Ooh la la!

I am under fire from Señora for lack of exercise regularly these days. All my exercise is now only confined to the jaws and to an extent, the elbows and knees (for constantly shifting between the clutch, the brake and the accelerator and the gear shift in the traffic maelstrom of Bengaluru)

Not that I hate exercise, but its regimentation is what is off-putting and the binge afterwards that moves its net effect to negative. Right from childhood (you have always got those days to blame :-)), the maximum I have been able to bend my back forward with the knees straight is between 70-90 degrees. The hands would never go below the knee, forget touching the ankles or the feet. So much for flexibility! Compare that with Señora who can touch the ground with her palm at the snap of a finger (she is into yoga classes these days, so no dearth of āsanās) or La Niña, who despite being doubly slothful as me, can make a contortionist to cower. My genes do show up in El Niño to an extent with the back-bending (better than me though; he can touch his ankles), but then El Niño can grind 2.5 hours of tennis a day for four days in a week and in addition, some local cricket and badminton before threatening to "work" me out with the stretch exercises from his tennis classes. I do play a game or two of badminton now and then, but it is all hogwash to the powers that be, as an excuse to doze the noons off.

As the year-end exams loom, Señora is busy reading up on the wars of Indian independence, flits across countries and continents, brushes up on ethenes and polymerization, solving math equations, tackles a bunch of life science material and dabbles with Hindi and Sanskrit, as if she had to pass the exams, her Highness happily watches TV, growls on being asked to answer questions or to concentrate on her book rather than on the general chit-chat at home (she's got my genes here, I've to say), draws pretty ink designs on her hands and in notebooks, goes into dreamland regularly and blames Kapil Sibal on the way for the tests. I have had to devise question papers for El Niño, but the inconsistent scores reveal that I do a pretty bad work on testing him and too lenient in getting him to learn. Result, there is one less thing for me to do (not that I can escape it entirely)

So you thought I am reviewing 'Dirty Picture' looking at the title? I am just singing my blues away! :-D :-D

The world's costliest curd rice

Rs.10000 for 5 spoons of curd rice. Yes, it is true!

The parents like their curds/buttermilk and their offspring vanish at the sight of it. The milk derivative is scorned at, if it is present at the dining table. It is not as if that the kids haven't tasted them. It was not condemned when they were younger, but one fine day they developed a dis-taste to it all of a sudden and then stopped abruptly. No amount of pleadings, inducements, coercion and threats could make their children ingest curd in any fashion.

This continued for a few years and the parents persisted in their attempts to induce the habit into their children. One day, they struck a deal with their son of giving him Rs.10000 in cold cash, if he takes a few spoonfuls of curd rice. Eyes bright at the prospect of a quick buck, the son accepted the challenge and the parents thought it was all verbal daredevilry. Their daughter was made of sterner stuff. She flatly refused in spite of promising what she considers her ultimate gift, a pet cat.

The next day, around noon, the father was called up at his office by his wife with the news that their son ate five spoonfuls of curd rice, whilst making contorted faces. And he liked it. :)

A promise is a promise and to be honorable, the parents have decided to keep their word.

Now it is up to you to decide if it was the costliest curd rice ever. Maybe! And the quest would continue with the daughter. And you know who the cast in this anecdote are. :-D

Versatile, they thought and so be it!!!

Ambulisamma has honored this blog with an award (gasp!) for its versatile content (okay, okay, I am flattered!) and so, here go the thanks and the customaries.

 RULES

1. Thank the person who awarded you & link back to them in your post

2. Tell 7 random facts about yourself

3. Pass the award

Thanks Ambulisamma (AA, in short) for the award and hope I am indeed versatile. When you sign AA in your comments, I recollect only Alcoholics Anonymous and not American Airlines, hic!, :-) :-).

RANDOM FACTS

1. I remember most of my classmates' names from my 10th standard than my 12th or my grad classes, given that it is eons since passing out of SSLC. Some nostalgia, that! I have never ever done full nighters before exams at any time. The only instance I remember studying past midnight was till 1:00 pm for a Chemistry exam in my undergrad class. I have been known to take it easy and played street cricket on the days of my SSLC final exams (even before heading for the exams) that my father was asked later if I passed. It is another matter that I passed with a very decent score that even I didn't expect. :-)
2. I loved to read newspapers end to end including classifieds at one point in time while my ears shut off from the rest of the world. It has reduced to just quick eye scans these days, but I usually need something to look at during my morn coffee or during meal times, even if it is a flyer for something useless (As Vivek, the comedian, quips in some movie about folks in a tea-shop reading about the Indira Gandhi assassination in the newspaper kept there). In fact, my cousins and aunt used to tease me stating that my future wife would insert ads in the newspapers to make me to get groceries et al or do chores. :-) Of course, Señora doesn't do that, I get an eyeful and an earful (unmuteable, unpre-emptible and unblockable) these days if I don't do the requested things. :-) :-)
3. I have always been intrigued at all the Page 3 folks in the newspapers (my paper is Times of India, ToI) as to what they do in real life other than cling on to each other and grin ear to ear all year long, have parties or pose with wine glasses and having interesting names with numerological twists. I even remember a few regulars on those pages. Those who know ToI know what a 'masala' paper it is. Señora now knows more about the Hollywoodies/Bollywoodies than me though she scarcely skims those pages. I used to nag her with questions on 'general knowledge' as to who is the current husband of whom, the past wife of whom, who is this/that, yada yada and these days she can identify almost all those 'icons' with their past and present and ex-es. :-D :-D
4. I used to lie (of course, not on serious topics) straight-faced as a practical joke on parents/Señora (examples being I am transferred to Delhi or I have to leave abroad over the weekend, I am going to quit my job etc). In earlier times, it was believed to the fullest and I would keep up the act for a long time. How long can one keep up with 'huli banththu, huli banththu' (puli varudhu, puli varudhu)? These days, one look at me and Señora sniffs it out as bluff though very rarely she errs. Fun, it is (was)!
5. Would like tiffin/snacks rather than a meal. I used to hate veggies, but now I eat almost everything (used to hate ladies-finger (okra) the worst, but now it is okay) with the singular exception of capsicum which I can only ingest as 'bajji'. Similar case with North Indian foods/masala. I only tolerate aloo-parota with pickles/curd. :-) You now know how to make me run a mile away!
6. I love the smell of rains and the weather just after it has rained. However standing in the rain or getting drenched is a strict no-no. I seem to have an skin reaction with respect to cold weather and dampness. So, no Holi for me folks!
7. Habits die hard, laziness rules and it does, really! I do not believe why one would need to go to the railway station and stand in the platform a full hour or two before the train ambles in. I believe in being kept on the toes. :) I have missed a train once to Bengaluru from Chennai and saw the last coach vanish slowly to a dot as I ran into the platform. Have been warned by Señora to leave home early especially if we are dropping her parents at the railway station. I ran out of petrol in the car once while doing the drop to the station and blood pressure shot through the roof for all folks in the car. Even now, I drive the car with the 'Fuel-low' lights on for a fair distance before I go to re-fuel. You should see the reaction of those in the car these days when I state that I see the fuel light has come on in the console. Ha Ha Ha :-) :-) Don't I need folks to push the car? 

THIS AWARD IS SHARED WITH

• Zeno, the philosopher, who was my inspiration to blog :-D
• RS, mysterious and dignified. :-)
• chennaigirl, P's mother and an interesting blogger :-)

Well, I have rambled on and on and on to make it 'random stories' and so here it stops. :-) :-)

Powers of Persuasion

A few days back, on a Friday, I had to work out of home because of back-to-back early morning teleconferences and as driving into Bengaluru is a nightmare after 8:30 am. El Niño was having a holiday and the first thing he said after waking up was 'Thum aaj office nahin jaayaengaey'. We wonder as to how he manages to 'think' and talk in Hindi fluently when no Hindi is used at home except for watching what the characters mouth in Doraemon, Perman, Ninja Hattori, Shin-chan, Beyblade, Oggy and the cockroaches etc etc. :)

After fueling up and realizing that I was still at home and on my laptop, El Niño persuaded me to come and play at 9:00 am in the morning. Barked back saying that I had work to do and hence no play. For around half-an-hour there was no sign of him and then whoosh!, there was a paper rocket flying over my head. I ignored it and continued. A few minutes later, another paper missile landed with a dire missive. "Do not speak to me. Until you say sorry I wont talk to you".

And then I go, to find him behind a fortified barricade of pillows, sheets and blankets, drawn from all the rooms. A few sorrys and cajoling did not get him out of his frown. And then the magic words, "Shall we go and play TT and squash?", did the trick. And off we went out for an hour or so, burning a few calories with sweat, tears (me being accused of cheating in TT) and toil, while the work waited.

A similar scene two days back on Sunday. We had played tennis for around an hour in the baking morning sun on a concrete basketball court and came home to cool down when there was trouble again in the form of the swimming pool. Looked out toward the pool and not a soul in sight with only the shimmer of heat waves floating. Tried to wriggle out saying it is hot and I do not have swim trunks. And he went in, dug into my 'junk collection' and pulled out two big rubber-bands, strapped them to my knee length shorts and said, 'your swim shorts are ready. lets go'. Not to disappoint, drove down with him for around 6 kms to a sports shop, bought swim trunks and headed back home for lunch.

The negotiation started as to when we enter the pool.
"4:30 pm, when the sun is lower", I said.
"No, 2:30 pm", he refrained, "I'll finish food by 1:30 pm and then one hour to digest".
"It will be too hot even then. Look at you, all tanned. Okay, We'll go at 4:00 pm", I persist.

After a few minutes of back and forth of watching puppy-faced at the clock and at me, I had to melt (is there a choice?) and move the time up to 3:00 pm as the pool rendezvous. Slipped into an afternoon siesta after lunch with the drone of some toon TV channel in the background when a loud noise startled me. The TV was still on and the time was 3 minutes to 3:00 pm and there he was, before me, ready with his swim-wear accessories, towel et al and asking me to get mine to go to the pool.

And off we trudged to the pool, after dabbing some sunblock, with the sun beating down, for my 2 hours of flotation and attempted breath control in the water. I know only one water manoeuvre, the back float. (Need to learn swimming, but the thought of water going inside my nose freaks me out to panic)

Don't know where El Niño gets his energy from; his usual day now has an hour of swimming classes, an hour and a half of tennis thrice a week, then the local cricket and swimming sessions and at times, playing badminton and TT, hide-and-seek games with the kids around, Wii gaming as a side-kick to La Niña and then watching the toon channels. And for La Niña, except for the swim classes, and thrice a week music, the days are spent at immense leisure, watching TV/toon episodes on youtube.com, playing Super Mario Galaxy on the Wii and arranging and re-arranging her junk collection (like father, like daughter :-)) and maybe an hour or so of playing with her motley group of friends.

And for Señora, I have to thank her for all the mercies! Her day remains almost the same. She did mumble, 'Hmmm I should have the persuasive powers of El Niño. You seem to obey what he asks and he can twist you on his little finger.'

Ah! the joys of the school summer vacation, Still 50+ days to go for us to cope. Looks like El Niño asked Señora yesterday as to why I do not have a summer/Dussehra vacation like what he has. I am so overwhelmed with that gesture. Hope I had that luxury. :-) :-)

Une potion de légumes

Ever tried doing a sambar with the following medley of veggies; broccoli, baby corn, onions, peas, bamboo shoots, carrots, red peppers etc? Hee Hee Hee, I did one and I liked it, courtesy the MTR sambar mix which sambarizes the veggies from their tasteless individual avatars into an encompassing aroma and nose-watering pungency of the sambar.

It is said that certain types of wines enhance the flavor of certain types of food and vice versa. Wonder what would be the right pairing for southie meals. Water!!! Being starved of certain food makes you crave more for it maybe.

Anyway, hail MTR and its cousins...

Bliss

 

If this isn't bliss, what else is?

Have a peaceful weekend

Zzzz.... 

[Picture courtesy: An image on newcapriusbeanbag.com, modified with Gimp] 

Stumped

Some times, kids have you stumped, literally and figuratively. Their observation is immaculately tuned.

Here is a short dialogue between self and El Niño last Sunday.

El Niño was busy with TV on the eve of his Monday morning test at school. He was inattentive to us, generally and sunk in cartoon world. It was a frustrating exercise for Señora in prodding La Niña to finish her lessons (La Niña seems to have my genes in day-dreaming with books! :-)), but for El Niño, he is cocky on his capability, kind of a go-getter. His money-math is awesome. No way can he be cheated hoodwinked by us when it comes to money and asks never-ending questions on it. :)

Me: I will give five lakhs to you if you get a state rank and to your Amma if 'La Niña' gets it.
El Niño (all attentive now): Five lakhs! What is state rank?
Me: When you get within the top 10 or top 50 ranks in the entire state? They'll put your name in the newspapers.
El Niño: How will you give me?
Me: In 1000 and 500 rupee notes, cash, from the bank.
El Niño: Okay. Will you give me 5 lakhs if I get first in Monday tests?
Me: No, that is for your 10th standard. Not now.
El Niño: Okay! But you have to give me the money then, but not by taking a loan. (and back to watching TV)
Me/Señora: @#$%^&*

Similar question to La Niña.

Me: Will you be a topper in your tenth? I'll give you 5 lakhs.
La Niña: Mmmm, Grrr, Hee Hee Hee, Whaaaat?, Go away! 

I wish I wish ...

More than anything, everyone to be in their pink of health and a permeating happiness of contentedness.

Wishing all a wonderful year ahead.

Aural nourishment

How many FM radio stations are there in your city? Chances are that you'll know the 'non-stop prattle' entertainment channels. Namma Bengaluru hosts Radio City, Radio One, Radio Mirchi, Radio Indigo, Big FM, Red FM, Fever, of course Vividh Bharati (it doesn't seem to have changed from eons. You can hear the distinct 'coooo' tone when an ad segment begins or ends :-D), AIR FM Rainbow and the lesser known Amritavarshini (AIR classical music). There is one hidden gem, Gyan Vani (or Gyaan Vaani to be phonetically right) which is usually skipped over by the majority or never tuned into. (Disclaimer: depends on how you look at it. It is a gem to me, at least)

Gyan Vani is an educational FM radio station transmitting at 106.4 MHz (the frequencies have changed multiple times in the past few years, but looks like the transmit frequency is being rationalized throughout the country) under the aegis of the IGNOU (Indira Gandhi National Open University) and programmes developed by its Electronic Media Production Centre. Almost all the Indian metros have this station active. The broadcast programs are an eclectic potpourri !!!. Collegiate lessons across different majors, PUC lessons and preps for exams, history, current events, spiritual talks, classical and semi-classical music, scientific talks, health awareness programs, sociology, radio programs from other countries (at times) and vernacular programming.

These days, I am jogging my memory lane on my morning/evening commutes on the war of Indian Independence like Cripps mission, Quit India movement et al and also brushing up on DNA/RNA, nucleotides, Watson-Crick model etc. Some programs are brilliant and some so-so, but the aim is to educate and most of it is definitely worth a hear.

Tune in, if you haven't and have a good time if it interests you. :-D

(the title is taken off a Tamizh saying, 'செவிக்குணவில்லாத போழ்து சிறிது வயிற்றுக்கும் ஈயப்படும்', which translates to 'Nourishment for the tum is when you aren't aurally nourished for your soul')

Hail Haile

The word marathon conjures up, for me, endurance runners from Ethiopia or Kenya, slim and athletic, running alone or in a pack of 3 or 4 with their arms close to their chest, their teeth grit, faces grim with concentration and determination, looking for glory in what was one of the earliest Olympiad athletic games. For whatever little I tracked of marathons or long distance running, Haile Gebrselassie, from Ethiopia, remained the most in the limelight. I don't recollect how and where my introduction to him was, maybe at some TV telecast of Olympics, in all probability. I liked the name the first time I heard it, and it sounded rhythmic and with a nice trail and tongue rolls, and so I liked the man himself. :-D

Image courtesy: Wikipedia page on
Haile Gebrselassie

In any of the marathons that I watched on TV, I used to look out for Gebrselassie and track him. It is a sport by itself, watching marathons, as the crowd at the start slowly sieves itself into multiple groups, as the lead pack slowly splits, the short sprints towards the finish, the looks over the shoulders, the pain of cramps visible on their faces. They even seem to have team strategies in marathons, like cycling, having pacers for the lead runners and study the routes to make the best out of it. Whatever it was, Gebrselassie broke record after record and that is what stands (or should it be 'runs') behind him.

Now that he has announced his retirement from active running, 'Hail Haile Gebrselassie', who has been an inspiration to thousands in the world, and to a small extent, to me as well, when I used to jog, some time (or was it a long time!) back. Hmmm. Now I have become lazy to even walk in the mornings, these days.

The train lover's diary - 1

(c) www.irfca.org

A few random scribbles on my love of trains. It has always been a childhood fantasy (well, even now I would love to) to be a train driver (a.k.a. a train engineer or loco pilot), sit in its cabin and at least pull the horn. :-)

How many of you are intrigued by numbers on the locomotives like WDM-5, WAP-2, WAG-4, WDS-2 etc and their associated sheds like Erode, Golden Rock, Itarsi, Guntakal, Krishnarajapuram, Gooty, Kazipet, Ratlam etc, or love the 'Thomas the tank engine' episodes that used to come on one of the kiddo channels? Well, I do.

Trains forever!

Train journeys always fascinate me for the reason that it becomes an experience when on one. Well I have to say, punning the original Keats' quote, "A thing of joy is a 'train' forever". A train is a symphony with the engine being the conductor and the coaches, the musicians. Travelling in Indian trains does need a significant level of patience because of their slower speeds, crowds, lower degree of cleanliness and the 'adjust maadi' (please adjust) culture of its travellers. That doesn't take away anything off the experience though.

(c) www.irfca.org

The sound of an engine horn, loud and true, is my most thrilling sound, and one that can shake the ghosts off you. Different sounds for different types of engines, the diesels, the electrics and the steam ones (now sadly deceased, but I have a few recollections of those) and the long and short whistles! Two weeks back, returning from Kanniyakumari on road and late into the night and near Virudhunagar, I was jolted from the monotonous hum of the car at a constant speed by a loud horn at my back to see a train speeding at around 90 kmph on a stretch where the tracks are parallel to the highway. We raced each other for a couple of kilometres before parting. Met the same train after crossing Virudhunagar for a couple of kilometres before we headed our ways.

I love the steamies/diesels for their grumble which is the engine's heartbeat. The electrics sound a tad muted because of the distributed nature of its powerful motors. The rumble and cranking of the engine (the "krug krug krug krug" sound on a Diesel) as it slowly unleashes its 4000+ horses on the tracks as it pulls its coaches, is an engineer's delight. There is a characteristic smell in the smoke of the diesels that can be nosed only in the first few coaches depending on wind draft. Most don't like that acrid smell though. There is the rhythmic ballad of wheels and track joints and the distinct sound when the train moves to another track via a switch. The quick whizzzz of an electric as it glides in and out of a station at an impressive pace, Ethereal!!!

Trains in passing!

(c) www.irfca.org

Watching a train go by, is wonderful, just like watching the clouds float. How many times when going somewhere, when stopped at a railway level crossing, you get down and watch the "beast of a beauty" roar past you with its signature horn blaring, shaking the ground underneath? It is with a child-like delight that I see an engine appear around a bend or at a distance and then swoosh past with the last coach receding slowly into the two parallel lines of tracks until you see the train as a speck. A similar feeling, when an engine saunters into a station slowly with the squeal of its brakes as it brings the symphony to a halt.

It is a shock moment, when you are in a train, with the windows open and on an adjacent track, out of the blue, another train whizzes past with its horn at full blast. The effect is higher when you have your train moving fast as well. No better example than this to illustrate the Doppler Effect in Physics. And the eerie feeling in a night train, you get up, find the train stopped at some unknown place, peep out of the coach to see where you are, in the dull faded light of the platforms or in the middle of nowhere. The sound of the "Tea, Kaapi, Chaayè" sound of the vendors at platforms, the places with odd names that you pass by, and the scenery outside makes the trip fun. In my younger days, I was fascinated by the telegraph poles that run parallel to the track, where the wires sag in the middle between the poles and it gives a feeling of the wire travelling along with you.

And for the adventurous, how thrilling it is, to keep the compartment door open, peep out "safely" by holding the support rails, and having a blast of air on your face and to see a snaking train do its maneuvere on curvy tracks.

(To be continued at leisure ...)

The Lucia dalliance

I met Lucia for the first time two weeks or so back.

She is a pretty girl, maybe a teen or older, with a few pimples, dove eyed, sporting a double braid, not too verbose, very nimble and sharp, gauges the people who interact with her accurately, knows how to whistle and is ready for a challenge anytime. She is impossible to outwit. She is a southpaw and that is why I think she is creative in foxing me with her cunning twists in our conversations. I meet her on the weekends and sometimes on weekdays in the evenings. She gnaws at my head regularly by being an epitome of concentration and skill. I am starting to love and simultaneously hate her for psyching me and putting me out of rhythm and thereby egging me implicitly to try harder.

Who is this Lucia? She is the "virtual" champion, a character in the table-tennis sport on the Wii Sports Resort game for the Nintendo Wii. I encountered her for the first time after a series of games and boy!, what a roadblock she is, for stopping our march to a dead stop. I have been repeatedly mauled at a zero score umpteen times and neither me nor El Niño has been able to break past her save a couple of points.

It has become an obsession to try to defeat her using all the tricks in our arsenal. The beauty of the game is that it is so real and close to a game played on a table-tennis table where all tricks you do with a real racquet and a ball are accomplished with the Wiimote and twists of your wrist. I was testing my skill 2 days back at 6:30 AM after me getting off a conference that started at 4:30 AM (Don't ask me why at that hour of the soundest sleep. :-( That was when I could catch my stake holders.)

No wonder Señora is not amused!!! [Nyet, it is not for the early morn meet, but for the early morn gaming :-)]

An ode to Varuna

Rain rain go away,
Come again another day
Bangalore city choked today
Rain rain go away

Exasperated because of the incessant drizzle that threw life out of gear yesterday at Bengaluru. It is looking good so far with dull weather and just one spell so far. I love rains, but only when it is a downpour.

And Wiiii flew the Wiikend

This is a long verbose ramble, but nevertheless, here it is.

I have never been too much of a fan of computer gaming and my attempts at mastering Prince of Persia or Wolfenstein 3D long back, never went beyond 2 or 3 levels. I never found it easy to get beyond those monsters guarding gates or get around traps or move through the mazes or fight. I just get killed. Never was much into gaming after that, save for a few sessions of Solitaire or Pinball. I let go the entry of the vastly improved RPGs (Role Playing Games) or MMPORGs (Massively Multi-player Online RPGs) which seemed to take gaming to a different realistic 3D level from the older gen 2D imagery. Gaming hardware!!! Nah!, at least till a couple or so years back.

The progeny (La Niña and El Niño) have made sure that there needed to be a gaming hardware at home, courtesy their cousins. Being the electronics junkie (not the rabid one though), I got the gaming hand-held, Nintendo Game Boy Advance (GBA) into the home. Never has a single piece of gaming hardware been used amicably between siblings, AFAIK. Endless quarrels over rights of use and overwritten scores followed. (Apple may even accept Flash on the iPad, but the 'rights of use' over game systems at home never will be resolved) Well, technology improved and this brought the Nintendo DS-Lite (with dual screens and touch capability), the more sophisticated brother of the GBA. Peer pressure mounted and after constant nagging and promises of good behavior (Blah!, there is nothing like that, was the late realization) I got it, not one, but two DS-Lite gaming consoles, to end the never-ending quarrels over rights to the lone GBA. And the DS-Lite supported a private form of Wi-Fi where the same game can be played with up to 4 different DS consoles. That orphaned the GBA to an almost never used status as the new DS could play the old cartridges and had a new sleek cartridge type for DS specific games. And I had to be crafty enough to get diverse cartridges that wouldn't be the bone of contention (which still was for a few games).

Thet brings us to the quicksand rip-offs in the gaming eco-system. The hardware is relatively cheap, buying the software, in the form of game cartridges is a big deal. If you buy 4 or 5 of them, they could very well exceed the price of the hardware itself. Buying cheap cartridges in the Burma Bazaar type shops is a no-no. The kids figured out that you can't save games in the cheapsters, which is important for them and without which you have to start all over from level 1 each time you start the console (geez, there are some 99 levels in some games). So much so for cheap rip offs. And by the time you get a good hang of the system, a new variant of the console is out. And thence starts the never ending cycle.

In comes the Internet and there are free emulators for the GBA and the DS-Lite out there and there are also the ROM images of the games which can be loaded and run on the PC. And add to that there is a 'game cheat' ecosystem where after entering data into the emulators, you get unlimited lives, open secret doors, jump to the final level, grab goodies etc etc. In addition to all the game cartridges possessed, the ROM images were another source of play with the home computer(s).

Picture courtesy: Wikipedia
[Downsized copy]

And then, the junkie parent decided to get the latest (ok, it is more than 3.5 years since its introduction) and greatest gizmo from Nintendo, the Wii, a black shiny one at that. It is almost an ultimate family gaming machine. No need to learn umpteen key combinations and meanings, special keys (A, B, X, Y, Start, Left/Right paddle etc) and uses natural hand movements to play. A small beautiful console that looks like a baby DVD player, the remotes similar to TV remotes, but with very few buttons to press and lovely silicone covers to grip with.

I am impressed with the hardware, its interactivity and the fun quotient. Last weekend had the whole home started on the Nintendo Wii. There are simple games like bowling, golf, baseball and tennis and as usual, the complex, multiplayer RPGs also. Of course, the kids beat us, the parents, in almost every game (the ones lost were branded as 'cheating by Wii' :-D) and then started the quarrels about which game to play between the siblings. :-( Déjà vu time!!! And I haven't yet figured out the Mario Kart races (I fall regularly into gorges, volcanoes, go the wrong way, cannot turn properly, do not use power-ups etc) while the kids around take it like a fish to water. And they seem to have special eyes for reading the game manuals for tips, but bark and balk when asked to do the same with their homework. The kid-gang, when they meet, converses only on Pokémon and its ilk or strategies (!). Probably, the most fun job would have to be a tester at a game software company.

Señora has restricted the access to the new addiction to all (the DS-Lites have already been banished for 2-3 months), to be used only on weekends, lest that all three (me, La Niña and El Niño) become zombies when we are at play. Till then, I see the beauty at eye-shot distance and salivate. I am smooth-talking the kids to allow me to use the DS-Lites later (to gain some experience in gaming), but they have rejected it saying that the scores cannot be tampered with and are asking me to play Pet Shop. :-(. [Reminds me of a hilarious Seinfeld episode where George Costanza gets a Frogger arcade machine which still has his top score, preserved for posterity]

Wii Nintendo, Wah!!!
(for now, Microsoft Xbox 360 or Sony Playstation 3 are in comparative conversations only. The home won't stand another one, even if someone gives it for free)

The barometer ...

Cheee!!! Horrible, Ugly.
It looks so 'gandha'. (gandha-dirty in Hindi)
Yeow! Inji thinna korangu maadhiri irukku (like a monkey that has been zinged by biting pungent ginger)
Ennadaa idhu? Yaendaa? (What is this? Why?)

So, what are these reactions to?

Tag-o-rama

The same tag has landed from gils and from R-ambam. Not a tagger, but I make an exception attempt to respond to the tag. And I have tagged 4 others at the end as well.

Original Rule 2 is flaunted. And I'll read my own Miranda rights. Those of you who see English movies that have cops, should know this by heart. :)
Me (reading rights): "You have the right to remain silent. blah blah... Do you understand this clearly?"
Me: Yes, I understand

RULE 1- You can only say Guilty or Innocent.
RULE 2- You are not allowed to explain anything unless someone messages you and asks! [Waived. You should tell the history or have a comment in either case.]

Asked someone to marry you? Guilty. vera yaaru, Señora thaan! Asked in a different way though. :)

Ever kissed someone of the same sex? Guilty. Kids... Is this a trick question? :-O

Danced on a table in a bar? Innocent. Dance? Yes. Bar? I'll be barred from home if I step into one. :)

Ever told a lie? Guilty. Lie low when you lie. :)

Had feelings for someone whom you can’t have back? Guilty. Adhu oru nilaa kaalam! 8-)

Kissed a picture? Innocent.

Slept in until 5 PM? Innocent. Depends on how you see it. Do afternoon naps count? If so, guilty.

Fallen asleep at work/school? Guilty. The eyelids droop low enough for the eyes to close, the sounds fade away, the mouth slightly open, the brain grinds to a halt, I float in a snooze and then the head snaps and jerks and a few moments of blinking and then back to redo the snooze. :-D

Held a snake? Innocent. Would love to. :-)

Been suspended from school? Innocent. From the class (by standing out), yes, for some random talking, two or three times, maybe. :D

Worked at a fast food restaurant? Innocent. I have not worked inside a fast food restaurant like Barista, CCD or Starbucks either. (office work, that is?) :)

Stolen from a store? Guilty. EppavO EppOdho! ;)

Been fired from a job? Innocent. Fired at job? yes. :)

Done something you regret? Guilty. Once in a while, the guilt trips. :-D

Laughed until something you were drinking came out your nose? Guilty. In younger days.

Caught a snowflake on your tongue? Guilty. Aama, idhula ennaa guilt? Was in a few snow blizzards and snow went into eyes, ears, nose, mouth and hence tongue as well. But, I dread those Patel photos in snow. Once, almost collapsed with frost-bite when I picked up hardened snow with bare hands and held them for a few seconds for a photo. Took more than 2 hours for the hands to begin to feel something. :) :)

Kissed in the rain? Innocent.

Sat on a roof top? Guilty. Not just rooftop sitting, I jump to my neighbouring terrace from mine, even now, to fix cable wiring pulled out by monkeys. :-)

Kissed someone you shouldn’t? Innocent. Namakkaen vambu?

Sang in the shower? Innocent. But when the water is cold, have shouted gibberish aloud in the shower to lessen the shock of the cold water splash on skin. :-) brrrr. Ninaiththaaley Nadungum. :D

Been pushed into a pool with all your clothes on? Innocent. Grrr at that thought itself.

Shaved your head? Guilty, if you consider the tonsures at temples.

Had a boxing membership? Innocent. Adhellaam edhukku?

Made a girlfriend cry? Innocent. Thiruppi oru vambu question!

Been in a band? Innocent. In my earlier company, the employees were divided into bands based on experience and potential(!). If you are asking of that band, yes, I am guilty. :-)

Shot a gun? Guilty. The guns with 'ball-bearing' balls you see in fairs and the Deepavali ones with roll caps. :) Oh! I have also fired 3 shots from a real rifle (maybe as heavy as me) in a firing range as a cadet at school NCC.

Donated Blood? Guilty. There is nothing to be guilty about it. Done it a few times.

Eaten alligator meat? Innocent. I am a PETA guy. :)

Eaten cheesecake? Guilty. I don't remember the last time, but may have eaten it.

Still love someone you shouldn’t? Innocent. If I loved someone, I love them forever. Should/shouldn't doesn't matter. :-D :-D

Have/had a tattoo? Innocent.

Liked someone, but will never tell who? Guilty. Vambula maati uduradhaey sila paerukku vaelai. :)

Been too honest? Guilty. Adhu enna too honest? You are either honest or dishonest. That's all. Been there, did there on both sides. :-D

Ruined a surprise? Innocent.

Ate in a restaurant and got really bloated that you couldn’t walk afterward? Guilty. Mooku pidikka eat, then come home and sleep. :-)

Erased someone in your friends list? Innocent. Irukkaradhaey konja nanja friends. idhula erase verayaa? oru vaelai chinna vayasula pakkaththu seatla irundha payyan, ponnu slateai vaenaa erase pannaalum panniyiruppaen. :-) :-)

Dressed in a woman’s clothes (if you’re a guy) or man’s clothes (if you’re a girl)? Innocent. Female cross-dressers - Widely Accepted, Male cross-dressers - EverybodyThinksYouAreNutsOrGay. :-)

Joined a pageant? Guilty. In a dictionary, definition of pageant is wider than what you think (damn those who drilled the term "beauty pageant" into our heads). Go, read it. :-)

Been told that you’re handsome or beautiful by someone who totally meant what they said? Guilty. :D :D :D (by the only woman I know really well, hope so)

Had communication with your ex? Innocent. No ex, so no communication. Yoi, kudumbaththula kuzhappaththai unduu pannaadheengapa! :D

Got totally drunk on the night before exam? Innocent. Not even water. :) Naan thanniyum adikka maataen, thanniyum kudikka maataen. :)

Got totally angry that you cried so hard? Innocent. Mmm. Why would one cry while angry? :O

Forwarding this tag to zeno, chennaigirl, TheUncanny and Anu for further enlightenment of the blogger community.

Point, set and game

Read an article, a week or so back, in the Times of India on Martina Navratilova's breast cancer and Leander Paes' 9 PM call (Copy of the TOI article on http://citizensbi.blogspot.com/2010/04/im-martinas-9-pm-call.html) and its Tamizh translation that was posted on IdlyVadai (a popular satirical blogger). She was one of my favourites when I used to watch tennis on good old Doordarshan. I just liked her for no rhyme or reason.

Here is an one liner each about some of the tennis greats on what I recollect on them. You may not have heard a lot of these names or even be born during the era when these folks were at their peak. :) Ramesh Krishnan and Vijay Amritraj are there here as they were India's warriors in the Davis Cup matches time and again. I am not including the recent crop of players into the list.

Andre Agassi - Colorful shirts and knee length shorts, the tonsured head and cool game
Arantxa Sánchez Vicario - The girlish wide smile, duels with Steffi
Björn Borg - The bandana, Wimbledon games with John McEnroe
Boris Becker - Cat on a court, stalking corners in a flash, his hair
Chris Evert - All I recollect is that she kept losing to Martina
Gabriela Sabatini - Double fisted backhands, pretty face
Hana Mandlikova - The head-band, graceful backhands
Ivan Lendl - Tall, lanky, the never ending French Open rallies
Jennifer Capriati - She came young, she won a few and slowly disappeared
Jim Courier - His cap, wizard in clay and hard courts, persistence
Jimmy Connors - Southpaw whose nemesis was John McEnroe before retirement
John McEnroe - The scowling southpaw, his serve and volleys, the tantrums
Martina Navratilova - The southpaw, her glasses, calm confidence
Mats Wilander - Epic, epic clay court battles, curly red hair
Michael Chang - Another sly cat on the court, boyish charm
Monica Seles - The grunts, the powerful hits
Pat Cash - Bandana, Australia, his Wimbledon win over Ivan Lendl
Pete Sampras - Never say die attitude, and his loser posture when the going went really tough
Petr Korda - Hairs standing on end as if he kept his hand on a van de Graff generator
Ramesh Krishnan - Davis Cup, He played as if the ball could get hurt and his deft placements
Richard Krajicek - Probably the fastest serves and aces I have ever seen
Stefan Edberg - Grace, grace and nothing but grace personified gentleman
Steffi Graf - Serves, energy and the awesome forehand
Vijay Amritraj - Davis Cup, Could leverage a partisan crowd to cheer him to victory

There are a few whom I may have left out, but that is okay. This is a random recollection.

And yours???

Yada yada yada ...

Running a tad tight (weekdays on work and work on weekends) and hence no activity over the past 3 weeks. Have at last caught up reading my blog tracking list. Shunting a ramble post off, before I hibernate again.

Hail-Hail
The random summer evening showers are making our scorching days at Bengaluru a tad cooler. Two days back, it poured for around 45 minutes with hail. Señora was driving out, got stuck in the rain and she said she had never seen so much of a pounding rain and the hail/rain drops on the sheets of water on the road looked like a sea of pearl drops splashing on water. And interestingly, these cloudbursts were local and confined. In a place just 10 minutes away, there was only a mild rain and 2-3 kms away, no rain. Hope we get some more rain like this to keep the summer tolerable in Bengaluru and recharge our ground water. God save the Chennaiites, if it is so in Bengaluru. :-) The 'washed look' streets with puddles here and there after the rain is a coolant to the eyes.

Two violations in two weeks and counting ...
Got fined for traffic code violation, twice, one for entering a one-way in the wrong direction and the other for taking a wrong turn at a signal. The Bengaluru police are all BlackBerry savvy now and with an attached dock which has a micro-printer, bang went Rs.100 for each violation.

I think of myself being a relatively safe driver (not so, according to Señora), but these violations are making me re-think. At least I felt that both were traps for people who drive in areas alien to them. Whoever can think of a one-way in the reverse direction on a service road, of all things, on a 2+2 lane road? Well, I was foxed in one. I missed the No-Entry sign hidden amongst ten small ad boards at the same eye level. :-( The second one was at a right turn at a signaled intersection even when oncoming traffic is blocked by a signal. I do not remember seeing a sign prohibiting a right turn and argued with the policeman who gave me a lecture on the signal having no arrow marks for me to turn right and said that the 'No Right Turn' wording is on a bin in the road and not on a sign post. :-(

I was reminded of the 'Saar, As I am suffering from ...' episode from Vivek in the movie 'Parthiban Kanavu' where he is caught by a traffic cop. One policeman flagged me down and another (the inspector), standing near his vaahanam (a bike with cheetah spots) and a BlackBerry in hand charged me. :-)

BS (a)N(d) (yel)L
I am on an unlimited data plan on my home Internet connection from our national provider BSNL. I don't what quirk is there in their subscriber management system, but I get a redirected web page whenever I cross a total of 1GB of total download/uploads in a month. I've to confirm to a 'I Agree' button to accept charging beyond this free limit which then asks me to restart the browser session. This message is like a காலை சுத்தின பாம்பு (snake encircled on your legs). Once the message comes, there is no redemption until you agree.

I get into conference calls from home (using Skype) and landed this message one morning. There was no response on clicking the 'I Agree' button. Called up BSNL broadband customer service. I have no clue what their working times are (supposedly 8 AM to 8 PM) and nobody picked up the phone at the end of navigating the interactive voice response system. Went to the landline customer service and a lady asked me to click the 'I agree' button and then restart the PC. Tried reasoning with her that clicking the 'I agree' button itself was not working, but the she persisted on 'restart'ing the PC after clicking the button. Hung up (no way that she'll understand that the servlet at the BSNL server needs to be restarted) and another half an hour of trying to get the broadband helpline, called up the landline helpline again to be told the same 'restart PC' mantra and I had to yell prompting them to take a complaint. Another half and hour wasted in clicking the 'I agree' button at regular intervals to see if the page responds and then at last it worked. I got a call from their Customer Care after 5 hours(!) asking if my Internet is working fine. Thank goodness, for small mercies.

I don't know why there should be any bandwidth accounting in my case and next, why there couldn't there be a proper troubleshooting from their end. No wonder, people exposed to a better service, run away from BSNL to other private providers. (not to mention they also have their own problems. See zeno's travails)

Pull up your socks BSNL, before it gets too late!

(P.S. I have no issues with the phone/Net service that BSNL provides, they are more nimble now than from a decade ago, but they still have miles to go)

The Class

First, wishing all a good Ugadi, that is passing by today.

This post is not a recap of the novel of the same name as the title from Erich Segal (which incidentally I liked), but just a remniscence triggered from a mini reunion of six of us from our class last weekend (from a class of 40) over lunch. Two of my colleagues came in from Canada to Chennai, and took time to come down to Bengaluru, meet the motley crowd here (six of us are here, out of which four made it to the meet). I had written sometime back when I started to blog, on the topic of  "The home that wasn't" on my observances on college hostel life.

I saw 4 of them again only now after leaving college an eon back (நாமளும் ஒரு காலத்துல படிச்சோமான்னு ஆயிடுத்து!) Lots of changes in physical appearances, but once we started to talk, the college days were back. There was constant and non-stop prattling, the flashbacks, our teachers, growing up topics and poking fun around generally. I had met three others and talked to a few more when I was in the US a few weeks back. After our meeting, I was trying to recollect all the 40 in my class, but couldn't move beyond 37. :-( I have asked for help from one of my colleagues to fill in the gaps. Each one of them kindles a tagged memory, which is something academic or something funny or some incidents at college or their nick-names :) and it is nostalgic walking through the disjointed and hazy memories of almost 3 years together before we went our paths. And while browsing our class' Yahoo! Groups archives, dug out a scan of three photos uploaded by a colleague back in 2004 of the undated old photos which were taken at the end of our academic lives before we dispersed to do our final year projects. Those were the times!

The class is now spread between the USA where the majority is, Canada, Bengaluru, Chennai, Malaysia/Singapore and Australia. A few of them are randomly in touch with the others, few more regular, a few incognito with almost no trace in the past few years. Some are entrepreneurs running their own companies, some are in regular jobs (like me) and some have chucked their jobs for the most difficult and demanding job of all, parenting.

We are still a long way from our silver jubilee re-union (the premise of "The Class") if it happens, but we have crossed around two-thirds of the way.

Memories, memories and memories! The more you stoke it, the more its embers glow! The four hours that we spent together over memories, priceless!!!

(h)ear (h)ear

How does it feel when an insect decides to have a rendezvous with your ear canal and decides to end its life there? I was in splits at the misery of a fellow blogger who logged such an experience a few months back. I never imagined that I'd be aurally deficient for 2 days from my own doing which ended only after a visit to an ENT specialist.

My ear seems to be a gunk magnet and needs to be taken care of every now and then. In the process of one such twiddling operation with ear buds two days back, I messed up, causing some gunk to half-block one of my ears. From hearing in 2 channel stereo, I was reduced to a 1.5 channel stereo with one ear struggling to hear. My ear was reacting to it in a funny fashion. I take a finger close to my faulty ear and I could hear odd whoosh sounds inside. I take the finger away and the sound reduced and faded. The tuning fork experiments in the Physics labs of yore flashed back.

Me, being the eternal experimenter, for relief, tried pouring warm water (not hot water, mind it) into the ear, shook and slanted the head in an effort to cajole the gunk to come out, but it refused. After a few minutes, it almost became a single channel stereo, disorienting me with a perpetual whoosh sound and a 'goiiiiiinnn' sound (:-) there is a medical term for the ringing, buzzing, crackling and hissing sound, 'tinnitus'). In spite of careful prodding with Johnson's ear buds, it worsened and I was a verbal wreck, bugging Señora every now and then (நச்சரிப்பு) to see with a flashlight if she could see something inside. Fed up on my antics from the morning, she quipped "இப்போவே இப்படி, இன்னும் வயசானா என்னெல்லாம் படுத்துவியோ". (It is like this now itself, I dread it when you age older)

Drove with the mono-aural capability to an ENT specialist in the evening who 'irrigated' my ear with warm water and washed the gunk out restoring my stereo hearing to all glory, all in just around 3-5 minutes, the driving took 25 minutes each way and the waiting at the empty clinic, another 30 minutes.

Today morning 'el Niño' was in a bad mood and left a piece of dosai in his breakfast plate, and I told him not to waste food as half the world goes hungry every day and that he was wasting food and hence money. Came a quick-fire retort, "You wasted money yesterday at the doctor by not knowing how to clean your ears properly. I don't do that. Ok!!!". I was speechless.

Lessons learnt - Avoid using ear buds to clean your ear, they could push the wax further into the ear canal, causing you extreme discomfort. Do not advise kids when they are in a foul mood. You will get it right back where you expected it least. :-) :-)