I'm putting a malayalam classic here.. आज शामको ഞങ്ങള്‍ എങ്ങോട്ട് जाएगा

This has been a long time ambition of mine. Re-write what Koratty wrote over a year n half ago. This story is not just close to my heart but also to my bookshelf (Literally, the book has been there in shelf for over a 6 months). And I have all the chance of loosing it to termites. Such is my care, u see. I am so thankful for one thing, Koratty isn't into internet at all (although she does frequently use the communicator to ask the C# code from her fellow projectmates and that's the only way she survives her job.). Still remember it was just 7-8 months ago when we pushed her to create an orkut account, lest she should forget us after leaving Bangalore. If she was anywhere interested in blogging, she would have had me run for my money. Thankfully she is not. So about the story. I've all the copyright, u know, because it was written on my notebook. Whose? Mine. Still I asked the permission from Koratty to publish it. So sweet of me na. The story is about 2 guys from our batch surviving Hyderabad and their tenant during our training period. So here it goes.. (N.B. :- If you can't read the font below, please install the Malayalam font from here .) (Another N.B. :- Non-mallus please hop over to find the English translation) ല്യ്ഗകോളനിയിലെ വായ്നോക്കികള്‍ ഈ കഥ നടകുന്നത് ആന്ദ്രപുരിയിലെ ല്യ്ഗകോളനിയിലാണ്. ആദ്യംതന്നെ പറയട്ടെ ഈ കഥയും കഥാപാത്രങ്ങളും തികച്ചും സങ്കല്പികമാണ്. ല്യ്ഗകോളനിയില്‍ ഇപ്പോള്‍ താമസിക്കുന്നവരുമായോ Nityam Computer Services -വില്‍ work ചെയുന്നവരുമായോ ഇതിനു യാതൊരു ബന്ധവുമില്ലഇനി ഏതെങ്കിലും തരത്തില്‍ നിങ്ങള്ക്ക് സാധ്രിശ്യം തോന്നിയാല്‍ അത് താങ്കളുടെ വെറും തോന്നല്‍ മാത്രമാണ്. ല്യ്ഗകോളനിഎന്ന് പറയുമ്പോള്‍ തന്നെ പച്ചപിടിച്ചുനില്‍കുന്ന പുല്ലുകളും പൊടിപടലങ്ങള്‍ ഇല്ലാത്ത വൃത്തിയുള്ള road ഉം, basket cake ഉം (ഈ shop ഇല് ഒരു pair കളും കയറാറില്ല ). മാവൂര്‍ tiffin ഉം എന്തിനേറെ പറയുന്നു യഥാര്‍ത്ഥത്തില്‍ ഇതൊരു zoo ആണ്. പട്ടികളും പശുകളും നിറഞ്ഞ road കളാണ് ഇവിടെ. ഇവിടെയാണ്‌ Nityam Computers ഇല് എല്ലാവരും താമസികുന്നത് (ചില അലവലാതികള്‍ ല്യ്ഗകോളനിയില്‍ കാലെടുത്തു കുത്താന്‍ പോലും യോഗ്യതയിലാത്തവര്‍ പുറത്തെവിടെയോ താമസിക്കുന്നു ). ഞാനും എന്റെ പ്രിയപ്പെട്ട Nityam ലെ കൂടുകാരും ഈ കോളനിയിലാണ് താമസികുന്നത്. ഈ Colony യെ പറ്റി കേട്ടറിഞ്ഞ പലരും Flat വിട്ടു ഓടിയെതിടുണ്ട്. അങ്ങനെ ഒരു ദിവസം ല്യ്ഗയില്‍ രണ്ടുപെരെത്തി . സരതും ശങ്ജിതും. ല്യ്ഗകോളനിയിലെ പാതയോരങ്ങളില്‍ pair കളുടെ സംഗമമാണ്. ഒരു Girlfriend നെ എങ്കിലും ഒപ്പികാം എന്ന് കരുതിയാണ് പാവം സരതും ശങ്ജിതും അവിടെ എത്തിയത്. ഈ Colony യുടെ എടുത്തു പറയേണ്ട ഒരു പ്രത്യേകതയുണ്ട്. മറ്റൊന്നുമല്ല ഈ Colony യുടെ നടുവിലൂടെ നുരഞ്ഞു പതഞ്ഞു സുഘന്ധം പരത്തി ഒഴുകുന്ന ഒരു തോടുണ്ട്. ഒരിക്കല്‍ ഇതിന്റെ smell അറിഞ്ഞാല്‍ പിന്നെ 6 മാസം മൂക്ക്പോത്തിയെ നടക്കു. അത്ര വൃത്തിയുള്ള ആ തോടിന്റെ തീരത്താണ് നമ്മുടെ പ്രിയപ്പെട്ട സരത് കുമാരനും ശങ്ജിത് കുമാരനും താമസിക്കാന്‍ തീരുമാനിച്ചത്. Obviously അവരുടെ കുളി ആ തോട്ടില്‍ തന്നെയാണ്. Nityam Centre ലെ associates പ്രത്യേകിച്ച് projectmates ഒരുപാട് അവരെ സഹിച്ചു. Project കഴിഞ്ഞപ്പോള്‍ അവര്‍ Team Leader നെ തല്ലി. സരത്തിന്റെ എടുത്തു പറയേണ്ട പ്രത്യേകത അവനു നല്ല ക്ഷമയുന്ടെന്നുല്ലതാണ്. അങ്ങനെ 4 മാസം training ഇന്റെ time ഇല് ബാകിയുള്ള എല്ലാവരുടെയും മുന്പില്‍ ഷൈന്‍ ചെയ്തു അവര്‍ നടന്നു . അതിനിടയില്‍ laptop ഉം ബൈക്ക് ഉം .... ഇതെല്ലാം വാങ്ങി (അഹങ്ഗാരികള്‍ ). ഇതിനിടയില്‍ അവര്‍ ഒരു Girlfriend നെ അന്വേഷിച്ചു നടന്നു . ഒരുപാട് girls നോട് പറഞ്ഞു നോക്കി . പക്ഷെ fate എല്ലാവരുടെയും answer ഒന്ന് മാത്രം NO!!!! ശങ്ജിത് Bike വാങ്ങിയതിന്റെ പിന്നിലുള്ള ഉദ്ദേശം തന്നെ ഒരു Girlfriend നെ പുറകിലിരുത്തി കാണാനായിരുന്നു . But എന്നും രാവിലെ full tank petrol നിറച്ചു ല്യ്ഗകോളനി മുഴുവന്‍ ചുറ്റും. But, poor ശങ്ജിത് ആരും ഒന്ന് തിരിഞ്ഞു നോക്കിയില്ല. എന്നും petrol മുഴുവന്‍ കഴിഞ്ഞു bike ഉണ്ധിയാണ് വീട്ടില്‍ വന്നു കയരാരുള്ളത് . സരതാകട്ടെ broadband connection എടുത്തു matrimonial ഇല് എന്നും search ചെയ്തു കൊണ്ടിരിക്കും. flat ലെ current bill, water bill എല്ലാം കൂടി . flat ഇന്റെ owner തലച്ചുടി വീണു. നേരത്തും കാലത്തും rent കൊടുകാതെ girlfriends നെ മാത്രം സ്വപ്നം കണ്ടുഅവര്‍ നടന്നു . ഇതിനിടയില്‍ project ചെയ്തപ്പോള്‍ TL നെ വളക്കാന്‍ അവര്‍ ഒരു ശ്രമം നടത്തി. നടക്കാതെ വന്നപ്പോള്‍ അവര്‍ TL നെ ചീത്ത പറഞ്ഞു. എന്നിട്ട് എല്ലാവരോടും പറഞ്ഞു അവള്‍ coding ചെയാന്‍ സംമാധികാതതിനാലനത്രേ വഴക്ക് പറഞ്ഞത്!!! ഒടുവില്‍ എങ്ങനെയോ training കഴിഞ്ഞു. Next locaction Bangalore !!! സരത് കുമാരനും ശങ്ജിതിനും സന്തോഷമായി. Hyd നമ്മുക്ക് നല്ല സ്ഥലമല്ല. Bangalore ആണ് നല്ലത്. അവര്‍ തീരുമാനിച്ചു. Owner നെ പറ്റിച്ചു കടന്നുകളയാന്‍ അവര്‍ rent കൊടുത്തില്ല. ഒരു ദിവസം വയ്കുന്നേരം സരത് കുമാരന്‍ പാടും പാടി ഫ്ലാറ്റ് ലേക്ക് കയറു ചെന്ന്. Flat നു മുന്‍പില്‍ owner!!! സരതിനെ കണ്ടപ്പോഴേ owner പറഞ്ഞു . तुम दोनों आज शामको यहाँ से जाओ ! English ഉം hindi ഉം അറിയാത്ത സരത്തിന്റെ കണ്ണ്ത്തള്ളി. എങ്കിലും owner ഇന്റെ മകളെ മനസ്സില്‍ ദ്യാനിച്ചു അവന്‍ പറഞ്ഞു. आज शामको ഞങ്ങള്‍ എങ്ങോട്ട് जाएगा . Owner കു കലികയറി അവരുടെ bag ഉം കിടക്കയും പുരതെടുത്തിട്ടു. സരതും ശങ്ജിതും ഞെട്ടി. കാലു പിടിച്ചു. Owner സമ്മതിച്ചില്ല. പിന്നെ അവര്‍ bag ഉം തൂക്കി നടന്നു. എങ്ങോടെന്നിലാതെ ഒടുവില്‍ പാതിരാത്രി ശ്രീശാന്തിന്റെയും Meldo യുടെയും വീട്ടില്‍ കയറിപറ്റി. ആദ്യത്തെ ദിവസം കൊണ്ട് തന്നെ അവര്‍ക്കും മതിയായി. അവര്‍ അവരെ ചവിട്ടി പുറത്താക്കി . ഇപ്പോള്‍ എങ്ങോടെന്നിലാതെ ല്യ്ഗകോളനിയുടെ തെരുവില്‍ അവര്‍ തേരാപാര നടക്കുകയാണ്. അവരുടെ കഥന കഥകെട്ടവരെല്ലാം കേള്‍കാത്ത പോലെ നടന്നു. ഇനി അവരുടെ ലക്‌ഷ്യം Nityam Computers ഇന്റെ bus നിര്‍ത്തുന്ന സ്ഥലത്തെ footpath ഇല് കിടകാനാണ് . അങ്ങനെ ഒരു സാഹസം കാനികുന്നതിനു മുന്‍പ് ആരെങ്ങിലും ഈ രണ്ടു risk ഏറ്റെടുക്കാന്‍ അഭ്യര്‍ഥിച്ചു കൊണ്ട് ഞാന്‍ ഈ കഥ നിര്‍ത്തുകയാണ്. ***************************************************************** So that was about it. If I had been any good at translation, I would have certainly done it. But then as they say classics can't be translated with the same beauty. { Edit done on 24/01/10 I am trying to put my best efforts here to translate this epic story with the same grandieur of humour and if you still don't find any humour , blame me and not my Koratty. Simultaneous comments of mine are given in green font. The Oglers of Laiga Colony The story which I'm going to tell is happening in a place called Laiga Colony in the great state of Andhra. Before going into further details, I'm putting the disclaimer. The story and the characters here are purely fictional. The story has no connection with those who currently live in Laiga Colony or those who work in Nityam Computer Services. In case you find any similarities, it is just your imagination. The very first things that comes to our mind when we talk about Laiga Colony are its greenery, the roads with not even a puff of dust, Basket Cake (Not even a single pair goes into this shop), Mavoor Tiffin. All these and more. Laiga Colony in itself is a Zoo. The roads here are crowded by dogs and cows. It is here that all employees of Nityam Computers live. (A few people who don't even deserve to step into the Colony are now staying in some other area.) This has been intentionly written to point us. Me, Blore and Aanakutty. As we were the only ones staying outside Laiga. Me and my Nityam friends are also staying in this colony. After hearing about this colony, many have even left their flat and shifted to here. And one such day two guys came into this colony. Sarath and Shanjith. There is a concourse of "pairs" in the LaigaColony roads. Sarath and Shanjith had shifted to the colony in the sole hope of getting a Girlfriend soon. Literally we couldn't walk in that road without hitting a pair. Another speciality of this colony is the canal which passes through the mid of the colony with ditch water in it. Once anyone smells this water, he wouldn't smell anything else for the next six months. It is near this canal that Sarath and Shanjith stayed. Obviously, they use the water of this canal to take bath. Eeks. The associates of Nityam Computers, especially projectmates tolerated these 2 guys for long. After the project, they(Sarath and Shanjith) kicked out their Team Leader. An important quality of Sarath is that he has a lot of patience. So, during the 4 month training period they bought laptop and bike just to shine before others. Simultaneously, they were also searching for a girlfriend. They tried to convince the girls in their batch. But fate, everyone's answer was NO!!! The primary reason behind Shanjith buying a bike was to hangout with a girlfriend in that bike. Every morning, he would fill the bike full tank and go around the colony. But poor Shanjith, nobody would look at him. And in the evenings when the petrol had finished, he would pull his bike along to his house. As for Sarath, he had taken broadband connection and was always into the matrimonial sites. And I thought I had the patent of Matrimonial sites in my batch. Everyday Shanjith used to wash and clean his bike. And henceforth, the current bill, water bill of the flat shot up. The owner couldn't believe his eyes. His head started spinning and he fell down. But Sarath and Shanjith were too much into their world of Girlfriend search that they even forgot to pay the rent. When they were doing the project, they had tried their luck on their TL. But when it failed, they cursed the TL. And told everyone that they are cursing her because she wasn't allowing them to code properly!! Koratty belonged the same project group. And her only contribution to the team was this story. Finally the training was over. Next Location Bangalore!!! Sarath and Shanjith became happy. 'Hyd is an unlucky place. Bangalore is the good one.' So they thought they can escape their owner without paying rent. One day when Sarath returned to the house whistling, his owner was standing infront of the house. Owner said, "तुम दोनों आज शामको यहाँ से जाओ " (you two leave the house today evening itself). And Sarath, who doesn't know both English and Hindi, perplexed. He, for a moment thought about the owner's daughter, replied, "आज शामको ഞങ്ങള്‍ എങ്ങോട്ട് जाएगा " (today evening where can we go). Owner couldn't control his anger. He threw their bags outside. Sarath and Shanjith fell on owner's feet. But owner rejected their plea. After that Sarath and Shanjith headed to Sreeshanth and Meldo's house. But on the first day itself, Sreeshanth and Meldo found that they couldn't handle the tantrums of the new guests. They kicked them out. Now, both of them are loathing on the road of Laiga Colony. Those who came to know about this sad story, pretended as if they had never heard it at all. Their next destination is the footpath of road where the buses of Nityam Computers halt. Before that happens, I humbly request some of you to please take these two 'risks' home. And the end. Thank God its over. }

Must reads and some thank-yous

I am not sure why it happens everytime. This starting trouble. Everytime when I start a new post, I have this difficulty in how to start the post. Many a times, I come up with so much irrelevant things to cover up my starting trouble. And only if you could sit with me while I am typing, would you understand how much I have typed-and-retyped this first portion of my post. I am a firm believer of "Practice makes perfect" and hope someday I would write like Pattar or Sid. To the point. But more than anything else, I would love to have Obamamol's head. I have already told you about her creativity, her innovation in spinning stories from a simple and irrelevant incident. You could read that and more over here. You must read her poem also, that she wrote while we were all attending a session on DotNet 3.5. It was a desparate move to get rid of the boredom in the class. Actually, you won't find anything related to software interesting when it is being taught. And poem reminds me, a few days back I saw this movie of Drew Barrymoore, Never Been Kissed, and in that, the word "Poem" was pronounced as if it were "Pome". Is it the actual way of pronouncing it ? or is it just another American accent, which we usually dont care. The only thing I adapted from the American English is the usage of 's' instead of 'z' in words like civilis(z)ation. That was one correction I was totally used to at school, since we are asked to follow the British English.


Anyways this discussion of accent isn't going anywhere. So, what I intend to do here is to have a thanks giving post. A post dedicated to all my friends, who are the air and soul of my blog. First the title credits. Its Pattar who suggested me the title of the blog. Then, I wasn't even aware that such a word existed (As if I know everything now). But it suites. If I had been at any point of my life a little focussed, I would have reached somewhere. Next to Ammini, Obamamol for naming us, hostelmates. If not for these names, I couldn't have written a word about them. The only problem was the frequency with which we were being renamed. I couldn't cope up with this, so i sticked to the names in my first post. Ammini, Blore and me were the one who started with the Trimurthy mails. Those mails are a real inspiration for this blog. Obamamol. I need her brains, man.


Thanks. Blore for her rendezvous with RB which made it to my blog. One info that I haven't ever shared about her is that Blore is a walking and talking film encyclopedia.And if you are playing dumsharat with her, better be in her team. Koratty for her wit. You can expect her step to fame "Laigayude kathakaari" in this space soon. Aanakutty and Appimol for giving me the idea to write about us in my blog which would otherwise have been so stale. Tudy for her special fun moments. For Tudy's manjurani and reetha episode, please do read Obamamol's blog. AN, Donimol, Binu, Sharath and Tuttudu for being my victims. And Sharath, sorry. For writing your real name. I am not an expert at naming you know. Or rather, you can take this as a credit da, the only person to have been referred with his real name my blog. AM, Lallu, Ramettan, Colonel also. For giving memories of a lifetime. I also thank others like our thief, SS and RB who had made active contribution to my blog eventhough they are unaware of this. And they better be. For more than 1 reason.


There aren't enough words to thank you guys for making my life so eventful and special. Anyways, I will miss you all guys.

An Encounter With a Thief

It is not everyday that you encounter a thief who holds your hand, snatch your purse and run away. What we heard was just a loud scream of Tudy. It took us a little time to realise that the dark tall guy was indeed running with Tudy's purse. We ran after him. Out from somewhere came a guy(Read as Hero) who caught the thief. What followed was a genuine cinematic scene happening in a real life scenario(don't mind, my computer jargons might creep in sometimes). The thief was caught by his collar. The thief handed over the purse back to Hero and ran away. Thanks to Hero, we were relieved.

Our hostel is just 5-6 mins walk from the main road. A few minutes ago only, me , Blore and Koratty had met Ammini and Tudy who were waiting for their Shawarma to be parceled from the Arabian Restaurant which is on the roadside itself (Needless to say, the shawarma was for Aanakutty). We were on our way from Commercial Street, when we met both of them.

Half the way, we met PP and MJ. We just exchanged our Hi's. We didn't know that PP was staying so close to our hostel. But the most excited girl of the lot was our Blore. She was asking the same question again and again. And as always, we all grabbed up the opportunity. Eventhough we should have left that as pure excitement from her part, we started teasing her with PP's name. I certainly believe, being a part of our gang means you have to be cautious about what you do and also what you talk. You just can't say anything. Else you will punished thouroughly. Coming back to our story, PP and MJ had turned to their street and we to ours.

We were just two turns away from our hostel. As always Tudy was two steps behind all others. The thief had been following us for a long time. And suddenly he snatched away the purse from Tudy. The first thoughts that, we assumed and fully supported by Tudy, came to Tudy's mind was about her "Life", I mean her N95. There was no chiller in her account ( i.e. no use of her debit card), zero credit limit in her credit card (so no use of credit card) and the most obvious one no cash in her purse too. The only thing that mattered to her was her phone. And believe me, its not at all because it was N95. Even if it had been a Rs.500 phone, it would have still mattered a lot to her, because she lives not on food and clothes but on phone. Tudy started running after the thief. Seeing this Ammini put down all the things she had bought from shops, even her purse, and started running after the thief (or after Tudy?). Blore and Koratty too followed them, while I was left alone to pick up the things dropped by Ammini.

As she cried out louder "Thief, thief", one person (Hero), ran after the thief. It was easy for him since the thief was running away from us , in his direction. And Hero got hold of our Tudy's purse and the thief had escaped him(Later, I came to know that Koratty was too near to the thief, that she had an extreme impulse to hit the thief, but then she thought wisely and left the stunts to be performed by our hero). Hero, since he was alone, couldn't have possibly caught the thief and hold him till any other person arrived. Within a few seconds that street had become a crowded one, all discussing about the burglary and even discarded our presence. Much to our astonishment, some elderly person started scolding Hero, for not holding the thief till all others came. Some lady came upto Tudy and asked her something in Kannada, which obiviously she didn't understand. But she answered to all the lady's questions in Malayalam.

Then some handsome guys came to that scene. Really, they were so cute. Couldn't even believe that they were Mallus. Instead of thanking Hero, we thanked those handsome guys and left the scene. Its quite unbelievable that we all 5 did the same thing. Not even one person could act properly? Anyways we were more than happy to get back to normalcy in our hostel.

P.S. :- Upon Tudy's special request I am adding another "Tudy Special Fun Moment" here which happened when we had gone on for a Hostel Hunt. We had to catch a bus to White Field and in that bus, the bus conductor asked Tudy where our Office was and was it in Richmond Circle. Thanks to her deep knowledge in Hindi, all that she could understand was "Which is your Circle". To that she answered "HCU Microsoft". And then turning to me she asked how come this bus conductor know about the circle and subcircle in our Company. Rest you can imagine...