The La/ost Song....

I thank the social network which helped me re-bond with long lost school friends. Its fun to rekindle the joys of those lost sweet innocent years when everything was so easy and simple!
Those un-tucked shirts and open shoe laces, those drooping bags and trailing ribbons, those labelled books and dripping ink pens, those half-eaten lunch boxes and fancy water bottles, those innocent crushes and trustworthy friendships....
Ah.. school days will always remain the the best phase of life !!! :):)

Though I know we cannot go back in time and relive those moments, but old friends when catch up after decades can reminiscent those good old days. :)

And once such colloquium bought up the topic of a long lost funny song that made me famous ( totally not in a good way ) , it was a song that I had first introduced to my gal pals when i had joined the new school in 4th grade , - as making an extremely jittery and shy kid sing a song was  part  of their ' trying to break the ice with the new kid' game plan.
 So to get them off my back , i chose to sing a song that was taught to us in my previous school during a bonfire meet of our scout club and especially because the lyrics of this song had not yet vaporized from my head  :/
[ You can make me memorize any chronology of events  in history with their dates/time but when it comes to lyrics my brain goes for a toss - My hypothesis is that its the rhythm and melody of the song that confounds my basic skills of mastering the lyrics of a composition. :/  ]

But i never thought, those few verses that i uttered for these little girl bullies on the playground would turn  catastrophic  for me, because the very next day when the teacher decided to give us some free-time, the gals wanted to hear me sing that song again. [ Grrrrrr... Now the entire class would know about my dumb song.. :/  ]
And from there on, every time a new teacher was assigned to our class, she would be blessed ( cursed ) to hear me sing that song. Though the chants of 'Rino...' 'Rino....' 'Rino...' should have made me feel more like a rock star, but it only startled and terrified me and i held onto my wits as i tried to remember the verses of my song correctly - every time i was asked to perform.

Over the years I  lost count of how many times i had sung this song for my class , but it was always fun to sing it for them - some of them joined in, some of them giggled like they were still hearing it for the first time, some of them jeered at me , while some of them just went about minding their own business and not bothering about my plight. :/

But this went a step further, when one day i was summoned by a teacher to a senior class, she wanted me to sing the song for her class. I was stupefied, one  look at the stone-faced tall hefty teenagers, and tremors ran down my spine. I felt like a tiny buffoon who had wandered into the land of barbarians and my only way out was to make them laugh. :/

So i resigned to my fate and began my song, the first verse was over and the faces till remained the same (or may have hardened a bit more ) , i stammered and fumbled on to the next verse and there was still no effect on my apathetic listeners :/ Small beads of sweat appeared on my forehead and my cheeks seemed to be on fire, hot air blew out from my ears - and with the third verse, i felt that any moment now the crowd would start hurling things at me, the fourth verse was over and i heard a few giggles come from the crowd , my nerves relaxed a bit and as i ended the song - the crowd was in peals of laughter. Phew!!!
I'm not sure whether their mirth was at my feeble attempt to make them laugh with a song that was too dumb for their age, or they simply did find it amusing but i was relieved that my task was done , i dashed out from there, resolving never to sing this song again in my life!

And so  from then on whenever i was requested to sing a song- i would pick up some complicated Sanskrit shlok ( hymn ) or some song in my native tongue ( Malayalam ) making sure that my audience had no knowledge of what i was trying to hum, that way i was safe and nobody would ever know even if i messed up the lyrics . Smart eh! ;)


But after years, when i was requested /appealed / beseech-ed / provoked and threatened my those very brats to sing the song, it felt a bit nostalgic that over the years they still remembered by dumb song and it really did bring a big smile on my face :)

So here goes the song ( no need to close your ears, m not singing it.. :/  )
Interestingly, i haven't forgotten the lyrics of this song- guess some things remain etched in our memories forever!

P.S : For those who have stumbled by from a non-Hindi land, sorry no translations available here - basically the song is just about the ordeal i go through while trying to cook up an eggplant from my uncles farm... Hmmmm :/

Mere mama lagaye bazaar, ke baigan bade mazedaar
Mere mama lagaye bazaar, ke baigan bade mazedaar 

Mein toh baiganya todne lagee, mein toh baiganya todne lagee
Kaate ghuse do chaar, ke baigan bade mazedaar
Mere mama lagaye bazaar, ke baigan bade mazedaar  

Mein toh baiganya katne lagee, mein toh baiganya katne lagee,
Keede nikle do chaar, ke  baigan bade mazedaar
Mere mama lagaye bazaar, ke baigan bade mazedaar  

Mein toh baiganya chachne lagee, mein toh baiganya chachne lagee,
Makhi gire do chaar, ke baigan bade mazedaar
Mere mama lagaye bazaar, ke baigan bade mazedaar  

Mein toh baiganya parosne lagee, mein toh baiganya parosne lagee,
Dande mile do char , ke baigan bade mazedaar
Mere mama lagaye bazaar, ke baigan bade mazedaar  

Mein toh baiganya fekane lagee, mein toh baiganya fekane lagee,
Kutte bhoke do char , ke baigan bade mazedaar 

Mere mama lagaye bazaar, ke baigan bade mazedaar
Mere mama lagaye bazaar, ke baigan bade mazedaar 

Gosh!!! I'm engaged?????

[Prologue : Here 'Me' is the evil side of Rino that sometimes pops-up in her mind and scoffs at her good side and makes her think up evil things in her head. None of this was said out loud, but still good Rino apologizes if anybody's sentiments/ feelings were hurt....(Evil Rino lifts up a huge dictionary and thwacks Good Rino's head with it - "That should take care of you for sometime") ]

13th June 2012

6.00am: 

Rrrr-- Rinnnnnnnng Rrrr-- Rinnnnnnnng

[ Me: What the heck is that noise...  :( :(  Grrrrr... it's that annoying alarm clock... Somebody please flush it away... Oh nooooooooo wait... It's the alarm on my dear mobile ... toooo deary to be flushed away. ]

 Hands find the snooze button and normalcy returns in Rino's wonderland finally. Sigh!

6.10am: 

Wake-up! Wake-up! Wake-up!

 [ Me: Why? Why? Why? ]

6.11am: 

Have a bath n be ready... the beautician will be here at exact 7.30 am.. Come-on! Come-on! Come-on!

[ Me: How does Mum always know what evil Rino is up to...  :O  ]

Open an eye-lid to just measure the magnitude of Mum's wrath  and if i could still catch (steal) a few winks.. ;)

6.15am:

 Feel a strong tremble.... the bed seems to rock..

[Me: Earthquake! Earthquake! Earthquake!]

But it was just Mum doing her best to wake me up on time :/

I am nudged and pushed  into the bathroom to take a shower!

[ Me: What does a person need to do to get some peaceful sleep around here... Uffff :/  ]

7.30am: 

I step out of the shower and the beautician is at the door.

[ Me: Wow! Bang on time.. Seems these people are the only ones who do not follow IST ( Indian slow time.. ;) ]

7.35am: 

Mum serves milk and carrots. [Me: Ewwww ]

Don't ask me how i did it.. But i managed to gobble up the carrots and drain them down with the glass of milk in one shot.

Meanwhile, the stylist  had gotten to drying my hair...

8.00 am: 

Half an hour and my hair still looked tousled.. The stylist was hard at work to keep my unruly hair in place.

[ Me: Poor lady!.. Today you have to deal with the life-time crisis of trying to get  these wild locks in place. Muhahahahaha.. :/  ]

8.05am: 

The stylist gives up on my hair and started working on my face.

8.45am: 

After countless strokes of greasepaint, eye-shadows, blushes, eye-liners and an enormous number of bottled-things ( that i m not familiar with ) gets emptied on my face - I'm finally allowed to take a peek at myself in the mirror..

[Me: What!.. I'm clown-white..Is this how it should be..?????. Somebody Help! Help!.. Get me a huge dictionary again.... :/  ]

The neighbors and friends who had dropped by to catch a glimpse of the 'Cinderella in making' all nodded an approval and claimed that the bride-to-be looked absolutely stunning. The compliments lit up fairy godmother's (stylist) face and she hustled around giving finishing touches to her masterpiece..leaving me completely baffled. :/

9.00am: 

Now came the draping of the Saree.. and the moment i had been dreading the most.

[Me: How the hell am i going to carry this 20 pound Saree the entire day.. :( :(  Oh ... please ... please ... secure it up with as many safety pins as possible. I never thought a Saree would scare the hell out of me! :/  ]

9.45 am:

The finishing touches were done, including lot of hairspray to  keep my hair in place.

10.00 am:

Its getting late!! Come-on Come-on Come-on!

[Me: what.??? Its not till 10.45.. And the venue is just 5 min drive away.. Whats all this hurry about... Grrrrrrr..]

10.10 am: 

We reached the venue. [Me: Huh! there's nobody to even welcome me.. :/  ]

And the plight began... as i had encountered the first set of stairs, I have never hated stairs so much in my life. I had to tread the stairs knock kneed praying that i do not trip on the Saree with my 2-inch high heals.

[Me: You can do it... just five steps.. four to go.. three....oh.. wait slowdown..careful...  two...one... yooohooo.. done!!! Thank God... that's over for now..:)]

10.15 am: 

The photographer comes running and requests me to climb up the stairs again so he can capture it for the video of my arrival

[Me: Are you crazy???? And why do you think i need a video of me walking like Charlie Chaplin ???? Do you think this is a moment I would like to remember.....:/  ]

But since I was warned to remain in my bridal demure for the entire day- I had to politely oblige the photographer to capture my awkward moments of faltering over the stairs like a baby starting on her first steps. Sigh!

10:30 am: 

I enter the auditorium and a few heads turn and i hear a murmur through the small crowd of the grooms relatives

[Me: Better say good things about me... or should i warn you about the dictionary that may come your way! ]

10:45am: 

The ceremony started. We were made to stand for the prayers - which seemed to go on forever.

[Me: I have heard this prayer song all through my childhood days.. But it used to be so short and 

sweet..why the hell is it taking so long today???? Has the priest decided to add a few more verses to 

the song just because i knocked out good Rino for a couple of hours.. Huh! ]

11.05 am: 

Finally the prayers ended and the time came to sit down to exchange the rings - never in life i had to sit down cross-legged while wearing a Saree...and with a thousand eyes watching you , the task just seemed even more impassable. I shut my eyes and just plonked down, but i landed in a very awkward half sitting position because of the Saree...

 [Me: God ... please don't make anybody notice this.. I would be the next joke of the millennium.]

But curse the digital media these days - its everywhere on Facebook and even in my engagement album and the videos...and just like my stumbling walk my graceless posture to was made a Kodak moment for generations to revel. Sigh!

 [Me :For those of you who failed to notice it, dare you rush to FB to check it out.. I'm all set and ready with the dictionary  :/  )

The engagement rings were placed in front of us and i instantly had butterflies in my stomach.. Of course not because of the thought of being engaged -that hadn't struck me yet.

 [ Me : What if the ring slipped and fell out of my butterfingers ?? Would there be a hushed silence followed by the gasped looks , hushed tones murmuring 'Apshakun' (bad omen) , with the camera highlighting the panicked looks on my parents face.] Hmmmm... i know Ekta Kapoor serial effect.. : P

Thankfully we had no problem in getting the rings on as they were totally loose for our fingers as we both had lost a few pounds. Yeay! (Every ounce of fat lost is a matter of joy- who cares whether the rings fits you or not.. :D )

We waited for the priest to finish off the concluding rituals so we would be back on our feet. Though i had managed to put on a patient face, it was fun to watch hubby-to-be being totally restless to stand up again. At least we were in it together - already following the norms of marriage - 'to be with each other in sickness and in health' i guess! :P

1:00 pm: 

We were still greeting the guests who had come to bless us, but i swear my jaws were totally stiff from trying to give that perfect pose with every guest and the growling tummy was not helping either.

Finally the last guest had wished us and it was time for me to hog like a pig, but the photographers whisked us away for some candid couple photographs.

[ Me: Really...  candid photos??? I am tired .. Please somebody find me some Food! Food! Food! ]

1:45 pm:

Finally i had the plate in my hand and off i went piling it up with the yummy food. I was just about to take my first bite and the photographs came hustling to get a shot of us feeding each other.

[ Me: Have some mercy guys!! Please!! ]

But the pleading looks did not dither them so we had to oblige.

2:30 pm:

Everything was done and it was time to pack up and go home , get rid of the Saree and the excess amount of hair spray out of my hair - which had still left my hair to look like i had just been electrocuted.

[ Me: Ohhhh!! This event has really shaken me up! Need to go into exile for a few days... Phew!! ]

Well so it took me 3 months, countless texts/calls asking me 'You getting married so early??' (to which i hotly reply 'Chill guys... there is still time... :/  ' ) and burning a huge hole in my pocket from giving engagement treats (to the evil ones celebrating my misery .. :/ ) and this post to  realize - Gosh! I am engaged ???? 

P.S: Though i missed all my near and dear ones (with who i share a blood relationship ) as they couldn't make it to the ceremony, I thank my other near and dear ones- the ones who held my hands and took me to school, the ones who prayed when i got sick or was about to give an exam, the ones who took care of me when Mum was out of town, the ones with whom i dreamt of marrying that perfect guy, the ones who taught me to bunk classes, the ones who celebrate when i ace a test or crack an interview.... Thank-you  uncles, aunties and all my friends for always being there for me -  you guys will actually make the Germans who coined the proverb 'Blood is thicker than Water' run for their money... :D

Hmmm... curious about the guy who is to take me as his wife,.... ummmmm well doesn't he deserve a whole new post ?? *winks* 

(Also I'll need to devise a way to block him from reading that post. Hehehe :D )

The unknown... the unseen.. ?

Over the weekend I've been playing songs from around a decade ago and this song kinda got stuck in my head and has been running in a loop ever since. :tone :tone :tone

... andekha anjana sa
            pagala sa diwana sa
               jaane woh kaisa hoga re....

[For the ones who have wandered by from the non-Hindi land, here's my feeble attempt to a word-to-word translation ]

... unknown and unseen
         crazy and passionate
            don't know how he's really gonna be...

[Those who have a better translation please feel free to leave it in the comments section.]

Yeah I know the song sounds very  silly now. But back in my teens I was a die-hard fan of those cheesy gooey mushy romantic Bollywood movies. [ Somewhere in my heart I still am .. ;) ]
Those movies were soooo very dreamy that it made me  sketch in my heart and mind the image of that perfect dream guy - my 'andekha anjana sa '....  :/


Everything was crystal clear to me- his physique, his charming personality, his thoughts, his attitude, what he thought about me, how he reacted to my antics, his magnetic smile, the deep husky voice - apart from his face of course..  :(  The face was always very hazy.

Since it was all in my head - I knew him perfectly well. :)
He was the guy who loved me the most in this world. He would treat me like a queen everyday and consider himself fortunate that his lucky stars had bought me to him.
[OK stop chuckling now.. its my story.. my script... and I always play the upper hand here.. :P ]

The very thought of him - and my heart would start racing. His one look gave me goosebumps. He was slightly haughty but equally humble. He could be hilarious and solemn at the same time.
He totally got me and was equally mesmerised by me as I was with him.
Yeah I know - he was soooooooo very real to  me that it might all sound very creepy !

I started to compare and tally the guys I met in real life with the dream guy in my virtual world and finally strike them out  as none of them even came close to being him.

Life took its ugly turns and thoughts became mature, people came and left and the hope of finding my ' andekha anjana  ' started fading slowly, sometimes making me wonder - had my prince charming lost his way in the dark woods and was too stubborn to ask directions to his beautiful princess. Yeah I know i can get really filmy at times. Sheesh .. :/

Finally with age came wisdom ( hair loss and wrinkles ) , realisation struck hard - I was never gonna meet my ' andekha anjana ' as he was toooo perfect to be real and God had never intended to incarnate anyone like him. Ahhh... growing up really sucks ! :/ 

Guys who have stumbled by stop guffawing.. :P

Believe it or not but every gal has an ' andekha anjana ' in her teens - that perfect guy whom she creates and re-creates in her dream world and then you unruly boys barge in , burst her bubble shake her up from her deep slumber and make her face the ugly truth that - its all a whimsy !
Sigh <\3  

Movie-thon

In your life you bump into a person who changes the course of your life  and sets your sails in a completely different direction. Nope m not talking about the sole mate stuff... : /
Its a person who makes you do wild things, makes you more impulsive and most of all its a person whom your parents dread and warn you never to be friends with. But in spite of all this your friendship stands the test of time, criticisms and objections. : )

Yup I have one such friend, who altered my life in  a lot of ways and made me do a lot of stuff , stuff which I never thought I would / could do in my wildest of dreams. She added that extra spice and taught me to live life with a zing!

This post is about one of the less crazy stuff that she talked me into doing sometime back.

Being an ardent Bollywood fan, she hatched up this crazy plan of doing a movie marathon. You would ask - Wat's so crazy about it ? Well watching your favourite movies in  a loop cuddled in your comfy bean bags with yummy food is a totally different affair. And oh yeah don't forget the discretion of pausing the movie for your bathroom breaks.

My dearest friend's version was to do a movie marathon at the cinemas. Yup! the plan was to pick three movies that were currently running (regardless of their reviews) and watch them back-to back at the cinemas. And it turned out that our options were really very meek and pathetic. : /

 She roped me in for her ambitious adventure as i m an ideal candidate, OK  now...other than the fact that I forget the names of some the actors/actresses and can never seem to  place them wen i see them again in another movie /ad or forget which song is part of which movie - I m totally head over heals in love with the Bollywood masala flicks. :P

 And moreover I jumped at the idea coz its always a double delight watching a movie with her - the occasional hoots and the hilarious remarks can turn any dull and lifeless movie into a total entertainment.

So  what  had I to lose [ other than a truckload of cash ] , even if the movies turned out to b a bummer, her jest would keep us alive and get us through...We' ll my prophecy was soon gonna be shattered to pieces... : (

We checked the movie timings for the nearest cinemas and zeroed in on 8.50am (Karthik Calling Karthik) 11.30am (Teen Patti) 2.15am (My name is Khan)... Yeah now u  know what I had gotten myself into. : / And two more souls volunteered themselves for the crucifixion.

The first challenge was to arise on a Saturday morning at an unearthly hour  and reach the movie-house on time to book our tickets for the three shows. Yeah... technology or no technology we weren't fans of the on-line booking system back then... And i really don't know why - coz that would have saved us from the crazed look of the guy at the ticket-counter -  when he saw a bunch of drowsy gals booking movie tickets for three shows in a row. He kept confirming that, were all the tickets for the same day. Sheesh.. : /

Oh I forgot, my friend had also invited one of her guy friend  (a totally new acquaintance for us ) who was very eager to watch ' Karthik Calling Karthik' . Well his movie - watching experience with us must have been extremely harrowing as he made a bee line out of the cinema hall the moment the first movie ended and we have never heard about him ever since. Hope he is still in the pink of health.. : P

Well getting back to our ordeal, the first movie went quite well till the interval but then began our extreme agony of having to listen to the shrill 'Trinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnng...' 'Trinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnng....' every few seconds. Couldn't the directors of the movie think of a better ring tone for the damn phone. The screeching sound made me pull out my hair... harder and harder... had the movie been any longer I swear  I would have  gone totally bald ! : /

We grabbed a few popcorn and samosas n rushed into the next screen for the second movie. ' Teen Patti ' seemed to be shot completely without the lights. It seems after paying the stalwarts like Sir Ben Kingsley and  Big B , the producers din have enough to pay for the lighting technicians... And the whole movie seemed to be shot in a dark cellar, we had to keep craning to see what was actually happening. : (

The oily food, the re-bounding chairs (every time u lean back to rest ur tired back, the back-rest would bounce back with double force) and the freezing temperature of the air-conditioners along with the harrowing movies had  left us completely drained out.
Even my friend who is always upbeat and full of energy was fully subdued .First time ever, in the 15 yrs I have known her.. ;)

Before the last movie, we got a cup of steaming hot coffee and settled down to watch the KJo-SRK-Kajol saga. Though the movie was highly melodramatic, the aesthetics really soothed our eyes and ears. The movie did relieve us from some of our sufferings. KJo sure knows how to make an eye-pleasing movie. :)

Thus ended our first ever movie-marathon. And though it left us dead with lot of cramps and muscle spasms and took us days to adjust to the 'Trinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnng' 'Trinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnng'  sound  of the desk phones at work, I just feel totally elated and awe-struck that we got through it!
Just wish i could put it on my resume  as a whooping achievement ;)

 Oooooops.. will this post  trigger any new loony ideas by our schematist. : P

But the next time we do this - lets read the reviews first and go to a movie house with recliners Please!.. : /

Indianisms....????... Why so?

As a corporate newbie we had to go through an Indianisms training, to get rid of the commonly used Indian variants of the English phrases and terms. And this got me thinking about -  would it ever be possible to get rid of the icky Indianism that has been deep-rooted in our systems since generations...??

We Indians are a nosey bunch of people, we have an opinion/ view about anything and everything. It gives us immense pleasure to poke our long noses into other people's affairs. Be it their attire, their size or weight, their jobs, getting hitched or being single, having kids or the lack of it.... we never refrain from dishing out our unsought views and suggestions. But the moment we get a taste of our own medicine we shrink and wince and quiver.  Why so?

We grumble about our streets not being clean,but never seem to bother when we chuck out the next piece of chocolate wrapper. Why so?

We groan about the long lines of traffic and the damn roadblocks and traffic congestions, but we never give it a thought when we whizz past another red traffic signal or barricade. Why so?

We can write-off cheques as donations to a charity fund to get a tax waiver but we cringe at the thought of  lending a helping helping hand to an accident victim or a poor hapless chap on the street. Why so?

We are enraged at the corruption and scams in our country but never think twice when we bribe the traffic cop to get out of a parking ticket. Why so?

We despise the custom of dowry giving/taking but always are on the look-out for the girl  who has the most number of assets attached to her name or brings home the fattest pay-check. Why so?

We advocate that 'all Indians are one' but weasel out when our kids propose to marry out off caste/religion. Why so?

We allege that Politics is a dirty game and our country is going to the dogs but we never move our big fat asses and venture out of our homes to cast a vote and exercise our right. Why so?

We vouch and root for many social causes till it involves clicking the Forward button on an email but turn a blind eye when someone in our own vicinity is being a social nuisance. Why so?

We want new and more stringent rules/laws to be imposed by our country but we never make an effort to abide by them and are always trying to find a loophole to getaway. Why so?

We voice and raise our dynamic thoughts to sketch out a new India, but all our energy fizzles out when we have to take that tiny step forward to make a difference.
Why so?
:/

Governed by IT!

"The brain is a wonderful organ; it starts working the moment you get up in the morning and does not stop until you get into the office.” : P
But I feel on some days it stops working even when we do not have to go to office. : (

Being an IT professional and working 5 days a week for countless hrs a day, sometimes it really gets to me. And I remain in my work-mode even on weekends or when I m on leave.
How so?
Picture these incidents:

- Sometimes I find myself wearing the company ID card on weekends when I m just going out with friends for a movie or to the store to get something. : /


- Sometimes while driving to a friend's place, I try flashing my company ID card to the security guard there when he asks me to sign the visitors book, yelling ' I work here! ' : /
[ Happened twice already, he's surely gonna shoot me next time. :O ]


- Sometimes I hold my hands in front of the tap at home expecting water to flow out automatically without turning the knob on. : /
[ This ones a classic, and my Dad who was waiting behind me to wash his hands after dinner thought I was sleeping standing up. Sheesh : / ]


- Sometimes when I feel cold at home, I tell Mum - we should raise a ticket to get the temperature adjusted : /
[ Mum keeps wondering, has my daughter totally lost it! :O ]


- Sometimes when I pick-up a call (especially on the landline ) I m prompted to say " Hi Mark, This is Rino here. And my status for today is.... "
[ Standard dialogue from my everyday status call at work ]


- Sometimes I end my personal emails with ' Please revert in case of any queries. ' : /


-  I try to log on to my personal computer at home using ' Ctrl+Alt+Delete ' : /


- I do not access my personal mail accounts / certain sites at home thinking they might be blocked anyway.


- Sometimes  when I am using my personal computer at home and it's 1pm, I immediately log on to    FaceBook thinking that it will be blocked in an hour. : /


- Sometimes I try to login to my personal accounts using my office ID and password. And when the login fails, I keep wondering, ' Oh Lord! Have my credentials expired or did someone hack my account and change the password.' :O


- Sometimes I give my extension number ' 6431 ' instead of my mobile number,  making the clueless person grumble ' Crazy woman, Am i supposed to guess the rest of the 6 digits! ' . Sheesh : /


- Sometimes when I m watching a movie at the cinemas or on  TV,  i keep glancing at the right hand bottom corner to check the time and wonder ' Who the hell disabled the taskbar?? ' : /


- Whenever I see a black screen, I m prompted to type-in the ' ANT ' command to compile my java program. : /


- When I m stuck on an error which does not get resolved or even reproduced on my environment for days,  my dreams are filled with pages and pages of log file errors. : /
[ Nasty errors really kill my beauty sleep.. :P ]


- Sometimes when somebody doesn't follow what I say [happens most of the time], I exclaim 'He's encountered a compile error!'
[Yup I can get really nerdy at times. :P]


And the best one-


- I wake up at 9am on a Sunday morning and think ' Damn, Am I late for work today ? ' :O

Phew!
Yeah I know I really really need a break!.. :D

Do you have any occupational hazards to share???

First Interview!

Nope this post is not about my first job interview. This is about the first interview of my life. Confused?
Well I was 2 years and 6 months old and this nerve-racking interview was to gain an admission into a kindergarten of a prestigious school. : O

For many Indian parents, getting their children into the right kindergarten is simply essential. Why? Well, Obviously, the right kindergarten leads to the right primary school, which leads to the right secondary school, which leads to Harvard, Yale or Oxford or the prestigious IITs which leads to . . . Nirvana! :P

So my parents too were under the illusion that the right kindergarten was an indispensable launching pad for an illustrious academic career and they were hell bent upon getting me into one of the very famous school in our vicinity.

Thus started the gruelling sessions of preparing me for the interview, since the day they heard me babble out a few random words, my parents  started pointing out things around me and make me repeat those words. How boring! :P

Sometimes the guest and relatives who dropped by also started making me say things, which sometimes irritated me as they were just doing it for their amusement and never even gave me the promised chocolates.  Bribe a little kid, and don't even pay up!  How very mean. : /

So i would start to  become balky and refuse to answer their questions, and they would try to enact a little tough love by taking away my favourite toys, thereby causing me to go 'Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa' breaking all the bearable decibel limits, but of course ensuring that I got back my toys without  having to answer their stupid questions. Smart eh! :D

Dad would sometimes play nursery rhymes on the player, hoping that I would catch a few words and learn them, but I of course found the Bollywood songs more catchy and would start saying random words from Hindi songs and  prance around the room happily while the lady in the tape was going 'Jack and Jill went up the hill.....' , leaving Dad to tear his hair out and yell 'Daivameeeee !' ('Oh Lord!'). Yup it was quite a rhapsody and would have given any musician a severe heart-attack. : )

Though the tunes of all the nursery rhymes sounded the same, In the end, I still managed to master a few nursery rhymes, the only problem being I would pen my own lyrics on the fly by borrowing stanzas from different poems.. : /

So finally the day of my interview dawned and like everyday I made a ruckus about why I was not allowed to wear my favourite pink fairy dress, but my parents wanted me to make a good impression on the interviewer so I had to dress-up appropriately. Really is there a formal dress code for a kid interview too ??  :O
And so the demand for my fairy dress was settled with a bribe of a big milk chocolate. Yup chocolates remain the only way to bribe me even today! :D

The interviewer though din seem so impressed with my frock, but she used it as a prop and asked me to name all the colors in it.
Geez Mom thanks, if you would have allowed me to wear my pink fairy dress all i had to say was 'PINK' but now this multi-colored polka dot frock was gonna  land me in trouble. : (

So i was bombarded with a lot of questions ranging from my name, to what i had for break-fast, different fruit-names, nursery-rhymes so on. Yeah it still puzzles me that if a kid ought to know all these things for an interview, what were the teachers going to teach us in kindergarten. : /

They grilled me for 15 mins straight ( yes it seems like an era in kiddie world ) and luckily for my parents I being an outgoing kid then than the introvert person that I'm today, I answered most of  the questions cheekily.

Then came the bumper question that would seal my fate, the teacher asked me to draw a mango on a sheet of paper.I readily obliged and  drew a big blob with a leaf like thingie on the top and colored the entire blob green.

Teacher - "Baby, mango has yellow color not green."
Me (looking confused) - " Er... This I like."
Teacher (totally lost) - ?

What i wanted to tell her was that, I liked the green (raw) mangoes than the yellow sweet ripe ones. Mangoes will and always remain green for me. :P
Well my love for green mangoes got me kicked out of my first interview and my parents dream school.
Sigh.

After years of changing schools, I again landed up at the doorsteps of the same school that  had rejected me for my green-mango-love.
After going through my excellent score cards of the previous years, the principal was impressed and admitted me into the school even though there was no vacancy (as only 60 students were allowed in one class.)

.....That's how i gate-crashed into my parents dream school and became Class 4 Div- A Roll No - 61 student with an extra desk all for myself. : )

You see Mom Dad, you just had to let me do it my way :D

And even though i din attend Harvard, Yale nor have any plans to attain Nirvana anytime in life, I still  seem to have turned out pretty well. I think. :P

What's in a name?

I'm immensely proud of the unique name that my parents gave me, But it sometimes (*read most of the times) drives me nuts when people fail to pronounce / spell it right...

How hard is it?? Its just a four letter word R - I - N - O or more clearly just a two syllable word 'Ri' 'No'

There are people in my life who have been conveniently using different variations of my  name to address me, my humble efforts to correct them have always remained futile and

every time I try to correct them, they stare blankly at me with a whats_wrong_in_what_I'm_saying look  : / and that look Shhhshs me up instantly... : P

 So  I have been stuck with those variant-names for years now .

 Check these out:

 #REENA

My favorite math teacher coined this name for me.

 She handed out some test papers in my first year and my test paper had the name 'Reena' scribbled on it.

 I took the paper back to her and said that this wasn't my paper and so these weren't my scores.

 She took one look at the paper and said that it was mine and I suck at math.. : (

  I agreed that I suck at Math, but c'mmon this wasn't at all my name.. : /

 Me-  "Ma'am but my name is not 'Reena' its 'R-I-N-O' "

 Teacher-  "Rino ?? what kinda name is that ?? "

 Me-  "Ummm.. Er.. The one my parents gave me i guess ? "

 Teacher-" It doesn't sound right at all, and to me calling you 'Reena' appears simpler. So now stop arguing  and go improve your math scores."

 Me- ?

 And that's how I have been stuck with 'Reena' for the past 13 yrs now and though Math still creeps the hell out of me, I have so gotten used to it that every time I hear her say 'Reena' it makes me smile... : )

# RINU

One of my aunt and a neighbour calls me this since my birth, to them its easier to use the syllable 'U' than 'O' coz if you call-out 'Rinoooooooooo'  its sounds very shrill and 'Rinuuuuuuuuuuu' sounds very sweet.

Geez Aunties, thanks for changing my name to be in perfect harmony of your vocal chords... :P

But i got to agree that when my Mum calls-out to me as 'Rinoooooo' it does sound like some fishermen-folklore.. : /

# RENU

Most of the people call me 'Renu' as they feel no Hindu female name ends with  'O' , it should either end with 'A' or ' I ' or 'U'

Really ?? That made me embark on one of my life's quest of trying to find a reasonable Hindu feminine name ending with 'O'

Countless failed google searches and references has not dithered me in my quest yet, but a little help here would not b that bad.. : D

#R(h)INO

I swear I'll kill the next person who uses this word to address me. Really Rhino ???  Dude please use a spell-check, there is no 'h' in my name.. : /

My grandparents and maternal relatives back in my native place call me with many nicknames and I think they have actually forgotten my real name coz when the postman came with a letter addressed to me, my grandpa said "The address is correct, but who the hell is Rino?" Sheesh. : /

I'm sure the ones who have stumbled by here and are reading this post are vigorously making a google search to find out the meaning of the word 'Rino'. Yup I did it too, but the damn Google reports that Rino means 'Little King' in Italian and is used as a BOY's name.

Noooooooooo... Noooooooooo.. It's a girls name!.. a girl's name!... No matter what the pizza dudes think. :P

I really hate you 'Google' even though you help me a lot at work  for this defamatory remark that Rino is a 'Boy's name'. Bleah!.. : /

And I would also like to stick with my dad's version that he named me 'Rino' which means 'new' in Greek after reading the word in a political science book coz my birth gave a new meaning to his life.. [Wow! that's really very cool Dad, but I still wish you had picked up  the Book with baby names when u were planning to name your baby... :P]

Though I do have doubts regarding my dad's version (probably he just used this tale to soothe my feelings towards the bizarre name they gave me), my humble request to any of the  Greek experts who have stumbled by is please please do not burst my bubble ever.. : |

In college when I had introduced myself, one of the professors had exclaimed "Is it Greek!"

I had taken it as a question and explained to him that yes it was and it means 'new' in Greek.

But now that I think of it, he could have just been using the expression 'Your name sounds all Greek to me..' Sheesh : /

Having said and gone through all that, I too would want to name my kid with a unique name so that one day he/she can grow up and sue me for crippling him/her for life... : P

Guess it runs in my genes now... Muhahahahaha.. : D

How hard can it be?

She stares at the blank notepad open on the desktop screen .. The cursor blinking on the first line waiting for her fingers to type in the words ...
Thousands of words seem to be flying through her head.. But they seem to be flying at a speed even faster than light..without making any  damn sense... : /
She closes her eyes, trying hard to make sense of the haphazard thoughts in her head... It seems like every brain of her cell is processing a different thought and the  harder she concentrates,the ramblings just get even more distant ... : (
Suddenly she jumps up in her seat.. Eureka!!! .. Got it ...
Her fingers hit the keyboard and fumbles around looking for the right letters to key in her thoughts..
She finds the letter 'D'... But wait, was it 'B' that i was looking for.. No its was 'D'  for sure!!!.. Err.. what was it i actually wanted to write??? : |
The words seemed to have dissolved into thin air again ...
Oh God, why the hell is this so hard!!!! .. : (

She glares at the keyboard as if it was it's fault, that the words seem to play hide-n- seek in her head..
She looks at the blank notepad.. with a hope that the harder she stares at it, the words would magically materialise on her screen.. Finally she gives up and resolves to someday locate the Hogwarts school that would teach her this skill !

Ummm.. probably its the digital world that's making it so hard.. So she ditches the computer, pulls out a paper and picks up a pen to write the amazing second post for her blog..

But an hour later all she could get was a flower doodle, which looked more like the blazing sun.
Sigh.
... And some of her idiot friends had convinced her she could write.

Bleah ! : /

First Post!

Yippeee... Created my first blog.. Finally.... :D