Chennai Memories & favourite part of Polladavan Movie

After being away from Chennai for around a month, for the first time I thought for some time about my Chennai friends today...Actually I was seeing one of my most favorite portions of the Polladavan movie (guilty of the habit of watching specific scenes of movies repeatedly when bored ).

The scene has great comedy, superb background music, showcases the tensions of nonreciprocating love and comradeship (Disclaimer : YMMW).




Now i have watched this portion of the movie many many times...but today it brought back the memories of Chennai weekends...dont ask me why...maybe its because of hearing Tamil, or maybe becuase it was seeing friends spending time together...

We used to have a gang of 10/12 guys who used to meet on Fridays and Saturdays and do nothing except hang around and talk about anything and everything under the sun and after mid night, we would go to Gopal Chettans Tea Shop and have sizzling omelet and hot Tea..The talks would resume once we are back and continued many a time till the wee hours of the morning...




Times have changed and some of us have moved to other places but i am sure that every once in a while we all think about those weekends spend on top of terrace or on the wall overlooking the vast ground, laughing and pulling each other legs while waiting for the Kerala Barbaque 'in Velachery Style' getting ready...Well that's another post in itself...but later...not now... for tonight my dear friends, is dedicated to going through the photographs of those weekends...

There's a saying that revenge is dish that tastes best when its cold ... I think such a person just has to try the dish of nostalgia and i am sure he will be hooked for life

Its yet another normal workday coming to an end (its 10 past 12,so its over I guess) and apart from the fact that i slipped and fell twice in the bath tub in a span of 1 min (first one was accidental and then second when when I tried to reproduce the bug), I had one of the best dinners of my life...it was nothing special other than 3 room mates getting together and cooking a normal dinner with no special occasion to speak of.

If you have read my old blog on cooking, you would know I am not even a average cook. But as my roomate upon hearing my shaky confession (that i have never cooked a vegetarian dish ) told with a serious face on day one , " Once in US everyone learns to cook..."

Well today we cooked Rice,Alu fry and Shahi Panner and in a span of 3 weeks I have got hands on exp on the following items :

Alu fry
Shahi panner
Panner masala
Bhindi curry
Mix veg
Mushroom curry
Egg curry
Pasta
Chinese Noodles with soya sauce
The humble Rice & Dal (which is highly under rated when its freely available)
Veg biriyani
Gobi masala
Cabbage roast
and last but not the least , the daily ritualistic Masala Chai with ginger,cardamom and masala...

This blog started as a notepad list of the items I have cooked in such a short time and when I saw the number of things in it, I thought about blogging it.

For someone to whom cooking equated to chicken curry (made with no specific plan, other than adding all the masalas that one could lay hands on) its been a fun ride which just seems to be getting better each day...this may not be the case for the guys who have to eat up all this...a.k.a. my room mates...

PS : I do ensure there is milk and cereal in stock before I start cooking

....

America's Finest City is really Munnar with beaches

(Having been in US for only two weeks as i write this , and having not been to any place other than San Diego, i have no reference to validate the city's 'Finest City in America' tagline. But many friends who have worked in other states confirm its true and since this tag is very popular it must be true indeed.)

The climate in Munnar in and around summer consists of cold chilly winds along with bright sunlight where you feel cold in the shadows while love the warmth of the sun when in sunlight.San Diego has similar climate (at least in feb- march but its getting warmer now). Plus the city has great beaches, so for someone who lived in Munnar for 4 years, this place is a blessing compared to the more extreme temperatures of other states.


Lesson #1(in US) :
The first and most important thing you learn in the US is being independent in all aspects.

When i landed in San Diego airport and reached the entrance,there was hardly anyone around to be seen . I had four quarters (how i got them will be told in another post) with me so without reading the instructions on the payphone i put in the coins and dialed my new colleague's number whom i have never met till them. Needless to say i never saw those 2 quarters again and nor did i get my call connected ! Now stuck with just 2 quarters i dialed first, then put the coins, and was relieved to hear my colleague on the other side, who gave me the directions for the hotel which was to be my stay for a week.

Standing at the entrance of the airport with the cold chilly wind blowing fast and the sunlight vanishing behind the horizon among the gray clouds, i felt a bit alone...There was hardly anyone around at the entrance so i asked the security guard about the cab and then got one. I had noted only the address and not the name of the hotel so when my cab reached the address i was not sure if it was the correct place. Coming from a country where one is used to see std/isd booths at every nook and corner, the rarity of seeing a pay phone was a discomfort indeed when you dont have your own phone.


Lesson 2 : What you took for granted in India like payphones everywhere,cheap phone plans,cheap taxis,cheap and more importantly robust public transport connecting even the remote nooks and corners of the city were blessings indeed.


Lesson 3 : You seem to have lot of free time in your hands when your new to a city, but more so when your new to US.


Will keep posting about what i see around here and give my lessons learned gyan as i really feel the need for a outlet of my thoughts after coming here so God save any readers of this blog :-)

Music is what life Sounds like...

May it be the Mortal combat title song which takes me to my school days when 45 of us bunked school and went for the first day show,the day I felt my body wanting to break into weird dance steps on hearing Chikubuku raile (Gentleman) for the first time which also incidentally introduced me to Tamil music n AR Rahman, Hotel California (Eagles) which brings back misty evenings of Munnar college life into memory, Pachey Riramey (Alaipayuthey) which was the only song allowed to play in the hostel on the eve of the first semester Exams during Engineering(allowed only once every hour throughout the night)..., Har ghadi badal rahi hai (KHNH) while I was sitting on the wall of PWD hostel during the preparations for the last hostel day of their's and then the fact hit me that college life is over and everything around me started moving in slow motion for a while...songs have a way of stirring up old memories...


The below list of songs hold a special place in my heart and are related to particular phases of life. Whenever I hear them, each one brings back a distinct warm memory to my mind and a barely visible smile comes to my face for a second or so as i relive those old days for a few seconds...

Ore Nyabagam (Minnale) ;
Ente Ellaam (Meesha Madhavan) ;
O Hansini (Kishore Kumar) ;
Vaseegara (Minnale) ;
Fear of the Dark (Iron Maiden) ;

Most of such songs are the threads that instantly take us back to those memorable occasions and reminds us of those special faces and those golden old days when life was as carefree as one wanted it to be.I am sure you have your own big list of such songs too, so do take some time to go back to them...

Someone wise had once said Music is what Life sounds like...and i couldn't agree more...

How to Save the Tiger

Image courtesy : http://www.saveourtigers.com/


2010 is the Year of the Tiger as per the Chinese calendar and as you rightly guessed, this blog is the result of the recent Aircel-WWF ad campaign for the Save our Tiger initiative.


So I am doing my bit now to help out those stripped majestic creatures whom we call with pride as our National Animal - the Tiger


My fascination for tigers started by reading shikar books by Jim Corbett and Kenneth Anderson...the jungles and incidents they described in such vivid detail created a visual effect akin to seeing Avatar on screen in 3D ;-) ...

So this post is also a dedication to one of the first Tiger conservationist in India : Jim Corbett (in pic with the leopard of Rudraprayag which killed 125 plus people till it was slain by Jim Corbett )




Lot of people are spreading the message to 'Save Tiger' via social networking sites and twits and I was doing the same but then it felt like I was shifting the actual responsibility of saving the tigers onto others. Now spreading the news of this danger of losing the tigers is a good thing but I wanted to do more and checking the various sites gave the impression that many people do want to help but dont know how to help , other than spread the word for now.


We all know that the presence of a tiger shows the health of the jungle, ie a single healthy tiger validates the presence of around 100 sq.km of healthy jungle environment (which in turn ensures the survival of countless flora and fauna in the same area) . So instead of telling people to save the trees, the undisturbed grasslands in the forests, the pristine mountains or to tell them not to kill deer,wild boar,wild buffaloes etc, its simple to tell in one single line : Save the Tiger !

Direct threats to Tigers :

1. Disappearance of forest area and human killing of the tiger's prey :

The biggest threat to tigers is the disappearance of prey which has resulted in the existence 300,000 sq.kms of tiger habitat which hardly has any tigers as there is not enough prey for the tigers to survive and breed successfully .

2. Direct poaching.

3. Getting killed in conflicts with humans when tigers accidentally enter human settlements which exist very close to the reserve forests.


People can Vote while Tigers cant !!!

So any effort done to save tigers should directly address the 3 points above and according to me , the best step is to help the people living next to tigers. (See video below)



I had attended a workshop by Kids for Tigers , as this initiative was being sponsored by my company, and the organizers thought the company staff should also know about saving tigers.

During the session, we were told that the main aim was to bring in the love for the tiger in the kids because even if one of them reaches a high (political) position, then the tigers will get saved. After all, all the tiger reserves in India got created because Indira Gandhi loved tigers !

But its too big a risk to wait for the kids to grow up with the love for tigers intact in them :-)


So what can we do ???


1. Go green : http://www.wwfindia.org/help/greenliving_tips/

2. Save greenery anywhere you see it.

We are not concerned about a woodland being cleared or a small hill being flattened if it happens 50 kms away until the same thing causes the water level to fall in our own backyard.

Already most of the cities have outsourced the food and water supplies to others, so just imagine what will happen if the goods carries and tanker lorries start coming back empty handed...

As we become more and more independent on our food,water and livelihood requirements, the less will our eyes stray towards the forests...

3. Get involved with NGOs :

Organizations which work for the welfare of the people who directly protect tigers (forest rangers) and for the welfare of the people living near forest areas.
Because even if we all urban people show our love for tigers online, it wont matter if these key people don't have anything to gain by protecting tigers !

NGOs help in collecting news from various sources and spreading awareness so that you and me can try to pitch in, which will only happen when we know about some issue...

4. Read more on how to help the Tiger by googling and visiting sites like

http://www.wpsi-india.org/wpsi/index.php

http://www.wcsindia.org/

http://www.worldwildlife.org/species/finder/tigers/year-of-tiger.html

http://www.saveourtigers.com/WhatCanDo.php


5. Last but not the least, Spread the word by sharing links via twits and other social networking sites, forwarding emails to friends, bringing up this topic when chatting offline.


So lets come out and do our bit so that the Tiger continues to roar in our jungles for ages to come...

Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry? - William Blake(1757–1827)

Motor Cycle Diaries

( This post is a way to Thank some great people and dedicated in no particular order to - Nit, Adda, Ak, Amalu, Biju, Albert , the Friend mentioned below, Mada, Binu, Neha & Undappan )

Everything was going fine until his friend said : "My office cab is only at 11 pm and i will reach very late by then...to take a bus now would mean i will have to walk alone on the streets..."
As chain snatching by bike borne youths was rampant , he offered to catch a bus and meet her mid way at the bus stand and escort her to her home.He was glad that buses still ran this late and he could help her out.But while escorting her to her home a silent thought troubled him...what if next time the bus service is not there...what would he do...there was only one way out... and he had known that fact for a long time now but never faced it...


His earliest memory of trying a hand at cycling was when he was in the 3rd standard and it was of going down a slope, only to lie at the bottom in a heap...that was the end of cycling as the thought of taking a risk and being ridiculed again put a damper to his spirits.High school was walkable from home so he never 'needed' to ride...

As years went by, the fear of trying a hand at cycling at an older age stopped any momentary wishful thoughts of cycling that dared to come up.While friends rode on cycles he didn't feel missing out on anything...he had given up hope and resolved to be four wheel driver for life ; albeit when he got the car that is ;-)

4 days to be on Road :

In College, his friends pushed him into giving cycling another try...and in 2 days he was cycling on an open ground...confidence and friend's motivation brought him to the next stage : Cycling on the open Road. As expected, within 5 minutes on the road, he banged into a kid walking by...the kid was sore but by Gods grace nothing was broken, so he and his 'personnel escort service' (comprising of 2 guys on cycles in the front and two guys on cycles at the back) moved on...Since the winding mountain roads of Munnar were dangerous, the strategy was if any big vehicle came from the front or back the respective escort team of two would shout out to him...it was a peculiar site for onlookers who didn't get fully get what was happening seeing 5 guys cycle in military formation...

In total he rode the cycle for around 4 days but the next stage of progressing to bikes didn't materialize...his college being on a hill station made parents reluctant to get him a bike...so again riding took a back seat and confidence dropped back to being low...

Kinetic : Open ground -> Estate Roads -> Hill Stations National Highway

When all hopes of progressing to a bike were lost, out of the blue, a dare devil friend of his accepted to sit behind him on a kinetic honda...so with the 4 days of cycling few months back still fresh in memory, he gave it a try...and found it more easier that cycling ! Seeing that he was getting his confidence his friend urged him to take the kinetic out of the open ground and through the small tea estate roads where traffic was almost nil.They reached the main road connecting the hill station some 20 kms below and his friend urged him to move on.Driving on empty roads was one thing but the mountain national highway was a different ball game. Also it had started to rain by then but the thrill was too much to give up now...So he continued to drive to the town below. Barely 3 kms from the town, he rammed the kinetic on a boulder and both of them fell...his friend jumped up, put up a brave face and told him that if he stopped now, he will never lose the fear...so they rode on.

When they reached the town, his friend who wanted him to start driving solo, got down and told something about a pending errant and left hastily...Now it dawned to him that he had to drive the kinetic solo...this brought up the memories of the kid he rammed and of the numerous 'final destination' kind of accident scenarios in his mind...at last he drove the 2 kms alone and reached his room being wet,tired,shaken but feeling on top of the world...his room mates didn't believe that he rode all the way from the top for such a long distance and they actually came out in the rain and made him ride in front of them to make sure he wasn't lying. It was one time when he didn't mind going back into the rain and he proudly gave a demo ride for his friends...

Mattupetty Trip

Within 2 days of handling the kinetic, confidence and adrenaline based bravado made him take the kinetic from Munnar to Mattupetty dam...On the way, seeing his swaying style of driving, a loaded truck actually stopped on the side and let him pass through thinking that he was a drunkard on wheels while actually he was trying to keep the bike in a straight line !
Even now that day sends shivers down his spine and he never forgets to thank God for bringing him back in one piece through the 30 odd km journey through the winding mountain roads of Munnar.

Free License

When we went for the license test he got cold feet as he knew that he couldn't take the mandatory '8' with the bike so he actually had to give it in writing to the authorities that although he applied for two wheeler license, he did not want it and to grant him only the 4 wheel license, the test for which he passed. Lady luck loved him so much that in spite of all this, the dept goofed up and gave him the two wheeler license as if urging him to get on a bike asap !

Chennai - Own wheels at last

A job in Chennai followed and office being nearby gave riding a back seat...One day he and another friend who needed to learn riding bought a old kinetic honda for 3 grand, did all the repairs and then forgot about it ! It stood safely in the garage gathering dust...


And then the phone call happened...


He knew that it was odd to ask for help to learn to ride again at this age , but then as the adage goes 'Better late than never', he asked his roommate to help him out. The roomie used to go for badminton practice every day at 5 am and told him to come along...His friend would drive him to a 5km long road which was still not fully open for traffic where he would practice...the freshly built 50 foot wide road with hardly any traffic was like a dream runway and he quickly got back to riding with confidence. Then he started riding the kinetic at 5 am on the by-lanes near his flat and then slowly started to ride during day time. His arch nemesis , came back in the form of a cycle born kid who rammed into his kinetic one day but luckily nothing was broken except the front indicators.

Since the kinetic didn't have any RC book or insurance, the next step of driving it through traffic didn't work out...The rampant police checking in his locality to catch bike born chain snatchers only made matters worse so the riding was done in near by areas only...

An old rusty motorcycle of a friends was the next step...his friend told that there was nothing wrong with the bike except that its brake was almost nil and it had no horn ! Excellent choice for a learner was their opinion. Good sense prevailed and he got the brakes corrected and followed up with a week of lessons near a railway station.

One day while riding near a deserted road near a railway station at night, he switched on the headlights, put the bike in 4th gear and raced like hell...

It was a moment worth all the effort till now.




His only wish is to spread the word that its never too late to try your hand at your dreams as you have 100% chance of missing the shots you don't take. So got out and Face your Fears !

And as for him, he has miles to go before he sleeps....miles to go....

TAJ : My Hostel in Munnar

Disclaimer :People who have not studied/lived in Munnar, may not be able to gauge or enjoy this post in its full meaning...so kindly bare with me...

Nostalgia is a wonderful feeling to have,especially when you are back somewhere special after a few years. I had visited my old college hostel recently and as you rightly guessed, this post is an after effect of that.


All these years , anyone who has been patient enough to hear me out, would know that i simply go on and on about my college life in Munnar, especially about my Hostel life.Ravi a colleague of mine (now in Pune) sat with me for two hours at 1 AM in the freezing cold of Munnar at the hill where my hostel is situated, hearing me go on and on about my hostel life with utter patience...hats off to Ravi who also showed what listening skill truly is.

We were the first batch to enter in CEM and since there was no college hostel, we lived in a bungalow nestled above the CSI church in old Munnar, christened as 'TAJ' by us.
Now there are numerous incidents related to my college days in Munnar, hostel life with my 25 odd hostel mates etc which cannot be done justice to in one post...So this one is just to introduce you all to my Hostel.

In recent times, the Hostel movie series of the blood and gore genre has given a slight edgy effect to the term Hostel...And the place i am about to show you has all the required elements of a thriller.So let me guide you up the hill to my hostel were i spent the best days of my life...



When you start to climb up, you first run into a old gate made up of railway track rails used by the British when trains used to run in Munnar...Rust proof gate ;-) (As of now this gate has been replaced by a bigger concrete arch).




Note : Click on picture to view bigger resolution ones.



Going up this small hill on this winding road , you reach a majestic looking old stone Church build in 1910.




Pic : CSI Church...and on the left a glimpse of my Hostel...


From here, when you are standing in front of the church, you get a view of the part of Munnar known as Old Munnar...



The well tarred road now turns into a small winding trail behind the church, leading up to first,the house of the resident priest and then further up, to a small bungalow which was my hostel.





Going further you reach my hostel at last...TAJ !







Climbing further brings you to the spooky looking storage shed of the Church which has been the source of fuel (in the form of old furniture stored here) for our numerous mid night camp fires at center of the cemetery...





Further up the hill side is occupied by the church's cemetery...graves scattered lazily across the wilderness giving each 'occupant' a permanent view of the beauty of Munnar






One such occupant, Theodore Edward, holds a special place as i have spent many hours studying at the foot of the tree shown below...






Usually within 15 min the book gets closed and the rest of the time is spent taking in the fresh mountain air and looking lazily around at the wonderful green spread...so the study place usually ended up as a chill out space for me...




Pic : View of old Munnar from my timeout place...




Pic : View of my college...the top building in the middle of the pic...




Pic : View of the big tree were i used to chill out with the grave of Edward on the left...



Hereon the trail straightens up and as you walk further you are surrounded by tall majestic trees...






Climbing further up will bring you to the top of the cemetery...Here you will see a flight of steps leading to a small clearing where we used to have our camp fires, which usually required no reason at all to have, except for the heck of it...



Walking past the steps and clearing you will see a grave with the area around it raised above ground level (as if on a platform) and surrounded on all sides by a small hedge which makes it stand out...you also notice that its at the top of the cemetery beyond which there aren't any more graves giving the impression that its the first one here...Well my friend, you have now reached the resting place of Eleanor Isabel May...She was the descendant of Edward Brabazon, First Baron of Ardee...but to us she was and still is the first and last lady of TAJ...



Her grave holds a special place in our hearts and we make it a point to visit her whenever we come to our Hostel...

Further up is the hill top with shrubs,rocks and trees...second spookiest place after Anachal on which i blogged a long back... Nothing else.

Nothing else is present on this hill... Now this 'nothing else' makes full sense only when you, who are used to well light city streets, are walking up this trail past the dark menacing stone church on a freezing rainy night with strong winds making howling noises, the trees swaying back and forth, and all you want to think of is the faint light you can see somewhere up (the hostel's porch light), while you try not to think about the cemetery to your right as you slowly climb up trying not to slip on the muddy trail...

Its not a pleasant trip mind you because even though you think there are no real ghosts, some hostel mate may be standing hidden somewhere,braving the rain, waiting just to spook you...and all you can do is to wish that it turns out to be indeed an hostler, and not a bored resident of one of the graves...(I have to thank such nights from which i learned what sprinting truly meant, which helped me in my recent 7km Chennai run.)

Thus you come to the end of a small trip across one of the pristine hill sides in Munnar which we 25 odd guys used to call as our Home away from Home...TAJ !





Pic : TAJ Rulz - Our Hostel Emblem

Last but not the least, TAJ RULZ !!!

- A proud TAJian

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