Empowered!

For some reason, my roomie asked me today to say something funny around "empowerment"[less than 20 words in less than 10 seconds he said]...cudnt come up with anything then! empowerment and funny...hmm...

1) pass the laws, you are empowered...
leave that open! holes of anarchy..

2) Drive the cars, you are empowered...
Cant own one? let 'em choke in 'smoke!

3)Add some pages to that chemistry book, you are empowered...
kids come smarter every year..don't they?!

4)plant the bombs and blast the silence, you are empowered...
which god was it by the way?

5)bring the statutes on reservation, you are empowered...
its hindutva alrite! only upside down!

6)Create another mankind, you are empowered
remember...only let the fittest survive!

to love is to be loved!

My head still heavy from yesterday night!

a cofi did help my cause to get rid of that and be ready for yet another weekend...

nothing really happening these days...

going to be another typical day....movie(s), chat...sleep and then more sleep!

Rather than sleeping off my boredom, I should replace it with the excitement of reading a good book or the satisfaction of learning something new or the freshness after a good game of racket ball or cardio

I guess of the available options, your brain chooses the easiest and not necessarily the happiest path...it takes a lot of effort to train a lazy brain to act otherwise...the results are worth taking that 'risk'…what’s stopping me then?. I think I am used to being lazy!:-)

On this yet another dull Saturday morning, I was hearing "pogathe..." from diwali...though these love songs bring faces to my memory, there is always something missing! if only i had fallen in love...in a love where i wish i'd have lost and then rediscovered myself!!

To borrow some famous lines..if only i had someone whose name i'd 'subconsciously' write whenever i buy a new pen!whose face i'd see everytime i see the moon!!

i dont think those are going to happen ever!:-P

i tried dedicating sometime for this..wy dint i 'really' fall in love!

though love can happen only within the circle where u are moving...ur school, college mates, colleagues, friends of friends and the whole circle is very small in my case...its not that i dint like any of them...i have had crushes.
i liked one girl more than everyone for so many reasons and even took it one step further...It was not out of any real love but a calculated move i guess...when you want to settle down in life...but i only thank god that it dint happen!it was a baseless proposal!

there is a big difference between falling for a girl and falling in love...

I liked alai payuthe for that one reason...when Madhavan tells shalini finally..."only when u were missing and i was searching frantically vrywhere in the city for u, did i realize that i am actually in love with you". They hadn't fallen in love even when they eloped and got married...Love happened much later!

And i firmly believe love is never one sided...it cant be love! call it by any other name!Love cannot happen when its one-sided...you desire a girl strongly...and when u feel she is not going to be yours, the desire kills you slowly and the more u let the feeling grow you are only destroying urself...i dont think it is any different from desiring to become a doctor or engineer or even get a good job...please dont call that love! to love is to be loved! Its theoretically impossible and against the basic laws of physics to be able to unconditionally love someone without expecting them to love you back or can you?!!

Love i believe starts with friendship. where there is no friendship there really is no love! when the desire or belongingness for each other outgrows your friendship it ends up in love...but alas! when u desire the girl and she doesn't, u are screwed up!! Worst position to be in;-) here again it actually isnt love..only one desperate soul...

i have hardly talked to girls, forget about friendship (except one good friend in infy!), so there i rested my case...

plus some random factors i could think of...

in school and college u are too young to choose the right girl. You keep thinking that whatever happens is only infatuation..you have to build a base for ur future and all….At work you become too matured and think of so many factors...and yes, most of the good girls are already taken;-)...

Society in my case hasn’t grown to accept a love marriage yet never giving me freedom to think of love marriage as a real option!

The dream that just passed by...

I travel this path that has led them nowhere…
Promises ample, the treasure so little
Yet I listen to them, desperate I am

Woods are plenty…flowers abundant
Fruits to eat and springs to bathe
Yet I cry, lonely I am

Where u going asked a little voice
To the land of god, where there is no pain
Lie I did, helpless I am

The dream that touched my soul, caressed my face
Real it seemed…passed by me through my grasp
Sleeping I am, exasperated with all

Tagged!

1. Name one person who made you laugh last night?
   A friend with whom i was chatting!!
   

2. What were you doing at 0800?
   I was brushing i guess...not too sure!
   

3. What were you doing 30 minutes ago?
   Shopping for groceries

4. What happened to you in 2006?
   A lot!...very vague question:-P
   

5. What was the last thing you said out loud?
   "poochi!!!"

6. How many beverages did you have today?
   Cofi, orange juice, tea and again cofi sometime back.
   

7. What color is your hairbrush?
   Blue

8. What was the last thing you paid for?
   Groceries

9. Where were you last night?
   To be really honest...in my bedroom! gosh!:-(

10. What color is your front door?
    offwhite!

11. Where do you keep your change?
    in my purse..after a while i transfer it to the coin box!
    

12. What’s the weather like today?
    Its 34 deg fahrenheit (about 1 deg c)..foggy and very cold! its six PM here and already pitch dark!

13. What’s the best ice-cream flavor?
    Vanilla with hot chocolate!
    

14. What excites you?
    Though i dont really wanna get married now, when my parents talk about proposals,,i get really excited;-)...Apart from that i get excited and depressed for no reason at all...i have no idea wy!!
    

15. Do you want to cut your hair?
    I have already grown it till my shoulder (thanks to 8 months of not cutting)
    

16. Are you over the age of 25?
    oh yeah...they cant deny me insurance any more on that basis!
    

17. Do you talk a lot?
    Very much.
    

18. Do you watch the O.C.?
    Is that the fox serial..?No!
    

19. Do you know anyone named Steven?
    Quite a few...even my client manager's name is Steven!!!

20. Do you make up your own words?
    i make up stories..i say a lot of white lies;-)..but no i dont make my own words
    

21. Are you a jealous person?
    Depends...
    

22. Name a friend whose name starts with the letter ‘A’.
    Arul (sadly same as Praveen for 22 and 23)...cant write any other name!
    

23. Name a friend whose name starts with the letter ‘K’.
    Krishna

24. Who’s the first person on your received call list?
    muthu,,,my roommate
    

25. What does the last text message you received say?
    some spam!!
    

26. Do you chew on your straw?
    No

27. Do you have curly hair?
    Yes

28. Where’s the next place you’re going to?
    Planning to go to Newyork or philadelphia next week!
    

29. Who’s the rudest person in your life?
    There are incidents when even some of my best friends have been rude! There has been nothing like a rude person!
    

30. What was the last thing you ate?
    hot dogs!!!

31. Will you get married in the future?
    Yes

32. What’s the best movie you’ve seen in the past 2 weeks?
    Hindi- Johnny Gaddar

33. Is there anyone you like right now?
    sorry...secret;-)

34. When was the last time you did the dishes?
    u mean washing dishes? just few minutes back...if u meant cooking...yesterday:-)
    

35. Are you currently depressed?
    No..
    

36. Did you cry today?
    No..this question is making me cry now!
    

37. Why did you answer and post this?
    Praveen asked me to...how can i refuse;-)
    

38. Tag few people who would do this survey.
    donno much bloggers...
    when i get to know ppl..i'll def tag!!
    

India or US?

Ask any desi friend at US on when he is planning to go back to des....he almost certainly will say "in a year dude...this time arnd i have vrything planned"....rest assured, u can get the same answer next year or even the year after! why does he have to keep pushing his return trip indefinitely? wy doesnt he decide to stay or come back? Unfortunately the answer isnt very straightforward. From wht i have in mind as a confused desi myself and from what i see and hear arnd, i have tried to present both sides of the coin.

What you will miss if you go back to India [or the plus in staying in US]:
1. The pecuniary benefits! I feel a little shy to say tht money is at the top of priorites,,but afterall, thats the best part of staying at onsite:-)
2. US job being the desideratum of indian middle class, many stay here just for the heck of it, to give your parents something to be happy about...[not to deny the pecuniary benefits here too,,especially for an Andhraite, if u know wht i mean;-)]
3. Independence. Though independence arises out of sheer necessity. Most dont have close friends around that they end up being on their own and start liking it after a while!...
4. Cost of luxury. Just to get an idea of US economy, imagine if you can buy a LEXUS [luxury hybrid] with just 12 times your take-home salary. For a software engineer, in indian money equivalent, roughly 2.5 lakhs!! A decent laptop wud cost .25 times ur monthly take home. The perfect leather couch setup with plasma television and bose speakers would cost about 1.5. u can go on and on!
5. Cars and Roads! for ppl who like driving, this place is second only to Germany [from wht i read from sources].
6. Simply everything is very much possible and affordable. a house by lake side, with ur own boat. or may be you love flying and want license and ur private jet? Trust me, none of this is going to cost you a life time's savings!
7. Clean environment. Just think about the polution in major indian cities. Argh!
8. Other minor reasons that varies with people, like few who really love the food here etc...

What you will miss if u stay in US [the plus in going back]
1. Home town! Well...all said and done, the very sense of belongingness when you enter your native place, walk the streets that u have played on as a kid...is unbeatable! After all, that is the only place you can call "home"!
2. parents, relatives, your best friends! The fun of getting together on a family function, enjoying the evening with your best friends...That is the luxury that India provides!
3. Birds of the same feather! Inspite of the differences that is felt across India...when you see ppl who are like, absolutely different...of a completely different race[literally] you will understand that the sardar in punjab is probably not very different from your own brother! So, wherever in India you go, you feel that ppl are already tuned into your way of thinking that there hardly is any difference!
4. Diversity! Its too organized in US for your liking! same dunkin and same taste across US. same roads, same rules...For people who are used to seeing folks speaking a completely different language just 20 Kms across, who are used to eating a completely different cusine from state to state, who are used to eyecatchingly different costumes from one region to another...US definitely seems very dull...apart from the very fact that there are people of lot of different races living together. Its as if everyone just lose their identity in the "organized state" that is America!
5.Growing Economy! In a way there are pecuniary benefits in India also. But only for the really smart! If you have the talent and looking for the one place in the world where money is there to be made, that is India!

Twenty-twenty cricket

The indian selectors have picked up the 30 probables for twenty-twenty world cup. With the big guns, sachin, dravid and ganguly opting out(!), many new faces, like anirudha srikkant (son of former indian captain Kris srikkant), karan goel(top scorer in domestic 20-20) are in...The cricket fan is still wondering if this aborning concept is going to be the future of the game
Well...As a matter of fact, I am breaking my head to find any popular sport other than cricket where the 'short version' is played one full day! any pointers would be really helpful.
also, I am the kind of guy who prefers watching the first and last ten overs of an ODI... (that makes it twenty rite;-))...Test matches, well...if i am not at home on leave or something,,i am good with cricinfo bulletin.
i read somewhere...In china when ICC tried to promote cricket, there was stiff opposition coz of the reason that, if at all the game became popular in China, it would end up eating one full day[or five days, incase of test] of their people...they just werent ready to let this 'virus' in;-) May be 20-20 would be easier to sell!

Didactos!!blessed art thou name.

I am not sure if you ever noticed this, Whenever you move to a new place, or get into a new trade...ur new school, ur first year in college, first month at office, your first onsite trip, your first assignment you somehow find the someone (or in some cases more than one) who is there to teach the fine nuances, the trivias, the dos, the donts and even the musts of the new place! Painfully didactic they are at times, the strange part is, you never know what dissappears first, the knowledge that they have to impart or your interest in listening to them! All you know is after sometime they are not there any more...It could mean, you are learned and on your own now...
This post is dedicated to those ppl i came across in my life, I remembered quite a few of them while writing this...