folks will be worried at home.

Lot of other categories like Giggly Gigli, Dude-Straight-From-America, Pervy Perverson come to my mind, but another day another post. :-)

A Blog is Born

Diamond words strung along
In a pretty pattern make a song

Bigger words thrown astray
Mightier and more profound is an essay

Words can also be spoken by men
A play is what happens then

Sometimes the words can go on without close
This distinguished form is called the prose

I can talk of people and how they live
And that my friend, is called a narrative

Stories in short with words just a few
Are fables that gave Mr Aesop his due

Throw in some rhymes, and frills and lace
Then poetry stares right into your face

There are the sonnets, ballads, limericks and more
And dramas, their epilogues and tales of yore

But when you write something that into no category will fit
Just call it a blog and publish it! :-)

If You are Happy and You Know it Clap Your Hands

Me is back in Hyd after three happy days at home. Oh yes I had a good time, thanks for asking! :-)

Salient features that were noticed (arranged strictly in random order) :

1) Chennai rocks period

2) The amount buzz you generate at home is directly proportional to the amount of time that has lapsed since you previous visit. (Once upon a time, when I used to visit once a month I was expected to lug my own luggage and find my way home from the station. But this time I was offered to be picked up even though the arrival time and place was shaky as I took a bus)

3) Shopping is definitely "funner" in T.Nagar than in any other place anywhere else especially if you are with sister dear who is endowed with good taste in clothes (if not like like same same taste as you) and you have a Scooty Pep to zoom along and if you stop for chaat at Hot Chips on the way.

4) Amount of stuff you bring back from home >> amount of stuff you take home

5) I haven't used the words "salient features" ever since I discarded social studies in Tenth std.

6) Every train is endowed with lot many creeps and one of is sure to land in your bay. (The creep in question started talking to me in Bengali initially and kept ridiculously remarking that I look like a Bong. Then he took out a box of tobacco, rolled it with both his hands and chewed on it. Immediately after that he asked for my India Today and thumbed it without washing his hands. And despite my monosyllable answers to his prying questions directed at the book in my hand rather than his face, he shamelessly asked more questions, shared info about him very generously and lost the flimsy shreds of dignity that held on to him)

That's all folks! :-)

BLOB

So go and check this out now! C'mon it's worth the effort of actually clicking on the link!

So How Are You Doing Today?

Ok the title is a rip off from Will & Grace (Jack's magic act). But my blogging is on the decline and I thought it was time for a this-is-what-is-happening-in-my-life post. :-)

On the work front, things have gone down from "crazy" to just "lots of work". I had my first weekend off in weeks and made merry. Microsoft had their annual party last Saturday and D very graciously invited me and gave me company the entire time - Thanks D! :-) The party was like all other company parties but with a lil more granduer ('coz it's Msft you see! :-) ) The highlight of the day was the dance by all the directors and some/all their wives. It was in very good enthu and really seemed to shatter atleast a teeney bit of the sense of bureucacy.

And yes, Moi has now got a private means of transportation. My first choice was


but finally I settled on this! :-) Drives beautifully and me is happeee! :-)


The coming weekend is also a long weekend and if things go as I have planned, me will going home after 4 long months! Wish me lots of luck and less of work! :-)

So how are you all doing? :-)

After a Long Time

I am staring at the "Create Post" screen. Contrary to what certain gentlemen think, neither have I gone into hiding and nor have I moved my blog elsewhere. It's the same ol sob story actually - work and lots of it! (How about some sympathy here???):-) )

Yanways yesterday I was struggling with a simple ALTER TABLE query and when that column stubbornly refused to add itself to the table, my mind wandered from the scary land of SQL into
nice things in life. And I started thinking about my favorite columns in The Hindu. (TOI readers can stop right here. :-) And don't get me started about people in Chennai who read Indian Express on their own volition when Hindu is available! :-) )

One more reason to look forward to Sundays is the Hindu Magazine. My favorite part is "Slice of Life" by V. Gangadhar. His columns always remind me of the stories that Amma and Appa keep telling, about the good old days back then. The sporadic "Short Story" is usually very good and it was one such short story that got me started on Wodehouse (That's another story in itself, and therefore will be another post in itself :-) ) There used to be this column called "Village Vistas" by some Ghosh or someone. I used to like that too in a differert way. I could hardly relate to any character, but it was good reading all the same. Wonder why it isn't on these days. I also read the odd article in "Literary Review" (most of the stuff are a lil high brow for my taste! :-) ). But I like Pradeep Sebastian's Endpaper where he discusses lots of random stuff about books and reading. Art Buchwald's column was pretty entertaining and gave my first insight into American life before the advent of sitcoms and Star Movies.

"Know Your English" is a little cliched and sometimes slightly boring column that comes on Tuesdsays but I read that anyways. The best part about it is the quote at the end which makes it worth reading the whole article. It used be written by Krishnan and Upendran years back and now it's just Upendran's. "Between You and Me" (by the same Krishnan I think) was another favorite Tuesday column. It talked about various issues in the city and always ended on a joke told to a fictious Parthasarathy. Needless to say, it was the joke I looked forward to more rather than city happenings. :-) As a school goer, the science and technology section interested me a lot and I used to cut out the "Question Corner" section with the aim of making a newspaper clipping encycloepedia.

I used to follow "This Day That Age" with a lot of interest until the news about our independance. Somehow it lost its charm after that. Nowadays I check it out once a year, to find out what happened in "that age" on my birthday. :-) And yes the famous Hindu crossword. I have always held in the highest esteem and have never attempted to solve it even once. :-)

The Friday Review, Metro Plus, Young World et al are also good reads, but no regular column in them.

I realise that no column like Paul Krugman's or any sports column or anything of actual importance has made it into my list. Heck, I am made this way! :-) So what's your favorite?