In Los Angeles now!

Yes, the blog is alive, or I hope so. Or take this as my feeble attempt to revive with this post. There are too too many things from the past 4 months to update on the blog:

Work wise, I am on a relocation spree. I am now here in Los Angeles in the US of A! Came here a month and a half back. My UK deputation is over - so no more it is London or Oxford. After a year long stay in London, I went to Oxford on work. My Oxford deputation was quick, for 2 months and after a very memorable stay, I returned to India during April looking work deliverables from my Chennai office. Offy gave me a comfy accomodation in one of their guest houses in the Besant Nagar area of Chennai; a furnished air conditoned room with Tata Sky TV, in the hot summer of Chennai - I couldn't have asked for more.! It was fun to meet friends after a long time and spent almost every other weekend hanging out with them. And then there was this Besant Nagar beach that used to be my regular night walk post the Kulfi sessions at a beachside shop near there. To add more spice, there was a project outing to Kodaikanal with 25 people! That was a real blast with some awesome pictures for a memorable album. After about a month's stay in Chennai I went to my hometown in Karaikudi for a quick 3 weeks vacation. And then after a client call and a quickie interview, I was chosen to be a Business Analyst with a media research client of TCS, based out of Hollywood. I had to pack my bags (& suitcases) - which have been my constant travel companions since my London days.. I started in the 3rd week of June to Los Angeles via Singapore and Tokyo. [Singapore's Changi airport is amazing, totally picturesque and really admirable.] Finally I arrived LAX (LA's international airport) after a long and tiresome journey.

Got into one of my colleagues house. Its an apartment in a nice housing community. Has got what all one [I] would need - 3 swimming pools, spa, sauna, gym, community room! Looks like outside the house, I am into a holiday resort (at least by desi standards).

On the leisure part during weekends, it's been really cool all these days. First weekend flied away with my jet lag blues and the following weekend (the Independence day long wknd), I went with my cousin, who is in LA, to a camping site near SFO. It was a 8 hour drive and in the camp, it was all fun with around 35 odd adults and kids (most of them my relatives) and with no electicity and amenities. The third weekend, I visited the Universal studios and Santa Monica beach. Universal city and the studios were a revealation - you must really visit it once to truly appreciate its one of its kind Unversal Tour in their signature tram. The weekend next went on a sight-seeing tour in and around LA - downtown, Hollywood, Sunset etc. Only the last weekend I was totally free - sitting in home and watching movies - absolute bliss!

HAPPY NEW YEAR

If you are reading this and if this still is the month of January (irrespective of the year!), accept my New Year/Pongal/ Sankranti/ whatever applicable wishes.

I've made a trip to Chennai after 11 long months - Chennai is very much the same, only that traffic (both human and automobile) has gone denser than ever. The first sight that pleasantly welcomed me outside Anna International Airport were Chennai's swarming queue of adorable Taxi drivers and Autokaarars. One look at the Ambassador cars - both White ones and Black-(top)yellow ones realised me how dearly I missed them in the UK. And also our affectionate and welcoming mosquitoes.

My vacation was originally for 2 weeks and now its been extended. I've planned to take some rest and am glad that I'd be here for some more time...So far my holidays went okay okay. Lots of interim alachal (for the Tamil challenged, this translates to 'wandering locally') and two trips to Chennai within 2 weeks. Did nothing productive though. Fell sick with cold and coughh in my native place and almost back to form now. Didn't check Internet for a long while (= 2 weeks) - hence the delay in blogging or orkutting and or facebooking.

There are lots to do - need to learn few chettinad and quickie dishes that might come handy, have to see Taare Zameen Par and I am Legend. Regd Tamil movies, I am upto date - Billa, Kalluri et al have been covered while in London itself. Billa is okay - stylish, chic and racy, but lacks in substance. Same story and not even a minor change in the plot. Billa - the earlier, was class and the new one falls down vis a vis the old Billa. However, Billa the new is trendsetter in kollywooed in terms of camera, action and stunts..

Running out of time in the browsing cafe. So........See you soon in my next post!

Google Transliterate

Yet another innovative product from GoOgLe - Transliterate.
Type any Hindi/Malayalam/Tamil/regional language word in English (same way as we pronounce it) and hit SPACE... It gets translated to that regional language and boy, quite accurate! This works like a dictionary mode on your mobile phone and of course, boon for me folks like me !!!

My first attempt (pasted from the typepad in the link):

हेल्लो वर्ल्ड (Hindi)
ஹலோ வேர்ல்ட் (Tamil)
హలో వరల్డ్ (Telegu)
ಹಲೋ ವರ್ಲ್ಡ್ (Kannada)

And my name:
कासी
காசி
కసి
ಕಸಿ

The languages included for now are Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam. More languages would be added in near future, me thinks. Please note that this Google Transliteration is a prototype and still is in the early stages of development. No doubt, the product when formally rolled out would be a huge hit!

Inspiring..

Just read Apna Company's message board:

"Farzana Haque is the new Head for Retail Vertical. She joined TCS 8 years ago..." (stumped first time - just 8 years and a strategic line head!).... but was more was to follow...and has been featured in the CNBC Young Turks (stumped again).. "

Curiosity killed me and got this video..Check out..Really inspiring

Mascarenhas and Orkut Beta

Quickly came in to shout two things:

1. India vs England match ended just now.. During the match, it looked like India would make a comfortable win..But THE man - Dinitri Mascarenhas was obscenely throwing 6 sixes shattering the concrete hopes!!! And one four, all in the last few overs..Spicing it, partner batsman Stuart registered a couple of fours and a six. As expected India won, not with a great margin though, which should have been the case, but by 10 runs. Anyways I am happy for England's Mascarenhas; he made first half century in ODI, under tremendous pressure. He has shown to the world his ability. Pats!!!

2. Just now I opened orkut and within few minutes when I refreshed, the looks and some of its features changed. Then noticed the Orkut Beta Label in the top left... Again I refreshed..It went to the old style..Again refreshed..Beta version appeared.. Finally, its all Beta now.. Looks cool ;) Much like facebook... Catch more news here to know the new cool look!

Indian Idol 3

I've been hooked to this popular TV show for quite sometime. I must admit it has become an integral part of my schedule, all my thursdays, fridays and saturdays dont go with out it. Me and my roomies religiously watch this program without missing even a micro second. Indian Idol 3 - We totally love it baby! Watching the contestants on this reality show gives us the inexplicable vicarious feelings of actually being there. And every week when one gets eliminated, we feel extremely bad for them.


Indian Idol is developed on the same lines of popular US TV show American Idol. For the select few who need gyan about this show, go thru this. Among the top 12 finalists now (this time 13 though, because of a carried over contestant), a series of 'Gala' rounds go where the contestants need to show their versatility, vocal skills and performance. Every week one contestant is voted out based on audience sms voting. There are judges - Anu Malik, Javed Akhtar, Alisha Chinai and Udit Narayanan, who give their comments, which tend influence the audience in sms'ing their votes; nevertheless, it is THE audience which decides the verdict. Again personally I feel the audience voting is certainly not a representative of the skill/talent of the contestant. There are groupisms, favoritism and 'fan' isms, which could be an altered indicative of the voting pattern.


So far, till the end of Gala 7, 6 contestants have managed to sail through - Amit, Ankita, Chang, Puja, Prashant and Emon. The results of gala 7 saw the exit of yet another potential Indian Idol - Deepali. Like many others, I too was totally disappointed to the core after Deepali got eliminated. In fact, we at first were determined like not to watch the show again! Despite her sterling performances (dhol bajne laga.., nimboda nimboda.., mera piya ghar aaya), she was voted out! My respect for her increased multifold, when she boldly accepted without breaking down.And now after Deepali and Charu's exit, the deserving girls are out!


I think Puja and Ankita both didnt do well during gala 7. Moreover Camera guys were wierdly showing Ankita smiling again and again during results round,may be to increase their TRP, which now could hurt her votes! Despite her occasional flat singing , Anky baby is a lively performer, the favorite of all and even Anu - sure a top 3 material!

Prashant: He is good but seldom comes in bottom 3. Favoritism? But one thing to admit, during gala 7, prashant was amazing with the sarfarosh song..Emon and Chang are good, no doubt. Emon has great voice like Sonu Nigam. Personally my choice for Indian Idol is Amit Paul. He is amazing with melliflous voice and versatility. May he deserve it :)

Sony W850i

Athu appo, Idhu ippo (Translation: Thats then, this' now!)

Finally, after months of contemplation, I've migrated my phone connection from Prepay to a Pay monthly with O2 service provider. it was a necessary evil considering the reality that I lost hundreds of £ with Prepay credits so far :(

And now I got to choose a 'free' phone [1] with the new contract. I have taken a cool precious black color Sony W850i walkman series phone, presumably as it would entertain and keep me 'busy' in my commute to office and back home. And it has cool features as well :) Though Camera in W850i isn't that great.

I bought this phone on August 4 and my first attempt to make a call was to my lovely 3-year old niece, Tanya for a special reson. It was her birthday then and I wished her. And yeo, it was cho chweet hearing her voice. Operation Innaugration Call success!!!

Footnote:

[1] A 'free' phone, in real terms, is not a free one! Have you heard of 'Free lunch' in business?

All the costs are absorbed in the monthly bills ;)

I am Back!

I know I haven't posted anything since long. Actually I've become a lot lazy than ever. Well, here are few things which I wanted to keep recorded:

1. I've got into a new project and a big role change, a giant leap from a developer to a Business Analyst! Finding work to be quite interesting. Lets see whats in store more.

2. For the past couple of months I am closely following Indian Idol 3 and haven't missed any episode since gala rounds started! As per the last episode, people who have managed to sail the boat (after elimination) are Ankita, Amit, Abhishek, Prashant, Puja, Chang, Deepali and Emon. My guess is Ankita, Amit and Emon will make it to the top 3. And my personal favorites are the 2 A's - Ankita (Mishra) and Amit (Paul). They have the charisma, the voice, the appeal and all that what it needs to be in an Ideal Idol. An interesting trivia is that both of them were eliminated and made their re-entry as wild card contestants. Hats off to the eminent judges who selected them in the wildcard round and made sure that their talents don't go waste..

Virginia Tech Shoot out

Unfortunately, its sad that there are barbarians that co exist with humans in this world.
More news has come and there were reportedly 2 Indians among the victims.
Prof Loganathan, a 51 year old professor originally from Coimbatore and Minal Panchal, a student of architecture, hailing from Mumbai.

A tribute to the departed soul Minal Panchal, whose orkut scrap book is flooded with condolence messages every minute. Let's pray for the departed souls to rest in peace.

Update: Minal's orkut profile got deleted, perhaps by adminstrators probably due to the heavy traffic to her profile causing server slow down.

Orkut introduces Video feature

Hey another goody from orkut is rolled out. Now along with your fotos, you can upload your videos as well!
I just happened to see it sometime back. I guess the new feature was on the board just then as it wasnt there when I refreshed orkut 10 min back. .

So now, if you have an account with YouTube or Googlevideo, you can start uploading your videos!
Stay connected.

Update [Feb 3, 8 pm IST]: Another find few mins back. Now you can get to see the exact time when a scrap was posted (ie with exact time (mins/date) before) in your scrapbook and in the community as well.. Really cool na

Coming Next: Review of World is Flat and Freakonomics for Abhay. So stay tuned.

Meanwhile I ve done some 'renovation' work to my blog.. I ve added few new links to the link list on the left side. Few good finds are Language Log and Damn Interesting and blogs of Jai Arjun singh and Chandrahaas.
(Courtesy: Vivek's post. )

Take some time to read them, surethey would be enlightening :)

EGO SURFING and NARCISSISM

I am getting bored these days.. I am not getting something that would feed my thoughts. HOPE I ll get to do something soon. Meanwhile I ll tell you what I am doing these days:

1. Finished reading Friedman's The World is flat, it was simply awesome. It enlightened my perspective on globalisation with respect to IT, in particular. In fact, I intend to write more on it, perhaps my next post.
2. Opening gmail and seeing who is available on gtalk, so that I can start my mokkai with that poor soul who's gonna bear my torture for sometime.
3. Orkut - hmm... actually orkut usage (read exploration) is getting saturated these days. However, the window lies open in the task bar and it has become a habit to refresh the scrapbook once in half an hour to see if any new scrap has come. Irresistible!

4. Going through reviews of new movies and reading blogs. I must confess, when it comes to movies, it becomes my source of hedonism!
5. Ego surfing: Giving 'Kasi Alagappan' in google and searching for results. Plus, I am topping this with other keywords like PSG, Chennai, kolkata, Pongal, Party, Picnic, Satya, orkut etc. I guess am getting narcissistic, see how bad I ve become! Incidentally when I gave 'hope' with my name, i got this, the page having eccentric write up on HOPE; much needed for my present haalat!

True, An Idle Mind is a Devil's workshop!

PS: Presently, reading Freakonomics in a slow pace while at home.

AMBIGRAM

I got an ambigram in my name !!! I am excited. Thanks to my friend and fellow Karaikudi'ite Amar on his efforts in making this. You would have heard about it or seen it if you happened to read the book, Angels and Demons by Dan Brown.

Anyways, for the uninformed, here is the gyan on an ambigram for junta.
www.ambigram.com says - " Ambigram as a word or words that can be read in more than one way or from more than a single vantage point, such as both right side up and upside down".

Balaji, another consummate Ambigram Specilist says on his blog - " Ambigrams are words of Symmetry.They look the same when read upside down also.There are many types of ambigrams.I try to make ambigrams that look the same when rotated and ambigrams that read the same even on a mirror. "

Just uploading my Ambigram done by Amar. Comments are welcome !!!

PS: This shall become my Orkut profile pic for some time. Needless to say - "All Rights Reserved, 2007 " !

Highly Recommended: Do visit

1. Amar's blog, he has a lot of Ambigrams in it. Good work by an amateur.

2. Balaji's blog for some mindblowing ambigrams. He has a multitude of creative ones.

3. Vasant's blog for more creative ambigrams. Has got variants in color and text.

My scribbling 1st Anniversary went unnoticed!

Has been a long time since the blog got updated. In fact, the first Anniversary of My Scribbling went unnoticed by me. On November 12, last year after getting bored with the chores of bench, I took off by starting this blog with a travelogue of my trekking expedition in North Bengal. Now as I went through the article, my memories went down the old lane.. Wah, it was awesome and cant hold it.. the breathtaking beauty of the valleys, pahaads and the nature...

And I have few more reasons to smile: Thanks to Orkut, I got in touch with Abhaya didi , Manimala didi, Viji, Sathi Bhaiya and lots of other friends from Kirandul, where I did my class 1 and 2! They all look so different man! And know what Orkut has introduced some really cool features like showing mutual friends, viewing a max 30 scraps at a time in your scrap book and most importantly the integration of G-Talk with Orkut. Now I get to see all my friends Email ID's in my gmail account as well! Seamless Integration kya? :p

Home Affairs: Good Old Roomy Satya has moved to Vizag after he got a job there with HSBC. His system, which was our only daily source of entertainment (TV cum Music Player cum Internet Hub) has also left with him to Vizag. Meanwhile, my Laptop, the new arrival is getting installed with all the stuff to match the expectations!

Movies: Saw a couple of movies - Varalaru, Rendu and Veyyil. Varalaru was okay types and the highlight was Ajit, the Sr's role. Due to circumstances, saw Rendu (which means Two) two times. It wasnt a bad bet. Overall both of them were enjoyable.

But the third one Veyyil left a deep impact. The movie is surely gonna leave a lump on your throat as you leave the hall. Though it has blood and violence, the movie is a definite watch which beautifully portrayed a story that you might have never heard or seen before. Pasupathi steals the show and leaves you stunned with his brilliant expressions and acting. At times, you feel like crying for him. Bharat has justified his role and both the new heriones impress. The movie has an element of freshness, which you conspicously notice even in the jobs of the lead characters - Pasupathi (Theatre Operator who almost lives in the projector cabin), Bharat (Advertising Agency Entrepreneur who deals with small budget Ads), Bharat's herione (Voice recording Artiste). The encounters between Bharat and the herione right from the begining brings in an element of humour that reminds one of Sethu movie's Vikram and Abita.

tAgGeD pOsT

With due apologies to Anu and Satyam for me making a delay more than usual, I go here vroom...for the tagged post.

1. Grab the book nearest to you, turn on page 18 and find line 4.
Grabbed! I have the September 2006 issue of @TCS, a monthly magazine of TCS (TATA Consultancy services).
Page 18>Line 4 says>>: “..dedication to the company’s vision, we will achieve our aim of…” :-p
2. Stretch your left arm out as far as you can.
Did as long as I could and my left arm is able to touch the enclosed soft wall of my cubicle. (I am in the workplace now!)
3. What is the last thing you watched on TV?
Announcement of Diwali Special Programmes in Sun TV at home. It was 2 hours back while I was getting ready to start to office .
4. Without looking, guess what time it is?
10.10 am
5. Now look at the clock, what is the actual time?
10.19 am, not bad enough!
6. With the exception of the computer, what can you hear?
The sound of the door getting closed by the person who came inside the project quadrant.
7. When did you last step outside? What were you doing?
Before coming to work, went to Airport yesterday late night to receive Madan and Vishnu who came down for Diwali hols from Kolkata. My intention was to actually receive the Rosogulla Tins that they were getting for me. Havent opened them yet, waiting to go home and gobble them up!
8. Before you started this survey, what did you look at?
The Chettinad Empire Community in Orkut
9. What are you wearing?
My favy Blue Polo T-Shirt and a pair of grey trousers .
10. Did you dream last night?
Yes and I don’t remember..Some vague mental images haunted me.
11. When did you last laugh?
Just few minutes back!
12. What is on the walls of the room you are in?
The decorative twisted colour papers adoring the front side of my cubicle wall, a cute baloon on the ceiling wall and to my right side there is a Marker write up board where the extension numbers of Pragna and Karthik are written and a paper notice stuck to the left cubicle wall .
Phew! Made a geographical kinda description!
13. Seen anything weird lately?
Yes, just some time back in U-tube. It was real WEIRDO, Boy! The performances of Lilia Stepanova, a Contortionist in "America's got talent" TV Show.
Do check http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlaI4OxQqfo.
14. What do you think of this quiz?
Cool mamu. Would remind me this day vividly when I look back at this post some day later.
15. What is the last film you saw?
KD (Tamil Movie)
16. If you became a multimillionaire overnight, what would you buy?
A house in Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad perhaps next to Chiranjeevi or Chandra Babu Naidu’s! And then with the rest of money, would get set go for a World Tour.
17. Tell me something about you that I(Anu/Satyam) dunno.
@ Anu: I am Somu’s (who did his MS in Kansas State Univ) cousin’s brother-in-law(btw, bit long relation enough). And from his orkut page only, I got navigated to yours from where I came into Chennai Talkies. Found it to be really good from the perspective of a Tamil-Telegu-Hindi Movie Addict as your reviews gave a whiff of freshness far from the stereotypical reviews. In fact, your conversative tone in reviews is what I like the most!
@Satyam:
That I got a Rossogulla Tin yesterday and gonna eat it all alone! And gonna watch Vallavan or DON with friends here this weekend!!
18. If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do?
Take the world map, place Tamilnadu/A.P alaekka (read in Vadivelu’s style) near California/Maryland so that I would be close my Akka’s and relatives place and wouldn’t miss Tamilnadu/A.P either that way. And I am sure lot many ppl too that way get benefitted.
PS: Right thaane Anu?
19. Do you like to dance?
Yes. Dance by making my own random steps in house when I am in a Kushi mood. Would dance like no one is watching!
20. George Bush.
Where is Osamaaaa!!!!!
21. Imagine your first child is a girl, what do you call her?
Would extensively search along with my would-be in Internet Names directory when the occasion comes. But I would address her by calling Chellam or Kannu or Chella Kutty or Kannu Kutty! Like my dad/mom call my sister!
22. Imagine your first child is a boy, what do you call him?
Same as 21. May be Appu in home.
23. Would you ever consider living abroad?
Yeh! Not one country but many! Oh Almighty, Make me a world traveler before that.
24. What do you want GOD to say to you when you reach the pearly gates?
God to Kasi: Sorry, you came here by mistake. Demons are waiting for you in the other gate!
25. 5 people who must also do this in their blog.
Vishwanathan (my coll senior, an ex IIM-B ite)
Vivek (subject to his approval)
Chaitu (Let him take his own time, he is busy with IAS Mains Exams now)
Arutperungo, a fellow Prowizard.
And Osama Bin Laden, if he writes a blog, LOL !!!

FWD-O-MANIA

It was Actor Surya-Jo's wedding yesterday and the affair ended well with the presence of all big-wigs of politics and Tamil cinema. And boy, the couple looked awesome in all the pics... At least a dozen of those forwards I recieved in my mail box today.

Good heavens, nothing this kind of crappy mail came for the past few days.. Gosh, I actually posted this comment on that blog (FYI given below) :

" I too am a victim of many such fwd mails — stuff like Ganesha Mantra, Microsoft and AOL pays u XX.xx $ for every x fwd, 5 yr old child being paid medical expenses for every nth fwd, lady seeking info on her hubby’s rare disease dated years long back, Promotional offer/ Ad campaign by giving free Nokia mobile, Laptops, IPods and whatnot for fwding their mails and the most irritating kind being ‘if u dont fwd within ___days/hrs; u will have bad luck for ___years (curse is at times elevated to even immediate death!) -- Kasi "

Fountain Head

Its been movie reviews all this time in my blog.. Actually I still have left Bommarillu, Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu and Lage Raho Munnabhai to be added..And Munnabhai was AWESOME!

But I feel this is going more kinda Movie Tabloid..So for a change I am not posting the reviews immediately...

I ve come to home this weekend.. Things on my agenda are to attend a wedding and Kumbabhishegam of my oor temple.. And last month, I finished reading Fountain Head by Ayn Rand which I started somewhere back in my B.E 1st year. The first 200 or so pages didnt delight me then and it was long kept unread. Add to it generous circulations among my friends and later getting fabulous reviews on it, I took a sudden interest and finished it in installments over the last few months. I just loved every page of the book in the last few chapters, in particular, when more of objectivism is enlightened through Roark. Got to know and appreciate as well lots of things about Architecture throughout the book... And I should say, Roark's speech in the Courtland Trial is a masterpiece.
I shall add more about it when I get time..

As I see, I dare !

Place: Chennai
Date: 22-July-2006, exactly a week before
Time: 11.55 am (IST)
Situation: Me sleeping all the way to glory till this time . Perhaps, then realised that its the wake up call and grabbed The Hindu lying in a corner of the Hall. Now...

As usual, I flipped through its pages to the Business and Sports section, when this ad by the Nani A Palkhiwala Foundation somewhere in the middle suddenly grabbed my attention. The ad read:

"Talk on women Empowerment and....
Speaker: Smt. Kiran Bedi, Magsaysay Recipient
Venue: Rani Seethai Manram, Near Anna Flyover
Time: 11.30 am(and yeah)
All are invited"

Plus a request to occupy the seats atleast 15 minutes before the commencement.

Though I pay attention to details, what attracted me instantly was the speaker and then straight I looked for the time and venue only to find that time was already 12.20 in my watch! I felt very bad for waking up late and I told Satya, my roomie about this. He replied -- "These people seldom come late for occasions like this da unlike politicians where the actual speech begins comfortably hours later than the scheduled time". And he made some time calculations and advised me not to go as even if I start immediately I might be able to see only an empty hall. But I was already prepared to go even if it were to see an Empty hall. Within 2 minutes like the Maggi Instant Noodles, I was ready (of course, bathing is a luxury in this time and had to be avoided). Rushed from my apartment across the road to the Autokaaran I could see first and then started to the venue.

It took almost half an hour to reach there and the time was 1 pm. I sped across the stairs and asked the attendant whether its still on. Yeo, he said yes which sparkled my face and added "Ulla Ponga Saar. Mudiya poguthu..". As I went inside crowd was less than what I expected (I had expected to stand but fortunately there were enough seats left unfilled). As it happened, Kiran Bedi was answering the last audience question from the dias and I came to know that the programme started at sharp 11.30. Ms. Bedi clad on a baby-green Pathan style Patiala suit was radiant and effervescent amongst the galaxy of dignitaries present on the podium. Seated along with her on the dias was Apna company CFO too. After her answer to the last question, Vote of thanks was proposed by the Palkhiwala Foundation Secretary.

Then the folks off the stage were disbursing, but how could I? I had come all the way atleast to say a 'Hi' to her. She was flocked by the foundation members, some socialite women and few who wanted to see her from near. Oh la, she readily interacted with all the junta and her mere presence electrified everyone. I had this strong urge to get an autograph from her; and Kiran is a star in her own right. I made the first move to get her autograph and with me making the intiative, others too followed.. [Autograph from movie actors is not my cup of tea though I ve taken snaps with Vikram and Saami team when some of its sequences were shot at my uncle's place, Radhika and Annamalai (Sun TV sop) team during its shooting at Keelapoongudi, near my hometown].

I dared to go and conveyed what I really wanted to. I said yours truly is so and so and told that and this. She was happy when I said that. She immediately extended her hand which was spontaneous, congratulated as well as wished me good luck. Though I didnt take my camera, one kind soul was generous enough to shoot few of my snaps as well and sent them across to me. And yeah I am posting 2 of them here.





Also when I said where I am working, Apna Company CFO who was behind her looked at me giving a sense of belongingness. With his pleasant dispostion he asked about me and how I find the work. As obvious I was ready with the stereotypical answer -- "Fine.., Er..Its actually good." He smiled and decently made my way to hang around Kiran jee. This time, few more folks joined to get autograph from her and I watched from behind. Meanwhile, a cute looking Hindu Reporter joined in a for mini chat. She gave me tid bits of info and told me about the Palkhiwala foundation.

The apparent delay in posting this despite being a week since I met Kiran Bedi jee is because of my interest to research on her career, life and biography after friday when my work would get over and whereafter I could devote time for that. I read a mini biography of Ms. Bedi from this. Visited http://www.kiranbedi.com/ and explored that fully too.

Though that meeting-Kiran jee-moment didnt last for more than a minute, her instataneous gesture and what she talked is still vivid in me. I definitely am more proud to consider that moment as an honour!

PS: Trivia - The title of this post -- As I see, I dare has a relevance to her publications. I dare is Ms. Bedi's biography and As I see is a collection of her articles

JAMES CHAI

James: I've always wanted to write about this man. Always smiling and oozing with enthusiasm, he is a star-hero of TCS Kolkata. Though not directly associated with Apna Company, James is the Tea Vendor who has his stall outside the company compound. Hey, James' charisma and business acumen has a big say here. People always flock his Tthela or the petty shop through out the day, no matter, even if its noon or 2pm. Fond among Apna junta, James is the adda, the hang out for all of us.

James tea-stall campus has a typical roadside stall set-up on the platform with table, eateries, fags, pass-pass, snacks, mints etc etc (apart from tea) and lots of open space in front of his dukaan for us to stand. The popularity of the place and his chai has nearly shunned many junta from taking vending machine tea/coffee inside the floors of the office. Even I discarded that LONG back, may be due to the fatigue and boredom factor of the vending machine chai.

The relief that u get from coming out of the air-conned office complemented by the aura of his James atmosphere is just awesome. Here, u get to meet lots of people, gossip and believe me the place really makes one addicted. With the typical scenario of a tea-kadai-bench, the gossip varies from projects, technology, internal gup-shups ,politics, and to what nots of the world !

Truly, a lot can happen over James cup of Chai.

And a trivia here: James has been featured in the last month issue of Kool-katha, the monthly magazine of Apna Company.

PS: Though, the idea was conceived on 16th, I am posting it only today (26 feb). I was kinda busy all this week and after this short break I am back-to-blog again!