Driving in Chennai roads !!!

Posted by Robbie | Posted in | Posted on Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Wel folks .. if u r dreaming bot driving in Chennai like Madhavan in 'Alaiypaayuthe' with a cd-man blaring 'Maddy Maddy..', then "Helllooooo!!! Welcome to Reality .. and to Chennai" .. Driving in Chennai roads ... (shudder) .. man .. not an easy task .. i ve been drivin for a li'l more than a year in Chennai and one thing i ve learnt is that, never follow the rules set by the government .. there are different road rules set by fellow-drivers (which is gettin worser and worser day-by-day btw) and those are the ones to be followed ..
For instance, u are waiting in the red signal ... there'll b 4 or 5 more seconds to go for the signal to turn green but ur fellow-drivers 'll not wait .. u know .. ppl r so busy they cant wait for those few seconds for the lite to change to green ... oh yeah!! like they cant wait to go to hell ...
And the tragic fact is that, u wont b allowed to follow rules either .. the other day, i was in the front of the row of vehicles and there wre still five seconds for green signal but as usual ppl near me started to drive but i , like gr8 miss.goody-goody, didnt budge from the place .. waited for the time to become zero sec and lite to turn green ... and that was one of the most embarassing moments in my life i think .. ppl behind me started yellin at me and scolding me .. :( and all for tryin to follow some rules ... 'm not the sorta person whoz easily tempted to follow rules and when out of the blue i decide to, look at the feedback?!!! :( and also, after the rains (which is another miserable story) , roads in many places r pathetic .. by the time u reach ur destination, u'll b shaken fully like u shake a tonic bottle b4 u ve the med .. :-/
and worse of all is this .. some ppl (and these ppl 'm telling bot are educated (??!!@) and in gud positions) when they r drivin their cars, smoke and the tap the ash out the window without a thought bot the ppl driving along ... and once they ve done with that cigarette, they jus toss it out the window .. :-/ .. and once i saw a guy jus flip it out and it landed on a gal who was driving a two wheeler and she lost her balance and nearly collided with another four wheeler .. god only knows how these guys cal themselves educated when they dont even ve the common sense to realise that they r causing trouble to fellow-drivers, not to mention the harms of the cigarette smoke and the pollution they r causing ...
and there's this other category of ppl who r so busy they ve to take cals while driving ... they wont give way for others to overtake either and meanwhile they'll b takin their cals and driving simultaneously.. how long 'll it take to park in a side of the road and take the cal and resme driving after that???? hmm ... :-/ .. saving precious minutes eh?? arey no yaar .. gettin a faster ticket .. when'll ppl realise that??? let 'em get their tickets faster but y get other ppl theirs??
so ppl, if u r new to Chennai and very new to driving , then plz try driving before seven in the morning and never bother to even try after that ... and if u think t'll b okie sorts to drive in the nite after eight or so, wel .. drop the idea ... chennai roads see a li'l lesser traffic only after ten in the nites and ppl who drive after that are really rash ... so dont risk ur lives .. i made that mistake and paid for it by spending over two thousand bucks on my bike and another eight hundred on my hospital bills and medicines .. not to forget the fact that i was limping around like kamal hassan in '16 vayathinile' and using only one hand (caz the other was not in a condition to be useful for anything) for over a month ... man .. i had my lesson .. so mark the words of an experienced person for experience is like a comb which nature gives when u r bald .. so, dont wait for ur own experience .. some things ought to be learnt secondhand ..
man .. 'm gettin gud at this now .. drivin in chennai roads i mean ... some school junior cald me the other day and told he saw me in besant nagar and that i was driving very fast .. he he he .. and my cousin had come to visit me and i had to pick her up and drop her off at central .. and she had told my mom (some pal she is) that my driving was rash .. this proves that 'm gud for driving in Singara Chennai ... ;) so, there u go .. u ve got some sage advice ... now itz is up to u .. Happy and Safe Driving!!!!

Diwali .. er .. Deepavali !!! :)

Posted by Robbie | Posted in | Posted on Friday, January 20, 2006

DIWALI .. one festival i was crazy about ... there wre three festivals i alwayz looked forward to each yr ... Diwali, Holi and New Yr (wel .. u don’t exactly cal it a festival but back then, anything that cals for a celebration was a festival in my dictionary .. that belief still has some foothold in my heart .. ;) .. nywayz .. ) today, that festive mood has lost much of itz enthu/. ... i tel myself that itz caz i ve grown up ... but i think the real reason is that today the way of celebrating the festival has changed soo much that i ve lost the charm i had for it when i was a kid ..

those days, when diwali was jus a month away, we ( dad, mom , vivi and me) used to sit down for a round table conference ( er ... off the record, t'was either a rectangular dining table conference or the partially rect and partially oval - okie okie , i dunno the exact shape of it- table conference in the hall ) ... and this was the day v decided wat crackers v wre goin to buy for that diwali - after much fighting between me and vivi(my bro) and convincing by my ma and dad ("kanna ivlo vedi vendaam .. konjam flower-pot and chakra .. apram kambi-mathaapu vaangiko" .. ouff :- ) .. t'was alwayz this way, my dad gave us a list of crackers and the amount he was ready to spend on 'em for each of us and v wre free to choose wat v wanted (oh yeah??!!!!) ... how much ever my parents organized and bought crackers for us both, finally on the D-Day v managed to end up quarelling rite in the morning .. v wre both fond of all those noisy bombs and both of us hated flower-pots and chakras ... but then, v buy those caz v wre forced to by my ma esp. .... so i'll try to push all those to him and take all vedi's ... and he'll try to do the same to me .. finally v'll glare at each other and leave in the opposite directions to burst crackers with our respective frenz .. those wre fun filled days and v didnt ve much channels and crap programs ( na .. not all .. but most) named diwali-special-programs that today's kids seem to njoy more ......

when i think of Diwlai-on-those-days i never fail to remember that one Diwali when i was in sixth or seventh .... me and vivi started off the day like any other Diwali day and wre back home for lunch at sharp one thirty ... me and my gang had decided to stop bursting crackers for the afternoon and continue in the evening and all of us headed home for a few hours of rest .. (v wake up at three thirty .. so v need the afternoon nap) .. but i was not so sleepy and so after lunch, me and vivi along with a fren of his went down (v live in the second floor) ... v wre soo bored and suddenly one of us came up with a brainstorm (???!!!) .. v collected all the un-burst (oops!! sorry if such a word doesn't exist ... ) crackers and opened 'em and took the chemical in a sheet of paper .. finally after two hours of hard work, v had enough chemical for an atom bomb .. v wrapped up the sheet and decided to lite it and ve a grand bursting ... my bro lighted the self-made cracker with me and the other guy lookin and b4 v knew wat happened , all of us wre bruised and burnt ..

these guys had not washed their hands and when vivi lighted the cracker, the chemical in their hands also caught fire ... luckily(!!!?) i was a li'l farther and nothing much happened to me but those two wre badly hurt ... esp vivi .. his hands wre scarred and itz taken more than ten years for it to fade ..

v wre both royally thrashed left and rite by my ma but my dad was sorta lenient .. lectured us for a li'l more than an hour and made it a point to buy us extra crackers from the next year .. he he he .. but that diwali alwayz made us remember never to touch crackers that did not burst the first time .. and v cut a gud example for the neighbours to advice their kids .. "look at vivek and anu .. look at vivek's hands ... be very careful .. okie " ... oh yeah , sure .. :- quite an example v wre for a few yrs after this incident ..

wel !! gud or bad .. these r all fond memories in a way and i miss those days of diwlai and holi and all other festivals .. now , living far away from home (wel .. 'm not near enough to stay home and go to work .. and travelling more than 8 and half hours to reach home is pretty far for me) , i think of those days and the fun v had .. man !! how i wish i had a time machine .. i wud rewind back to all those wonderful days and more than that, for the days i had wasted which if given a chance now, i wud luv to compensate for ... hmmm ... any idea wre i can get one??? a Time Machine??!!!

My PG aspirations ??!!!!

Posted by Robbie | Posted in | Posted on Monday, January 02, 2006

wel .. there ve been so many comedies(???!!!) in my life but the latest is the best(?!! no .. not for me) .. one fine day, long long ago (nearly a year back to be exact) , i finished all my tasks at office (the client office was closed for xmas .. apidiye new yr kum serthu.. but india la namma work pannanum .. no no .. work ellam illa .. office varanum .. yen na , billablitiy .. never work in client place) and was vettiya sittin in my seat not knowin wat to do .. mail ellam check panni mudinjathu ... and my seat is s'wre in the highway .. everyone ( to me, itz 'everyone '.. but wat i meant was , many) passing that way to their seats 'll stop at my place (note it ... they stop only when 'm jobless .. ppl turn blind when 'm working) and ask if i ve finished with checkin my yahoo mails, my company id mails, client id mails(me in client site ..), etc., .. poor me .. :( .. gotta laugh and tel, 'yep .. almost over' .. and all u get in return is "man, try to work at least once in a while" .. thevaya ithellam .. sivane nu oru orama naa iruken .. thedi vandhu itha soliye aaganuma???? ellam ennoda neram ...

seri nu, appa torture thaanga mudiyaama, plus life la oru meaning venume nu MBA pannalam nu decide panninen .. naa ennoda life-laye panna peria thappu ithuthaan nu pinnadi thaanga therinjathu .. things wre outta my hands by the time i realised it ... nywayz, matter ku varalam .. epadiyo, details ellam collect panni ( athu onnu thaan koraichal ... hmm :-/ ) , oru nalla univ (??!!!???? apadiya???!! ) la application ellam vaangi apply panni formalities and tests ellam finish panni join panniten .. ( appaada nu nenachen .. illa .. athellam oru matter-e illa .. inime thaan vishayame starting nu ippo thaanga theriyuthu ) .. all these happened and in the mean time, i was switched to a fixed bid project and t'was a very tight proj .. and 'me the gr8' was the only amateur in that project ... and u know wat .. ennoda neram .. my pl hated freshers and esp gals ...

"watz ur degree?" - my pl
"B.E" - naan thaanga
"wat technology?" -pl
" Java / J@EE" - me
" ouff .. who gave u 'n all degree???? .. i asked wat tech in ur b.e "
oooooooh .. okie okie .. question wasn't clear to me the first time ..
" oh sorry .. EEE "
" after doin electrical, y the hell did u come for a s/w job?? now i ve to put up with ppl like u .."

this was the sorta friendly(??!) conversation i used have with my pl and v hardly ever conversed .. the very few occasions that v did, v ended up hating each other more and more .. nywayz .. i'll blog all that in a different post .. so, i started havin soo much work that i harldy went home .. was literally living in office ... wat with the fact that i really was bad in programming and also, the deadlines to be met wre tooo short, i had to put in extra hours .. thus went my semester up in smoke ... i didnt write that sem exams .. gud start .. first sem-e intha latchanam .......

adutha sem-layavathu clear pannalaam nu i thought .. like i told, t'was a fixed bid proj .. t'was over in five months .. apram, release ( thank god for li'l favors) ... next project was a kewl one .. long term proj and so deadlines wre sorta kewl .. so, i decided to pursue my mba dreams .. oooh ... ( entha nerathula dream nu sonneno, dream-a ve iruku innum .... this month i ve booked my exam slots .. lemme c how 'm gonna fare) ..

ippo thaanga peria unmai onnu therinjathu .. corres/. MBA na , regular mba maathiri illa ... rules ellam they changed this year only it seems (next year panneerkalaam illa .. y now?? after all thse yrs??? vera year-e kedaikalaya?).. new rules .. blimey!! they ve multi-choice questions only in xamz!!!!!!!!!! (HORROR .. &*$$#%^) and to get ur MBA DEGREE (he he he .. wat a joke) , all u gotta do(??!!! ) is memorize ur text book which they r kind enough to give u once u pay ur fee .... (**&&%^$#$%#) .. "book la irukaratha mug adikanum.. avlo thaane "-nu neenga ninaikalam .. appadi thattifying easy-a irunthirundha, oru state rank illa at least oru district rank vaangi innaiku peria aala iruka maatena?? athu mudiyaathathaala thaane i am wat i am today?!! yen kashtam enaku .. exam vera nearing .. enna panrathune theriyala ..

when i tel my kashtam to folks, they jus laugh thinkin itz a comedy .. man!! my life is not a comedy .. aana onnu .. i'll clear all my papers .. four yrs time iruku illa ... paarthukalam .. etho kashtathilayum oru nalla kaalam .. padikaren nu solli (burning the midnite oil for the past ten days ... he he he) , ennoda roomies paavam ponnu nu midnite la coffee ellam pottu tharaanga .. nalla saaptutu, avanga tharathellem kudichittu, nalla novel padikaren .. normal days la enna mathikave maataanga .. ippo ore royal treatment thaanga .. chance-e illa .. "kaatrulla pothe thootrikol" (sorry if itz wrong .. me not very gud with pazhalamozhi's) .. btw, wish me luck ppl .. xamz r starting in another ten days ..