Mumbai Meri Jaan

This has been one movie which I have been wanting to see for a long time and I finally happened to see it yesterday ...

This movie makes me think on different lines .... all at once

To its credit , this movie has managed to do something which very few movies have been able to do - make the audience feel the pain.

At the end of the movie , I really felt that I was in Mumbai during the blasts. I could feel what it would have been to be there the week after the blasts.

I remember the 11th of July 2006 pretty well actually , that was the eve of my 23rd birthday (and my first in Bangalore). Just before leaving for home , I came to hear about this...... It shook me for a moment ....a kind of eerie feeling lingering for a couple of hours ...

But then it was life as usual .... (probably all the more because as it was bday and there were distractions)

I just wonder if I would have felt the same if I was in Mumbai or anywhere else up North ...

Is the South relatively immune from this ? No , not in terms of security but in terms of the emotional trauma which citizens of a city go through.

To restructure this question , why didnt I feel this same sort of pain (when I saw this movie) when these incidents happened ? Why do I need a movie to realize this ?

South has had its own share of terrorist strikes , but none of them as savage as the ones up North. So do we feel safe ?

Well I dont know ... might just be my imagination.


Thinking on different lines , I thought Mumbai Meri jaan has been quite unique in the sense that there have been a lot of movies on this topic - but this one from Nishikant Kamat really looks at it in a different way - how the aam junta feels , how they reacts to an incident like this ...

And ofcourse with a startcast with the likes of Madhavan, Irfan Khan , KayKay , Soha Ali Khan , you cant be disappointed. But someone who really struck me was Paresh Rawal.

This man is awesome ... the way he effortlessly plays this role of Tukaram patil -> he really touches your heart - Especially his farewell speech .......

Seen Mumbai meri Jaan ? Share your comments !!

Hmm Do I necessarily need to give a title ?

Go back 659 days and 13 hours approx ...

and hey you have reached the day when I last blogged :)

Not that I had nothing to blog in between

I wanted to (and seriously !!) wanted to blog a no. of times

I started off but never completed it ...

And today while reading through my old blogs , I suddenly feel
pangs of nostalgia. These posts take me to my old days...

I really repent that I havent blogged all these days ... really Missed out
on loads of action...

Well,However I am back ... and for how long let time decide !!!

back to chennai !!!!

bak 2 chennai :)

amen

Happy birthday to a dear friend who is no longer with us now....

miss u da ... every single day. I have forgotten ur bday at times but I wont be able to forget it again for my lifetime.

Beautiful quote I came across !

I happened to come across these words of Tipu Sultan - wow

Hasadbhih kriyate karma ruladbhir-anubhuyate" (People do [evil] deeds smilingly but suffer the consequences crying)

It is far better to live like a lion for a day than to live like a jackal for a hundred years

I have always admired him right from The sword of Tipu sultan in DD days ... my admiration only grew when I came across a para in Abdul Kalam's WIngs of Fire - about how he happened to see ,in NASA - a painting of Tipu sultan fighting the British with rockets..... This man had a vision which many other kings lacked - be it technical empowerment , be it secularity or be it communal harmony.

Adieu DM !

I am not politically inclined and definitely not to any of the Dravidian parties. I have admired few current day politicians - the foremost of them being Chandrababu Naidu - I have admired his grit and his vision . Vajpayee for his diplomacy - being able to earn good will universally is no easy job. Few more but I am not going into that ..

Dayanidhi Maran (or DM as I would like to refer) has never been on my fav list. I liked his proactiveness and dignified looks but never exactly admired him. But when he is finally quittin his job , I cant stop feelin a small remorse buildin in me. I will miss his cherubic smile appearing all over in the media(a bit too frequent ;-)) . He has been instrumental today in rapid growth of telephony in our country. His strides have been remarkable and the host of telecom companies we have near Chennai owe something to him.....

I am not discussing whether he has been partisan and regionalistic , whether he has flexed rules for his own network , but the fact remains that to an extent Dhiurbai's dream of every person having a phone has been nearly accomplished partly due to him.... the fact remains that the dialup rates of 24rs an hour are today down to 16 rs at peak hr and 8 rs at non peak hours and broadband which used to cost 1000 bucks for 256 kbps has come down to 250 bucks for 2MBPS, the fact remains that roaming rates have been slashed at 5 plus bucks to 2 plus , the fact remains that std rates have been slashed , ok the fact remains that both BSNL and private players and the market has a big hand in all this growth , but yeah also the fact remains that he has capitalised on the growing markets ....

Adieu DM !!

Busy Idle Busy Idle Busy Idle Busy

Busy Idle Busy Idle Busy Idle Busy

My 1.5 years of work in Wipro has been alternating between these 2 terms …. Idle and Busy.At every point of time , I have been distinctly been through one of these phase !

Either busy to the extent that 24 hours seem less and I move about like a zombie not knowing whats todays date , which day of the week it is …..

Or idle to the extent that I visit orkut , rediff and webmail every 5 mins , wait for some friend to call for a break …..browse thro the papers for a dozen times (by the end of the day all rediff links are 'red' and I can say who are the guys who visited orkut when and at what time)

The first time we really got busy was during our first one month in training. The hype which they give to the whole process plus your first-few-days-your-seriousnsincere syndrome makes things hyper. We worked 10 hours a day 6 days a week and add to that 1.5 hours up and down for transit …… I used to leave by 7 and return by 8-8.30 (depending on the guindy/ekkaduthangal traffic). No Hols (on paper atleast) …notes / sessions / tests ……. I was really wondering why they keep it so hectic , is it some kind of a strategy to get us used to hectic work schedules …

Then came the transfer to blr and the first phase of 'idle' work ;-) !!! Almost 1.5 months I was not In any team tho I was assigned to an account ……. No system too for 15-20 days !!! (like one of my managers termed this is your 'honeymoon period' - enjoy it !)

Then work came and I was fully involved till the modules were dropped ;-) (due to some architectual issues) ……. Then therafter I have been Idle Busy Idle Busy …and the last Busy is for the current phase and that’s the reason my posts are delayed !!!

I just cant stop myself from wondering why ever Work can be 'correct' - something which gets over in 9.5 hours exactly - not one min less and not one min more …

Well you can always explain saying it depends on you ….u can work just 9.5 hours if u want but practically its just not possible to relax at home when deadlines are above your head !!!
And whenever there is job , deadlines are unattainable …..

So coming to the end , which phase is better ? Its pretty difficult to say , every time I am in one phase I wish for the other phase …when I am idle I think its OK if I have lots of job but dying working is better than dying sitting idle ……… when I am busy I think - why the hell did I want work ? It was so much better the other way …. Other side of the grass is always green afterall'


Wats ur take ???

Leave ur comments junta !

A small request .... please leave ur comments irespective of whether u find em interesting or not !!

i really dont know woz reading my posts ... :-) !! and i am on the lookout for some heated debates .. maybe my posts are not that contreversial ? be on the lookout for some soon :-)

-Shyam-

tagged ..

here i go ...

1.Pick out a scar you have, and explain how you got it:

Middle finger of my left hand - I cut my tendon while diving for a catch in a street cricket match I needed a small operation to fix the mess (believe me it really happened !)

2. What is on the walls in your room?

Nothing for quite some time - in my high school it used to be lotsa sportstar posters , couple of shahrukh posters plus some beautiful ads … every inch of our room (our - brothers and mine ) was full !!!

3. What does your phone look like.

2600 , want to change for a better one but keep waitin for a better one (remember the similarity between girls and phones - u always feel after going for one , what a hurry could have waited for a better one !!!)

4. What music do you listen to?

Miles away from anything english !!! It’s a good mix of Bollywood / Kollywood only ! Lotsa fav people - Hindi - Sonu Nigam ,Shaan,Kumar Sanu ,Sukhwinder,Sunidhi Chauhan plus Lucky Ali / Pankaj Udhas , Tam - anythin by Illayaraja,Rahman,Harris Jayaraj andYuvan Shankar Raja !!! Not to miss SPB,Hariharan …..

5. What is your current desktop picture?

Vortec Space -which comes with Windows XP proffessional !!

6. What do you want more than anything right now?

I wish I knew what I wanted ….. Can nly think of Main Aisa Kyun Hun ?

7. Do you believe in gay marriage?

I personally dont believe In it !

8. What time were you born?

I don’t know the exact time but sometime in the afternoon

9. Are your parents still together?

yeah

10. What are you listening to?

Karka karka from vetaiyadu velaiyadu on 123musiq.com - live tamil radio

12. The last person to make you cry?

I am not telling that..

13. What is your favourite perfume/cologne?

Fav ? Pirkka , if u havent heard of it don’t worry its local to finland !!!

14. What kind of hair/eye colour do you like on the opposite sex?

Black /brown

15. Do you like pain killers?

Pain is necessary for winning ! But I cant bear too much of pain :-)\u003cbr\>\n\u003cbr\>\n

16. Are you too shy to ask someone out?

Yes

17. Fave pizza topping?

Anything Veg !!! I am starved to see a veg pizza here :-(

18. If you could eat anything right now, what would it be

Onion Sambar !!!!! Made by My mom ;-)

19. Who was the last person you made mad?

I don’t really know !

20. Is anyone in love with you?

I don’t know but hope so ;-) !!!

I am not taggin any1 simply because I guess most people in my group have already been tagged b4 ...

One more (and read it as last one) note in this series..
One strange observation I find here , most of the desi crowd I find here belong to one among 2 groups … (by desi's I refer to indians,pak's,bangaldeshi's and afghans)
The first group I guess is a bit more strong …
Desi's belonging to this group just freeze in fear at the sight of another desi… they put on they super cool looks , look at a different direction with an air of nonchalance and all the timing praying fervently that the other desi just doesn’t approach him …. I don’t know if they feel that talking to another desi would degrade themselves , bhaav kam ho jaayega :-)
This is all the more bad if they have 'gore' friends with em ….. Hehe … I feel so amused to see this group that I really have a urge to go shake hands and say (hey oc tea marandhu pocha ? :-)) Hii !
The other group is my type - they beam on seeing a desi , few guys go to the extent to shake hands , and if they feel if ur from their place … I have seen people really go out of the way to help … discuss about things , crib about life here and ask some questions which literally hover about - howz my plz pal ?
The Finnish People here are among the most disciplined and courteous people I have ever seen , you can expect every kind of help from them . Desi's ka hi koi bharosa nahin hain …. Expecially bcoz the first kind of desi group outweighs the second kind of them ........

few lines to add ..

jus to add to wats written below ...

This is what i told my friend Ram ... "I miss India badly , I want to be back as soon as possible .... but at the same time I am being paid so good here that I wish the trip extends ...[:)] ... so there is an internal conflict and my mind is all confused "

And he said this is exactly what an NRI (Non returning Indian) is all about ... he wants to be back in India all the time but the thought of the money which he stands to lose doesnt jus let him follow his heart....

aNd BINGO some part of my question is answered ... Mayb i could say this

Ask yourself if you were paid the same money in India (or correspondingly same level of pay) , would you return to India ?

If you answer Well Maybe no - then ur already a part of the place you live , you luv the culture ,u luv the ppl along with the money !!!

If you answer Yes , then there you are pal - so ur not exactly a part here and u jus hang around here for the money !

and u know whats my answer ... [;)]

My First Blog after my exile

Amen !

as i start with my blog once again !

i had told 3 times that i am going to start (jus like rajni hinting at his jump to politics ;))

but i did not so far ...

and i realised its way too bad , cmon man u cant be this unreliable ...

ok done i'm starting but on what ?

hvae quite some lines of thoughts going on parallely on my mind , am wondering which one to bring to paper na blog ........

So i decided to go with this - << >> my Patriotism <<>>

and u gonna say wat crap , u got ahead to write a blog after almost a year and u dint get ny other topic... this almost sounds like a first standard essay - that too u seem a bit belligerent !!!

my topic doesnt probably really say what i am going to actually blog , but then i thought let the topic add to the suspense

ur tellin me cut the crap for the second time .......

ok boss , straight to the point !!!

b4 i start i need to tell teh circumstances under which i am writing this blog. I have blogged written about my school and college life. I promised to write a blog later on Sathyabama experiences which i still promise to do .. will do it someday promise !!! I concluded saying i am about to join wipro tech , lets see what happens ...

well lets fast forward 16 months ... (i'll cover the wipro story and the indian IT story later - again this is a promise !!!) u can think of a nice rb chowdary's super good movies / vikraman song and b4 the song ends i am in Finland ,Europe !! ah no dont think too much , no i am not coming out in a mercedes parked outside my mansion in Europe , i agree thats what happens in vikraman's sooryavansham and vaanathai pole ... but this is real life dude !!! I turn up in Finland for a project , software enginner jo tehra !!! and then ....

cut the crap for the third time , am getting serious now -

its 3 weeks since i have come here and

Whats up with m e ? I'm missing India outright serious. Senti Hindi film dialogoues appeal to me , patriotic hindi songs lure me and worst of all I see a Indian girl , i start following her ........

i am humming pankaj udhas´s chitti aaya hain .. (ther´shud be a remix now email aaya hain)

whats this phenemenon called ? i have never been so patriotic b4 , yup i luv India all the way but then this is being more of the crazy kind ...

i'm all mushy now , sunk in emotions , want to reconnect with life ... want to get back to old friends .. tell them i miss em all ' - i jus cant live my life like an european - 5 people sit around a table and jus dont talk to each other ..... wats life without the desi chai we friends used to share , wats life without the buzzing and close to irritating crowd outside my house in arcot road , the chats available all around my plz in blr .... , the din of the traffic wow !!!

the decency around and the courteousness around makes me feel odd ... i am more used to the rude behaviour of my chennai auto drivers ... , the crude remarks of the old mtc conductor , they sound more humane after all !

does this happen to everyone and do ppl get oer this with time , i cant make out . But unlike most ppl who miss their home and their friends circle more than their country ... i miss my country too !!

i'll break here rt nuv and continue in a couple of days !!!

Here i start !!

I am being a bit grumpy of late …
Wondering why ? Ever since I have come here , life is a bit monotonus …
Got to remember the diary of anne frank , her diary kitty ! Thought I need to do something like that too ..
Life is too wonderful to be spent like this . Right ?
Then I came to the decision I guess its time I rewrite my blog (and probably my life too ???)
Renew my old connections , get back to old friends … grab my life back from the monotony !
So here I go …….

i need to rewrite my blog and probably my life too .... !!! march 1 , here i come

I'll b back soon !

Its been a long hibernation.....I'll b back with regular posts b4 oct 05 !

Well get started continued.....

It was getting too long , and i had to split it .....

Yeah ...getting back ALpha was my rebrush with Christianity.........I have always found solace in Christian customs and i admired many of their practices.....(except conversions but well thats smthing i am not going t discuss about ) esp their carrols in English ...that was something every1 wanted to sing........compare them to the Sanskrit sloka of Hinduism ......its sad that Hinduism doesnt evolve itself with the speed @ which Hindus do.

Alpha was a good school but pathetic management,most students didnt belong to my type honestly , alpha was a different world ! but the staff was the saving grace of the school , most staff members were very supportive. sadly i barely made 10-15 friends in the entire school during my duration of 2 years . and sadly 'm not in contact with 2-3 of them . But 11th and 12th were busy days , never gave time for me to do my fav things read,write or dream .........it was school and tutions all the way . we all had to cycle 15 kms a day almost , thats not a huge distance but then we werent probabaly used to it . studies had their toll and i used to be unshaven , unkempt which added to my already "great" looks (lol). 12th ending was a big relief iws tired of studying , and most of us thought like me. After being in ICSE and CBSE board where handwriting and text book never matter , the world was topsy turvey here .........handwriting ,size of ur handwriting and no. of pages ur answers went to were most important . Adding to this was the need for exact reproduction of defns.......thats the thing i hate all the way ......its difficult to be perfect guess......

Well after 12th , school life comes to an end , but mine didnt. So didnt it for around 700 other people from different parts of India and the gulf who made the million dollar decision of joining Sathyabama. Every told me it was going to be strict , but i didnt mind , well i thought i wasnt the kind of guy who faces strictness as a problem.........

On August 15th 1947 , India gained her independence , and the same day 54 years later We lost ours . AFter one year when someone asked me hows my college, my reply was Life in Sathyabama is best described as pathetic. i couldt think of any other word.
But those feelings i had in the first year changed soon....................lifes great and so are its events . No event is boring, no part of life is boring ...all depends @ the way you look at it .u can enjoy ur life in any place,any circumstances as long as u love life.

Sathyabama had sm rules , i'm not gonna make a list of it , most people wud have heard of it and any thing u have remotely heard abt it mst b true. new rules keep on being added and i'm thinking of suggesting some when i graduate ! What i want to discuss here was the managements stand made the students even more united .........students were pretty united and the boring 8-3 classtimes made most of them have regular parties outside after 'college-time'. people frm diff branches were always in synch and a small spark could have ignited the entire crowd as it happened in st josephs. but then big j was always in control and most students wanted to steer clear of any trouble incl me.

'll blog on sathyabama later as a seperate article .....i have enuf material to take a 300 episode mega serial !!!!!!!!! but 'll just make a note abt my department here ......i belong-ed , well belong to the Mighty IT , undoubtedly one of the best departments in our batch. IT dept had always been good in academics b4 , but our batch rightfully brought it an 'allrounder' name ........ECE edged us in many aspects , i admit but ECE has been there for 14 years while are bearely 5 years old . we had a fine dept , great staff and good friends..........u ahev ppl of every character in our dept. ......if i (or we) managed in the colege for 4 years , it was bcoz of our dept's support. every time any of us has been "Detained" for sm reasons by our beloved management , its been our HOD whos saved us.................

That was about my past and present , now i'm getting short of ammunition for both thinking and typing .....'ll jump to the near future.

Well like most other ppl in my circle , i have got a job and looking forward to join WIpro Technologies soon..............but software has not been my cup of tea , i wouldnt been too keen to work for too long , neither am i inclined to study any technical subject further .........MBA seems to be the only way , but who knows , let Time decide

'll get back wth more articles on what i think and my ruminations soon

know more abt me and my friends @

http://www.orkut.com/Profile.aspx?uid=16555671848413042497

till then ado blogging......au revoir !

Well get started !

amen


i am pretty averse to change , most people are. 'm equally averse to new activities , starting smthign which i have never done before , (of course there r exceptions) but........anyway here i go

blogging , hmm basically needs 2 things , smthing to think of and typing what u think of ...im ok with the first part....thats after all what i do best .....thinking to myself, reading , writing and dreaming .but the second part....thats smthing which requires you to work - and thats smthing which doesnt really please me ...............as a reason of what , i keep most of stories and poems i think of right in my brain...... ! cant call me lazy , but 'm lazy to type and brain has infinite storage , so no probs.

'personal diary' writing ws smthing which really appealed to me , but i guess that happens nowhere now except that in the movies....(my gosh hindi cinemaa has made full use of this concept , atleast when there is an imposter and theres has to be a scene where the imposter sings the same family song as the hero by sneaking into 'his' personal diary )

i might have even then started writing diaries, but then my handwriting was a serious point to be considered . SO it happens , i am gifted with such a handwriting that changes itself jus like the city traffic police which changes the name plate colors every once in a while . (but all the while i a have maintained a illegible handwriting ).....and i faced the risk of not recognising my own writings. so i decided against that . well bad handwriting also has advantages ......no1 borrows ur note , ur note is encrypted and undecipherable cipher doesnt interest many . Teh best thing abt e-way is it doesnt disclose ur handwriting ........... so i thought well lets start blogging anyway .....

Yeh now about me , my name ? hmm nothing actually there to tell abt tht , SHyam's a pretty decent name and i'm happy in spite of being born in an south indian family dont have a name like ponalugusamy !Most people might think Shyam's a small enough name not to be given shortforms , hmm but well my friends thought otherwise ........whats a name without a nick....

i do have quite a e=mc^2 kinda derivation for my nick , but most nicks have such a history if u go into them.......shyam -> shyamili (why , dont ask me , infact there ws even a song shyam shyamili ..dot dot i dont rem any further shyamili -> mili (obviosuly nicks have to be short), the mili -> mallu,malla,mallan and these 3-4 nicks i had in school . as for college ,no nicks actually..!
(had to have cut short the derivation reason.....i told u i hate typing !)

My initial schooling was in Durgapur , West Bengal ......(my first part of childhood passed here and this place left an indelible stamp on my character)

I did my prekg in DAV and then 1-4 th in ST Xaviers Durgapur ...! ICSE syllabus was and is very diff. from CBSE , i could feel the brunt in 4th standard !!!!! It had so many , so many subjects in the lower classes ....i rem i had not less than 14 papers ..spelling & dict , eng composition, eng recitation........ooh english is always given importance in Christian schools and they defi. over did it . English became my primary language and even today I speak English better than my mother tongue - tamil (hope pmk and dpi honchos dont read this !!!)

Durgapur was such a fine place, township culture is so good, people who ahve lived in such nvironments take time to adjust and 'm no exception. U'r far away frm ur home place but u have such a strong association that u never felt more secure........in my short duration of stay , (4 years is short but it seemed ages fr me ,after all i'm a cancerian !) i loved my place .

Here I must tell smthing abt Bengal. Bengal is such a fine place , fertile , green and but backward ! U know whenever nature is abundant , people tend to be lazy and / or less enterprising and over a span of time , in spite of their advantage of geographical location , t hey lag behind .........thats a reason why most fertile places in India are backward ......Bihar (ersthwhile Magadh...fertile ,rich in resources but undoubtedly the no 1 state from backwards !)

Bengal......smthing similar ...ganga's damodar valley and hooghly delta made farming v easy...ppl generally are easy going. In Bengal u see 2 kinds of people - one the Bangali Babu's who have a very laid back approach to life , drinking tea and reading newspaper is all they care about , very restrained in speaking( that consumes energy too afterall) , seldom move out of their 'circle' both socially and geographically . The second kind of people is the street smart people , the youth of Bengal ....these people are present in the dozens in every street corner, every tea shop and the best thing is they react to any situation around them , even in cities like Calcutta . problems with traffic ,delay is issuing tickets ......they seldom bare like most tamilians do (atleast in Chennai) and take law into own hands ....and flex their muscles ...well i'm talking abt Bengal 12 years ago , now i dunno

Sweets of Bengal , well every1 knows .......is mouth watering , and never miss a chance to attend a Bengali marriage , the fn is for 3 hours , rituals half an hour and khanna 2.5 hrs ...hehe ! again i'm talking abt things 12 years ago..now i dunno but hope things havent changed

Getting back to my education , i was then in PSBB KKNagar Chennai , my fifth standard to tenth.
PSBB was the school where i spent the best part of my schooling ........its an amazing school , great staff , great students , great infrastructure , not great but ok management , (well managements are never great ) . But one problem , PSBB is a school which will give quite sm an inferiority complex. to date i think i was a very average student in PSBB . But never mind it never matters as long as ur circle is good . my class was special and so were my friends. My first friends were Sandeep and Anand..........for quite some time. Then it was Karuna, chandy too and we formed SACK . I take a long time to adjust , and it did take me 2-3 years to get into the real 10j gang , that which ws headed by the most "decent" guy i have ever seen - shashank .

I got into it thro one famous game called TONGS ......in the 8th standard , that ws the best year we all had ..........! TONGS was played religiously with serious fervor and daunting concentration. TONGS group was a huge one .........shashank , vidat, KV, madhu,shivraj,vinod simon,omar and mani,badri,saik ocasionally and of course me. tht game brought us real close..............

Can never forget those days......KV and his lunch box, Karuna and Sai's SAavu Symhony, Saik's confession, Bhattos' "thuppinathu",KV and mummy later in 9th , vidi's stroll in the middle of the class.........i can write pages on that !!!!

After 10th , we mostly split up ..........the state board syndrome took over and most of us decided to change boards . nly the IIT aspirants stayed back ! We were 4 - Vidi, Bhatto , Subbu and me to continue our schoolong together in Alpha , shashank,karuna,chandy,vicky.....dozen of thm 2 continue in PSBB , saik,shiv in dav, nad rest split @ almost 1-2 per school.

In ALpha we took new avatars , we decided to call ourselves christian nicks - me - Sam , Subbu - Issac Newton .......etc , but our new found avatars met sudden death in a week of joining , as we found most ALPHA'ians having worser , more 'south' sounding names.........contrary to what we thought there were few western names. For me , it was a return to Christianity