I wanna go back to

To us mates.

I wanna go back to the days when we used to dine together at the cafeteria. That round table conference where I knew more about the java batch, Ramettan and Tuttumon's pjs.

I wanna go back to the days when a Dinshaws icecream was all that I needed to end my day.

I wanna go back to the day of our Spotlight and tell Lallu that she was the best dancer of the day. I shouldn't have missed Pattar's Wake me up song and Ramettan and gang's Mime.

I wanna go back to the day when we all dragged Dumbo (I know she'll kill me for writing this) to watch Dasavatharam and when I took a pic with Alu Arjun's poster. *Sadly SK lost the pic :(*

I wanna go back to the day when I and half-drunk-Eldhose (or was it fully drunk?) had fought over the topic Love on our first trip to home. *I don't remember what I told then, I just wanna check if those are still my viewpoints on love*.

I wanna go back to the days when we bought a book of malayalam film song lyrics and sang so loud that other inmates of our hostel came to warn us.

I wanna go back to those days when we 5 used to sit over the rocks infront of the reception and chit chat every night, forgetting that there were a bunch of mosquitoes accompanying us.

I wanna go back to the day when Obamamol and me went for a walk to the More and we shared our stories. *Dear Obamamol, I'm happy that that day happened in our lives. Otherwise we would never have been this close *

I wanna go back to the day when I stood up in the class for being one of the toppers for case study. *That was the only time I did that in my life. *

I wanna go back to the day when our training project group was formed. Even when there was a lot of fuss around us, our team was clearly the first one to form. *Guys, we still rock, don't we?*

I wanna go back to those days when birthdays naturally meant a treat at Raj Dhaba and free facial treatment of cake and sometimes a free bath with foam water, eye massage with toothpaste or kajal and conditioning of hair with tomatoes and eggs.

I wanna go back to those days when AM and I used to go upto the terrace for having tea in the evenings and watch gully cricket being played by kids in the neighbourhood.

I wanna go back to the days when Chillies was the perfect veg-restaurant and we considered their fried rice and curries to be made in heaven, Baker's chariot 's chicken sandwich was our perfect breakfast, Suruchi had the best naan ever, Reddy's chat was the most spiciest of all chats.

I wanna go back those days when Rakesh made me addicted to Bounty and Snickers. And I always had to pay the bills.

I wanna go back to the day when our whole batch played dumsharats. Kunal pulled my cheeks in happiness for getting Aparichit and Delhi Heights correctly. *See I still I remember it*

I wanna go back to the day when Eldhose left for Pune. If I had my go I would have pulled his ears and dragged him outside the bus and asked him to stay back. *We missed you a lot da*

I wanna go back to the days when we thought Bangalore was the worst that could happen to us. *It wasn't.. as we found out later what the actual worst thing was*

I wanna go back to the day when Ramettan and I betted on VS's number of votes in the previous elections and I narrowly escaped because the number of votes he got didn't fit into each ones betting range.

I wanna go back to the days when we used to sit and watch Miley Jab Hum Tum and comment on how good Nupur is and how dashing Mayank is. *Donimol, did you know that they got married ?*

I wanna go back to the days when we used to flock around the maggie counter of our cafeteria for our maggie cups and then rush all the way to busbay.

I wanna go back to the days Obama and me used to go for tea with Oku's gang. Competing amongst us to pile up the coffee cups.

I wanna go back to those days when we used to do all that we could to escape the bus pass checkers of our company bus. Then MJ was the traitor amongst us who had a cab pass.

I wanna go back to the days when we sent each other crap mails. Ammini, Blore and I would scratch our heads for ideas for our Trimurthy mails, which apparently we never did for coding. And Appimol and Koratty were our easy targets.

I wanna go back to the days when Rishi used to greet me with roses in the communicator. And Pattar made my day with his lame jokes. *He was the sole reason I got my name*

I wanna go back to the days when Forum was a regular hangout and we did shopping only at Archies, More and Landmark because of budgetary concerns. Those days I got addicted to McD's burger.

I wanna go back to those days when we never stopped cursing S_p for reducing our performance ratings. And cursing RB for his hairstyles, moustache-styles and everything he did.

P.S. :- I still have a lot left to say, but those tears in my eyes aren't allowing me.

Its one whole year.... and I'm all happy

Nov. 6, 2008 :
As any other day, I am sitting in one of the invisible corners of the ODC. Chatting with Pattar as usual. We 3, Ammini, Blore and me, were allocated 3 different systems. We are done with the trimurthi mail of the day. Phase 2 of the internal project had started and it was the demo time. Which meant a whole lot of free time for the new project mates. Ammini was with Oku and Blore googling. It was only a few days before, I came to know that blogger can be opened in the office. I had started scribbling on my previous blog. "But I need a new one. A fresh start, so to say". I told Pattar.
Even the name of the new blog should be different. Something that conveys about me.
"The Desultory Mind", said Pattar.
"Hmm... thats a nice one. I think I'll give it a shot", says me.
But what to write. Not politics and Not movies. May be later on but not the first one. Introduce myself? Who the hell am I to do that? Besides, nobody is going to read it, then what is the need of an introduction. Evenmore, I have done that in my earlier blog and that's enough.
Then. I remember one thing. How much I hate Bangalore, its climate. I sneezed. Thats a good start. I can go on and on on that topic. Sigh.

The very first thoughts...

*The very first picture that comes to my mind everytime I hear Bangalore is the one in which I, Amma, Achan and bro were standing infront of the Christ College and two girls passed us. One was in mini-skirt. The other one in a red top and trousers. That is the first I saw mini-skirt live. I had been to Delhi and Chennai a lot before this but never saw someone wearing mini-skirt to college. (This happened back when I was in my 10th grade.)

*The day we reached Bangalore. We went to shop some regular stuff. At the shop, we asked, "Bhayya, dress clips hain ?". Bhayya replied, "Dress clips alle? Ithu mathiyo?"(Dress clips na? Are these enough?). We literally frowned!

* Crossing the signal infront of Forum, we noticed some guys. When we walked past them, they giggled "Kollaamketto"(Nice ones!!). It was we who used to say that dialogue when we were in Hyderabad. That reminds me, we are in Bangalore, an extended Kerala.

And hence Bangalore Times.

P.S. :- Its been one year and so many things have changed. Even my attitude towards Bangalore. I love the place because of the nostalgic memories it is associated with. I still hate the climate though.

What I do these days

These days I am more or like Lallu. I take leave from my house to come to office. Its been almost two months that I spent a weekend in Bangalore. The person to suffer is ofcourse Blore. She spent the weekends alone in our room. While I spent my days under the hot sun in Palakkad. Palakkad, by the way is my hometown. A very beautiful district in Kerala, although its famous for its hot climate and dry winds. The advantage I found having grown up there is that I can survive in most of the hot and humid places in India.

The reason why I go to Pkd often is my PSC tests. For those who don't even know the full form of PSC, it is Public Service Commission, which helps you get Govt. jobs. By the year end, or before I am sacked my job, I have been asked to earn a Govt. job by my father. I have been writing quite a few exams of late. Right from those post which needs Graduation as qualification to those which just need 7th standard qualification. Hmmm. I have no other go but to write them. Atleast that is what I can do for my father's wishes. Coming back. All my weekends are spent there at Palakkad only. The place I was born and brought up. I have a lot to write about the place and the way I fight with my fellow batchmates. Things I have to do as a true Palakkadian. But as of now, my agenda is to write about two stories (facts, whichever way you want to take it). I have a time constraint for these stories. One story is about AN aka Chalu Raja, which has become dated. So before anyone questions about the validity of the story let me unfurl the event which happened long in May 2008 when AN and Sharath travelled with Binu and Donymol.

How AN got biriyani from Donymol mother???

It was the first time we were going home after training. So we, ordinary employees, decided to travel through train and bus. Since AN and Sharath were not ordinary, they decided to reach home by FLIGHT. (OMG!). But what is there in travelling without some glamour. But all their effort went in vain when none of our girl batchmates were convinced by them. Atlast, Binu and Donymol came to their rescue. They showed some sympathy over AN and Sharath. Like they had planned, they travelled in style in cabs to the airport and then boarded the flight. But when they got the tickets, AN and Sharath had a huge dilemma. The flight was a 3 seater and one of them would have to sit in another row. Since it was inappropriate to make any of the girls to sit alone, AN decided to sacrifice. (AN would have never ever dreamt of this situation or never ever want such a thing to happen to him again). So Sharath became the king of the hour, seated in between the two young and beautiful girls(Any smoking stomachs over there?). An hour later when AN decided to have a check on these friends of his, he was shocked to see the sight. All three of them had opened some packets of snacks and had ate them, totally neglecting a friend who was seated just a row away. Well, I guess, AN will never forgive Sharath, Binu and Donymol for that. And when they landed in the great Nedumbassery Airport, everyone's parents except for AN's had come to recieve them. Binu and Sharath didn't even bother to bid bye to AN. After all the efforts taken by AN to arrange this trip, AN never expected Sharath to leave him halfway. Atleast he could have said bye. Or atleast a sorry for AN not getting seated together. Nothing. You really dont want this to happen to you. But for AN, it was Donymol's mother who was the angel. She pomptuously asked AN to travel along with them in the car to the Ernakulam Town.
While in the car, AN was going on and on with what happened in the flight. Particularly about the snacks they had brought along. What he actually was trying to was to hint Donymol's mother that he actually was hungry and needed food. So Donymol's mother drove the car to a hotel. And that is where AN finally had some food.
(P.S. :- After all these days, almost 7-8 months after this incident, AN still remembers the exact sequence of events and that was the point of inspiration for me to write the story here. Anyways atleast now you could imagine the sad status of AN when he was deprived of both food and enjoyment. After this incident, AN start getting glimpses of Asin in Donymol, courtesy the biriyani given by Donymol's mother).

AAMIR following the footsteps of Tuttudu

This is an awe-inspiring story, a moral which every Indian should follow. And when the great Indian Actor, Aamir Khan, heard this story, he decided to promote it and made an AD over it. Tuttudu is feeling so grateful. He, who had been a simple but ardent fan of Aamir Khan had never thought that Aamir would follow his footsteps. Things began when Tuttudu decided that it was enough of with staying in Bangalore and he desperately needed a vacation. So he went to his hometown and stayed there for a week. While returning, he thought "since it is not a long journey, let me take the day train- Intercity Express". Since Intercity doesn't go through Pathanamthitta, he came to Ernakulam to board the train. (Oops. None of the train, in my knowledge, goes through Pathanamthitta. It is such a big city, you know. Trains and stations don't fit in there).
Even though Tuttudu was not so excited about coming back to Bangalore, to the boredom in office, he had no other go. He had reserved for a berth ( In these cost-cutting times, I only reserve for seat. But so great of him to only travel in Berths). The journey was going on uneventful, when suddenly a Parippuvada seller came. Tuttudu was seated in the window seat. When the P.seller passed him to next coup, he heard some American accented English asking about this Parippuvada. Excited Tuttudu peeped into the next coup, to find an American women sitting there. The P.seller told the lady that Parippuvada costs some Rs. 30, while it doesnt even, in actual, costs Rs. 10. Tuttudu thought,"How dare he do this to a valuable Tourist of India. If it continues what will happen to their impression of our country? What will happen to future tourism in India?" . All the queries stormed in his brain. So he decided to step into the situation. He went on to question the P.seller. But the Tuttudu arguments went in vain and was not able to win over the P.seller. As a saying goes in Malayalam, Tuttudu tied his tail and went to his seat.

When Koratty heard this incident, she spread rumours about Tuttudu. She wrote mails to Chechi and Chetan, that this was an act , or rather a show-off, to get into an Onsite project.(Well, for those software illiterate people, onsite is the software jargon for Abroad). And that his first attempt of learning Japanese had failed miserably and this was yet another attempt from his side. The reactions from Chechi and Chetan were mixed. While one was supporting, the other went on to tease him. But there was one person who really understood the emotional trauma that Tuttudu had gone through. It was none other than our beloved Aamir Khan. He decided to act in this regard. He made an Ad in which some roadside romeos tease Tourists and Aamir Khan comes and rescue them and also spread the message to protect the tourists across the nation. Wow! Isnt it great? Of Tuttudu too?

P.S. :- I started writing this post long back, but couldn't finish because of the terrible work I have here. Coding, Stored procedures, etc. etc. Anyways days passed, even A R R and Resul Pookutty got Oscars. Its only a few, just about 53K people who are still wondering what will happen in our future. Lets hope good thing happens to us too.

I can't really think of anything now

Nothing is coming to my mind. No ideas. No gossips. And because me and Obama are on a treaty not to have a "War Of Blogs", it has left me with very little options to blog upon. Oh yeah! we today got a free t-shirt for attending a session or rather, for going over there and sleeping. One of the most interesting aspect of attending these sessions is that you could sometimes blabber the same things when you are having some interviews. Interviews. I think that point is a little far fetched. So we won't discuss about that here. Then what should I pen down (key down). Before I get some deadly ideas, I will say some of the good or poor jokes thats surrounds our friend's circle.

1:
It has been said that Koratty, as a child, was found in a fish basket in the Chalakudy market (the-most-famous market in kerala).

2:
Q:If K2C (abbreviation for Kamal Kumar Chawla, name not real) was K2'C' in the first phase training, what would be he called in the second phase?
Ans: K2Java

3:
Koratty to Dans : You are fat, your next generation will be even more fatter. In the third generation, they will be like a ball and would be used to play football.
Dans to Koratty : In your fifth generation, all of ur descendants can be tied together to make a broomstick.

4:
Q:Why don't a java tutor give homeworks?
Ans: In java, everything has to be written inside a "class".

5:
The best example of a metrosexual : SK when in his Green T-Shirt!

6:
Q:What is the one thing that makes AN aka Chalu Raja romantic and his pocket empty?
Ans: Chocolate Fantasy

Okies...that was all I could think of. But sure, I will come with a good topic as soon as possible.

Wazzup Blore!!!

After having tea from the cafeteria, me, Blore and VP (I am renaming you-know-who) went to the 4th floor for signing out for the day. As usual the papers were with RB. Don't mind, this is the system that is followed here in our Company- sign-in and out in papers. Ok! before going any further, let me first explain the situation in our office. We work in shifts. Me, Blore and Ammini are in the morning shift and the rest of the beauties in our hostel(this doesn't anywhere mean we 3 are not beautiful) are in the afternoon shift. There is lack of systems (computers) in our ODC and this is the reason why we are working in shifts. But fortunately, since my system doesn't have its counterpart in the afternoon, I continue to sit till 7 pm. And basically my only enjoyment in office is blogging and our Trimurthikal's mail. Even today we launched a mail voicing against the atrocities done by ObamaMol. Our shifts change everyweek. We are supposed to have afternoon shift next week.

Coming back, RB was sitting in his cabin and the papers were in his desk. While we were signing, Blore asked about the next week's shift timings.
Blore : What is the shift timings for next week?
RB(his response was very quick) : "Wazzup Blore? Kab karna hai? Main bhi bhool gaya. GC bhi bhool gaya. Ek kaam karo tum kal mujhe yad dilaao" (Wazzup Blore? When do you want it. I forgot. GC forgot. Just do one thing, remind me tomorrow.).
Again.
RB : Wazzup Blore?
Blore grinned.
RB : Kya haalchaal hain? (hows is it going?)
Blore grinned again. VP had started giggling.
RB : Aap logon ka kaun sa shift hai? (what shift are you people in?)
Blore : First shift.
RB : Tho kyon ab thak rukhe ho?(So, why are you staying back?)
Blore grinned.
Me : We had some work to do. (Duh Huh !!)
RB : Awesome Man......... (As we turned away from him) Chalo Bye.
We couldn't control the laughter after coming out of the ODC. The first thing that striked me was to blog in the different adventures of RB.

We had first met him in Patny office (Hyd) right after we shifted from our HQ. My first impression about him was that he is for sure a "show off". And yup, I didn't have to change that impression anywhere down the lane. One of his main adventures (very similar to AK's in our HQ) is the relocation drama. He used to come every day and ask us to give preference of location - Chennai, Bangalore or Pune. Infact one time when this drama happened, we almost packed our bags to Chennai. And then one day he came up and told us that all are going to be compulsorily relocated to Pune. But in the next few days, we did came down to reality. It was in the climax of one such drama that we went back to HQ instead of getting reloacted to Chennai.

Another of many timepass activities of RB is to make the Benchers to do activities like Quiz, Group Discussion etc. This was the golden period of Blore and Aanakutty. RB used to call Aanakutty as Blank face which was later modified by us for our convenience as Blanky. RB took special interest in both of them and assigned them the work of conducting quiz on some of the days. When they were asked to do some other activities, they re-invented the game 'Ashwamedham', that too in a local style (as in, we now don't have to find famous personalities in 21 questions, but had to find the batchmate in 6 questions). The game which was played by the three of us during training was a huge success. And it was also heard that, boys of our batch continued this game at their hostel as well.

It was because of these adventures of RB that we were quite relieved to go back and report at our HQ. But then there was AK there, about whom I will write later because there is a lot to write about him as well, who was a ditto RB. We didn't have to tolerate much of AK's melodramas since we came to Bangalore within a month.

After a few weeks, when we first saw RB again in Bangalore, we ran different rumours about him. Like he has his girlfriend here so and so and that he will be going by the weekend. But bad news showered over us, when we saw him again coming to our ODC carrying our sign-in sheets. From that day onwards, we have been tolerating his tantrums. God knows, how much more we have to suffer. Anyways, the bad news for Blore is that she has been noticed again. Goodluck Blore!

Anniversary Thoughts

Finally we made it. Its been one year in the company. How we managed it is a different story all together. But nonetheless, it is an occasion to remember, to have fun and also to lookback and relish the memories created so far. Here, I am going to tell a story of a girl, story of her dreams and aspirations, a story of transformation.

She was very happy, on 1st Dec, when she boarded the train with her parents and families of two of her friends at college. It was quite unclear to her, not even the station where she had to get down. She just had a slight clue that that day atleast 30 of her to-be-batchmates had boarded the train. But she didn't know anyone, nor did her friends. Although there were communities in Orkut through which she could have known others in the train, she hadn't cared much for that. As a bunch of boys passed her, she remembered a face from whom she had got a friend request at the last moment. It was AN(Now better to call him Chalu Raja). She walked upto him and talked to him. She was introduced to others in the gang. That was the first day.

The following days were filled with more excitment, as she and her friends and their families went for a tour of Hyderabad and Secunderabad. She found the place to be homely one and was able to relate to the city very easily. Eventhough she had been once to city, things now where quite different. She was destined to stay here for sometime, atleast for some months. A little tension of leaving her parents for the first time was also haunting her. But she consoled herself, for it was this life that she always dreamt of.

On 6 Dec, she was asked to report to an office in the city, where she came to know that they will be taken to the HQ of the company which 20 kms away from the city. It was no less like a "Bidaai", when all the parents, particularly mothers, (of girls) shed their tears (well, that is a little exaggeration) when all of them boarded different buses. After a long hour, they finally reached the HQ. She stood with her mouth wide open at the first glance of the conference hall. She was really skeptical about walking over the neatly polished marble floor, lest she should slip.

Guys and Gals from all parts of India were going to be her batchmates. She had never thought of this before. Nor she was aware of the vastness of the company she was going to join. But much to her astonishment, there was only a small welcome message said and they were bestowed a big flat file with loads of papers to be filled in. Thanks to all those papers, at the end of the day when all the formalities were finished, she could'nt even recognise her signature anymore.

That was not the end. 2 days later, they had an exam over the topics they would be taught during the training. It was like latin and american for our young girl, who was not from a CS background. All that she knew about the machine called Computer was that she can operate it on a fine day.

Along came the Induction Day of 10 Dec, They were made to play games, do requirement gathering, logo making. It was a quite different affair from what she had thought initially. By the end of the day she had made some new friends. She was also introduced to some friends-of-friends and so on. And she knew it was just a beginning.

Hyderabad was very similar to any north Indian city. It had its own rich culture. And anyone could survive in Hyderabad if she or he knows Hindi. Thus, our girl was able to improve her long-forgotten Hindi. Hyderabad became even more enjoyable because of her roommates. It was like, they were always meant to be friends. Each one of them enjoyed food and our girl even got a company in seeing movies, of her favourite genre, in her roommate. A few days into training, she found herself in easy conversation with every of her batchmate. Eventhough the initial OLAs and tests had made her nervous, later she got used to it. And she started to enjoy the training. One little fact, once told by her school friend, that "training period is going to be one wonderful period of your career life, never miss chance in it, enjoy it to the max". She always remembered that.

They were given enough chances to enjoyment also. Outbound brought the childishness and sportmanship in everyone, and they were also asked to explore their other talents in Spotlight like singing, dancing and acting.

During the course, her language changed from English to C#(read as C Sharp). To her the word "foreign" doesn't exist anymore, it is onsite. And MCP was no longer Male Chauvinist Pig but Microsoft Certified Professional. She Frequently used the terms OLA, KT etc eventhough she never thought about asking anyone about the expansion.

When the training was completed, she thought it was the end of the great friendship that she shared with every of her batchmate. But it was not to be. She was "benched" and that too for more than 9 months. She completed 1 year, not doing any project, actually not doing anything. It really sucks. But for the friends she is always surrounded with, it was really sucking. For a change, she shifted from Hyderabad to Bangalore, only to find that it is the same there also.

Guys, this is the story with a colorful start and not-so-colorful ending. I mean, this story is not ending at all. This is a continuing story. This is what happens to every girl in this field. You are "TRAINED AND BENCHED" (Courtesy : A friend of mine whose name in Orkut read the same).