Comfortably Numb

2008-03-01T10:53:00.000-08:00

An apology to my Blog

I badmouthed Tirupati, and you see my post coming in after 3 long years! Is that what called as Power? Anyway, now that I have done ablution of my sins, by finally visiting that place again, I guess (hopefully) the jinx is over now!

Lots to share, lots have changed and guess, a new saga begins now!

2005-07-18T03:09:00.000-07:00

An appointment with God!

From the day I landed in south, I have been hearing about Tirupati God and its power from every second mouth. We have a small pooja place in my room and Dil has placed Tirupati photo there, so I have been virtually worshiping lord Tirupati everyday. So I finally decided to quench my excitement by giving the place - a visit.

I went to Prabeen Travels located at Besant Nagar - Adyar Junction and booked two seats for me and Dil, promising us travel, food, darshana and ladoo. The package looked attractive and we grabbed it with both the hands (four indeed). On the day of travel, we both woke up with excitement and left home on our beloved scooter at 4 a.m. I wore the brand new T shirt that J gifted me recently. All in pious mood, the couple (yes, me and Dil form a wonderful couple) parked the scooter at the travel agent shop in Egmore, enjoyed Kapi at Sangeetha and boarded the AC bus (which was 2 hour late). As usual, we both got engrossed in what we call "meaningful conversations" and right from analysis of girls’ attitude in general to money matters to songs to religion and to life, we discussed each single topic available on earth! Midway breakfast, as a part of the tour, consisting of one vada, some two idlies and a plain dosa added to our felicity.

We climbed up the Tirupati hill in the bus, and Dil enlightened me with all the place history and different rituals followed and his personal experiences for believing Tirupati as highest consecrated place. I got all the more excited to experience it in real, let me also get my share of blessings.

We reached a market kinda place in Tirupati, where the guide took us to a small phone booth and asked us to keep all our foot wears, electronic gadgets (cell phones, cameras, walk man etc) in a jute sack. I felt kinda odd, walking bare feet around the town and the guide took us to a heavily crowded restaurant where we had good south Indian Sapad. Some of the people who bifurcated to some other road mid way, now reappeared with their heads completely shaven. Two women sitting in a row before us in the bus had fairly long hair tail and seeing them completely bald now, took me some time to digest the site.

After everyone was done with lunch, the guide adumbrated that all special darshana (one that of 200 Rs) slots are over and free darshana are the only people who would be allowed. I was taken aback, more coz of the lifetime contradictory fact that something for free is getting preference over paid ones. I got filled with enormous appreciation for the place and I felt all the more devout. The guide proclaimed confidently that he has over a decade of experience and just trust his words that cell no 12 (where we were supposed to go) would get their chance of darshan around 9-10 p.m. He asked us not to listen to thousands of talks around, the darshan would be definitely there at 10 and he is waiting outside the place we left our belongings.

Did he say 10 p.m.? Man, it was 1 p.m. now and wait is the only thing I could never do in my life. 9 hours - that’s crazy and insensible. People around told that this would be probably the shortest time as per the normal standards, as people have even taken a week sitting in queue for the precious darshana. Anyway, did I have any choice? I entered the waiting castle cum premises with an eerie feeling.

High security and check up made me feel I have an appointment with Prime Minister of the nation, ah .. The God is much above, I consoled myself. Walking upstairs, we went to the waiting cell (which I later called - concentration camp). There were huge rooms, made up of no floor, just stairs. And thousands of people were sitting in each cell on those stairs. We entered cell 12 and found it dead full. We tried to squeeze inside but found it impossible and finally walked to cell 13 which was relatively empty (as empty as Mumbai locals). Me and Dil somehow managed to find a place to stand and suddenly saw a flood of people (60% of them completely bald) foraying a corner. Its only when I witnessed the same episode several times in the day, I realized that the temple volunteers were distributing some grub for free. It was only by the end of the day I realized that almost half of the people there were there, just for that free grub. I even heard that people do darshan and then immediately again get into the queue. They are least bothered about how fast of slow the queue is moving, they get a shelter and free food.

Whatever, the episode gave us opportunity to put our bums down and we peacefully place ourselves in a corner of a row. There was on TV in the room/hall and they started playing Ramayana. Some 45 mins easily passed watching that ramayana and the pain started then. Meantime some watchman came and locked all the doors from outside - I wondered if the case would be any different here than Kumbakonam school case, in case someone sparks a fire here.

2 p.m - Me and Dil were discussing about Tirupati.

3 p.m. - We exhausted everything that we could talk and tried sleeping on stairs sitting, but in vain.

4 p.m. - We both got absolutely bugged up and Dil swore some furious words on the Prabeen Travels.

5 p.m. - My whole body was paining and I was tired of watching people doing all sort of crazy stuff. Reverence was the last thing spotted. Even traces of it were missing.

6 p.m. - We both were quite hungry and I decided to walk down to toilets. I went down, struggling to make my way thru the ocean of people. There was a gully in between two chambers, containing toilets - common to both chambers - 12 and 13. I entered toilet and puked. Strong piss and human dung odour made me dizzy. I refused to enter the site and ran back feet away. My bare feet were completely wet due to liquid spread all over the floor - piss, sewage water - god knows!!!

7 p.m. - Dilip could not resist the piddle pressure and history repeated itself. He went inside and puked.

8 p.m. - We both were damn hungry and looting the free food distributed, by fighting with the mob appeared to be the next viable situation. I discovered that somewhere near the toilet someone was selling idlies and vadas. I rushed down and saw people willing to kill for the idlies. I became the part in the stampede and earned myself two idlies and two vadas. Since Dil refused to eat them, I had all for myself - never knew two idlies can give such a satiating feeling.

9 p.m. - Finally I also gave up and wondered what the hell was happening. People around were all cool and calm and well prepared. Our throats started paining of the talk we were doing - the same we had already done several times in the day.

10 p.m. - This was the time we were supposed to get darshana. I was surprised by myself because I still had hopes that we would get the darshana. I am neither that religious and nor was that eager for darshana, but after the longest wait of my life, I wanted at least the final fruit.

10:30 p.m. - What the hell, in last one hour, only half an hour is passed.

11:00 p.m. - All patience broke up of us and people who came with us and we started taking opinions to go back. Most of the people were equally frustrated than us but still people just nodded.

11:30 - I discovered that there are 1.8 lakh people before me in the queue and that is the free darshan category. In between, paid darshana would eat up most of the time as they are always preferred. Ah, I doubted the human potential in vain. Here they go.

By Schedule, It was supposed to take three days before they would open the concentration camp gates and I did not think that this kind of darshana made any sense. By 12 a.m. we shouted for the guard and came out of the whole complex. While returning I saw several thousands of people who were behind me in the queue.

2005-07-02T04:36:00.000-07:00

Life Never Stops - It just goes on and on !

When I left home for graduation, I thought all my good old days are over. I wondered how I gona live away from home. I was convinced that I gona have tough time in IIT. New City, new schedule, new people ... I sank sad.

But, I had the best time of life in IIT and When I was leaving IIT, I thought the life has come to an end and now only churning is left. I was dead sure that I can never make better friends again. New city, new people, new job.....I sank sad.

But, life in Trivandrum was fun and I made good friends there. Then when all of us got dispersed at different cities, I thought the tough time starts now. New City, new office, new people .... I sank Sad.

But then I had tremendous time at Chennai and made a close circle, yet again. And now as all of my gang is moving out for betterment, I am left alone. Same City, same office, same schedule ......but I am sinking sad.

2005-06-23T01:06:00.000-07:00

Food Festival

"Leave no stone unturned", that's a famous quote but ever heard "Leave no place unattended"? Seems that's the motto, our group (read, gang) is following these days where unturned stones are being turned by cracking the jobs/apps/profiles/trips and by zeroing in the definition of 'place' to eating joints.

Be it Pinnacle, Heaven and Earth, Tandoor, Zara Tapas, Main Street, Mainland China, Little Italy or Minar - the gang can be spotted anywhere & everywhere and the list goes on and on. Amidst the several liter of booze we gulped down our throats, several Kilograms of yummy food and several thousands of moolah spent, the most noticeable factor is - Its happening! Things are on move and I strongly believe - Every Success should be welcomed arms-wide-open by celebrations!

The fun of these days makes me nostalgic. The enthu and the chemistry of the gang is the closest approximation possible to the good old bunch of friends of college (read, insti). Those were the days; and I never thought I could live them up again.

2005-06-03T22:06:00.000-07:00

While science is universal, the scientist is not!!!

Prof. Narendran agrees that scientific research has to be pursued at the best place, no matter where. But as Dr. Ananth points out, "While science is universal, the scientist is not................. He has a nationality."

These lines appear in Metro Plus this week and forced me to ponder. The article basically addresses the issue of IITians choosing jobs over research, that too only abroad. It honestly accepts that we have poor research facilities in India but since the trend is shifting towards jobs, does that really matters?

2005-05-29T22:51:00.000-07:00

I hate when people say that I am Single. Its just that I am romantically challenged.

2005-04-28T11:02:00.000-07:00

Kya Meri Kismat Jagegi

"Plane mein sunder ladki ... bagal wali seat khali hai ... kya meri kismat jagegi .....excuse me ...shayad aap meri seat per hain" ..this famous add was reverberating in my ears today morning when I entered Tooting Broadway tube station with Robbie. There were couple of empty seats, Robbie sat at the middle one of one side and I sat next to him and another person came and sat at the last leaving one empty between him and me.

A gorgeous (read ravishing) young Girl entered the tube. A snake came and smelled me. I was breathless - amazing splendid, resplendent, graceful beauty. None of the thoughts struck me - she was plain simple beauty. I saw an empty seat next to me - kya meri kismat jagegi?

It worked !!! In order to avoid the disappointment, I tried to gaze blankly at the book in my hand and by the time I averted my eyes, a scented aroma struck my nostrils. I took a deep breath.

Before I could celebrate the triumph much, I realized that this blessing is a curse in disguise - I could not ogle at her. Wish she could have taken some seat in front row, at least I could have ogled in peace. She was sitting right next to me and that would have been really odd if I turned my face and tried to look. I tried to look into the book. One guy crossed us as that might be his stop and I looked up and then to the fairer side. Man, she was plain simple beauty. Amazingly glowing skin, perfect figure, sharp features, red lips, blonde hair, grey eyes - ah, how come anyone can be this beautiful. She was wearing a skin-fit T and a rubbed blue jean. She had a notebook in her hand - is she a student here?

Time passed. It was actually running, faster than the tube. I wished there could be some signal problem (haven't heard of any other reason here to get a tube delayed). I wondered if she gonna change the tube at Stockwell and come to Victoria Line also or will she go straight.

God, it was Clapham Common. Just one more stop and she may be all gone. I do not want anything, just a few sec to adore the beauty. Was wondering why no one is crossing in between the rows so that at least I could look up. Was wondering if I shall take a seat in front row at the next stop - Nah, that would be odd. Was wondering if I shall be shameless and have a good look - I could not. I tried to see her reflection in the glass window in front, she was visible but not her face - which I was most interested in. I tried to read the book - read the same top two lines of the page 6th time.

Another station came and passed, I was convinced that she is amongst the most gorgeous females I have ever seen. She opened her purse, took out the phone, checked the time and put it back. I tried to read the map - drawn in the same line of sight as her. Still could not get the satiation.

Stockwell was about to come. I had an intuition that she is not gonna come to Victoria Line. She seemed to have been bored. She yawned. I saw it with side looks. She yawned again. Ever heard Yawning is an infectious disease? I yawned too. She looked at me - for a fraction of a second and I at her. She smiled.

2005-04-13T10:27:00.000-07:00

Baffled...

A typical tiring day at office. Deadline is dancing on my head and I am slogging to come over it. I left office around 9 p.m. and am still writing the report in my thoughts. I am not very sure that was report I was thinking about, I stressed myself to quite an extent to figure out what I was thinking and was lost in, but nothing helped. Did not realize when did I reach Victoria, got into the right platform, got down at Stockwell and then was standing at the right platform waiting for the tube. I wonder how was I doing things right, which I seldom do when I am to my senses.

I almost lost my balance by a wind gust and then I woke up and realized that the tube has arrived. The door opened with the same regular voice and I saw the door blocked by some n number of luggage items. Being sure, I searched for an Indian around and saw a beautiful young Punjabi girl standing at the back of the pile of luggage items. I somehow made my way jumping over the luggage items and managed to get into the tube. She smiled. I passed a baffled smile back. I saw an old lady and another middle aged lady sitting inside and trying to avoid the spilling of the stuff from polybags they had. I felt pity and the old lady passed a meek smile. Only seat empty was the one next to middle aged lady and I captured that without any hitch.

The youngest and the oldest were talking in Punjabi/Hindi and I could hear some filmy dialogues going on. Some maa-beti scene was going on probably. I could barely make out what the issue was and the middle aged lady next to me puked !!! Right on her feet, inside the almost air-tight, underground tube and immediately all white skinned left their seats and went to the other side. Before my reaction time could made me respond, my side of tube was empty and I did not know what to do? The lady puked more and more and that seemed endless. The damsel seemed to have a faster reaction time than me and I do not know when but she put in lot of tissue papers on the floor and almost cleaned everything. I grabbed my wits and finally offered some help. I asked if they have any medicine for her and she asked the same in return. I said I have just the pain killer which might not work here. "Jo bhi goli ho de do" and just in a fraction of second the young lady offered the pain killer and medicine to the patient. I guess she belongs to the school of thought that any medicine can cure any illness. Whatever, the sick lady looked up with watered red eyes and denied to take the medicine and sat back in terrible pain.

The real story starts now. We came to talking terms and oldie told me that they are coming from the Heathrow airport and are going to Tooting Broadway. I asked how will you go with so much of luggage, is anyone coming to pick you people up. She looked up with dried eyes, raised her hand to join the palms in air and said "Upper wala he kuch karega ab to". Humm .. situation was pretty filmy and before I could turn to the younger one, Tooting came. The youngest and the oldest started pushing the luggage out of the tube to the platform and I said, "Mein aapki madad ker deta hoon" and did the same. Finally the bold and the beautiful took the command and we pulled everything thru the escalators to the ground floor. I proudly used my Oyster card and came out of platform barricades and she got struck as probably she did not know the same travel card cannot be used again at the same station. A cop came and helped her with that and somehow we all finally came outside with all the luggage. I asked "London pahli baar aaye ho" ..and she replied ..."nahin ..mein to pichle 17 saal se yahi rahti hoon ...tooting mein". I got stunned. To this the old lady came to me .. took my hands in her hands and with motherly voice she said "bahut bahut meherbaani beta ... upper wala aapko bahut barkat de" ... The beautiful also looked at me with praising eyes and the whole filmy scenario pushed filmy dialogue from my mouth "nahin nahin aunty, ek hindustani he ek hindustani ke kaam aata hai" ....and the oldie replied with a glitter in her eyes with no break "beta hum to pakistani hain".

2005-03-03T19:40:00.000-08:00

Snow Flakes ...

Its a beautiful London morning after a sound sleep and I walk down to Kitchen to cook (read assist) breakfast. I just open the curtains of the big glass doors of the kitchen, expecting the same unmoved swindle in the veranda and to my surprise I find it all white. Man - its snowing !!! I saw snowing many a times in romantic movies but seeing it in real was quite exciting. I was in my shorts and t shirt but still could not control myself from opening the glass doors and stepping into the probably -5 degree weather. Wows, white cotton everywhere. I looked up to the sky and saw snow flakes floating with the air. I kept looking and some flakes landed at my eye lids and then I realized its chilling cold and I stepped inside.

Letchworth street is anyway beautiful with old english, exactly similar hut-kinda houses at both ends and cars parked in the parking lot in front of each house. I just prayed that it continues till it's the time to go for office and yes it worked. I stepped out of the home and saw unforgettable kodak scene. Everything was white, covered with snow. The slope of the hut-houses were white with the Chimney raising its head with a white cap, the cars all had a white shed and the roads, pavements were rolled with a white carpet. As we moved ahead, some flakes came floating like cotton in the air and rested on my shoulders. I was thrilled and an electric eel touches me everytime I think of the same.

2005-03-02T09:15:00.000-08:00

Maiden Flight Journey !!!
I am not sure, how much excited I was for visiting London but yeah, I was really excited to board a place for sure. Everything started on Saturday night 27th Feb. I have been to Mumbai International airport some n no times, bidding goodbye to some senior or batchmate or other. We just used to flock around, do some chit chat and then finally shout and wave at the person getting in the airport. The person has invariably waved back with one hand and other pushing the trolley. So the same scene happened again and I hardly could feel that this time I was the person who gona get in and wave at the flock. Some good bunch was available to see me off and I was pretty touched by the enthu of the people. Thanks to Arjun, Anil, Sachin, Ravi Shankar, Vijay, Parul, Dilip, Madan and gang for making me feel special.
Whatever, I struggled to get the trolley moving as there was some brake funda there but Sachin helped me with it by suggesting to push harder. Its only after an hour I realized that the brake gets free by pushing the handle bar and one gotta keep it pressed when moving !! Siva - the experienced helped the novices - me and Aditya with filling various forms and I actually got bugged with the time it took to finally get into the flight. God, there is q for everything in life !!!
I heard that a van comes to pick the passengers and takes them to plane and then one has to climb up the mobile stairs to get in. I was expecting some good view of the plane during this process before I board. Unfortunately nothing of that sort happened. I just kept strolling one gallery or the other and finally realized that the current lobby is the plane itself. Phew, what a bad entry !!
Though tired being up whole night, I still tried not to sleep and check some glimpses outside. After much efforts, could finally spot some planes on the hanger. I thought finally the take off would be interesting. Well yes, indeed it was. The plane turned like a small car and then accelerated on street hawk speed in fraction of seconds. I could see from the window some tail of another plane and I was really wondering if both were on the same track? Its only when we were in the air that I realized that it was the wing of our own plane !! Man, seems all the episodes of Gopal in Inscrutable Americans on which I was mocking on, are quite possible ;-) And yes, when this Gopal was in air all of a sudden, I was really really excited to see Chennai from the top. I was one seat to the window seat and could have pretty good view. All lights everywhere and the plane was really inclined catching with the altitude. Soon, nothing was visible due to darkness and I was expecting some amazing sunrise. To my dismay, the hostess asked to shut the windows down and they even switched off the lights and forced us to sleep :-(
I slept for most of the time and ate, drank and watched movies for the rest. Most of the time, I had only the map channel on my screen as I really wanted to figure out where I was and where I am heading each moment. And yes, the GPS map was pretty informative and helpful. Anil reminded me several times that there would be his Guntur on the map too and when I spotted that, I surely got reminded of him. And he didn't forget to ask me that did I see Guntur, after I reached here !!! Phew, pretty good excitement !!
It was pretty exciting to know that I was at 36000 feet height and it was -70 degree centigrade outside !!! I wondered the strength of the window glasses and wondered what if we are exposed to the outside climate !!! Wondering about a lot of other things, waiting for the window sheds to open, shuffling between the channels available at the scene in front of my seat .. I slept. Woke up many times in between to see people around me sleeping and slept again. One gorgeous Air Hostess came and gave me lot of stuff to munch and I gobbled everything. Breakfast was really awesome and so was the lunch and the drinks.
When she gave me a small bottle on asking for a small white wine peg, one long pending mystery solved that these White people do not drink drinks neat, as I used to wonder on the sight of them drinking straight from bottle. They are already very diluted stuff. Hummm, now I know. The wine worked !!!
finally when the map showed that we are about to land, I opened the windows caring less about the illumination it was causing inside the plane !!! Wows, that was the scene I was craving and waiting for !! Ocean of clouds, like some cotton spread all over. I just got spell bounded and struck my eyes outside, lost in reverie. Probably we were much before the time and hence we made a big oval circle before reaching airport and luckily my window was on the inner edge !!! The butterflies in my stomach told me each time the plane was taking turn or changing altitude. And I invariably looked outside.
We were much above the clouds at some 10,000 feet, circling at the Heathrow Airport again and I was noticing the cloud patterns. Suddenly we started climbing down the height and I saw the mesmeric scene of entering into the clouds layer and then crossing it within a few seconds, leading to a clear view of city !! That was the best view, that of the London city, busy highways with cars speeding up, big lorries and mostly, the green fields in proper rectangular shapes !!! I just clicked the scene in my mind and am sure I gona never forget that. Wish could use the camera too, didn't know whether I could.
We kissed the ground and suddenly flew high again, back to the 10,000 feet!! Although people around appeared scared, I was enjoying the another take off experience. Captain announced that we missed the exact path by few inches and they did not wish to take any risk. Thanks to the pilot.
Finally we landed and came to halt within no time. Then we were just moving like inside of a car and I saw some n no of planes at the hanger !!! One old fat lady wished us "Nice stay" and Sharat guided us to the the egress. I read somewhere "Welcome to London".

2005-03-01T06:27:00.000-08:00

Time Flies !!!

Once in standard 9th in Emmanuel Mission School, my friend Teena gave me her slam book to fill. The concept was totally new to me as nothing of this sort ever happened in my old school "Vidya Mandir". Well, no matter I took more than a week to fill that (primarily because it was in English), but various columns in her diary made me really think about myself. Never before did I fill or think about myself other than my name, address, date of birth and father's name. So I finally read the older entries in the diary to see what to fill, caught hold of one English magzine from somewhere and used Hindi to English dictionary and somehow filled it all. There was probably some column about dreams, I was clueless what to fill. I guess I hardly thought beyond passing in the social studies exam. Anyway, to impress the girls of my class, who were surely gona read my entry, I made my thinking go wild and started thinking of some of the probably impossible things. To claim my acumen and the vision, after much thinking I wrote, I wanna have a flight journey. Ah that sounded good, I was very sure no one else in the class could think that far. To add to my vision, I added, I wanna travel abroad at least once ( don't know what made me write that, but I actually never thought in any of this kinda direction).

10 years from that incident, which seems a nice incident to mock on, I am happy that I finally had both of them. Now an abroad trip definitely seems trite, but I am just wondering have I come of an age.

2004-12-31T00:34:00.000-08:00

Am Back !!!

Ah! Too long before I posted anything on blog. Trust me, there was nothing to post. "Empty mind devil's workshop", swanning the adage again I decided to mug for CAT. How much did I study (in between the 4 days a week breaks) is revealed in my sacked scorecard. Whatever, I don't care (read, I cann't care). Yeah, but life has improved drastically after CAT. Home trip was simply awesome and after that the colors in life like plays, movies, concerts, outings, music and fun have helped me to come out of otherwise enthuless boring life. Even the work now seems to be much more interesting and new friends are like added spices (I love spicy food ;-) ). So lets keep rocking and let me rush to catch train to B'lore to celebrate New Year's Eve. One resolution would be keep posting on blog ;-)

2004-07-23T06:39:00.000-07:00

The Alchemist

The Alchemist, a book, is one masterpiece. Written beautifully, this book inspires you to follow your dreams. After reading it, I am in desperate search of the 'alchemist' for me ;-)

The story is about a shepherd and somehow, I could relate myself to him. The way he was dreaming and used to be happy about small things, I guess that's common between we two ;-)

The funda in the book "There exist one universal language, which everyone can understand and everyone can speak" appealed to me a lot, of course it had to, else I won't have been surviving in Chennai. :-p

And the funda "If you desire something with will, whole of the world conspires to help you getting that" stole the show !!! I noticed it several times that I am craving for something and that seems to be impossible but still that happens somehow (touch wood ;-) ).

If you have read the book, hope I am making sense, else rush and get a copy and come back to my blog. Then lets make combined efforts to read the Omens. :-D

2004-07-10T07:38:00.000-07:00

The Monk Who sold his Ferrari

I recently read "The Monk who sold his Ferrari" by Robin S. Sharma. What a book man !! I am deeply impressed with the book. I am really inspired now to do some good things in life.

The book conveys exactly the ideas that I used to believe in and is among strongly recommended books from my side.

Although some of you may find it giving preachings, but if read with interest and patience, it can bring serious positive changes to your lifestyle and life as such.

2004-06-15T01:29:00.000-07:00

Home sweet home ...

15th June, Ah ... from how long I have been waiting for this date !!!

Today I am going home ... yeah .. home sweet home !!! I am really excited for this trip as I am going after 6-7 months and also my brother's wedding is there on 22nd !!! So it gona be infinite fun ! All three of my brothers are already at home and just day after tomorrow, the count will be complete (it happens rarely). Then starts the fun !!!

Running from one corner of Kota to the other (althought both corners are not that far ;-) ), kachori, jalebi, poha, kaccha khana, daal-baati-churma, new attires, new people, all old friends, all relatives, dance till death, lotsa Booze (not sure;-) ), babes and yes Attention! thats what is marked by a north Indian marriage !!!

So let me not waste more time and just rush up to catch the train !!!
See you on 30th !!!

Sweet home alabama .............

2004-06-08T04:15:00.000-07:00

My expedition for Digamber Jain Temple in Chennai

Empty mind, devil's workshop!!! Well, something opposite happened to me. One fine day (weekend of course), when I had absolutely nothing to do, I decided to visit a Digamber Jain Temple. Now don't ask me why all of a sudden, coz I myself don't know that ;-)

So the hunt begins by search for the address first. The googly wasn't of much help and I was little disappointed to know that no one has even bothered to maintain some decent website for the help of religious people like me ;-) I finally found one website called AtmaDharma and could find one address there and surprisingly even the phone no and the contact person was written there. The site was last updated years ago but still I decided to give it a try. I called up on that no and heard one elderly lady on the other side. I asked for the concerned person, she said something in Tamil. I asked, do you understand English? She said, yes and then again Tamil. I could finally make out from the discussion that the Temple still exists and the address given is correct.

So now the expedition begins! Koustub showed equal interest in joining hands for the expedition and we pulled my Termi to the petrol pump to get started finally. I studied Chennai map and at one place found "Jain temple" written, so we assumed it should be same (quite arbit assumption though). As expected, we just kept on going as per the map and finally ended up taking the longest route possible. Asking people for the address was great fun, you have to pick the key words or any other English word that they utter. Many a times, we had to thank them even before they completed telling the description as they were not using any "key words". ;-)

Just beating around the bush and making several other assumptions and making way thru busiest of Chennai streets with most weird traffic possible we finally reached one place where I could recognize the Jain swastik on several buildings. Ah, our hunt was finally over and we are there. After struggling for parking place somewhere far, we went inside the temple and to our dismay, the gate keeper denied that there is any temple inside. I knew there is some misunderstanding and we went ahead to find it to be Shwetamber Jain temple. Ah, how does it matter, afterall it was Jain temple. Well for that matter, there is one Lord Shiva temple next to my house but the expedition was about Digamber Jain Temple. So we again continued taking more frequent breaks to ask more no of people and after taking circles of same place 3 times, we found one Digamber Jain temple at its center. Ah ... finally, the hunt must be over now. We parked the Termi and stretched ourselves to feel victorious and went ahead. As any normal Hindi masala movie, the main gate was again locked and the watchman shouted from inside that the temple gets closed at 8p.m. itself and it was 9 now. Oh no, not again, at least give us address of other temples so that we can visit at any later time. But nothing worked. We tried to read everything written on the walls, that we could to make out something but...

On asking the nearby shopkeeper, he told us way to another Digamber Jain temple and said that you may get the list of addresses from there. We knew all temples will be closed by then, but still like true sailors we began to sail in the wind direction!

While searching for the right address, considering it as short cut, we accidentally entered one dingy street and found written at one house like building " Shri 1008 Adinath Digamber Jain Temple". There was no excitement as we knew, even this would be closed but when we entered we found it to be open, to our surprise. I really got highly excited and rushed upstairs before it could get closed, did Darshana with all the time in the world and felt satiated and victorious!! To add to our victorious feelings, we also found the list of all Digamber Jain Temples in Chennai.

Someone said it right, Things happen when you expect them the least.

If someone else is/was looking for same kinda expedition, let me reduce your burden. I am posting the list of Digamber Jain temples in Chennai here:

1. Kondliar street, Konditope, Chennai - 79

2. 34, Subramaniam street, Chennai - 79. Phone- 25242319

3. 16, Gandhi Road, Vanaram pet, Adam Bakkam, Chennai- 91

4. 15, Chandrappa Mudali Street, Sowcorpet ( This is one I went )

5. Balaji Nagar (opp. STATD Board) Ambattur. Phone- 22454269

6. Opp Perumal Koil, Moogappire(w)

7. 92, Hussain Colony, Vavekanandan Road, Kolathur, Chennai - 99. Phone-26450833

2004-05-13T02:41:00.000-07:00

Phew, I am back ! Finally could manage to delete the double postings that were there on my blog. So now, I have well settled in new office and have got internet connection also ... I should blog, right ?? humm, so then what to write?

After much of thinking, I decided to write on "What to write?"Just few days back, I was totally unaware of this blogging funda and after I got my induction from MusingsFromChennai, I see everyone around to be blogging !!! Seems, only I was left.

Althought I am posting after a long hiatus, I felt many a times in-between to rush to the blogger.com and post something. I had long discussions with my room-mates about several topics and they were as absurd as Is it more easier for a common guy to get a break in bollywood or for a common girl to get the break? Then last weekend, I came into form and gave great philosophical fundaes about Life and Success vs Common Attitude of a person to Dilip. Then I remember myself discussing doubts like Why always better things are costlier?

All these topics sounds so absurd but they were actually so thought provoking !!!
I wanted to write my diary about them, but then I was being told by someone long back that diary writing makes your diary to be your weekness and so I never wrote it. Anyway, better late than never. So let me see if I could take some interesting questions within me and try to answer myself !!!

2004-04-29T07:26:00.000-07:00

My office is shifted miles apart from my house now, and today I came to my old office for some work. Every single soul out here is firing the same question "How is the new office?" ....

Ah ... New office ... sounds good right ? But whats new there? yeah, some new people around, but shall I say they are willing to welcome me or wooing my entry into their zone? well .. None.

I wonder, if there is a single soul that is affected or effected by a bit, irrespective of the place of the office, whether new or old. I wonder, how emotionless people can be. Same zombies around sticking to one flat electronic gadget as if they gona find some treasure there.

You must be wondering ( yeah its your turn now) how come I am talking about people this time, when I care for them the least. Well ... I guess I am talking about myself. All the characteristics that I am stating, I think I am the one who is the source for my observation but surprise is that everyone is the same.

When I got transfer, I thought it will change whole of my life, all new people, new place everything new... But I was neither comfortable nor uncomfortable there in just 5 mins .. yes flat 5 mins !!!
How monotonic and lifeless ones life can be ? If you could think of some measure ... plz do tell me .. else ...
Welcome to the software professionals' club !!!

2004-04-11T23:54:00.000-07:00

Wows, what a great weekend. Friends came all the way from delhi to chennai that too in peak summers to meet us. The spirit really counts.

We drove to Pondycherry on Royal Enfield and the drive was the best part of the whole trip.
While on bus or car or any other four wheeler, I feel as if I am just making my way thru the system. The whole scenery appears to be a TV show that I can see it from my window screen.
On the contracy, while on bike, I felt myself to be the part of the environmental system. I was not just "on" road but "in" road. The feeling of driving at 100 Kmph with air passing by ur ears and the feeling that there is road underneath wherein u can just stretch ur feet and touch the road makes me go wild.

2004-04-08T00:33:00.000-07:00

I saw "Pearl Harbor" yesterday on Star Movies. Wows, what an excellent creation. I got really carried away with the movie and I really wonder what would have been the real situation at that time. No wonder American's have tried to potray Japanese as the sole culprits but I have never supported American diplomatic stand on all the world issues.

I wonder what if the Pearl Harbor belonged to India and not America, I doubt we could have taken any immediate action other than urgent PM CM and all sorts of Ms meetings and critisizing the act. I am seriously in favor of keeping politics away for Indian Armed forces.

Whatever, definately the movie takes you to a tour of the episode giving glimse of what happened. That may be a tempered version but its definately far ahead than Bollywood movies which still have to get up from the standard of juggling aroung one guy and one girl stories ( All permutation combination among the conditions are allowed).

2004-04-07T05:35:00.000-07:00

I am feeling blank. Blank in sense real blank. Nothing is missing, I have job, I have so called "gf", I have great intimate friends, so many things to involve myself in but still, something is missing. I myself have no clue what exactly it is.

Is it something to do with passion? Am I passionate about anything? Is there anything I really enjoy doing?
Probably no. A big NO. Just flowing my unmanned boat with the waves, knowingly ignoring where I am heading to. Do I failed to notice that, or I intentionally don't want to know it ?

Craving for some time at one end so that I can learn and learn and killing time at the other thinking I am occupied. Mailing people, chatting with people, entertaining people ... Do people matter really that much?
I know its good to have good PR .. but to what extent ?

I guess there are things I need to ponder and come to some conclusion to know "where am I heading" or to be more precise "What exactly do I want from my life"?

Will I live for myself someday??