Its been a very long time since I blogged anything. Now planning to start again. Lets see how it goes

Chennai…. The MAC [Mad And Crazy] city ???

When I planned my return from Singapore to Chennai, I was a bit nervousimagining the changes Chennai would have undergone in the past 1 and ½years. I thought, I wont remember the routes and I would have to asksomeone for each and everything. Luckily [?] there is not much changes inChennai.

Yup… The roads have improved, traffic has increased, laneindiscipline has multiplied, number of people and number of vehicles has become more, water problem has decreased, price has raised. But still,Chennai is Chennai with its ever active people, busy roads, King of Chennai– autowallas, crowded buses with people hanging from it, roads underconstruction, drier platform with dust carried by winds, road-side romeos’,main roads with dogs, cows, buffaloes and donkeys as passengers, etc, etc.I am not saying that these are the goodness of chennai, don’t mistake me. I hope there comes a day when Chennai is rid of all these, but still somehow the presence of all these doesn’t make much difference here in Chennai and India.

I was waiting for my return to my homeland. I don’t know whether its onlywith me or with everyone.. a foreign country can never take the place ofyour motherland. Its not that I missed India or Chennai or vellore, itsjust that Singapore is not India and never will be. Not because of itsrestrictions, not ‘cos of its busy people, not cos of tall buildings, notcos of its restricted life… but there surely is something in India which makes your heart sing.

Now, I have to travel for 1 and ½ hours everyday from Annanagar to my officein Karapakkam. But on the way, I get to see lovely things like Koluththum sunlaiyum… vaadamal mallipu vachchi pogum TN ladies, ethai paththiyumkavalai adamal lovely chirping birds and crowing crows, platform kadaigal,busy traffickilum sirikkum makkal, lively school children.

The prices in India have risen like hell. My first experience in chennai with an autowallah made me realise not to underestimate our king of roads.You need to have enough money in your purse to carry you on for a day. Myfirst day in chennai, I withdrew Rs.800 and spend the entire lot the sameday [Ok, I went in auto.. that explains that].

Ippo.. to the five elements:
Water …This year there is no water scarcity [touch wood] thanks to Varuna Bhagvan. One major problem in Chennai is temporarily fixed (by nature).Praying for it to be fixed permanently.
Food… that’s the best part of Chennai. You get delicious cuisine allthrough the day. From the time I landed, I have been hogging like anything.
Air… the same poluted air. But, now many houses have air-con. So its cool.Better carry an umbrella when you come out and don’t forget your sunscrren.But the best part is, here though its hot, its breezy. Somehow inSingapore, getting a breeze was a luxury.
Land… you name it, you have it. Now, the land cost have gone peaks especially in the IT corridor, thanks to the IT firms.
Fire… Burning Sun? Now, its not so hot. It rained. So, its ok. I couldnot feel much heat. Hope it remains the same for some more days.

Ippadi, chennai/India paththi sollitae polam. Athu ennamo theriyala ingaeoru thani santhosham irukku. Oru siru punnakai eppavum namma kuda irukaramaathri oru feeling.Yesterday, me and my friends were discussing about life turning [or alreadyturned] mechanical in Indian cities especially for us, the softwareengineers. This is a bit scary. Hope we don’t change the basic santhoshamthat prevails in our country cos of westernisation or blooming economy.

Lets keep the spirits of India high!!

Merae Bharath maham…. Jai hind!!!

Fanaa ....

This is not about the much awaited movie.. But about the song from "Yuva". I was listening to some MP3s yesterday and this song triggerred my Delhi life.

Yuva got released when I was in Delhi. That time, me and Thaen were waiting for the tamil version. All the songs from that movie were quite good. This sond "Fanaa" was very intriguing and we didnt know the meaning of Fanaa... My friend Thaen and myself went around asking the Hindu speaking people the real meaning of Fanaa.

Now, I am waiting for the movie FANAA..

My Best Friend's Wedding

I was quite surprised to call someone my best friend. Till now, I have always had close friends and never in my entire life called someone my Best Friend. Still am not sure what made me call him that. We don’t see eye-to-eye in most of the things. Infact, we argue on many things and he never agrees on my ideas and perception of life. Whatever be the topic, we end up arguing about it. There never goes a day without our little so called fights. May be this strengthens the bond between us. Whatever happens, there seems to be no ego between us. Even after a heated argument, we smile and talk about pleasant things. It was never about who is the first to talk or call.

He and me, both are in the same project, but in different platforms. I don’t remember our first meeting. I, infact don’t remember seeing him in office before my roommate brought him home one day and introduced him to me. Our friendship started from that day. It’s not always that we feel comfortable with a person from day one. Then me, my roommate and him started going out everyday and our friendship became thick. We went around Singapore and Malaysia during weekends. There were times when we watched 2 to 3 movies every week. Then in November, my roommate returned to India and from then we both started going out together. We visited many malls, theaters, food courts, etc, etc.. Those were some of the best days of my life.

He is a caring, affectionate and a real good person. Whatever he does, he believes in giving his best. He loves being a good and obedient son. His family always comes first for him and I hope his parents and sister realize that. He loves his family so much that he would stop talking with me if they want. He taught me many things about life, love and living.

In January he went to India to see a girl and the alliance got fixed to be on April 20, 2006. I kept asking him why they have fixed the marriage on so early a date. I always feel that to get accustomed to the idea of getting married to a person, we need some time. He got engaged on March 7, 2006. Due to some reason, his marriage got postpone to May 21, 2006.Now, he is in India eagerly expecting the new life and the responsibilities it carries.

On this day, when he is stepping into a new life... I wish him the very best life can give him. Knowing him, I am sure he would make his marriage a grand success. Wishing him a happy married life …

Friendship

I am a person who believes in friendship. I cannot understand how people who were thick friends once can break up their friendship and stop talking with each other, how the love of a friend can turn into hatred.

I see many people like this in this world. When asked for the reason, they say that there was some misunderstanding between them and then their friendship broke. Is these people come under one category, there are a different set of people, who break their friendship cos their spouse or family doesnot want them to continue that.

Whatever may be the reason, I am sure though the communication link breaks up, the friendship will stay alive in all their hearts... cos Friendship is a ship that never sinks.

Recently I read this somewhere,

"One day Love met Friendship.

Love asked, "Why do you exist when I already exist?"Friendship replied, "To put a smile where you've left tears."

This shows that friendship the great quality of friendship smoothening the pain of love too. Friends are the ones we turn to at the time of happiness as well as sadness. We know that friends will always be with us irrespective of the situation

Long live friendship...

Singapura ...

Singapura or Singapore as we all know it is really a great place. Few days back, I heard a person standing behind me in KFC queue explaning to his friend abt "Singapore is a FINE city". He said its a FINE city...they fine you for everything here.

Its so true. Whereever we go, we see fine $500 if u do this, $1000 if u do that ... But, I havent seen or heard anyone being fined in the recent past for any petite things. Before I came here, I have heard people talk a lot abt the cleanliness of Singapore. If u drop anything on the road, then you would be fined and things like that[I am sure many of you would have heard this].

Afer coming here, I was really surprised to see some streets with papers and cans. Then one of my friend explained it to me. It seems initially when the law was introduced, there were pictures of people caught litering the streets. Things like this has caused great fear in the mind of the people here, that nowadays they dont through anything even by mistake. Here they have something called "U-Turn" syndrome which goes on like... people are so used to following the signs that they dont take a U-turn if there is no U-turn symbol [even if there is no "No U-Turn" board.

Well, though seeing things like this, I complain saying that here life is too mechanical, its nice that people dont break the rules and cause trouble to others on the road.

Life Goes On ...


Today morning, as I was waiting for my friend to go to office, I was able to catch Oprah Winfrey show in Channel 5. There was JFK Jr's Cousin's wife Carole Radziwell on the show. The show started with Oprah introducing Carole and her book "What Remains", then they went on to discuss JFK Jr's death and all. I could not watch the entire program as I had to start to office, but it was very emotional. JFK's family stories have always intrigued me. Think I should read this book to see if there is anything regarding JFK's family.

This show led me to think about love, loss and more loss.... At times, things like this make me wonder why all these happen in the world. Birth, friendships, relationships, love, loss and death. In this fast paced world, most of the above stated things lead to heartbreaks and losses. I could understand death and come in terms with that. Attimes death is easier to accept than the loss of losing someone even though they are very much alive.

As they say
"The worst way to miss someone is to be sitting right beside them knowing you can't have them".
But whatever comes and whatever goes, life just keeps going on... Every problem and difficulty in this world, lasts for a period and then we become strong enough to tackle the problems.

Many things leave a trace in our memory and many things never die from our memory, and the memory keeps coming. As in the song
"Baatein bhool jaati hain, Yaadein Yaad aati hain".

Everything that happens in this world, happens for a reason. Its up to us to make the best out of everything. Let us all have beautiful memories and forget the not so good ones and live life happily.