The thatched structure,with the day to day activities slowly picking pace with the approach of a few footsteps towards it.

The 2 foot long mirror :the first thing noticeable in the dimly lit room and its unique placement at an angle of 30 degrees from the wall, facing the entrance door!

The maid,busily cleaning the place and wiping the tables and benches,which were to see atleast a 1000 people on that day!

The 10 year old,rusty contraption carrying a fluid ,fuelled by burning charcoal,that was placed on the corner of the verandah in the front, giving out the refreshing steamy smell..

An old man in his 70s,wearing a dirty lungi and having a neem tree shoot in his mouth,on the pretext of brushing his teeth and non-chalantly spitting through the room's window,as he kept counting the money from his cash drawer..

The old man's son,who was a bit stout and dark,always found munching something or the other in his mouth,secretly without the knowledge of his dad.His frequent visit to the back of the house to continue smoking the beedi that he had saved from totally getting burnt,the other night..

The old man's daughter busy shouting with a sudden interuption in the sound from splashing drops of water over an oil - smeared pan and the sudden,enchanting smell of groundnut oil that followed it,making our nostrils enlarge and suck in as much air as possible to enjoy that momentary bliss...

The old man's wife placing a huge bucket full of the much sought after steamy orangish red concoction,with random stuff floating in it...

The 6 minutes wait,when the butterflies flying inside the stomach became so noisy making bubbly hungry noises..

The fresh green leaf that got ready to die for the last time, brutally from being subjected to an unbearable hot substance ,coupled with the flow of the steamy hot concoction from the bucket!

Finally,the smile on the waiter's face reciprocated by an even more energetic smile from all the waiters on the bench..

Then,the moment of jubilation...the fruit for all the patience..The purpose of even having come all the way upto the college in the crowded bus,beating the crowd..The thing that was to fuel our activities all through the day!

There it was...The magnificently made "Uthappam"!The first bite of it made us all forget all our worries for a second ,as it disappeared in our mouths with the orangish red Sambar accompanying it!

"Udayar Kadai Uthappam" and the Sambar accompanying it,finally ending with the steamy tea on the varendah!!This saga in 1999 deserves a special mention in my blog.

'1999 - A love story' stays afresh in minds everyday as I gobble the tasteless pieces of bread and the glass of milk in the morning.

-Raapi

Posted by rajesh |

During my schooldays,I used to wonder about this cool thing called - "Open book Exams"!Initially,I used to wonder how stupid the teacher would be to willfully allow his students to copy answers from the textbook.When some of my cousins studying at the REC/IITs ,used to whine about the toughness of such tests,I used to wonder how dumb these guys were;they have the questions and they have the answers and all they had to do was look out for the answer hidden the book!

But then,reality dawned to me personally,when I was doing my masters.The whole concept of calling it a 'Open Book exam' was a rude trick.The questions were carefully chosen such that none of them had their expected answers directly in the book,but only a basic reference very remotely connected to them.The chances of even locating the topic being questioned was highly remote and deriving the answer based on the factual details in the book seemed to be even tougher.

Although I did not have too many such 'Open Book' exams,the truth that I learnt was that I could perform better in a closed book exam than in an open book exam and the reason being that,I would equip myself with enough information to combat the hurdles in a normal exam than when it came to an open book exam,wherein the belief at the back of the mind of the answers being somewhere in the book would have made me complacent and not study well enough.

Exams,no matter open or closed book, were always fun.The totally shattered and confused looks of some of my friends and me,upon receiving the question papers still stands afresh in my minds.Sometimes,the questions used to be so tough and out of syllabi that the whole 3 hours would be a laughter riot,as we poor unintelligent souls glanced at each other,happily smiling all through the gruelling exam,upon having totally conceded defeat and having our goals reset in a flash to just cross the 45 % barrier instead of the 75% barrier.

Then,there were these excellent writers,who never cared about the nature of the questions -whether easy or tough,but were always hell-bent in writing loads and loads of stuff.There handwritings,which used to resemble colonies of tiny ants when they wrote in their respective notebooks,would have suddenly gained weight and height when it came to the exam papers.The first guy to complete the main sheet and ask for the additional sheet ,was always looked with awe by the rest of the class as he would proudly snatched the sheet from the supervisor and go back to his reckless writing race.

Numerous funny instances pertaining to exams and the marks scored on those still provide enough fodder for laughter during the weekly telephone conferences that my roommates and I have over the weekend.

-The funny incident when my friend came out of the exam hall smiling and shouting that he would score 85% in his 'Communication theory' paper having deliberately attempted the formula-based problems instead of the theory based questions;And the laughter riot and the life-long ridicule that followed when he just got 46% !It was so hilarious that the rest of us didn't even feel bad about our meagre 55% score!

-The great analogy involving the same friend, that we used to compare the exam hall scenario with a famous scene in the movie 'Badshah'- the consensus before the exam,being that once this guy finished his paper and hands it over to the supervisor(well-before the 3 hr time),the rest of us roommates should drop our pens and follow the leader out of the exam hall,after bowing and kissing his hand!The funny part was the look of dismay on this guy's face as he stormed out of the class and looked through the window at us guys madly scribbling till the end and ultimately, ending up with more marks than him.

-The scrambling for sketch pens,eraser and ruler-scale before the beginning of every exam.There was this friend,who always had 10 or 12 colors of sketch pens and would generously endow me with the ones that were left - those which literally had no ink left in them or which were the ugliest of all colours!Still,yours truly,being shameless ,used to grab those left-overs and used to come up with mindblogging rangolis.

-The multiple choice questions exam,where me and friends successfully exchanged answers for around 50% of the questions with our dumb charade skills,finally getting the shocker at the end of the exam that the ordering of the questions were different in our respective question papers!

-The day of the announcement of the marks is a memorable one for all of us.The tension filled day always culminated with a sad feeling and made way for many volatile resolutions regarding academics,which were very easily forgotten!The hearts pounding harder and harder as our 90-year old director used to announce the shocking results!

-The ironical situation after the results which brought the graceful smile on some of the guys,who had failed in 2 or 3 papers,competing with the sorry faces of many others who fell short of their 80% expectations!

Exams were really a great source of fun and challenge for us individuals during our college days.They are a life-long source of nostalgic and memorable thoughts for almost everyone!How I wish I was transformed to that golden era again,wherein me and my roommates prepared religiously for the exams and came out with flying colours!

-Raapi

Posted by rajesh |

The Shining By Stanley Kubrick..

One of the best movies I have ever seen!Every scene was memorable and gripping!Jack Nicholson excels in every scene and the wonderful art of Kubrick's movie making is well evident from the visuals,breath-taking silence,background sound,colourful settings,slow moving long camera shots etc.

Here is the script of the movie,if in case you want to relive the great film.This script has highlighted some subtle nuances,that one might have not noticed while watching the thrilling masterpiece.

The Shining: script

-Raapi

Posted by rajesh |

Trying hard to find the urge that I used to have previously,to blog almost daily.Nowadays,its turned out be an occasional visit to the blogger.com webpage and chip in some whinings and express some views of mine,which almost always, gets opposed by a few in their comments section.

Something I noticed this weekend and I felt I should put it down here in my blog:
The weblink which shows which blog has referred the readers to my blog,points out to several blogs which have blogrolled my blog and there is this lone warrior(Oh!Its an insult to the term warrior now),who tries to snub me very hard and falters miserably every single time.

This sorry thing's secret to blogging is..
Use terms such as economy,liberal,Marxism,Republicans,Conservatives,Suicide,Death,Intellect,Toilet seat,'Darwin's theory',Hypocrisy,Evolution,Islam,'Roll of a dice',Ayn Rand,Sartre,Freud etc in any random order and come up with absolute stupidity.

The attention seeking whore is best at visiting other blogs and leaving nasty comments to garner some visits to its blog.The count of the number of times it gets reprimanded by passers-by would in itself require a separate counter.
I wonder if it sits somewhere in its lab and cries out loud every day,feeling miserable and worthless!It calls itself belonging to a group of close friends,who actually repent every single day for having associated themself with this poopy stuff!

The height of crying hard is its yet another approach of constantly linking other people's blogs and writing some random stuff about bearing no truth or basis about them.There is this latest dig at questioning my orientation,which is really funny.
From all its blogs till now,I am sure every visitor would have got a very clear understanding of its aversion to the feminine gender and going by its obsession(rather constant arguments)with various male bloggers and comment writers,there is a strong evidence of something inherent in it!As every day passes;as every blog of it gets published;as every comment of it gets into the web,its frantic call to announce its homosexuality increases!

I am pretty sure the comments section of this blog would have its entry within the next few hours and it would stand testimony to whatever I have said above.
Pathetic piece of shit,trying hard to survive and which is not able to come to terms with its helplessness and 'not fit for anything' tag which it has earned with very little effort!Hope the gay bastard gets a life!Well,I am not sure if it would be successful even in that attempt!

One good thing about all this is the free publicity it has generated,i.e. the page hits to my blog have increased and I have even got some regular visitors and friends due to it,whom otherwise I would'nt have known all my life.

-Raapi

Posted by rajesh |

Instant Idly..Instant Parotta..Instant Payasam..!
Many such instants!!These are the only things that an Indian in America will be able to get his hands on.These are like the "feel-good-factor" placebos which have no real effect upon us.They just give us a small sample of happiness which cannot be explained much better than the tamil phrase - "alpa sandhosham"!

This is not just limited to just instants,but hold true for some instances too!!The celebrations here in the U.S.A for Diwali,the gettogether at temples for Holi,the Indian association's Independence day event etc etc in the U.S - All these instances are just unconvincing attempts at cheating oneself.There is no way that these events are even going to match a simple 'Sunday afternoon visit to Paati's house' or a 'grahapravesham function of an uncle'!I attended a few of these 'experience Indianness in the U.S' events,but lately ,have started feeling an aversion to these pathetic shows.These are neither a tad authentic as their Indian counterparts nor are they memorable enough!

Everything has changed since I came to the U.S and the question that arises repeatedly is..Is this change for the better or Is it an irriversible change that gradually makes me realise about every simple but enjoyable stuff that I am missing?

I was going through an email from one of my closest buddies in India,who did a pretty good job of boasting about his weekend trip to his amma/appa's place.
Some of the elements from his email that are worth mentioning are
-the 3 or 4 times through the day that his mom served him with wonderful coffee in a Davara..
-the Onion sambar and Aalu fry combo that the lucky moron got to devour upon...
-the special Bonda and snacks from his Aunt,who lives nearby..
-the 2 hrs that he spent watching his favorite movie with his folks,seated on his Sofa and munching the 'Karuvadams'(vathals)..
-the warm and gentle pressing that his tired legs got,at the hands of his mom ,when he lay reading his favorite tamil Magazine..

There were many such things in that email,which kind of made me feel nostalgic and even jealous of him!Simple things in life which any Indian would prefer at any point of time!But it is such simple but memorable occasions that bring a distinct contrast between the Indian and American life of a desi!Many have heard me talk about this issue and most of the times,the simple answer had been .."Get married!You will get over such feelings!".But then,that is yet another placebo.
Previously,if it was one person mising all the fun,the situation after marraige gets reduced to 2 confused souls feeling miserable and searching for the 'alpa santhoshams' together!

India...I really miss you!May it be a Karadayam Nombu, a navaratri, a birth of a nephew or even a horrible event such as a death of an uncle,life in here has been reduced to that exclusive weekend phone call which is actually a collage of many different emotional issues - Some pleasant/Some disturbing!

The quest for the elixir continues,with ample doses of pathetic placebos all along the journey!

-Raapi

[My maternal uncle passed away yesterday in India, due to a heart attack. :(((
My heart goes for all my near and dear ones,who are still crying their hearts out!All I was able to do upon reading the email carrying the dreadful news, was to close my eyes for a few minutes,recollect some pleasant events of the past involving him, shed a few drops of tears and make a phone call!!]

Posted by rajesh |

Intel CEO begs forgiveness for 4GHz Pentium 4

-Raapi

Posted by rajesh |

Twameva Maatha cha Pitha Twameva..
Twameva Bandhushcha Sakaa Twameva..
Twameva Vidya Dravinam Twameva..
Twameva Sarvam Mama Sneha Sneha !!



-Raapi

Posted by rajesh |

Finally,the breaking news is that Sandalwood smuggler Veerappan has been shot dead !
This has been a much delayed news!The only sad part is that many politicians from TN and karnataka now would escape scot free, without any digging into their links with Veerappan!!
Nakkeeran Gopal...I wonder what hes upto,these days?

-Raapi

Posted by rajesh |

I was reading this article in Rediff,which spoke about the emergence of China as a great destination for higher education.Somewhere in the article,I was baffled to note that all it costed was just 8 Lacs to be a doctor! inclusive of tuition/accomodation and food expenses for all the fives years put together!!Now that is a steal,when compared to the Indian Medical colleges.

China should be a psychologically better place for Indian students as they could feel at home in terms of the food & culture and could visit India often.Only thing that could be a problem is the language and if the education demanded a compulsory learning of Chinese!!

This article also spoke about the decline in the foreign students attending Indian Universities.As the writer had mentioned,the government is definitely the culprit in this matter.As far as I know,only few private colleges promote their colleges abroad and their main goal is to get that extra money from these foriegn students!

-Raapi

Posted by rajesh |

Feelings that you may relate to too...

-Sometimes Certain events are painful not because of the pain that we would experience out of it,but because they would be causing much more pain to our near and dear ones.

-Some people,even if I have never known them prior to that day, seem very close and all that I long for would be a long lasting association with them.But it doesnt happen many a times..the erudite uncle on the train who seemed so humorous and knowledgeable,the smiling college girl whose laughter alone was the clincher,the Paati sitting on the opposite seat putting her grandchild to sleep..All these people on the train just became part of my train of thoughts..

-When fear takes over our routine and puts us into a monotonous schedule.All we could think about is the scary event and there is totally no concentration to do anything else.It is akin to that small piece of food stuck in between the teeth and the tongue repeatedly tries to nudge it- No matter how I try to control myself,my subconcious mind always thinks about the dreaded episode.

-The times when small 2 worded prayers emerge out of our mouth,even without our knowledge.The question about existence of God,idol worship etc vanishes without a trace,when it comes to grief and fear.

-The time at the airport when nothing really matters..Every extra minute is an added bonus..Money becomes the most trivial of all things..If they were to charge another 50$ to let me wave hands to my appa/amma/sister for another 5 minutes,we wouldn't hesitate to part with it.

-When all we hoped was something to happen in a particular way and it follows Murphy's rule and turns out the other way.

-Raapi

P.S:THE ABOVE MENTIONED THOUGHTS WERE JUST RANDOM THOUGHTS.NO RELEVANCE TO ANYONE OR ANYTHING.

Posted by rajesh |

I was just wondering why my mind totally refuses to accept someone like Vijay - the current hero of Kollywood,as an established actor.Why is it that everytime when I see his face,I am reminded of some normal roadside guy,without any charisma or attribute that would command any attention from any age group?Why is it that his dialogue delivery and the disgusting antics in the name of the so-called comedy never appeal to me?

This is what I came up with.Although my views might sound absurd due to a very small example set,indicating a biased towards colour,I feel I am not the person to be blamed.It is just that I have been forced to grow up under such a biased environment of moviemaking.All through my existence,which spans around 26 years,I have observed that both the Tamil and Hindi filmworld has predominantly featured actors/heroes who are fair and well-built.

To site some examples,lets take the Hindi movies..
Amitabh Bachan
Jitendra
Vinod Khanna
All the Kapoors..
All the Khans..
Sanjay Dutt
Amir Khan
Rajesh Khanna
Mithun Chakravarty

Ok..lemme stop here and givey'all the link to self assess what I am trying to say .

And in the case of tamil movies..
Gemini Ganesan
Sivaji Ganesan
M.G.R
S.S.R
Muthuraman
Sivakumar
Nagesh
Kamalakassan
Karthik
Vikram
etc etc

Now coming to the exceptions..
Jackie Shroff, in Hindi and Prabhu Deva,Manoj,Vijay...and Of course Rajinikanth/Vijayakanth in tamil.

-One observation is that around 80% of both the Hindi and Tamil films have featured only this breed of Fair males.I was wondering why the films of yesteryears,i.e the 1970s and the 1980s stuck with this biased view over skin colour?

-Another observation is that the few dark-skinned actors that belong to this new age either are sons of prominent directors/actors/Dance masters(Vijay/Manoj/Prabhu Deva/Vivek Oberoi)

-Only Rajinikanth and Vijayakanth seem to stick out of the masses due to their individuality and the reputation they have built over the years.

-This kind of a thought process,when used against the heroines becomes even more interesting.I can't remember a single dark skinned Hindi actress!In the case of Tamil,some of the actresses like Saritha/Sneha actually capitulated due to their dark skin and wonderful eyes.

So,ultimately,my question comes down to..
Does skin colour determine the success of an actor/actress?Do the fans across Tamil and Hindi tinsel world,have a preference for fair-skinned actors over the dark-skinned ones?

-Raapi

Posted by rajesh |

My best friend got a Job today and I am extremely happy and thrilled about it.
It deserves a special mention in my blog!!
Congrats daa..
Wish you all the best!
-Raapi

Posted by rajesh |

H-1B visa limit for 2005 already reached !

I hope this gets through soon though!
H-1B visa relaxation for students!

Brain drain???
Brain drain in tech's future?

Ussaaru paarties...
IT won't crash on H1-B shortage !



-Raapi

Posted by rajesh |

Few interesting Visa related Q&A
-Raapi

Posted by rajesh |

The word 'Anna' in my vernacular refers to "elder Brother"!But It is one such term which brings in 2 or 3 different pictures in my mind everytime I hear/see it!I am sure this would be the same feeling with any other Tamilian.

Heres a short description of each one of those ph(r)ases and why I detest hearing that term altogether!!.

The first thing that comes to mind when I hear the word Anna,is the obvious meaning of being an elder brother!I cherish being my little sister Dr.C's elder brother - the lovely anna,who calls her every weekend and has great fun talking to her.But then,the irony is that that is the only legitimate relationship where I should be called an Anna and she never addresses me that way .:(((

Instead,what I have noticed is that 'Anna' is a modern day relationship which is being royally abused by the 'instant sisters'(read as unrelated girls)of this age.It is not an uncommon episode anymore to hear me or any of my buddies narrate yet another emotional,tearjerking incident wherein some clever girl readily came forward to make us one of her million other Annas.Being Anna for the first few times was too nice as it sent in a feeling of achievement and self satisfaction of having been very decent and kind enough to have bonded well with a biologically unrelated girl and earned her confidence in confiding many details with us.But then,the term starts to take its toll on us when it becomes a norm for almost every girl to mercilessly use it as a weapon against us.

Yes!!Anna is a term I have started to detest.There is no dearth of this stupid Anna title that is being awarded time and again to the poor guys,who don't even take pains to get nominated for that title.It makes me wonder if this breed of guys are really so nice and brotherly or are the so-called sisters being very cautious and shrewd,trying to define a strong line of safety,way early in the beginning to stay away from any advances from their fit_only_to_be_annas!

The second and third feeling that the word Anna brings to my mind are the personalities Aringyar Anna and Anna Kournikova.They have become such a cliched word that it is boring to see/hear these terms.The dravidian parties in Tamilnadu mercilessly denigrating the dead potician's reputation and claiming to be working towards his visions,is disgusting!"Anna naamam Vaazhga" - I hate to see that phrase at the end of every ruffian's speech nowadays!

Anna Kournikova...hmm..I agree she is hot but then cmon.for how long?I sometimes get a feeling that she has been playing tennis miserably for some 20 years now.Cmon give us a break!Our calendars deserve the picture of some other person!Liberate us from the world of Anna posters in our bedroom walls!

No more ANNAs in the ANNAls of our lifetime..is the only thing that we ask for!

Disclaimer(to those sisters):The above written stuff needs to be taken in a light vein.Thou shall not call and berate me for being so.Thou shall not feel that you have been silly all along.Thou shall not shed yet another precious tear of yours,yet again,trapping us in that brotherland of no return.

As I shamelessly remain,

- Your Anna

Posted by rajesh |

The Graduates!!

Posted by rajesh |

The feeling is great!!
The atmosphere is electric!!
For once I felt honoured :)

Posted by rajesh |