borN iN californiA

Michael Sullivan, the professional assassin, with his elder son, decided for the Road to Perdition, when his wife and younger son were killed by the same mafia he had worked for.

A year back, Viktor Navorski of Eastern Europe was stranded in The Terminal of John F. Kennedy airport for almost a year because his homeland erupted in a fiery coup while he was in air en route to America. According to the airport officials, he was carrying a passport from nowhere.

Chuck Noland who worked for FedEx was Cast Away from the main land subsequent to a plain crash in the sea. He had nothing but faith with him to escape from the remote island.

Joe Fox, owner of Fox Books couldn’t help himself whenever the computer screen said You’ve Got Mail. He didn't know that the mails were from the shop girl, just around the corner.

Captain John H. Miller, the man of courage and leadership, sacrificed his life for Saving Private Ryan.

Jim Lovell’s mission to the moon in Apollo 13 was faced with a few problems. Though the team couldn’t land on the moon, they were able to return safely.

Forrest Gump, all he does turns the best. And it seems, the path to success is being dumb.

Sam Baldwin and his mother-lost-son were Sleepless in Seattle and things changed when his son traveled all alone Trans America to the Empire State building to get a wife for his father.

Allen Bauer had an unthinkable affair with a mermaid whom he met during a voyage through sea in his childhood and years later his life was in a Splash.

Robert Langdon is on his way to crack The Da Vinci Code in March 2006 to unravel the secrets behind the Holy Grail and the descendents of Jesus Christ.

The first Tom Hanks film I saw was Splash, which was aired by Doordarshan long back as a Saturday night movie. I didn’t know that the name of the hero in that film was Tom Hanks then.

No other Hollywood actor would’ve acted in so wide a variety of characters, be it a true murderer in Road to Perdition or the refugee in The Terminal. Tom Hanks does all his characters with such a passion that sometimes I wonder how well he transforms himself and lives in to these characters.

reminiscenceS anD hopE

I was browsing through some old photographs that i came across this photo. It was taken at Goa, when we toured there during engineering. I don’t remember the name of this beach; people who are more familiar with the beaches there may name it. Three old ladies and two dogs were sitting on a parapet near the beach. Three of us were present there that time and we thought that it would be a nice idea to take a photo of the ladies and the dogs together. But we can’t take the photo just like that right. The suggestion was that my friends will go and sit near them and I will take the photo of the ladies and the dogs, pretending that I am taking the snap of my friends. I gladly took the picture (obviously along with my friends. he... he... I didn't tell them..) and we all were happy; I for a different reason. Later, at the college, this picture became famous as “Three Grandmas and Four Dogs!!”

After engineering, 14 of us went to Mumbai to join the company which recruited us from campus. It was the first time that most of us were going to Mumbai and the two years we spent there were undoubtedly the most beautiful days in our lives. Geo has penned down a few of those memories in his blog.

I am going to that good old Mumbai today night. At Mumbai, we will be having a two day interaction with O&M. Sort of a dream come true as far as I am concerned. Those who know about adMad may know this craze of mine towards advertising. Then to Kolkata for participating in a contest there. Wish me luck people! :-)

confuseD oF solutionS

We have an internal electronic discussion board (DBabble) here. The following post and replies appeared in one of its Notice Boards yesterday. Thought that it would be worth sharing. Needless to say, one of the replies was mine. Up to you to find out which one was that. ;-p

Q. Might sound strange, but any solutions to stop red ants from attacking your keyboard?

A1. He he he.. wrong Notice Board!
A2. U should probably stop snacking in front of the keyboard.
    AA2. Me not snacking, they have a liking towards the rubber inside.
        AAA2. Spill food stuff all over your room, they will leave the keyboard.
A3. Take a red marker and highlight the following keys, <'D' 'E' 'A' 'D' 'E' 'N' 'D'> or <'F' 'U' 'C' 'K' 'Y' 'O' 'U'>
        AA3. Tried, but two problems. 1) Only one 'E'/'U' on my keyboard. 2) Ants were not able to read such large alphabets.
                AAA3. Look at the 'Insert', 'Home' keys. They have more alphabets and are small.
                AAA3. Or better mark the 'Windows' key.
A4. Draw a Lakshman Rekha around the keyboard or whatever is being attacked.
        AA4. Wow!!! Mythology and Technology going hand in hand!
                AAA4. Or ignorant technology geeks. Lakshman Rekha is a product to ward off ants.
A5. Attack them instead! Attack is the best defence.
A6. Use 'Ant'ibiotics.
A7. Contact the pest control people for fogging the keyboard.
A8. Get a lady Ant and place her somewhere away from the keyboard!
        AA8. How do I know whether the ant I got is a lady ant.
                AAA8. Watch where they go at nite; Get the ones that go to girls' dorms (hostel).
                        AAAA8. Those would be male ants!

I

I was tagged by Milo for this quiz. It is to write 20 things about me. So here you go!

• I am a slow eater. With a book and TV ON, once I spent around 4 hours (this is my record) eating my lunch. These days I can’t manage such long hours for food and hence I eat less.


• I love books. In fact I have a personal collection of more than 200 books. When I was in Mumbai, the major part of my salary was used up in that way.


• I am a perfectionist. I don’t mind spending hours and hours to rectify the smallest of the faults in something which I am doing.


• I think a lot. In fact my mind can’t stay idle. Something or the other will tinker in my mind every time and I keep thinking about those; on and on.


• I love solitude. I had a favorite location near my flat in Mumbai where I used to go when I become emotional.


• I am committed in all my relationships. I stay with my friends till the end. And I can’t stand it when I realize that nothing of that sort is there from the other side.


• I forgive but never forget. When I face something awful from a person, similar things he/she had done to me in the past come to my mind all of a sudden.


• I am child like. Many of my friends say so and sometimes, I don’t think they are wrong.


• I am a brand freak. I like to own branded items and I don’t mind paying a premium for those.


• I am a lazy person in general but when I am faced with really demanding situations, I slog my ass off to achieve that.


• I am a sensitive person. But yeah this changed a lot these days; may be due to those experiences which I had gone through.


• I am friendly with everyone. I have very good relationships with others. People find it comfortable talking to me. And usually I am approached for favors.


• I am sarcastic and witty and I bring smiles in gatherings. I have a very good sense of humor.


• I am caring & believe me; my PM told me many times that I will make a good husband ;-)


• I am candid and I like others also being open. I don’t mind others saying things openly to me even if it is for denying me something.


• I am one damn lucky guy. Whenever I feel like my way is blocked, something or the other will happen and I will be through.


• I like to learn new languages. This was my craze when I was young and I maintained a diary of alphabets and words of many languages. I tried to learn Arabic, Russian, German, Greek, Kannada, Marathi and Japanese but failed half way through. I know Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi, English and French.


• I hate contests because I hate competing with others and hence I had always kept myself away from competitions. In fact I am trying to change this now.


• I know cooking. Well, I just start making dishes and somehow it will turn good at the end. Once in a while I cook dinner in my home, giving a break to my amma.


• I am a leftist in my ideologies. But I don’t believe in left politicians or in fact politicians of any kind. Why doesn’t India be ruled by an able CEO and a bunch of zealous managers? India would’ve been one of the top most countries in the world then. Now you know my take.


• I was a social activist and will be one, after this hiatus.

People I would like to take this quiz are, AF, Invincible, Sinusoidally, Geo and Chips. Guys its not binding. But I wish you people shall take this... :-)

Ice-cream

“Chetta, can u give me some ice?”

I was having my daily afternoon nap, and was engaged in a not so bad day-dream on the sofa in the verandah of my house that this spongy little voice from outside the door woke me up. With a modest discontent ascribed to the damage of my dream, I looked outside for the origin of the voice.

A small kid of age some where around five or six with a tanned dusty body, wavy hair, a guiltless smile and a pair of breeches torn at a few places stood at the patio with a small aluminum tumbler in his hand. Dust had drawn gradients on his garments in the same way as it did on his body. But his eyes had this striking innocence concealed in it, which was trying to break free. And that gave him a remarkable charm.

“What? What do you want?” I asked him with an added seriousness.

“Chetta, can you give me some ice from the fridge.” I realized that his words also veiled the same innocence in it.

“Why do you want ice?”

“We want to make ice-cream from it.” He replied with a feeling of pride on his face.

“We?”

“I and my sister. She is there at our house waiting for me to come with the ice.”

“Oh! But ice-cream is not made that way kid.” A splash of melancholy wavered through his face. Even though ice-cream is not made like that and it doesn’t matter to me whatsoever as to what this kid is going to do with the ice cubes I am going to give to him, an afterthought made me feel the disappointment he would have felt when I said that. And I felt bad.

“Don’t worry; just give it a try and may be you will settle down with something similar. Let me see whether there are some ice cubes in the fridge.” And I walked inside my house just to find out that there weren’t any ice cubes in the freezer.

“Can you come back after an hour? I just put some water in the fridge and it will take some time to form ice.” I was back telling him this.

“Ok chetta, I will be back in an hour. Shall I keep this tumbler here?” He kept the tumbler by the side of the doorsteps and dashed off to the gate. I looked at that tumbler. It was filled with hopes; hopes of making ice-cream out of ice cubes. Hopes which I am sure were not going to get materialized. I took that tumbler inside my house.

He came to my house after an hour. I was still at the verandah, on the sofa, skimming through some magazines.

“Chetta, ice is ready?”

“Hmm… Let me have a look.” And I went to the kitchen. The ice was ready long back. I returned to the verandah and handed over the tumbler with ice cubes in it, to the child. His face brightened all of a sudden, as if he got a treasure.

“Thanks chetta.” His happiness reflected in his words.

He was about to leave that I continued. “Hey actually when I made that ice for you, the fridge kind of over-cooled some of it and here is something I got as a result.” I raised my hand towards him. It carried a small aluminum bowl which contained the ice-cream that I bought from the nearby store a few minutes back.

“It is some ice-cream. It is of no use to me. If you want you can take it” I said with a puny little smile on my face. “But yeah you have to return this bowl okay?”

“Ok chetta.” He took that bowl from me and ran towards the gate, towards his house, towards his little sister, who was waiting for the ice cubes for making ice-cream out of it.

I knew that what I said didn’t make any sense at all. Water over-cooled and became ice-cream! But it didn’t matter to me. What did matter to me was the happiness on those two petite faces; faces of that boy and his little sister. And I didn’t want that to disappear and give way to disappointment...

PS: Chetta(n) is a Malayalam word used to address elders.