kozhikirukal

Sutta write up :-)

2008-03-14T21:26:00.002+05:30

All pugazh is for the author of this terrific one... i just stole it and posted here... as its tooooo good.

1. Place: An open and unhindered nansei paddy field
Time: The break of dawn…described much more beautifully in Tamil as vaikaRai or athikAlaiThe canal murmurs gently as if it were engrossed in a deep chant. A distant cock crows suggesting perhaps that the day has already dawned somewhere…a harbinger of hope perhaps. The stalks of the paddy ruffle with the warm breeze shivering in strange anticipation. The eastern sky blushes like the sImantham of Her forehead. The gentle sounds of dawn seem to awaken the lights of the day. In the midst of this growing hustle bustle, he seats himself on the bare wet earth.His eyes are half opened, arms thrown out, chest bare. His forehead bears a single sharp streak of thAzampU kungumam. He focuses on the sky, which seems to glow like a glorious chariot made of virgin gold. The water now runs along the canal with a monotonous drone. The occasional crow paints its sudden flight against the stillness of the sky. An expression gradually spreads over his face…smile, calmness…perhaps and yet inexplicable. An expression that seems to exceed his physical form and spread gradually over the fields, the faraway trees, the river that feeds the canal and all the way to the sky. And in his half open eyes…In his half open eyes is a form…an object of perception…a sight that is not seen outside and then reflected on the pupils but a sight that comes deep from inside and pervades the outside. A red form…a pleasingly red form. A blood red speck in the center of the dark pupil…a dot that could be very easily dismissed in the massiveness of the world around…and yet a dot that allures, indulges and traps he who looks into it. For when looked at closer…When looked at closer, the dot is a microcosm…and in it is She seated on Her Emerald throne; Her crown of gold studded with diamonds blazing like a thousand suns in itself; the crescent moon on Her forehead sitting like a silver boat on the golden ocean of Her crown; the dark voluptuous curls of Her hair peeping through the effulgence of Her crown…a clear demarcation between the dazzle of Her crown and the dazzle of Her face…She sits. And Her face…Her face puts the morning sun to shame. The brilliance of a solitary lamp in an endless darkness. The glow seems like that of molten gold, of a multitude of embers without a speck of ash in them. A strange amalgam of coolness and warmness radiates from it…Her forehead is like a blazing lotus with the kungumam forming the red ovary. Her dark eyes are like black pearls sitting in the pure white seat of an oyster. Her nose appears like a pArijAtha tree and Her mullAkku like the golden roots of the tree. Her ears curve in a sneering question as though mocking the purpose of the universe. Her lips smile a smile…a motherly smile that would make even the most pitiable life on earth blessed. The jewels on Her neck cling tightly to Her breasts like long famished children. Her shoulders droop under the weight of a fragrant garland and yet have room for the parrot. She clasps tenderly in Her hands the pAsam, angusam, thAmarai and karumbu vil. The vastness of Her bosom trickles down to a tender waist that curves like a golden river. Her thighs stay firm like pillars of an ancient temple. Her legs are folded, one resting on the other like dew on a lotus leaf. And draping all this splendour is Her red saree…red like the arunOdayam and emanating from it is a gentle glow like fragrance from a jasmine flower.She sits there in all majesty and grandeur…and yet a tiny speck in his eye. The sun stands out in its white glory…the pristine morning glow flowing out like pure unadulterated knowledge. Now with a slow deep breath he closes his eyes and opens them again. As his eyes open, the redness inside flows out, beyond his physical form, onto the fields, kissing the paddy, grazing on the canal, caressing the birds on their flight and then finally merging with the daylight. The white sun now has a mild intangible hue of red, a tinge of the magnificent KamAkshi mixed with the pure undisturbed Sivam. A drop of rAjas that drives his action in the ocean of knowledge.

Tour of 'City of Joy'

2008-03-14T21:16:00.001+05:30

It was one another feather in our cap. Yes. We made it. When one of our friends told us that he is about to move to Bhubaneshwar for one of his projects, we vaguely thought that our next plan should be to Puri, which is close to Bhubaneshwar. It was left as such until, in some wild thought me and KP decided to take a break from our monotonous work and go for a longer trip. Our normal weekend trips were just within calling limits usually in our two wheelers. We started talking big… Of taking the Air route this time.

We also contemplated on other ‘to visit’ places and immediately Calcutta came into picture as TRR has got himself settled there as a family man. Also was a fact that Calcutta was nearby Bhubaneswar. On a casual chat with TRR one fine day at office hours, I got a surprise that he liked the plan very much and told that he along with his wife would also join us in our Mission to Puri. He had to ask for necessary permissions and approvals from his better half as expected. The next day he had given us an OK from his side. All this happened in the second week of July whilst our plan was for the second week of Aug.

Yet another time, I took the lead in iterinary preparations and as expected the plan came out very well. KP had insisted that one way should be flight at all costs and the other way can be a rail trip provided it was A/C. I too agreed. Based on expectations from KP and TRR, and considering the fact that TRR was already married, and his comments or pleedings that everything has to be decent and not the regular type of unplanned outings we bachelors used to do, I came up with the below iterinary.

We took advantage of the Independence Day holiday which fell on Wednesday. Hence, a Monday – Tuesday ‘Off Duty’ would give us 5 days at a stretch. Even before any iterinary was put on paper or rather email server space, I had applied leave for the 2 days to get the advantage of ‘first apply, first sanctioned’ basis.

Leave Chennai by Air on the evening of Saturday, 11th Aug
Reach Calcutta on Saturday late evening
Roam around Calcutta on Sunday, 12th Aug
Travel by train to Bhubaneshwar on the night of 12th Aug
Reach Bhubaneshwar on 13th Aug morning
Visit Puri, Konark on 13th Aug
Roam around Bhubaneshwar on 14th Aug
Leave to Chennai by train on the night of 14th Aug
Reach Chennai by evening of 15th Aug
Rest on 15th Aug night
Back to work with full JOSH on 16th Aug

I had actually a practice of proposing 2 plans and deciding on one of them. As usual I planned for a Plan B which was anyways going to be rejected. The budget for the above plan was Rs. 7500/- per ticket. However, the actuals overshot by about a 1000 ruppees whereas I had been optimistic about making the actuals to be lower by the same amount it overshot. Huh. Better financial planning needs to be performed, it seems.

TRR, a guy who expects everything well planned beforehand, kept asking at every log on into gtalk about the status of ticket reservations. On one hand, I casually rejected him saying I never knew what I was going to do next day, and he was asking to reserve train tickets for the next month’s plan??? On the other hand, I silently went into IRCTC.com and found out that there were no births available in 3rd AC for our return trip from Bhubaneshwar to Chennai. Out of curiosity, I checked 2nd AC, and to my surprise, there were exactly 2 births available. We needed just 2 tickets as it was only for me and KP to come back to Chennai and that TRR and his wife would board a train back to Calcutta the same night. I jokingly told TRR that we would have to cancel our plan as there were no train tickets available but he insisted that I book the 2 tickets in 2nd AC for the return. I immediately thought that I should not allow this plan to get spoilt and hence immediately booked the 2 tickets for our return back from Bhubaneshwar. Then, I also booked the 4 tickets from Calcutta to Bhubaneshwar in Sleeper class, as it was just a night’s journey and AC was not necessary. Immediately, the same day, TRR had booked return tickets for himself and his wife for 14th Aug from Bhubaneshwar to Calcutta. Thanks to internet booking services, between 10.30 am and 11.15 am we had booked most of the tickets.

The booking informations were passed on to KP and I had asked him to book the Air tickets to Calcutta to then start planning the stay and other stuffs. 2 days later, KP had also booked the Air tickets in Indigo and sent me the electronic tickets. Inspite of all these bookings, I am sure no one was confident of making this trip. Every one was skeptical that this plan would get cancelled at any moment. Infact, TRR even believed it when we called him up from Chennai airport and said ‘Sorry, KP has an important assignment and hence the plan has been indefinitely put off.’ This skepticism was not with TRR alone. KP used to call me some days afterwards and ask, ‘Are we still keeping the plan?’ or ‘Are we going really?’ I was also in the same lines. I never told anybody in my family that we had planned for such a tour, just fearing it would get cancelled at any moment. I had told my mom just a couple of days before we actually left for Calcutta. Infact, my dad knew it only on the day of my journey.

In the meanwhile during the first week of August, TRR had booked for a cab to roam around inside Calcutta and Nanda in Bhubaneshwar agreed to book us a decent accommodation in the town and a cab for us for the 2 days that we planned there.

The D Day arrived. I started on my bike after my regular weekend lunch with my parents. I pulled out some money from the ‘cash tree’, the ATM enroute to KPs house where I was scheduled to park my bike and take an auto for the airport. As planned, I parked my bike and KP was ready by then. He had bought a couple of books, “Ratham” by Sujatha and “The Financial Expert” by R K Narayan from the Odyssey to keep us busy during the journeys. I had told him to buy a pack of sweets for TRR’s family and he did it. He does it what is told to him to be done. We set off on our dream tour at 3 PM, 11th August 2007 from his house searching for an auto to go to airport.

We were pretty earlier at the airport, at 3.30 pm for the flight schedule at 4.55 pm. The flight was good and on time which I did not expect. As promised, TRR came down to Nethaji Subash Chandra Bose airport at Calcutta where we landed some minutes past 7 pm. We took a taxi and undertook a long journey to Garia, where TRR lived. At first sight, Calcutta looked nice and appealing to us but for the road condition due to the recent rains. It was rather funny when I was told that you need to pay 200% of what the meter in the Taxi was showing!!! I still don't understand what it will cost for the taxi drivers to recaliborate the digital meters for the actual fares. Anyways, before we could rag our dear friend after a long time, the Taxi turned into ‘Shanthikunja apartments’ near Garia station.

A warm welcome from TRRs in laws and within a few minutes we were comfortably watching the third and final test match at The Oval. After sometime, we had dinner and went out for a walk to get a feel of Calcutta. We had some light tea in the dark and returned back home only to find the power cut. They had rather a good concept of running the generator for the whole colony wherein you get to run a fan and one single lamp per house for a meager Rs. 100/- per month. Bad news was that this was only upto 11 pm in the night and if the power does not come by then, you would have to sweat out the night praying for the God of electricity and only cursing the communist governments. The power cut was a blessing in disguise for us as we decided to go to the roof top and enjoy some good breeze. With my N70m giving beautiful hits of Ilayaraja and the slight breeze coupled with the slightest drizzle gave us a taste of heaven in the city of Joy. Talking about our college days added ecstacy to the taste of heaven. Even after the power had come, we still did not move down back to room and enjoyed those moments to the core.

A good night sleep was inspired by the most cherished moments at the roof top. We had a good plan for the next day visiting most important places of Calcutta. We woke up at dawn and got ready for a good day. TRR’s wife prepared us a good breakfast before we got ourself into the Tata indica to live Calcutta. Our start to the trip was a temple as expected, the Dakshineshwar temple where the goddess Kali is in ‘Ugra roopa’. Fortunately, we only had a side darshan of her’s and I think it was good because, if only we should have had a straight darshan, we would have got scrared. The side darshan of the Ugra Kali is still in my face with a Blood red tongue. I was just carried away as I saw the Ganges flowing with all its force. It was called the Hoogly in Calcutta. Neverthless, whatever name you call it, she demanded respect. I was so eager to go and sprinkle some water on myself as it was the first time in my life that I met the sacred river. It was divine but for the colour of the water. I still believe that any amount of pollution or what ever you call cannot bring down the divinity of Mother Ganga. Sprinkling that water made me purer by a few carats.

We had immediately taken the ferry service between Dakshineshwar temple and the Belur math, the Universal Headquarters of Ramakrishna Mission founded by Swami Vivekananda. The main building is a universal temple where Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa sat with his astounding patience and tejas. On the left of the main temple, closer to the banks of the Ganga where the buildings which were constructed in memory of Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, his better half, Shrimathi Sharada Devi, the Universal mother as proclaimed by Shri Ramakrishna himself and the youth of the century Shri Vivekananda. The buildings were constructed where their holy bodies were set off to fire when they were liberated.

It was drizzling throughout when we were in Belur Math and this added flavour to the location. I felt so good when I was standing just on the wall off the bank of Ganga Matha, hearing the rain and the gush of the river with full splendor. A heavy drizzle along with winds pushing off our umbrellas, drove us to cover. Or else, I would not have come back from such a holy place!!! NO exaggerations here. We had taken the ferry back to Dakshineshwar and I feel that the charge for the ferry service is just damn cheap. I don't know how the ferry wallas manage to make ends meet with such poor costings. They charge Rs. 7/- per head for a 20~25 mins motorized ferry. If it were in the south, we would have atleast paid Rs. 30/- per head. Some one ought to teach the communists on costing techniques.

We had some raw fruits while we got back to our cabs and headed to Vidya Sagar Sethu and then on to the other end of the city for a lunch in Komala’s. Inbetween, we stopped at one of the KC Das shops to get Rassogollas back to Chennai. We got half a dozen boxes and by then our stomach started calling our attention. We waited for some 10~15 mins in Komala’s before we started our lunch. A decent so called tamilian styled lunch and we were again on our foot to get to see more of Calcutta, more of sight seeing. Somehow, I was so very keen to get into Eden Gardens and have a look at the Mecca of present day Cricket. I still remember when Tony Greg spoke before the Toss of one of the World Cup matches. More than a lakh of people can watch the match which is possible nowhere in the world. No where, no sport. Inspite of all of our well wishers saying that we will not be permitted, we wanted to do it somehow… And there stood a watchman at one of the gates waiting to get some money. He demanded Rs.100/- and we gladly agreed. All four of us ran down the car and stealthly entered the Mecca!!! We were asked to be silent and we took some stills of this beauty. Just 5 mins and we were escorted back by the watchman. We were happy and thanked the watchman and left to Victoria memorial.

Victoria Memorial was very nice. Infact, this was the house of all antiques. Lots of Bengali girls alongside kept us interested in roaming around. We took some photographs in front of the memorial and spent some leisurely time. KP wanted to eat Pani Poori and hence we set out on a search for a Calcutta chat centre. We had found out one, but unfortunately the Poori was more than the size that can enter your mouth in one go. We had some good tea and started our closing lap of Calcutta. We went to a Ramar kovil and Murugan kovil in one part of Calcutta where tamils lived. It was so nice to bid adieu to Calcutta with a visit to Murugan kovil. ‘Vendiyathu unarulae, arulvathun kadanaeyam, un arulalae un thazh vanangitten…’ says Skandha Guru Kavacham. I felt as if HE was waiting for me to come and meet him in Calcutta.

We went back home straight to have a short break to freshen ourselves up and to leave for our train at the night. Thanks to TRRs inlaws for serving us dinner for the night. By then, it started raining hard and we hired a taxi to drop us to the railway station. It was raining inside the station too, courtesy maintenance of the roof of the station. Our train was from 22nd platform, the last platform in Howrah station. All of us were tired and hence went straight to our birth. KP and I had exchanged our side upper births to some others for a more comfortable Upper Birth. I woke up to the calls of TRR yelling Bhubaneshwar station was already there.

At 6 am in the morning, we were not able to spot a tea stall in the vicinity!!! We had to wait for 10~15 mins before our pickup service from the hotel turned up. Before even we could sit comfortably, we reached the hotel. Huh. If only we would have known the location of the hotel, we would have reached the hotel by walk within the time we had waited there. And the plan was to kick the day off at 8 am sharp. Nanda, who was constantly on touch in mobile till now, promised to show up along with the taxi at 8 am. We had our breakfast at a local restaurant and set out to the holy trip of Puri by around 8.45 am. Unfortunately, Nanda was not able to join us in this trip due to official commitments. He was kind enough to arrange us all the facilities before going to attend to his commitments.

Puri! We were at this holy place of Uttar Jagannathar at close to 10 am. Just to recollect, Madhya Jagannathar is in Thirumazhisai, in the outskirts of Chennai; Dakshina Jagannathar is in Thiruppulaani, near Rameshwaram. I had visited either of the Jagannathars earlier and this trip to Puri would ensure that I had sought the blessings of all the three Jagannathars!!! Our taxi driver had warned us not to take cameras and mobile phones as they were very strict in the temple there. As soon as we got out of the cab, we were surrounded by lots of purohits who promised us a comfortable darshan. But, we went very close to the temple and got hold of an old prohit who asked just Rs.11/- for guiding us a darshan.

There were 3 deities in the sanctum sanctorum. The one in the extreme right was the Jagannathar, the Krishna Avatar. The one in the centre was Shubadra and the one at the extreme left was the Balarama Avatar. They called him Boleram. There is also another belief that the extreme right one is Bramha, the Jagannathar; the centre one was Vishnu, the Shubadra and the extreme left one was Maheshwar or the Shankar Baghwan or Lord Shiva. The Holy trinity was present in the 3 idols. We went close to the idols when someone caught me and said some slokas on shiva and started demanding huge money. As we had been warned earlier, we were mentally prepared for such a circumstance and hence we escaped with just a small amount. From there on we walked for atleast 20~30 mins to ‘Govardhana Giri Mutt’ established by Shri Adi Shankaracharya, my guru. Puri Mutt was established by Shri Adi Shankaracharya as the Mutt in the east. It was a small mutt when compared to Kanchi or Sringeri. There was one sanctum for Adi Shankaracharya and one sanctum for Shri Arthanareeshwarar, We also spent some relaxing moments in the Golden Beach of Puri taking photographs and getting some fresh breeze.

Then we decided to leave to Konark, which was around 40 km from Puri. We planned to have our lunch in Konark itself. Even though the food was good in the restaurant, the very fact that the restaurants main item in sales was non veg., reduced my interests in lunch. After the completion of luch, we went to the Sun temple at Konark where the deity is missing due to reasons unknown. The temple has since been taken over by the Archeological department of India. We took a lot of photographs in this place and after some time decided to go back to the room and did so. We were back in the hotel by around 6 pm in the evening and were very much glued to the TV sets as the fnal test match started going better and better. We had invited Nanda for a dinner with us and he had come for that.

We had a good dinner at the Dakshin’s and a good sweet pan in one of the road side shops. Then Nanda left for his place and we all went to bed. The next day was not as exiting as the previous two days as we had to roam around Bhubaneshwar. We had been to Lingaraj temple, Dauligiri, Kandagiri, Udayagiri in the forenoon session and had lunch at ISKCON. We came back to our hotel for resting a couple of hours and in the evening we had come back to the darshan of Shri Krishna in ISKCON. We also had gone to Ram Mandir after that. Some more time was available for us before we could call off and hence we went to the Mega Mart Mall wanting to do some window shopping. I ended up getting some toys for my nephew and we were in our rooms by 7 PM in the evening.

We checked out at around 7.15 pm from the hotel. We left our baggages in the reception and went to a nearby restaurant called ‘Tangerine’. Even though this restaurant was not as the ‘Tangerine’ in Chennai, the food was good. Once our dinner was done, we understood that we had very few moments for TRR and Co. to catch the train and hence took an auto to the railway station. Even a walk would have brought us to the station in a couple of minutes. Neverthless, we reached the station well ahead of time in an auto. TRR bid farewell first as their train was 1 hour earlier than ours. I was damn tired and hence went straight to my sleeper in 2nd AC and entered a deep slumber.

Our trip had been successfully completed when I reached home in whole at around 6:30 pm on 15th Aug. It’s always so good to get a stong tea from mom after a tired, successful, ever memorable, well planned and well executed trip. Thanks to KP for the company. Thanks to TRR and his inlaws for making our stay and trip pleasant and comfortable in Calcutta. Special Thanks to Nanda for making all the arrangements from hotel booking to cab booking and making our trip memorable. Thanks God!!! For making everything happen as it had to.

Failure

2008-03-13T07:57:00.002+05:30

Failure

I have missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I have almost lost 300 games. 26 times I have been trusted to take the game winning shot and I missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that's why I succeed.
- Michael Jordon

For long, I was wondering about putting my random thoughts in some order. And this is an attempt to put thoughts into words. For me, Failures are something which sculpts a rock stone into an object, a beautiful sculpture. The sculpture does not however show, to the onlooker, the amount of pain that the rock stone has undergone to get this beautiful look.
I, as like Michael Jordon, have failed over and over and over again in my life. And am not yet Michael Jordon. If I have to arrange my failures in some order, the first set of failures that would flash up in my mind, are the failures that I faced during the academic year 2001-2002. Yes. Those were my days in the final year of Engineering. I had no interest in mugging up thousands of English words for the sake of a MBA seat in a foreign country. Nor was my interest in doing a technical post graduation through crack opening the GATE. Since, I had closed both the doors of opportunities myself, I had only one more door which I had to kick open to keep running in Life. Yes. That was the door of getting employed in some organisation leave alone to be choosy. Those were times of recession in Software field and even industry majors were doing recruitments in lower scale fearing a 2000 like recession. And, there came my failures over and over and over again. I had the main criteria to my advantage to any campus selection. Yes. I did not have any arrear at any point of time. Thank God. But, that's just the first step. A shortlisting process would start off with filtering candidates who had arrears at any point of time. If I have to draw lines to a marathon race… this was the first few seconds of the whole race which went into more than a couple of hours…
I would have attended atleast a dozen interviews between May 2001 and April 2002 and the worst part of the story is that for all the interviews that I attended, I fell out at the last hurdle. Yes. I did not fall out in any off the mid stages like the written tests, group discussions & initial level interviews. I cleared all of those in every interview that allows any Mechanical Engineer, of course without an arrear, to be eligle for the process. And the end result was indeed predictable. Yes. I did not make it. In actual terms, it means that, the shortlisting process would start at around 8 am and run into the evenings and the end result was given by around 9 pm or even later… Sad part is that, I would have to wait until the last moment and then turn back home just to wait for my next interview.
How many days spent waiting for the results and how many nights pondering over ‘What went wrong?’ There were even instances when my pillow, my only companion those terrible nights, would get wet. Instances when some nights were washed away in tears. Instances when most days were spent worrying, imagining the pathetic state I would be, in just a couple of months time if I did not jump every hurdle of a given interview schedule. Unanswerable Questions kept haunting every other moment. Would I be able to face my parents? Would my parents be able to face close relatives and friends? Won’t there be questions asked and comments spoken in front off and behind the face? Unreactable situations when people offer their condolences, “Heard that your son has not got a job, YET?” These thoughts would give nightmares and I mean it when I say that suicide would be a far better option than to smile at such condolence statements.
Thank God for not having passed such instances in real life. The mere thought of such things might happen, brings down your abilities by half. Fear of Failure. Yes. When you keep failing and when failing unfortunately becomes your habbit, any amount of inspirational quotes or motivational speeches cant make the slightest impacts on your performance. You start seeing Interviewers as police officers asking you questions which does not have an answer. You start believing that you have been destined for a failure. You start experiencing the tragedy even before the tragedy has ever started. You start liking tragic movies. You don't laugh at comedy anymore. The only subject on earth that you laugh at would be your own self. A laughter which will end up in tears, when you end up being alone. You start complaining that life is too full of miseries. You don't enjoy beauty in women anymore. You reply to warm greetings with a sigh. You begin to grow heavier in heart when actually who start losing weight.
I still remember the night in which I saw my first major defeat in the race towards finding a job. Even before I stepped into the Final year, our Campus Interview with CTS had been scheduled. And you know what, based on my mark sheets, I was shortlisted to attend the written Aptitude test. A couple of day’s gap between the shortlistment and the actual interview gave lots of hopes and dreams. I started dreaming as if I am one of the employees of CTS already. Huh… I had built castles already but in thin air. Little did I know that this castle would vanish in air, a couple of days from then on? Back to reality now… On successfully passing the tests and the GDs, I entered the interview round for the first time in my life. I was happy the way I performed and was waiting eagerly for the results. A total of 50 people were interviewed and 25 people were to be offered. In percentage terms, I thought it was a cake walk for me, as I was confident with myself. Is that what was called Over Confidence? It was almost 7 pm in the night and the stage was beautifully set for the students who were about to be offered. All the 50 of us who attended the interview were standing in the ground floor and the results were announced by our Training & Placement HOD standing from the first floor portico. Every name read out, would invite huge cheers and wide smiles and one young guy or girl would run up the stairs and join the staff in the first floor. Names came out of our HODs mouth every few seconds and after that, there was one proud student transforming himself / herself into an employee with an attractive salary package. Those were moments of pride. Unfortunately, destiny thought otherwise for me. It was a long wait. No, An understatement. The longest wait to hear your name being spelt out. I kept counting the names, kept seeing bright and happy faces, kept believing that my turn would also come. With every name spelt out, the probability of my name being called was reducing. At the same time, the rate at which my heart was beating was increasing exponentially. I did not lose hope even after my finger counted 24. As expected, there was a long pause for the 25th name. And then I realized that it was all over. Atleast I knew that it was allover and I need not wait anymore. Initially, I felt very happy for the 25 who stood one floor above us physically as well as in status. Before we broke up, our HOD motivated us that there was something better waiting for the guys standing below. But those were spoken out of lips and not of heart. 25 of us had to leave the building while 25 still screamed in happiness. Infact, the 25 who lost the battle did not believe that they had lost it already and the 25, who had won, did not still believe that they had actually won. Somehow, I kept a cool head and walked towards the bus stand. Nothing was going in my mind about the failure as I waited for my friends who did succeed in this race. I did not have an opportunity to shake hands congratulating them as I was busy awaiting the next name being spelt out. Now that I was not preoccupied, I decided to wait until they came out, so that I can shake hands and share their happiness. After a cup of tea, I saw my classmate coming out in a jubiliant mood. Even now, I did not feel jealous and I shook his hands with full heart. He appreciated me saying ‘If I would have lost and you would have won, I would not have had the courage to congratulate you. I like this quality in you’. I felt proud but that did not matter. Truth was that he was happier guy than I was. He had a memorable day in his life and I was about to have the most pathetic night of my life. I went home well aware that I would have to spend the night alone as none of my room mates was in town. This added fuel to fire and I first started introspection. How difficult is it to answer your own questions? How difficult is it to find out the reason for failure? How difficult is it to start digesting the fact that you have lost? With hours passing, the failure started haunting me more.
I never knew that I need to spend much more nights like this. Nights with more questions than answers, nights with more fears than dreams, more sleepless nights than snoring ones. It was afterall the beginning. Destiny had more in stock for me but I was unaware. In due course of time, this became a habbit as I became a habitual loser. Perhaps, winning was not my way of living. Failing was. Interview after interview, this trend continued. Somehow, I started losing courage in calling up parents at home in the night just to inform that I flunked another one. So, I decided that I would never disclose another interview schedule. Only when you disclose a schedule, will there be an expectation or eagerness from their side to know the result. I started attending interviews without my parents’ knowledge. If I failed, as it was my habbit nowadays, I atleast need not call them up and update my inability to find myselves a job. I solved the wrong problem. Huh.
I was so desparate to win but I did not. By now, I had seen enough failures to forget the results the moment those were out. I started laughing at my own failures amidst my friends when I knew that my poor heart was seeping blood instead of tears. My slam book has got statements of friends who prayed for a job to me even when they did not have one. Such was my reputation in losing at the interview stage. Huh. Our T&P madam used to say, “You should get this job atleast” when she saw me waiting to be interviewed for the nth time. Now was that a statement of sarcasm? Who knows and yet it mattered. I wish I had not heard that statement.
Now, if can say with pride to everyone that I came out of the college with 2 jobs on hand – it was easier said than done. This single success conceals lots of failures within. The single smile conceals litres and litres of tears. The single moment of pride conceals days of shame. And when I called up my parents to pass on the success information, unknowingly my mouth said, ‘At last, I got a job’and I knew I cried more that day than I cried any other day when I failed.

Nokia and Me

2007-07-23T11:39:00.000+05:30

30 to 40 years down the line, when I think back about my relationship with Nokia, I would definitely remember that Nokia opened me out to the world. Not just interms of being in a Multi National giant, but also in absolute terms. I started to explore the world around me. I think I made the maximum usage of the ‘5 day a week’ working in Nokia. It had been 4 years of 6 day working since I started to earn my own bread. I just thought I should put out a list of all my explorations so that I myself can appreciate them.

Of course, the two overseas explorations are the icing on the cake, that too without spending a penny from the pocket. But I think, the other ones too deserve the same respect.

The below are the places that I visited, if not explored - not necessarily in the chronological order.

Suzhou
Beijing
Great Wall at Badaling
Dubai

Trivandrum – Anandhapadmanabha swamy kovil
Guruvayoor – Krishnan kovil
Athirampalli Falls
Vazhachal Falls
Kaladi – world’s holiest place – Adi Shankaracharya birth place – Shankara Mutt
Chotanikara – Bagawathi Amman kovil
Etumanur – Shivan kovil

Goa
Om Beach
Gokarn – Shivan kovil
Jog Falls
Murudeshwar – Shivan Kovil

Thiruvalloor – Azhagiya Singhar Perumal Kovil

Srivilliputur – Andal birth place – Vadapatra saayi perumal
Thiruvannamalai, near srivilliputur – Perumal kovil
Thiruparankunram – Murugan Kovil
Madurai – Meenakshi Sundareswarar Kovil

Thirukadalmalai (Mahabalipuram) – Sthala Sayana perumal Kovil
Thiruvidanthai – Nithya kalyana perumal Kovil

Hyderabad
Secundarabad
Golkonda Fort

Palani – a couple of trips

Swamimalai – Murugan kovil
Thanjavur – Periya Kovil
Srirangam – Ranganathar Kovil
Viralimalai – Murugan Kovil
Gunaseelam – Perumal Kovil
Vayaloor – Murugan Kovil

Neyveli
Villudayanpattu – Murugan Kovil
Thiruvathigai – Sivan Kovil
Thirumaanikuzhi – Sivan Kovil
Vilangalpattu – Murugan Kovil

Chidambaram – Sivan Kovil
Vaitheeswaran Kovil – Sivan Kovil
Thirukkadayoor – Abiramhi Sannadi
Tharangambadi Fort
Poombuhar
Sikkal – Murugan Kovil
Thirukannankudi – Perumal Kovil
Mayiladuthurai

Perambalur

Thiruneermalai – Perumal Kovil

Sriperumbudur – Perumal Kovil
Thirumazhisai – Perumal Kovil
Kunrathoor – Murugan Kovil
Thiruporur – Murugan Kovil

Narasinghapuram, near Perambakkam – 55 kms from Chennai, 30 kms before Arakonam – Narasimhar Kovil

Thiruvottriyur – North Chennai – Thyagaraja Swamy, Aathipureeswarar, Vottriyur Sivan, Vadivudai amman

I feel that there are lots and lots of places to be visited and the list above is like a grain of sand in a desert. On my ‘To Visit’ list are Kanchi, Thiruvarur, Thiruperundurai (Aavudayar Kovil), Batu Caves in Malaysia… the wish list goes on and on. Richard Bach says “You are never granted a wish without being given the power to achieve it” and I know I am given the power… but still waiting for the time to come.

History is written by Winners !!!

2007-07-23T11:35:00.000+05:30

Does it not seem to be a common sense statement? How can a loser write history? How can a guy who lost the war expect people to read his memoir? Seems pretty straight forward. But, I am worried about something else. What do winners write? Are they distorting the real ‘History’ and write their own novels? Are they becoming authors who create fictional characters out of ‘Real’ lives? Are they making fun of the real ‘Heros’ who unfortunately ‘Lost’ due to other circumstances? Are today’s youth not learning the real history? Any amount of RTI will not help. Some introspection by the reader will.

Let’s start the introspection. Heard of William L Shirer? He was a winner!!! His ‘Rise and Fall of Third Reich’ has written history, sadly in his own way. In his own perspective. The Western perspective. Sadly, the whole world believes William L Shirer’s was the only authentic and definitive source for the history of Nazi Germany. First of all, can we take his findings in the face value? Who was WL Shirer? He was a journalist in CBS, Columbia Broadcasting System in the US, the winner of the WW2. And what do you expect CBS to broadcast in the US during the war? Hitler, an able administrator? Hitler, the saviour of the world? BullShit. Might be Americans can feel proud of the work of WL Shirer. But, why should we take it in the face value? Does this one point, of being in CBS, not speak volumes about the one sided coverage of the story? Can I conclude that the present day Nazi History is not the absolute one? Let’s atleast try to see the other side of the coin. Let’s not get americanised in thoughts, blood and flesh. What does Mein Kampf talk about? The title gets translated to ‘My Struggle’. The western media who are the authors of today’s History have succeeded in brainwashing people and making them believe that the Nazi Party was a group of Barbarians. Talk about Hitler and the first word is Holocaust. With due respect to Jews, I just have a reason that the Holocaust is not a ‘cause’ but an ‘effect’ to something in the history which the western world has successfully buried. Mein Kampf brings into picture and clarifies that the ‘Rise of Third Reich’ was due to the bloody things that happened in Germany after it lost the First World War. Sadly, there were no books written on the subject of Germany aftermath WW1.

Now, consider this. What if ‘The Allies’ had lost WW2? What if Germany had walked over Europe and Russia? What if the CBS was itself a history during the war? Would not have WL Shirer been another Tom or Dick or Harry, in the country side? Would not the world war’s only testimony be Mein Kampf? Would not the US and the Britain be taught to the youth of 20th century as wicked? Yes. And this proves a point. Even though there has been a lot of criticism on WL Shirer’s work, the US is again successful in silencing critics by sheer power. And we all know, what happened in Guantnamo and Abu Ghraib.

Atlast, My two paise – History is not what actually happened in the past. It’s what winners wrote!!! And wrote wrong.

Professionalism??!! Huh

2007-04-06T15:59:00.000+05:30

After long thinking, my own censor board (conscience) gives the 'go ahead' to post this article in web which i wrote long back.

Disclaimer: Heavy Sarcasm might exist.

I am forced to write an article on this subject after someone high in the organizational ladder in our organisation had commented that we (our team) lack professionalism. It was not a direct statement but rather sarcastic, when appreciating one of the dancers from our team. “Atleast our team has one professional”

On one incident, one of the senior executives of the parent division had invited a selected few to peek into his park. When commenting about our division, the host had said that ‘They are a small group of people sitting aroung the corner doing nothing’. “NOTHING??!!” The statement should be correct because the speaker was one among the top executives of the organisation. I presume such people would have data backups and would not make such irresponsible statements. Announcing this in an august presence of 50 odd executives with some of the victims’ team members’ presence too added flavour to a terrific performance on the stage! The speaker should have definitely known his audience!
Just after hearing that, we should have have taken moral responsibility of having done “Nothing” and tendered our resignation. Yes, we were not professionals.

One another day, we were stunned to find out that our dock was closed for the parent divisions’ expansion project. This had jeoparadised our whole transactional activity. No inbound material. No outbound material. And interestingly, not even information, leave alone permission. We all knew that we were beggers inside a parent company which is 200 times bigger in head count. But to know of ourselves that our business was in jeoparady was not a humiliation to us but just an ‘oversight’ of the expansion project.
We did not raise our voice but just begged for a corrective action because we very well knew ‘beggers are not choosers’. Yes. We were begging for our rights and we were not professionals.

Our division was deemed to have a separate office. Inspite of all the delays, we got our own allocated space up and running in a just a little over a couple of months later than promised. And it took the Workplace resources team to give us a working fax connection in just 12 months after we started operations… Oh! Did I forget to say that the WR is a totally committed team which sets an example of what professionalism is. 12 month delay had never been their standard of work, but what to do they did not have their resources in place first.
Our team did not even follow up with the concerned authorities. What we had to do was to walk around half a mile to send fax messages and to receive incoming fax. Incoming faxes? I must be kidding. Those would have already been consumed by the shredder, a result of a professional ‘document security policy’. Yes. We were not professionals.

Ever imagine a business division without a HR. Oh, you are mistaken. It is not absolutely necessary to have a HR person for a meager 20 people who anyway do “Nothing”. It saves lots of costs. So, we were declared as orphans and were attached to a foster HR team which belongs to the parent organisation. Now, don’t you know what step motherly treatment is? Sometimes, and only sometimes it happens to a professionally managed HR team to not know even names of the team members.
Our team did not demand a full time HR and forefeited all the so called ‘employee welfare schemes’. Yes. We were not professionals.

Does anyone know the exact meaning of what professionalism is? I am terribly confused of this management jargon which can be used by anyone against anyone. Only pre requisite to say someone else is not professional is to make sure he is below you in the organizational ladder. Huh…

How do i name it?

2007-03-19T14:38:00.000+05:30

Etho try panninen… not a spontaneous poem… thought through a lot !

Oh God,

Give me the brilliance to think the unthinkable, the ignorance to seek the unknown,
The innocence to blink at thoughts un understood;
Bestow me the power to forgive, the humbleness to repent,
The patience to deal people who neither forgive nor repent;
Give me the wisdom to understand that which needs tobe understood;
The foolishness not to understand that which need not be;
Give me the Companionship of Learned Men to illuminate myself,
The bliss of solitude, at times, to rejuvenate myself;
Grant me the ability to accept others for what they are
For they are better than me and part of thee;
Show me the path of righteousness in my quest for enlightenment,
The path of simplicity to achieve complex truths;
Grant me the liberation from pains and gains of this illusionary world. The journey is long and hard, I know, but I need to reach.

- Sreedharan Karthikeyan

Saapadu... Saapadu... Oh Yaa..

2007-03-08T11:00:00.000+05:30

Apart from the regular Sangeethas, Saravana Bhavans, Hot Chips & Kai Yendhi Bhavans there are lots of ‘hang outs’ in Chennai which require a special mention for the terrific food they host. One such consolidation of restaurants which I have visited along with my friends all through 2006 and 2007 is below. The list is not exhaustive. ‘Miles to go before we sleep’. But this list will be very useful for people whose passion is to try out new restaurants and new cuisines.

Only Vegies:

Standard Disclaimer – the below order of restaurants does not convey any ratings. I have written down in that order which hit my mind.

a. Little Italy in Nungambakkam – Ah… Pure vegetarian Italian food served in a serene ambience. The salads and the Pastas and the Baked Vegetables. Oh My God… the tastes were in me for the next day too!

b. New Yorker in Uttamar Gandhi Salai, Nungambakkam – This one is pure vegetarian too… Serves predominantly Italian and Mexican food. Those sizzlers should not be missed in your life time

c. Veg on the Edge, Anna Nagar – Specialises in North Indian food. Continental food is also served.

d. Gyaan Vaishnav in Mt. Road & Venkatnarayana Road – A traditional Punjabi dhabba which gives pure vegetarian food. They claim that all food is prepared using Mineral Water and the best thing is that the turn around time is so low. A good technique to get more people dine within a short span. This is so close to the Sathyam Theatre and so an ideal place for a date. A good plan will be to book for the ‘Couple ticket’ in Studio 5 for a night show and have a dinner in Gyaan Vaishnav. The one in the Venkatnarayana Road is a little bit cramped but the food quality is akin to the parent branch.

e. Murugan Idli Shop, Besant Nagar – Pure Vegetarian traditional tamilian cuisine. You name it; they have it. Speciality is the plantain leaf tiffin with no cups for sambars and chutneys. The main courses have got to be drenched in a litre or so of sambars and chutneys… Yes, typical tamilian style. Eventhough the cost is a bit on the higher side, its worth to fill your tummy here. Ah and you don't need a terrific ambience if you want to really tickle your taste buds

f. Mylai Masala – A small scale vegetarian restaurant definitely different from the normal ones.

g. Olives in Days Inn @ Deccan plaza, Royapettah – Oh! Jain cuisine. The moment you enter, the table cloth spreads out 49 reasons for you to believe in a vegetarian diet. A good buffet dinner with all sorts of food welcomes you. The ambience is also good and the tastes are ecstatic.

h. Kai yendhi Bhavan, Pondy Bazaar – believe it or not, there is a community in Orkut for this Kai yendhi Bhavan. You can see not less than hundred 2 wheelers and atleast a dozen of SUVs after 7 PM everyday… Now, do you get the spice of this atmosphere? Stand on your foot, hold a plate and eat as much as you like. Do not worry about the crowd; you will have a number of people serving you at no time. The best of the lot would be the podi dosa & idiappam. The list cannot end. You can finish off in a dessert with Kulfi.

i. Flower Drum, Egmore – Oops! Our latest find. One of the restaurants which serves Pure Vegetarian Chinese Cuisine. Even though the location of this restaurant is remote (it’s in Prince Plaza) and not that attractive, the interior deco of the restaurant is definitely attractive. The food is absolutely terrific. Another good venue for a date.

j. Seasons Cafe in Accord Metropolitan, GN Chetty Road – We had been to this restaurant during the food festival and the flavour was ‘Maami’s Menu’. No doubt, this program was a grand hit. All Thanjavur style food and the best part was the cup of filter coffee… Literally stunned. The best coffee I have ever had, to admit that I seldom drink coffee. Hmm… the crowd also had interestingly beautiful people and we had a terrific dinner.

k. Karpagambal Mess, Mylai – The sakarai pongal is a ‘Don't miss’ here. Somewhat similar to Murugan idli kadai in terms of quality and price. Heard that this Mess is there since time immemorial

l. Rangoli, Hotel SaravanaBhavan, T Nagar – Good Gujarati & Rajasthani unlimited food served to your tables. Been there for innumerable times. Very good variety of food at an affordable rate. A nice spot for a ‘budget treat’.

m. Nam Naadu @ Vasantha Bhavan, Vadapalani – Traditional Karaikudi cuisines are the predominant flavour, though you get the regular north indian and south indian stuff. The new one at the 100 feet road is very spacious and food is also good, forget the turn around time alone.

Both veg & non veg:
Being a vegetarian by birth and by choice, my first priority had always been a purely vegetarian restaurant. However, a slight amendment to the principle came in when I had to leave home for studies and work. I started having veg dishes in Multi Cuisine environment too! Call it being rational or fate. When you are in star hotels to get an experience, that amendment is damn necessary

a. Copper Chimney in Alwarpet – Not a very good ambience though, you get a variety of food here. Sea food is the speciality, I am told
b. Tangerine in Alwarpet
c. Spicy Hut in Alwarpet – The American Chopseys and the Orange Juices are really very good. A small restaurant with a capacity of not more than 20 people.
d. Noodle House in Food Court in Ascendas – hmm… Even though the Ambience is poor because of the noise from the whole food court, food seems to be good
e. Pizza Huts – Once upon a time when Pizza Huts had Salad Bars, those were my favourites. But somehow, it’s not to be seen anymore. Anyways, it will be a terrific evening for kids to play while they enjoy dinner
f. Anytime, GRT Grand, T Nagar – Phenomenal Buffet at an affordable price. Signature restaurant of GRT Grand
g. Pasta Fresca Da Salvatore in Thirumalai Pillai road – A truly good Italian restaurant with a good ambience
h. Dhabba Express in Cenotaph Road – The jilebes and the lassis are mouth watering stuff.
g. Esthel near Adayar Post Office – Nice ambience. They are the only people who serve a welcome drink for an ‘a la carte’ dinner. Food is also good.
h. Carnival Eat out – Teynampet – visited there long back and not able to recall the ambience and the food
i. Hotel Trident, GST road – Dinner here is not worth the money spent. The food is average whereas the costs are way above the worth
j. Rain Tree – This place is absolutely royal. Especially the roof top dining. Terrific atmosphere sets by around 7 PM with a cool breeze. If someone else hosts a party you can suggest this one.
g. Carnival Heights, PH Road – Chennai’s only revolving restaurant situated in the 7th floor in one of the busiest roads. You will happen to notice Chennai from all directions as you will complete 1 full revolution while you have your dinner.
h. Residency Towers, T Nagar – This place is claimed to be the best place for a perfect dinner. Been there for quite many times and enjoyed it every time. A gang of 20~30 people will make the party a memorable one.

Hmm… Enna irunthalum, evalavu panam kottinalum, amma seyara samayal maathiri entha ulagathillum kedaikaathu enbathu than unmai. Matrathellam maayai.

Life is Ugly

2007-02-26T14:03:00.001+05:30

Disclaimer:
This is purely my line of thought and is by any means not against the philosophy of ‘life is beautiful’ preached by people who are above my intellectual level. I would for formality feel sorry, if anyone is offended.

I know I am a bit pessimistic in my claim but everything is relative. What is pessimistic approach to you might be realistic for someone and hence I am going forward with my thoughts. The above topic is related to today’s life that is seen in this fast growing world. Without an iorta of doubt, the world today is fast shrinking and the sad part is that it’s becoming uglier in geometric progression. The world is full of violence, hatred, crime, sex, rape, murder, genocide, terrorism, fraud, cheat, whores, gays, humbug and what and what not. When you put all the good things that are happening in this world in one side of a balance and then put all the bad things on the other side of the balance, then which side is the balance going to fall or already fallen???

What do I call this episode of life, wherein there are more questions than answers? I am too old for a ‘teen age crisis’ and too young for a ‘middle age crisis’. But still lots of unanswered questions arise seeing life everyday. Why is this world degrading day by day? Why is there not even an element of ethics followed? Why is there no place for peace on earth? Why are people fighting in the name of God? Why is there political mileage gained on every single episode? Why is money the only target for most of this 6 sensed life on earth?

Some old saying goes like Violence begets violence begets violence. Now, the situation is somewhat different. Money begets greed begets sex begets violence begets loss of life. ‘Kali kalam’ is what we say… but the saddest part is that it has just started. I do agree that without Money, there is no life. But Money is not the ONLY thing in life. There are lots of things which has to be placed above in the ‘to get’ ladder of any individual. Of all things, why Money??

Why at all there is something called ‘sex’; why there is something ‘pleasure’ in it. Why is it that this cosmos seems to been deluged with semen and vaginal fluid? Why is that no human being escapes the arrow of Kama. Why atall is this mode of procreation necessary? Why not asexual procreation be in for human too? There is more of Lust than love. Some one put it so beautifully, when stressing their point of argument against the celebration of Valentine’s Day that ‘Kadalin anaagareegamana velipadu kamam; kamathin athi-anaagareegamana velipadu kadalar dinam’ which I would translate it thus. ‘An indecent expression of love is lust; a more indecent expression of lust is the celebration of Valentine’s Day’. I still am not able to digest the funda of celebrating something in public, when it’s to be done in the confinement of 4 walls. This is leading to more violence and law and order situation in urban places. Spots such as beaches become places of filth. ‘Public Brothel’ should be an understatement. Sex, in today’s youth has received more importance than that it deserves. For all good things, man claims to be six sensed and civilized and what and what not? But if it comes to sex, why does he stoop down under the level of dogs. Even dogs follow some order within the groups. Disagree? Dogs don't gang rape. Huh.

In one of the public discussion forums, some youngster said it precisely… if you make a man starve for food for 10 days and then feed him food; he will barge into the food and eat it like anything. Now, consider the same situation, when you offer him food along with women, he doesn’t even want food. He goes straight to women! Huh… Is that not true? So, sex for the man is not something which is same as food, water or air. It’s something beyond that. It’s something sillier than that. It’s something cheaper than that. It’s something uglier than that. It’s something insane. It’s something to do with the upbringing. It’s something to do with culture.

This is predominantly what that makes me cry foul. One main factor for my point of argument in ‘Life is Ugly’ is this God forbidden sex. Men are 6 sensed beasts. The extra sense is that of a sense that the beast is previlaged enough not to have. Why not be an Ekpathni Virathan? Why not be loyal to your better half both mentally and physically? Why trade on flesh, of all things? Huh. Men stink bigger when they live than when the mortal remains decay. Ovaiyar said, ‘Arithu arithu maanidarai pirathal arithu!’… See what man does with his life? He goes around naked looking for the slightest smell of flesh.

Oh God! Take care atleast when you create the next world. Let there not be lust but love. Let there not be money but wealth. Let there not be Mankind but 5 sensed animals. Man does not bring glory to your creation. He only brings in filth to the glory.

Bhakthi Paravasam

2007-02-26T12:11:00.000+05:30

Ah ! Aaah ! One more beautiful trip! ‘Bakthi Paravasam???!!!” is what my sis replies when I message her about my whereabouts amidst our yet another trip on a weekend. Marvellous would be an understatement.

4 of us in 2 bikes started off as usual after a cup of coffee at around half past 3 on a bright and sunny day. Mission - Sriperumbudur. It's a small town or perhaps a small village in the suburbs of Chennai, now gaining huge popularity and deemed to be one of the many satellite centres of this great city of Chennai. Oops, are we going to have a SCR as like in NCR…. Wondering what an SCR is? Huh. State Capital Region. Haha. I am told that real estate business has started furnishing here if not sky rocketing. Hyundai started off here almost 10 years back but the real boom happened once the Electronic Giants of todays’ business world in Nokia, Motorola, Flextronics and their suppliers started their exploitation.

Hmm… but our mission was not to do a case study of the economic activity in that place. Our good form of 2006 continued and we were in search for symbols of Ancient Bhakthi movement. Sriperumbudur is the birth place of Ramanuja, an ikon who proposed the Vishitadvaitam philosophy. Wiki refers this philosophy as ‘One of the classical interpretations of the Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy’. A good 45 kms from the heart of Chennai on the Chennai – Bangalore highway, this village has a very serene atmosphere. At around 4.45 pm we reached the Aathi Kesava Perumal Koil which houses a separate sannadhi for Ramanujar.

Ramanujar, christened as Ilaya Perumal is also called Ilayalwar. The presiding deity of this temple is Aathi Kesava Perumal with Ethiraja Nathavalli thayar as his consort. The priest in this temple explains that Ethirajar is Ramanujar and that Ethiraja Nathar is Aathi Kesava Perumal. Hence, the name Ethiraja Nathavalli thayar. Even though this is not part of 108 Divya desams for reasons unknown, this temple is worth a visit.

On the way back to Chennai, we also visited Thirumazhisai, which is on the highway connecting Poonamalee and Thiruttani. Thirumazhisai is the birth place of Thirumazhisai Alwar, one among the twelve Alwars who sung the praise of the Lord. This is also a small village with narrow roads leading to the temple. One of the temples which house the Thirumazhisai Alwar Sannadhi is the Jagannatha Perumal temple. Thirumazhisai is the ‘Madhya Jagannathar Shrine’. The Jagannathar avatar of Shri Krishna are in 3 places, one in Puri, one in Thirumazhisai and one in Thiruppulaani near Rameswaram. Thirumangaivalli thayar is the consort for Jagannath Perumal. One another temple in Thirumazhisai, very close to that of the Jagannathar temple is the veetriruntha perumal koil. Senbagavalli thayar is his consort.

We then decided to go to Kundrathoor on our way back home. My friend had once told that the place was just around 5 kms from Porur. I indeed, wanted to take this opportunity to have a darshan of Shri Valli Devasena Sametha Shir Subramanya Swamy in Kundrathoor. It was dark already and the roads were worst of its kind. It took more than half an hour to travel the distance from Porur. This temple was in the midst of a construction, expansion project and hence we entered the temple from one of the smaller entrances. The Lord was decorated with ‘Viboothi Kaapu’ and was very beautiful. It only reminds me of Vayaloor Murugan where I had seen a ‘Viboothi Kaapu’. We four, spent nice moments atop the 40 footstep hill recollecting sweet memories of our college.

It was time to pack up for dinner and still our hunger for riding did not stop, so we went all the way to T Nagar, filled up our tummy and bid good night…

Should I not say, ‘One more feather in our Cap!’ Huh. We are still waiting for the one full day program of kancheepuram. No doubt, there is a saying ‘Nagareshu Kanchee’ meaning ‘Of all towns, Kancheepuram is IT!’ As Sivapuranam puts it right ‘Avan arulaalae avan thall vanangi’ meaning ‘Only if you are blessed, will you be having his Darshan!’ I do understand that we have got to wait to get blessed.

A Typical day

2007-02-06T13:48:00.000+05:30

4.30 am: peep.peep. alarm from my mobile. the only thing my Nokia 3230 does to perfection.
soft start to yet another day of unlimited (lost) opportunities ! snooze !
4.35 am: 'Karthik! Karthik!' voice of my pa.
hmm. ya.. ezhundutten...
4.40 am: why is this nature not calling. shit !
4.50 am: do i need to shave? as though i will be handsome if i get my beard shaved ! who the hell cares ! lets do it on Monday next.
4.55 am: hmm... hot bath, what else is required in life!
5.10 am: Let me start of with Sashti kavasam in the CD player while i do my sandhya vandanam
5.25 am: hmm... start the never successful attempt to beautify myself. 5 mins is hell of a time
5.30 am: 'Karthik, paala tea-a?'... Paal.
5.45 am: pani koranchiruchu illa? hmm, january aayiduthu... anyways, its a pleasure to be on the bike so early
6.00 am: 15 mins more for the bus to pick me up...Solomon paapayya thamizh varalaru solrar.. enna than solararu-nu keppomae... inniku nichayama bus la thoonga maatten
7.15 am: in office for the humpteenth time to be mostly vetti... my company should have been in debt, huge debt, to me in my last janmah.... or else will someone ever pay me for what i do??? ok. let me work today (atleast) for the pay i receive.
8.30 am: cha... no interesting mails! let me atleast fill up my tummy...
9.00 am: kalaaichify, sight adichify (as though they are worth it) and vambu adichify (what else on earth!)

My typical windows task bar will contain Outlook, 4 to 5 sessions in SAP (just pretending to work), a couple of intranet pages, orkut, wikipedia, gtalk, a couple of working folders, some spread sheets

01.45 pm: lunch? is it damn necessary? ok...lets spend time at canteen...
04.45 pm: really a tired day at work. lets sleep in the bus... it will take atleast 1.5 hrs to reach!
06.20 pm: am i hungry? should i have a bite? nope, go home and have tea
06.45 pm: what to do? read books? chat? take my nephew out for a walk?definitely cannot sit in the hall watching 'kasthuri' and 'Anantham' and the rubbish news that follows....
08.00 pm: dinner time... eat anything that is available
08.30 pm: Now, the remote is mine and i can watch anything. huh
08.35 pm: huh... how many times should i say, lets go for a 'Tata Sky' connection.... ''Sun TV varaathu'' ppl near me would kick me out at that statement.
09.00 pm: check sun music for divya or hemasinha.... view only the compering ! songs??, i would rather commit suicide to see the songs.
10.00 pm: Senthil in Mirchi! ragasiya snehidi in Big! and the mesmerising yaazh sudhakaran in Suryan FM lulluby me to a sleep (thookam onnu than korachal!!!)
10.10 pm: hmm... what did i do better today? Million $ question. Let me atleast make tomorrow an inspiring day full of enthu.... and i know for sure that tomorrow does not come at all!

Deep in my sleep, i hear some voice, "Karthik! vaazhkaila when are u going to chase your dreams???"
by the way, what's my dream? oops... should i now sit and wait for one???

Thiruneermalai

2007-02-05T10:59:00.000+05:30

hmm, 4th of feb 2007, sunday afternoon, after a cup of coffee, my friend and i set up to visit a long planned destination, Thiruneermalai, a suburb in chennai.

The name 'Thiruneermalai' arises from the fact that there was a pool of water surrounding the hill when Thirumangai Alwar visited this abode. He had to wait for 6 long months before the water receded and the Alwar was able to sing in praise of the Lord.

Thiruneermalai is famous for the 4 postures of Lord Vishnu:

a) Ninran (Standing Posture): Neervanna Perumal with Animaamalar mangai Thayar as his consort in the 'Ninran' kolam is a separate temple at the foot hill
b) Irunthan (Sitting Posture): Shantha Narasimha Perumal is one of the deities in the praharam of the hill temple
c) Nadanthan (Walking Posture): Ulagalantha Perumal is one another deity in the praharam of the hill temple with one of his legs in the 'Aakash' symbolising the ThiruVikrama incarnation
d) Kidanthan (Sleeping Posture): Ranganatha Perumal is the presiding deity in the hill temple. He is seen with the 4 faced Bramha originating from the placenta 'thoppurkodi'. Shri Devi and Boo Devi are also seen. Legend has it that Valmiki offered his prayers to Lord Vishnu here and hence Valmiki is also seen. Ranganayaki Thayar, the consort of Rangantha Perumal has a separate sannadi in the hill temple.

Thiruneermalai is one among the 108 Divya Desams of Shri MahaVishnu and a place ought to visit. You get the nearest darshan to the lord with not much of crowd pullings. A personal vehicle will be the best for a comfortable travel.

Thirumaanikuzhi

2007-01-29T11:50:00.000+05:30

Thirumaanikuzhi

Thirumaanikuzhi, a small village in the Panruti - Cuddalore route, houses the Arulmigu Ambujaakshi udanurai Vaamanapureeswarar thirukovil. The deities are also called Maanikka varathar & Maanikka valli.

Legend has it that a mouse intented to eat the frozen fuel of a lamp (Nei theepam) in the Lords room. By doing that, the mouse actually kindled the lamp thereby making it illuminate the room for one more night.

The Lord, on recognition of this act, made the mouse take the birth of a king in its punar janmah (next birth) in the Threta Yuga. Parvathy Devi told the Lord that the mouse had actually done a mitake by eating the fuel of the lamp in the Lord’s room and that it does not deserve to be a king. Hence, the Lord made the mouse to be the demon king. The king was none other than Mahabali Chakravarthy, the grandson of Prahalada. Mahabali was bestowed with qualities akin to Karna of the Mahabharata. He would never say ‘No’ to people who come to him for alms. However, Indra’s authority over the heavens was taken away by force by Mahabali.

Shri Vishnu, to restore Indra’s Authority over the heavens, took the 5th Avatar in Vamana, a dwarf bramhin – the first incarnation in the Threta Yuga. Vamana, requested King Mahabali for three steps of land for him to live in. Knowing that Vamana had a different motive, Sukracharya, the guru of Asuras, adviced Mahabali not to grant Vamana’s request. But, Mahabali would never say ‘No’ to people who request alms. Hence he decided to grant the request. However, Sukracharya took the form of an insect and blocked the spout of the vase ‘kamandalam’, from which water has to be poured to seal the promise. Whereas, Vamana immediately understands this and picks up a straw (Dharbhai) and directs it up the spout poking the left eye of Sukracharya. From that day on, Sukracharya is believed to be half blind.

Vamana, upon receiving the 3 foot of land from Mahabali, grows so huge that he could cover the earth and the heaven in two simple steps. Mahabali, in order to keep up his word, offers his head for Vamana to complete his request. Vamana places his third step on King Bali’s head and gives him immortality for his benevolence. Vamana taught King Bali that arrogance and pride should be abandoned if any advancement in life is to be made and wealth should not be taken for granted.

Now, Vamana gets the dosham of killing a king. In order to nullify this dosham, Vamana decides to offer prayers to the Lord (Shiva) in Thirumaanikuzhi. Vamana being a dwarf bramhin, requests the Lord of a possible solution for him to offer his prayers to both the Lord and Devi. The Lord makes a pit and sits inside the pit so that Vamana can offer his prayers. Thirumaanikuzhi, in tamizh means – thiru – word of respect; maani – bramhachaari (bachelor), Vamana is a bachelor; kuzhi – pit.

Also since Vamana offers his prayers to the Lord along with Devi in his ‘palli arai’, Bhima Rudra stands as a guard to his prayers. Hence, the deepaaraadhanai is first shown to the Rudra and then to the presiding deity ‘Vamanapureeshwarar’. The darshan of Vamanapureeshwarar is thus restricted to a little over a minute when the screen of Bhima Rudra comes back guarding!

This sthalam is also famous because both Appar and Gnanasambandar have sung hymns in praise of the deity.

Lordess Ambujaakshi is the consort of Vamanapureeshwarar. She is also called Mannikka valli. Ambujaakshi is one among the 5 ‘aakshi’s. Others are Kamakshi in Kanchipuram, Meenakshi in Madurai, Visalakshi in Varanasi, 5th unknown to me. Ambuja – Lotus; aakshi – eyes. Hence, the name Ambujaakshi.

The Arumugam sannadhi is noted to be as a ‘padal petra sthalam’ for having the 746th Thirupugazh song dedicated to this deity. The temple also houses a separate vinayakar sannadhi.

Le Tour de 2006

2007-01-08T10:23:00.000+05:30

"I think that travel comes from some deep urge to see the world, like the urge that brings up a worm in an Irish bog to see the moon when it is full. ~Lord Dunsany"

i wish i had this little urge long back in life... in my humble opinion, travelling doesn't necessarily mean going overseas, its just a part off! travelling within your own land, travelling to see the diversities of your own culture is the first step to get rational. i started visiting new places in early 2006 and i wish i only follow 'Moore's law of travel' in years to come....

one of my friends started visiting 108 divya desams of shri maha vishnu and i too joined him... Thiruvalloor, a small village in the suburbs of chennai holds the Azhagiya Singar perumal koil.... we had all modes of travel... went by bike till central station, took up a suburban train till thiruvalloor station and took the local bus to the temple.... and walked a few minutes before we could find this temple.... a perfect travel, shall i say.... to meet the perfect deity....

lots of weekend plans involved a visit to the thiruvallikeni Parthasarathy koil, which is one of the two divya desams inside chennai, the other one being thiruneermalai. while i write this, i am reminded by the eternal, that thiruneermalai is still in the 'to do' list. Parthasarathy temple is unique atleast to me for one reason, the lord sports a moustache which is not a common sight...

one another travel memorable was the travel to srivilliputur....three of us planned the trip for a weekend.... srivilliputur is the birth place of Andal, one of the twelve aazhwars who sung the glory of the Lord. the main deity is vadapatra saayi perumal with Andal (kotha naachiyar) as his consort.... adjacent to the main temple is the birth place of Andal which holds the Andal sannadi... a terrific place with serene atmosphere, no wonder why it is a divya desam. we also visited a place called thiruvannamalai, some 15 minutes of back breaking auto travel from srivilliputur... interestingly, the deity is perumal here, juxtaposing the name of the place.... this is one of the oldest temples with over 100 steep steps on a rocky hill.... if you wish to see tranquillity, this is one of the place you ought tobe. enroute back home, we also visited the thiruparankunram temple near madurai. murugan, being my kula deiva and ishta deiva, i seldom miss an opportunity! there can be no better end to that day, a travel to Meenakshi Sundaresar temple in madurai on a 'pradosham' day....

a smaller trip to Sthala sayana perumal temple with Nilamangai thayar as his consort, in thirukadalmalai, now mahabalipuram, in my bike on my friend's birthday! initially we could not locate this temple, but as i always believed that a trip to see the Lord can never fail, we were escorted to the temple by lots of well wishers way by. we had the privilage of visiting Nithya kalyana perumal temple in thiruvidanthai too on our way back home. trip to sriperumbudur, kancheepuram, thiruneermalai and lot others is on the cards and i am definitely sure 2007 opens avenues for that.

one another 'picnic' sort of travel is the one to hyderabad... one of our friends got settled there and we took that opportunity to see the place... we travelled in and around hyderabad, secundarabad, golkunda fort.... a trip for a couple of days, worth for every penny spent.

different language, different people, different time zone, different life! yes, i have been to both the forward time zone, china and to the delayed time zone, dubai! two contrasting cultures indeed.... suzhou is a perfect blend of rural and urban culture.... beautiful river cruises, terrific gardens with chinese architechtures, oh, and the sufferings with verbal communications.... even people who knew english, did not know what vegetarian means! how pity!!! had to survive on biscuits, juices... what else should you sacrifice for a terrific trip!!! beijing, definitely is 50 years ahead of chennai... 'the great wall' should have felt proud on me visiting it, sadly all alone....clicking couple of photographs of the two greats together :-)dubai, on the other hand, is truly cosmopolitan! with mostly indians and pakistanis, so it was like being in home....

A perfect way to bid farewell to 2006 was a visit to 'God's own country' with my extended family members... we were 14 of us, 4 of them above 55 yrs, 5 of them below 12 yrs! starting with a darshan of guruvayoorappan quite early in the morning.... we also visited athirampally falls enroute to kaladi...'the holiest place on earth'... got so touched to stay the night in kaladi, where our guru, shri Adi Shankaracharya was born... visited the 'janmabhoomi' kshetra first thing in the morning! our visit also included places like chotanikara where the presiding deity is Bhagawati Amman and then we moved on to ettumanur, a sivan koil where unfortunately the deity was perhaps not interested in giving us a 'darshan'... our next visit to kerala would definitely have ettumanur, vaikkam as the priority places to visit.... a darshan to the Anathapadmanaba swamy temple, trivandrum on the vaikunda ekadesi day should have given my family members so much of 'punyam', sadly not for me though! i had to sit out taking care of all the baggages! hmm.... i belive, sacrifice gives more happiness and is akin to moksha!

"A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving. ~Lao Tzu"

At the dawn of 2007, i wished myself a good travelling year... definitely not intented on arriving!

Adieu 2006

2007-01-04T15:22:00.000+05:30

The curtains have fallen for one of the best years of my life.... yes, 2006 had it all for me.... i was working in Banglore in Jan and was literally fed up of the lonely life over there! Can be surprising to many, but yes... i did not like the culture in bangalore... On Jan 19 evening, as usual when i was walking back from office, i got a call from one of my Ex colleagues and until then i did not know that there would be a turn around! My colleague had switched jobs too and had an urgent opening in his new organistion back in chennai and he wanted me to fill up... i immediately lit up like a 1000 w bulb on hearing the word chennai and accepted.... I fixed up an appointment (interview is not a professional word, i am told) on the 27th Jan, the day after the republic day, just to have a sandwitched holiday..... Boy, i was reporting to the new office on Feb 13... i could not believe my self.... it was all along an interesting year after that....

i became addicted to satyam cinemas every weekend along with one of my college friends... even more addicted to visiting new restaurants (pure veg) thrice a week..... and started actually enjoying life....

for everytime i see an aircraft hovering above me, i would think that i would also be airbound one day, atleast on a domestic trip... and alas.... i had an opportunity to fly and interestingly fly abroad.... i was having so many negative thoughts since it was official, i thought the trip can be called off even before the flight taking off.... but finally i had 'janma saabalyam' when i stepped into SQ401 at 11.45 pm on 27th June!!!!

for every time i had to send off someone from the airport, deep in my heart i was so sad that i was not privilaged enough to be flying... but on that day, i should have been the happiest person of the world....... since then i have had a couple of overseas trips which have added beauty to my 2006.

i spent lot of time with my nephew, Vyaas during the year and now he is the next life on earth that i love! after myself.....

2006 takes credit to lots of my new habbits - lots of exotic dinners, lots of travel, a new habbit of reading books, complete fasting on Tuesdays (day time alone), lots of time browsing wikipedia, a daily workout in one of the best gymns, hmm.... i should 'treat' myself for a very disciplined year.....

another year of celibacy, another year without the touch of NV, without a sip of liquor or beer, without a puff of cigarrette.... hmm... thats 26 years in a row of me doing what i believed in..... i am told that 2007 would give a new 'boss' to me...... but i am still not prepared to face it..... 'live life as it comes' is my favorite biline....

Will 2007 be better ???? i can do nothing than to Wait & Watch