Meeting SRK – Ra.One Premiere at London

Yayy! I met SHAHRUKH KHAN!!! Spoke to him!!!

Okay starting like sane people would, I attended my first world premiere for a film and that too a SHAHRUKH KHAN film! To be honest, I don’t think I would have taken the effort I did if it wasn’t a SRK film. I met the man spoke to him – a childhood dream come true.

Let me start from the beginning and give you the feel of exactly what happened. Two of my other SRK crazy friends and me decided to go to the red carpet event of Ra.One in London just to get a glimpse of SRK. We had no clue how these things worked or how crowded it is or anything of the sort. We just wanted to see SRK, get an autograph and if we got very very lucky a picture with the Raj and Rahul of our dreams. No one really can pull off the Kkkiran or the romantic scenes and gestures that he does. I bet if anyone else does it they would look like a jackass but when King Khan does it, its romantic its WOW and you just end up dreaming about a Raj or Rahul yet again.

On October the 25th, we friends snuck out of work early just to the venue before it gets too crowded. That morning I wanted to know exactly what SRK was tweeting to have a clue about when would be the best time to leave and where would it be most likely to get that little extra time for an autograph or a photograph. I had forgotten my twitter account details but just to feel connected to SRK reactivated them the same morning. Usually the process of going to work isn’t exactly exciting but that morning I was in the best possible state of mind humming only and only SRK songs (mainly chammak challo and dildara). Happily went to office waiting for end of day (or close to end of day) to leave and go to SRK! Man! even saying it now after a couple of weeks feels amazing!

One of my friends (lets call her A) managed to leave work extremely early so my other friend (lets call her D) and me left a little later and decided to catch up with A at North Greenwich (the place where the premiere was). Throughout our journey we kept refreshing our twitter feeds just to see if SRK had tweeted dropping any hits about his whereabouts but no luck. Halfway through the journey D and me realized we did not have a paper or a pen to get the autograph we had been dreaming about! We started fishing for paper and pens hoping on the way back we would have SRKs autograph on it. Yes, we plan for the best )))

On reaching North Greenwich, D and me were hopping and jumping through the platforms and escalators to put in our best efforts to reach before SRK enters. Anyway, after all the hopping and jumping we called up A for a status update on the Red Carpet glitterati but it turned out to be the most depressing call of the day. We were told there is no point even going to the venue (which we had already arrived at) because there was too much security and only people with tickets were being permitted.

D and me decided to go ahead try our luck. At the venue, three of us spoke to the security tried every way of getting to the red carpet but all we came across was security, security and more security. After this ‘A’ decided it was a lost cause and headed home. A little later we discovered that the tickets were by invite only. We started wondering how non-filmy software engineers would ever get invites to premieres. We started thinking, if not this Don2 we mussst somehow get tickets. Disheartened and disappointed all of us tweeted to SRK telling him we were out and asking him how people got invites . Either ways, we decided to wait out in the cold JUST in case SRK had checked his twitter and decided to surprise us by coming out to the barricade and waving out to us.

We were almost 2hours in and had no luck whatsoever. We looked at the people with tickets who were entering and started taking wild guesses on how they would have got invites and tried calculating in our heads if we could do any of that just if it got us the passes. Soon we just gave up on coming up with absolutely flawed theories. Our hopes of meeting SRK were starting to seem slim.I put my hand in the pocket just to find the paper and pen I had kept in the most accessible place to not miss that splinter of an opportunity for an autograph. By the looks of it, I wasn’t going to need those after all. Sigh! That feeling of being sooo close yet so far just made matters worse for us. D and me kept wondering if leaving work sooner somehow would have helped us to get beyond the barricade.

We were those two disappointed girls at the barricade who were jealously eyeing anyone who came with a ticket and were discussing SRK movies to feel better at that moment. Just then a gentleman in a black satin suit walks up to us asking us if we wanted a ticket to the premiere. We were like ‘Duh! Yes’ who would have thought he was serious, at least we dint. And the next moment he takes and envelope out of his coat pocket. Seeing the envelope my happiness knew no bounds. <Background score: Dekha jo tujhe yaar dil mein baji guitar!!!>But we later saw that he only had ONE spare ticket. Aadmi do aur ticket ek?? Bahut nainsaafi hai <Gabbar style>

In an even more muddling situation we decided to ask the security if both of us could take turns to go inside so that only either of us is inside at once. But as expected they said NO! We dint want to waste the ticket but we couldn’t do this either. We both knew we both wanted it badly so whoever went in wouldn’t come out guilt-free. By now D was starting to lose it and started walking up and down hoping for the heavens to give us another pass or something. Meanwhile, I noticed a not-so-motivated white man standing with a bundle of tickets. I randomly walked up to him and asked, “Would you by any chance have a spare ticket?”. Now I had NEVER seen this coming, but the response was – “As a matter of chance I do”!!!!!!!!! YAYYYYYYYY. To be honest, I only walked upto the man so that I couldn’t look back at the whole thing and later say, what if I had asked someone. And that bit changed the whole thing for me.

At this point there were so many things along the same lines which were coming to me. Two of those were from Rhonda Byrne’s The Secret and Paulo Coehlo’s The Alchemist. I would like to quote The Alchemist here – “When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”. It started to make so much more sense. I was starting to think about how many things I have wanted soooo badly. Couldn’t think of too many to be honest. What a pity! One thing I learnt that moment is start wanting things realll bad and do everything possible for it. It feels bloooody awesome when you get something after wanting it so badly. Anyway, getting back to the other thing that came to my mind. Being the filmy soul that I am I thought of the OSO dialogue:
” Itni shiddat se maine tumhe paane ki koshish ki hai ki har zarre ne mujhe tumse milane ki koshish ki hai,
  Kehte hai agar kisi cheez ko dil se chaaho toh poori kaynath tumhein usse milane ki koshish mein lag jaati hai.”
Just to let you know, I am as filmy as they come

After getting past the barricades, D and me we soo exhilarated that walking just dint seem enough. We actually RAN to the red carpet but on the way our very dear friends the security people stopped us there also and asked us to slow down! We thought we would be directed to the theatres or something but we did not realize until then that we would be walking on the same red carpet that king khan would be gracing shortly afterwards… Our excitement knew no bounds!!! Just then we both looked at each other and at the other people on the red carpet to realize we were the most under dressed souls around! We were in formal office wear (black pants and full sleeves white shirt) while people around us were in lovely gowns and all decked up.

After this yet again, we tried speaking to the security to somehow get permission to be around the red carpet we did not really want to watch the movie then and there. We could always do that later during the weekend but getting a glimpse of SRK wouldn’t be possible later. By now it would be no surprise to you that the security said a big NO yet again! And we were shooed away to the theatres. We were told that the team would be visiting each theatre where the movie was being premiered but I thought they were just plain exaggerating just to get us out of their hair.

In a hurry to leave office and get to SRK, we had not bought any snacks (which was an essential part of the initial plan). Starving I decided to buy the standard Nachos that you get in Cineworld. Just reached the lobby area to find a glass wall overlooking the red carpet. That instant, yet again in the day my hunger just disappeared! Tried to get a glimpse of SRK from there. Unfortunately for me, I am short sighted and had forgotten my glasses (which is nothing out of the ordinary). But the whole excitement of watching the gliterrati of the red carpet just roll by while I eat Nachos sounded too pathetic. So I stood there among the other excited fans who unlike me had proper vision and so they would do the spotting and identification of stars and I would TRY to see them with my lovely short-sighted vision

In this whole process, I realized Kareena Kapoor was the easiest to spot as she was wearing the shiniest silver sequin dress known to humankind. With all the lights and the flashes, it was wayyy to easy to spot her. But honestly I dint really care for anyone but SRK! From Kareena’s costume, it seemed to me that she had taken the whole video game theme wayyyy too seriously. I would have to mention that Arjun Rampal looked very dashing as well. I am not a Arjun Rampal fan but I think the whole tattooed Ra.One look was pretty awesome on him.

Anyway, after that yet again the Ra.One of this store the Security came again to shoo us into the theatre halls. We were promised that the team would be visiting. I had never seen  or met SRK before so the whole thought of him being so close was amaziiinnng! And luckily for me I was in the 3rd row. I shouted out to him asking him to come back for Don2 and he even responded. Dont ask me what… I was too blanked out to understand <Background Score – Tujhe dekha toh yeh jaana > . Either ways, on his way out I asked him for an autograph and he said “A little later darling, in a hurry now”  <Background Score – Aankhon mein teri ajab si ajab si>. I was already on cloud no.9 then I was addressed 1 on 1, so it dint feel too bad that I dint get an autograph. To be fair he said “little later” it would be interesting to see when that “little later” is but I am not worried because Picture abhi baaki hai mere dost.

PS: Sorry for the bad picture quality of the premiere pics. Those were taken from my phone and clicked by a hyper ventilating me.
Other pics of SRK that you see here are my all time favourites (which I got by taking the screenshots of the videos at JUST the right moment ) hope you like them too.

India and Regional Stereotypes

Trying to distinguish between those that aiyyo,aielee, amma, eesshh. Be it a chai party or kitty party or a high society gathering, regional stereotypes is very often the topic of discussion. Stereotyping isn’t great and is amusing when some people get offended with these… Please proceed only if you belong to those class of people who can laugh at themselves.

Tamilian: A Tamilian Anna is:

• Often pictured as the brainy serious person who excels at academics

• Loves his carnatic music and quizes his friends and family on the raga’s of a song on hearing it

• one who is asked to sing songs for any and every family gathering ‘oru paatu paadein’

• an ardent religion follower with photos of God staring down from every possible wall in the house

• Cannot get over idolizing Jayalalitha and Rajnikanth

• Hates Hindi

• Often look jaundiced. No they do not suffer from any health issues. They are just beauty concious and love to use their turmeric face pack in excess.

• someone who doesn’t like women to be size 0 in fact, they like them a little (or a little more than) plump. Thunder Thigh Rambha would sure be an example of this. Most actors belonging to this industry would easily be XL or XXL. Apart from this the hero in their movies can single handedly fight 20 bad guys and still save the girl!

Punjabi: A Punjabi is often pictured to be:

• with a dhol doing his signature ‘balle balle’

• over the top and excited

• the funny one and one who laughs the loudest

• drinking uncontrollably

• gauges how good a wedding party is by the amount and quality of alcohol being served ONLY

• love ghyo (a punju term for ghee ), lassi and pronthe (paranthas)

• have a lot of ‘teri toh …‘s in his dictionary

• screaming ‘chak de phatte’  out of ecstasy

• fierce and brave. Thus the unsurprising large number of Punjabi’s in the army

• extremely hard working and do not shun away from doing menial jobs

• the jaan and shaan of a gathering always

• food lovers and a large percentage of obese people in the country would belong to this category

• the kind who overdo make-up

• The kind who love to have some awesome shawsome type rhyming usages

Malayali: A Mallu chettan:

• loves coconuts and has it on his plate, on his head, on the sink (to do vessels with the chagrin), in the fireplace and everywhere possible

• just cant do without rice and needs a mid day meal having rice. Due to its presence in every household at any given point in time, mallus (Malayali’s) have discovered alternate uses of rice. I have even seen it being used as glue! (You already have an answer to the standard interview question which says ‘Give me few non-conventional uses of blah. If the blah is rice, we have hit the jackpot!)

• doesn’t use shampoos very often. The common/healthy practice is to pluck certain leaves and flowers and use the soaked water to wash hair

• man is that typical mooch (moustache) man you have read about or seen

• can be found anywhere and everywhere.There is a popular saying, “You dont meet mallus they just happen to you”

• is one who shops for ONLY two things (esp. in mallu land) – sarees and gold

• is obsessed with fairness creams and powders

• loves his lungis for various reasons…1. when getting bored u can fold it, undo it, redo it and all in public… 2. makes scratching easy 3. facilitates unrestricted ventilation due to reason 1.

• When it comes to movies here, I think they are very similar to their Tamil counterparts with the difference being, the hero here would first fold his lungi ( while the bad guys stand and watch) and  fight a whole battalion of bad guys alone and save the girl! The hero is in short a lungi clad superman!

Kerala fact-sheet: half or more than half malayali’s are NRIs settled in ‘DuFai‘ or ‘GElf‘. They louve to catch the ootoo (auto) by ccch-ccch‘ing it (a way of calling any and every random person and we thought call signals only existed in the animal world!). This state has 100% literacy but no they still don’t believe in working… They believe in strikes. Which turns out to be a blessing when you are in school or college. Who doesn’t like extra holidays?!

Gujrati: A Gujju bhai:

• is known to be stingy

• is the businessman of India

• is a vegetarian

• likes everything sweet including their dal (lentil soup) !

• has a taste for shiny/sparkly clothes

• is exaggerative

• calls every one baain (behn)

• loves to speak in english. Errrrm his version of it, where Pop is Pope, Hall is Hole. These variations of the language can at times result in ridiculously hilarious meanings. Try permutations with the above words and be creative. You would know what I mean!

• look for a reason to perform (sing/dance). This reminds me of that scene in Kal ho na ho… right before the song Mahi Ve. Can be fun (to the extent of being lame! ;P watch KHNH for further reference ) . Even the most obese oldie gujjus can put those fit gymming youngsters to shame with their garba and dandiya moves.

Bengali: The Bengali Babu and Boudi

• love feesh (Fish) in a spicy jhol curry

• love their mustard in every form… you name it, they use it!

• uses mustard oil for cold, earache, cough, etc. It is the Bong panacea.

• have shrill voices and can be heard a couple of houses away owing to their habit to speak errm softly.

• obsess wearing bindi and the rule says, the bigger the better.

• like everything colourful from their houses to their clothes.

Bengali fact sheet: They are the true artists of India.  Most of out actors, musicians, poets hail from there. They are known for their flawless beauty and beautiful skin. Other than this a rule that applies to the Bong English is that ’a’ and ‘o’ are equivalent. This means that Office is Affice, Mahima is Mohima, West Bengal is ‘Waste Bengal’  or ‘Bhaste Bengal’ and Veg is ‘Bhaej’.

UP waala’s :

A UP waale bhaiya is extremely hard to spot and classify. They come in different packages. One variety would be the paan eating ‘Kya kahat hain babua?’ types while another contrasting variety would be those ‘pehle aap‘ Lucknow Nawabs. The UP waalas are found all over India and claim to be the hindustani’s which is what makes them hard to distinguish. Cant decide which part of India a person belongs to? Must be a UP waale bhaiya.

On a personal note, I can relate to 3-4 of the categories mentioned above as my family has representations from the different states in India.

Desi in Videsh – First glance at UK

Okay this post comes after a very very looong time. There has been so much on my mind and so much happening. Somehow just never got to it. Getting back to the observations of a desi in videsh.

Pursuing studies in a country which is not your home is a new experiences which both scares and fascinates you. I have been going through a similar experience myself. It is very often that what we read and expect is in fact very different from the reality.

In the east, a developed country is pictured as utopia which of course is far from the truth. They have many fallacies of their own. These countries may promise transport, health and other facilities around the clock but the quality suffers. Of course, when I talk about the quality I do not refer to the top-notch private health or transport services but those provided by the government.

The importance the British people give to issues relating to Health and Safety is commendable. Every building (at least those I visited)  have clear instructions and safety equipment installed and well maintained. Apart from the health and safety issues, the way historic buildings are maintained is something we need to learn. Another thing that took me by surprise was the number of people who read. It would be common to expect people indulging more in some games on their iGadgets which is clearly not the case.

Listing some of the first things I noticed:

People have a great taste in shoes. From boots to high heels everything is plain AWESOME!

Women wear makeup in excess! I was taken aback to see the amount of makeup women here wear on a daily basis. What a colossal waste of time and money. No, I am not anti-makeup but tonnes of it everyday is surely going overboard.

The number of RATS!!! : The London Underground is a living example of how well they treat their dear little friend.

The number of sorry’s and please’s people use : Append or prepend any sentence with Sorry and/or Please

Curry: It is actually a little amusing when you ask British people about their traditional food. After Fish and Chips you hear Curry… Curry? Really?? Makes me smile. To be fair, the curries here taste nothing like the real stuff back in the east. In fact, on several occasions I have noticed that most (if not all) curries may be called different but they taste the same. The only few things that differ are the amount and type of colouring used; the salad it is served with; and the veggies in the curry. Considering how popular curries are, London is rightly called the curry capital of the world.

To order a regular burger or sandwich can seem more like an interview. As soon as you are done with one question the next one comes straight at you. Would you like brown bread or white bread? What sauce? What salad? What meat? I think having some standard configurations would make the whole process of getting a burger much quicker. After answering all those questions you might just want to get a drink! Coming to think of it now, may be that is what the intention is…

Graceful Ageing doesn’t seem to be very popular. This is a guess I am making by the number of botox’ed faces I see.

Hopefully the next post wouldn’t be too long from now.

Hostel Life

Hostel life is a completely different world. You have substitutes for everything! Here is a list… Read and enjoy

Anyone has an exam or appointment which needs you to wake up early then it is Meena-’the alarm’ to work!

If anyone wants to know about some cricket matches or sports related event then Miss Parat comes to the rescue… Right from how much Ganguly scored to which over n what went wrong, a complete game analysis report would be given to us…

Anyone who needs to know the current affairs could run to Miss Hudson who was our newspaper. She will read anything that comes her way and I mean ANYTHING! From old lays packets to newspapers dating back to 2000 to old notebooks, this lady can read anything she can lay her hands upon!

The next is our movie reviews, we dont need sites like imbd.com or anything cause we have our own walking talking movie database and review center… None other than Divi…

Next is our To-Do list… It is about the stuff we need to do for college- assignments,seminars,tests,submissions,etc etc. For this Miss Vava came to the rescue! She knew exactly what we have to do for when etc etc.

The next thing you need is Jokes for recreation. We had a joke book (of extremely low standards ) in hostel. Yes, I am talking about Ansu! Quantity assured… sadly not the quality!  (Dont kill me for this! )

Next being the cook book. How to cook this n that… Someone who takes all the questions about cooking in our hostel Miss Gayathridevi…

Next coming to Nami- ‘the installer and uninstaller’… 24×7 Ma’am is either installing or uninstalling something… The funny part is that within hours she will uninstall the same softwares she took ages to get her hands on… One DIFFERENT person for sure!

In hostel we had substitutes on whom we relied wholly and solely upon to get through our college life. Looking back now I completely miss my substitutes. I am starting to loathe the normal way of being… I hate setting alarm clocks to wake up or having to go to a particular site for some reviews. So this post is in fond memory of my substitutes!

Kurbaan

Well the much hyped about movie Kurbaan starring Saifeena did not do well at the box office in fact, it had a below expectations opening. But whatever said and done the music is simply superb. From the love song Shukaran Allah to Ali Maullah the music works wonders for me. I think it completely is in sync with the theme of the movie and makes it stronger. I find it very rare that the background score empowers the movie much more than the visuals.

Okay, now how much ever I HATE Kareena Kapoor, there is no denying the fact that she looked amazingly pretty in the girl next door look and the muslim look with the hijab. Even if the movie did not do well at the box office I think it may just turn out to be another genie’s lamp for the haughty Kareena Kapoor (like Jab we met).

Coming to the costumes, those anarkali dresses in bright contrasting colors and a golden lace are completely in vogue and what every girl seems to wear these days! Its noteworthy how the pallet changes from BRIGHT to BLACK which I think could not agree more with the theme of the movie.

Another thing worth mentioning is Kiron Kher’s acting. She was amazing like always! I think we know who is going to bag all the awards for the female actor in a negative role!




Despite all these positives, the movie does not come along very beautifully. An extremely strong theme but sadly doesnt come off  well. In fact, somewhere it just falls apart.

The GRE Experience

FINALLY I am done with my GRE! What a relief! It has been a journey filled with tension, frustration and anxiety but now when I look back it seems amusing!

Three months of cramming words learning roots, similar words and a little bit of history here and there. Initially I used to despise the idea of mugging up words but a while later it was different. But it is not only the effort that goes in that makes it harder but also the tension of how my scores would be that would make the situation worse. Anxiety is a killer and I realized it very well this time. There would be times when I would be desperate to remember words and I knew it but just couldn’t get it! Thats the time you feel all your effort is down the drain as you can’t recollect when you need to. Thankfully I had a friend who had already been through the same process and helped me out through out!

Slowly but surely I was feeling better about it and FINALLY on the eve of D Day I had to travel for 5hours to get to my test center and No tickets available! Got really jittery and was just thinking of the horrible start I had to the GRE trip! Finally I had to travel in an unreserved compartment which meant standing for hours together in an extreeemeellyyy crowded train! Hmpf! Anyway to compensate for this disaster I ate good food as it always makes me feel better and brings a smile in every situation and this was no different…

Anyway the moment I entered the test center, my passport felt more like my alter ego. I had to keep it with me even when i went to the restroom! Anyway after I entered I had to sign a confidentiality statement and wait till we were called in to our alloted seats after having our photograph taken in a webcam (which as usual was BAD! ).

I was shaking when I walked in. As i entered there was a loooong weird tutorial containing the instructions for the exam. Though I had read it a million times before I did not have the courage to just dismiss it. I read half of it patiently and then got reeaaally bored and dismissed it.

Okay, now my test begins with the writing section. I think having the writing section in the beginning is a great way to relieve your tension as it not only helps you to just relax but also prepares you mentally for what awaits you.

Writing section I think is one of the sections we can sail through as you just need to think critically and be sure about your writing. Well like they say Analyse, Construct ideas and thoughts, Organize and Pay attention to your language. This is it!

After a 10min break it was time to get back to the REALL stuff! Thankfully I got the quantitative section first. I was gained my confidence after doing the math part of it and before I realized it was over. Managing your time for GRE quantitative is not an issue at all. It matters mainly for the most dreaded section which ofcourse is the VERBAL.

After another 60second break I started with verbal. The 2 pattern of questions I was scared about were Reading Comprehension (RC) and Antonyms. To my surprise all the Antonyms were cake walk but RC was awful! Having 3 RC’s itself is bad and 2 of them were more than 140lines! :-/ :-/ I knew the instant I saw the second RC that I was running out of time and so I chose options that looked “NICE” for the questions related to the second RC. The third thankfully was relatively shorter in length. Many times your actions defy logic in there. Logic says if you do not know the answer dont take a blind guess but eliminate a few options and guess wisely but what you do in there is a different story all together.

Some how was done with the test and it the next question was if I wanted to cancel the scores. Why on earth would I do that??? I cant go through the whole process again and decided to “View Scores” and I was relieved to see that the real score was much better than that I obtained in the Diagnostic Tests. And more than that I was glad that it was OVER…

The last step was choosing the universities based on which state it was in. Then it was THE END of the GRE episode in my life… And I sure was glad it is done! All in the quest of graduation!

For those of you who are yet to take up your GRE, you shouldn’t make the mistakes I made which are:
taking wild guess on certain questions
thinking your LIFE depends on this exam and stressing out yourself

Also that your scores depend a LOT on luck as it is a computer ADAPTIVE test (Assuming you know the difference between a CAT and a computer based test). So keep your cool and hope for the best!

When I was working on this post I realized a friend also has a similar post here is a link to it.

Google Chrome- an addiction

For all those of you who have used Chrome, you know it is addictive!
 

With its most visited feature displaying a screenshots of your most visited sites not only makes your chrome colourful put also very personalized! Not even having to type a single letter you have the freedom to navigate to the sites you wish in style! 

I know its been quite some time since Chrome was out and this post is “late” as a review to it! But better  late than never!!!! As for me, I am totally addicted to ChRoMe and completely love the look and feel of it!

 

Features like the incognito window are really cool! That is what would make it a teenagers choice! Google really knows what the users want! 

Google knows speed is addictive — search queen Marissa Mayer has repeatedly said that a few hundred milliseconds per page makes a 20 percent difference in how often users type a search into Google.One of the company’s major goals with Chrome is to effectively speed up the Internet for end users.
 

Here are the results of a speed test where Chrome not only beat the competition against Safari, Mozilla and IE, it completely annihilated them. 

Here’s the site description of the speed tests:
 

• Richards: OS kernel simulation benchmark, originally written in BCPL by Martin Richards (539 lines).
 

• DeltaBlue: One-way constraint solver, originally written in Smalltalk by John Maloney and Mario Wolczko (880 lines).
 

• Crypto: Encryption and decryption benchmark based on code by Tom Wu (1,689 lines).
 

• RayTrace: Ray tracer benchmark based on code by Adam Burmister (3,418 lines).
 

• EarleyBoyer: Classic Scheme benchmarks, translated to JavaScript by Florian Loitsch’s Scheme2Js compiler (4,682 lines).

Chrome also came out ahead in an admittedly Google-sponsored security test. The reason: The browser automatically updates itself every few days. This means Chrome users are most likely to have the latest security updates installed. 
 

Another question that has been of concern to most people is: Is Chrome the next IE????
 

Nothing is clear as yet. Microsoft is hesitant to bundle Chrome with Windows as it may give Google a monopoly over Internet as the default search engine would be Google. This is what they have to say :
 

“Google’s Chrome browser has a market share that rounds down to zero. Yet Microsoft plans to argue to the European Commission that bundling Chrome into Windows — an anti-trust decree the EC wants to impose — will potentially give Google a monopoly hold on the InternetThe claim seems laughable to anyone who hasn’t used Chrome. But those who try the largely unknown application almost unanimously rave about its speed and ease of use.Microsoft’s argument may seem comical, but there’s a kernel of truth to it: If Google ends up with a majority share of browser users tied to Chrome, and Google’s search engine is their most frequent and trusted destination, think of the opportunities for Google to leverage that huge group of people.”

Sometimes

 

Sometimes you just dont have any answers
  

Sometimes you just cant understand the why
  

Sometimes you just see the  ’if’s and but’s’
  

Sometimes eveything is just such a mess!
  

Sometimes… Sometimes… 

 

‘Sometimes I wish I could turn back times, impossible as it may seem but I wish I could…’ 

 

Sometimes songs just start making perfect sense and you just dont know what to do!

 

I think this is one of those times!

 

 

PS: I know few of you would be getting exactly what I mean. But I wish ‘more people’ got the message…

And sorry for this weird post but I guess you know how I feel atleast after reading this!

 

My First Snake!

As I have already mentioned that I love snakes! To my surprise most people find it absolutely unacceptable to like snakes! Phew! I get looks each time I say this! I am hoping that you readers don’t have dung-under-your-nose expression already! (Assuming there are people to read this! )
 

I have been fascinated by snakes but never had the opportunity to hold one! My college which is by a lagoon kind of thing and the area is filled with snakes. On our way from college to hostel we see many snakes but I never got close enough to holding one!
 

We have this faculty in the Electrical department, Akshay Sir who is more famously known as the snake rescuer of Amritapuri! Whenever a snake is spotted, he gets a call and captures the snake and releases it to safer areas where there is reduced threat. My college is associated with the Mata Amritanandamayi Math Ashram or the Hugging saint (AMMA’s) ashram so what we would expect would be a due respect and space being given to beautiful and sacred creatures like snakes. But before Akshay Sir came to the ashram. I very clearly remember a slender harmless tree snake being KILLED right in the ashram premises! I was horrified at the sight and told AMMA about it. She was also shocked to hear about the happening and strictly instructed everyone that such an incident should not repeat! After this I was a bit relaxed!

 

Anyway getting back to ‘My First snake!’ encounter. One fine day after my Digital Signal Processing exam which I royally messed up. I was in a absolutely horrid mood and thought nothing could set my day right. Just then I saw Akshay Sir walking around the college corridors with a beautiful little rat snake wrapped around his arm! I was taken aback and could barely believe my eyes! I had told sir about my desire to get close to snakes earlier also but sadly whenever he found a snake he wouldn’t find me! But this time was different!!! And thank God it was different else I wouldn’t have ever experienced anything remotely close to the awesome feeling of holding a snake!

 

Initially I just touched the snake and had it tail wrapped around my arm while the head was still in Akshay Sir’s hand! Seeing my excitement, Sir asked me if i wanted to hold the snake! Without any delay I said yes!!!
 

And I am glad I did. First he told me the right way to hold a snake about the positions of each finger, about the force, about the way in which it should be done, etc. Before I could even register I had the snake in my hand!!!! That felt good!

 

But because it was my first time I was a little nervous and so way my little friend. I had heard people on TV and Akshay Sir say that when you are calm the animal is calm but I thought of it as a cliché until this moment! Here I could truly feel the difference, when I was relaxed the snake stop wriggling around too much and was calmly wrapped around my arm quite contrary to it moving continuously initially. We still have a long way to go when it really comes to understanding nature!
 

Here are some photos that were taken by Avinash’s camera phone right in the college corridor. Just reminding you that mobile phones are banned in college

Anyway there were a few things I found out. Snakes are not slimy or rough as they may seem. In fact, holding a snake atleast this one was very similar to feeling a very fat human finger. Soft, not slimy and just normal! I had my share of counselling sessions by dear ones for not doing anything like this again. But, if you have read this post you know it is something that excites me! Sorry guys! There was one thing positive that came out of this also!!I felt great because of  the kind of care and concern people showed.It really made me feel great! But sadly for them I wasn’t convinced about what they were saying about staying away from snakes! :-/

 

I wonder why they are so feared of and hated. I find it really hard to understand! Firstly, out of the 2100 snake species in the world ONLY 10% are poisonous! Secondly, the number of estimated deaths per year because of snake bites is MUCH lower than those caused by malaria or dengue. Even then we don’t feel the kind of hatred for mosquitoes or rats we feel for snakes! I mean how is the poor creature responsible that Satan came to earth in the form of a serpent??? In today’s world when we are speaking about being practical having this kind of prejudice for snakes is NOT justifiable!

 

Lets just not kill snakes on spotting them but give them respect that they deserve! Hoping at least some one would feel differently about snakes after reading this! Please don’t kill or hate snakes! When you see a snake just move away don’t go close to it give it the space it needs!

Reiterative Incidents!

OK! This is something that I have been thinking to write about but what really probed me to do it right away was this blog I just read “Groping Tales” http://diptea.blogspot.com/

 

I dont know when people will change rather when men will change! What a pity it is to see girls having a hard time in every single day of their lives because of eve-teasing. A simple routine like getting back home can seem like a nightmare!

 

I have personally had some experiences and never had the guts to say it to anyone. Probably today am going to try to break the ice and say things because despite being the ‘bold’ types if I have been refraining myself from saying this. I dont think many girls will be able to really break free from this burden that they carry with themselves silently.

 

Well, I would like to give you a little background about myself which will help you understand better. I am a north indian girl born and brought up in Kochi, a city infested with conservative and narrow minded people(not all though!).

 

Being an extrovert north Indian girl in the south is more like being a fish out of water. I dont know how many people would actually agree with me but if you are a northy girl in the south you are bound to agree! So the ‘extra’ undue attention is guaranteed which never helps but just spells disaster! Because of this kind of an instant reputation, terms like BI*** become a part and parcel of life! (sheesh! I cant believe I am ACTUALLY writing all this!). I learned to laugh at it but no doubt that it took some time. Because of this kind of instant reputation I did find it hard to get close to people in my new school as everyone was apprehensive. (I dont really blame them!) But in a period of a 5-6 months, people who really got to know me started defying these rumours. After this I made great freinds for life! Am still in touch with them and they mean the world to me! 

Anyway this was just one of the first incidents that happened and sadly it just worsens!

 

I used to walk home from school everyday and we just had to walk through a residential area. Now, walking through a residential area doesn’t sound like much of a problem but believe me it was! It was more than just any normal problem. There have been days when I have had my heart in my mouth!School used to get over in the afternoons there hardly any people on the road especially on those days when we had extra classes. And on the road there would be these 35-40 year old men who would have their bikes and actually call out for us and show certain ‘parts’. UHHH!!!!YUCK!  This has happened with me thrice and I remember what I felt like! It has by far been one of the worst experiences responsible for god-alone-knows how many nightmares. Later, our teachers got to hear about it and they would be with us and some police flying squads were also there to control eve-teasing which made life much better!

 

With that school life came to an end! And then I thought I was strong enough to FACE life (as expected) I was wrong,HORRIBLY wrong!

 

The next battlefield was college! I joined a college which was 3 hours away from home and I was sadly a hosteller who would RUN home every weekend, which meant 3 hours in public transport! hmpf!!!!I will get to those a little later.

 

Let me begin with the northy girls reputation on joining college(which is in Kollam). The normal belief is that all girls from Ernakulam are hip and are just known to be characterless! Being a northy girl from Ernakulam was like the cherry on the cake, it meant 150% characterless! grrrr…. As I mentioned earlier, that am an extrovert and dint believe in talking to guys as wrong. So, I used to speak with guys which the “good” “naadan” (traditional) girls dont! This added to my already exploding reputation!

 

In school, the level of comments was limited to tags like ‘BI*** but in college it started off at an altogether different level  (I know you all can guess!) which I dint expect!. I know should have expected this but whatever!

 

Anyway I heard about all this from a very good friend of mine. Lets call him X(He was one of the guys I used to speak to). Because of which my dear friend X had to hear nasty things about me! One fine day he somehow gathered the guts to look me in the eye and tell me about the ongoing stuff cause I had to be prepared to face it one day or another! I still remember having swollen eyes the next day. I just failed to understand what wrong I have done to hear total crap like that! Thanks to X, I got through it bravely and learned to turn a deaf ear to this SHIT. (Sorry for the language! but cant help it)

I know I have already written 800 odd words but I have LOTS more to add! Thanks for your patience for reading. Hope you can read a little further also! (No harm in assuming there are readers!  :P  )

 

Getting to the journeys, sometimes drunk men would practically stick to you. At other times they would get uncomfortably close and touchy. Sometimes we fail to realize their intentions while at other times some guy friends of ours come around. There was one particular journey when this man was trying his best to get touchy with me and my firend in an extremely crowded bus. FI my friend is the silent types and this guy was taking advantage. I gave him this Killer look and asked him to move away ALOUD!Bravo, it WORKED!!! This is one thing I am extremely proud of!!!

 

These journeys were irritating but none affected me as much mentally when compared to what I am about to mention. The next was a train journey.  This passenger was fashionably late and this man who claims to be a ‘clinical psychologist’ tries his best to ask our names (our is my friend say Y n me), what we do blah blah. I showed an immidiate disinclination to talk but my friend is the sweet types and found it too hard to ignore someone. So she answered though she wasn’t comfortable. Initially, he made his best attempts to flatter us by complimenting both of us. Because of my disinterest in him and his talks he told my friend that I was never going to prosper in life because of my ego n blah blah! Then he spoke about ‘God’. And yes, I forgot to mention he gave these looks which would make you uncomfortable and concious and that jerk looked like a complete pervert! He even dared to say cheap things to my freind like ‘I know you have had a past and have gotten physically close to someone but it just resulted in failure. I can help you if you wish’. Till date I dont understand how she managed to not slap him! Anyway this guy followed us on the station till our parents came! I have never been so happy to see my Dad as I was on this day! I was down for the next few weeks because of this. My mother, my mentor were all woried because of this.  I still dont know why it affected me so much but it did! 
 

There are many more incidents where my friends have had a hard time with men who are the age of our fathers and are “FAMILY FRIENDS”. Not getting to all that. Cause this is one thing I can go on writing about!

 

Moral of the story::::  A**HOLES are all around! You cant look to change the world but can be better prepared for such things.You really dont have to learn all lessons the hard way. Whenever such people approach you be bold enough to create a hungama by either slapping the guy or just yelling! If he is not worth so much of your time, energy and attention try ignoring him, plug in a MP3 and enjoy the music (This was suggested to me by my Mentor after meeting the ‘clinical psychologist’ and believe me it works!!!)

 

PS: Will this ever stop??? I dont know!