And I'm off on vacation

Its almost 4am and has been one long night. Yep, I’ve been packing and since I leave at 5:30 in the morning to the Railway Station to catch my train to Cochin it doesn’t really make sense sleeping. All those who don’t know me too well, yep I’m a crazy insomniac who doesn’t like the idea of sleeping. I’ve always come home for the weekends from my college in Chengannur during my four years there and there have been days when I hadn’t slept on both Sat night as well as Sun night and I would end up having a nice nap during my labs. Its always fun being caught ‘coz at most times I end up answering all the questions asked by my dearest lecturers when I’m half asleep. Hmmm…have a feeling I ought to sleep more often, might actually come up with some innovation that I can patent and make millions…

Wanted to start this blog entry talking a bit on marriages. I really can’t understand the concept behind putting tons of gold on the bride. I really pity brides on their marriages, they’ve to paste a smile on their faces 24X7 as well as hold all the gold on their neck without stooping. Hmmmmm………guys seriously wats the point in all that? Yes ppl, it does imply that we guys will have to end up giving her a massage on her neck for atleast a month plus to get it back to normal….in case you’re a keralite muslim....increase that tenfold! Our cultures are pretty unique…and I guess I kinda figured out where the world got an idea of putting an ‘L’ board on vehicles with users who’ve just got a new license (alright its not exactly a new license but more of a learner’s license…didn’t want our naughty users to get ideas). You see our nation devised this ages back, its called “virunnu” in here, when the newly weds have to visit every single household in a 3000 mile radius and yep the poor bride will have to carry the ‘L’ board (read ‘tons of jewelry on her neck’)….why? I’ve never understood. Guess it was a scam that was created by our forefathers and the jewel tycoons like Alukkas and Bhima back when we were some molecule of carbon deep within the crust of the earth…..if it were…you guys at Exon and K-Mart…learn something!

Alright I’m kinda happy with my research and I have to say it out again (all those who’ve heard this before..sorry…I’m too excited)…well its something pretty interesting. “More than 90% of all Indian girls have their names ending with a vowel.”  This does include names that end with a ‘Y’…replace that with an ‘I’ or and ‘E’ and it’s the same result…..yaaaaay!!! Three cheers to Shanim and his discoveries :)

There’s another thing I kinda wanna tell you guys about. A friend of mine was telling me about a forward he got. I can’t really remember the exact thing but it was something like this. A guy and a girl were on a bike, the guy was going fast (duh! nothing new!!) and the girl asked him to slow down as she was getting scared (quit nagging for a change). The guy said it was fun and he refused to slow down but after a while he did….and then he suddenly asked her to tell him how much she loved him and then asked her to take his helmet and put it on. The next thing you know the newspapers scream loud and wide that there was a bike accident and the guy dies while the girl survives….

Ok so it does sound pretty sweet and romantic and stuff…but lets give it a second thought. Theoretically, brake failures aren’t dangerous unless you’re going downhill, you’ve run out of road or you’ve no brains. You see, there is something called engine braking wherein you just leave the accelerator, and start lowering the gears as you gradually reduce speed. Yeah it may cause you engine to blow, but hey wat’s more important, your bike’s engine or your life? You decide! Secondly, he asked her to take his helmet off and put it on…now if I were riding a bike with a brake failure, the last thing I would want is a big huge thing taken off my face to take my vision off the road for a few seconds…the way helmets here are designed, lets make that a few minutes! If they did get into an accident, I’m sure it must’ve been ‘coz of that! And lastly, what was he thinking in the first place?!?!?!?? Its his love we’re talking about right? Who would in their sane mind ride a bike recklessly fast when you have your most precious possession behind you? Ok this sounds pretty weird from one of the most reckless bike riders living inside the Corporation of Trivandrum (also known as Thiruvidangore/Travancore/Thiruvananthapuram…and if some ppl have their way with it Ananthapuri)…but well its true, I wouldn’t ever want the person who sits behind me get hurt ‘coz of me, and well if its someone I love, trust me I’d be going as slow as possible :)….you see, knowing ‘that’ person is sitting behind me, I wouldn’t want the ride to end in the first place….so why move fast??

Weird thoughts yes…aaaah weird reminds me, does any1 really know wat the red button with an inverted triangle on your car is for? Apparently none of the drivers in Kerala do. According to them it’s to tell everyone around them that they’re moving forward in a junction and not taking a turn….hmmm…I personally think most of these guys are just warning us how dangerous they can be in a junction and to keep off. For God’s sake it’s a Hazard light!!! Pissed me off the other day when I had taken my darling out to celebrate the lowering of fuel prices here. Got into sooo many thoughts I’d forgotten to pay attention to the road……a long ride later I came to my senses and well I was halfway to Kanyakumari and had already crossed the border into Tamil Nadu!…I really gotta start concentrating! Speaking of which, I made a huge blunder a while back. Had to get tickets for the morning train and since I hate standing in a long line early in the morning, I decided to get it at 9pm….left home and headed to the railway station which is around 13kms from my place, stood in the line and when I had just another person in front of me I realized I had left my wallet in front of my PC!!! sigh, had to come all the way back and go again to get the ticket :( pathetic me!

Anyways, guess this entry is long enough already…stopping for now…will be back in India  second week of October and hopefully shall keep blogging during my vacation.

Cya guys….

My Dearest Family!



Alright ppl, let me introduce you to my lovely family.

The cutest gal in the pic is my little niece, we call her Aachi...her name's Sereen though, next in line my eldest sister, Sainaja...yep the one in UK...she's a bit famous of late...you see the Malayalam papers here had this competition for the best looking marriage pic and...yep u guessed it right, she won and her pic was on the pprs...hehe my bro in law was jealous..he was hoping his pic would turn up :) Next to my sis is a smart young guy...hehe no not talking about moi...talking about my dad :) He's the best!! I'm standing there in the center with my trademark Close-Up smile...yep I'm hoping that some day I'd get into one of those ads and prove that the toothpaste doesn't really work! My third sis, Saneeja, is standing next to me...yeah she looks dazed...don't ask me why...My mom's standing on the right, as you may have noticed all of us are real pooped...explanation? Its my second sister's marriage and it was in the summer...hot is not the word!...My second sis, Sanuja, is seated (duh! its her marriage!) and that's her hubby Binu...my eldest bro in law, Ferozka (that's wat we call him...a mix of Feroz and Ikka...just incase you didn't know that muslims from Kerala call elder brothers ikka) wasn't able to make it 'coz he ended up in bed with Chicken Pox and yea my third sis ain't married then so Sreejith ain't there either...

Will blog again soon...kinda fascinated by this software called Hello...playing around with it....btw...I'm off from Trivandrum tom on my long holiday before i join my company on the 21st of Oct....yep I'm joining Wipro at Bangalore on the 21st of Oct :) yaaaay!

On a serious note....

Hey guys, I'm back...was a little busy with life and hence didn't really get the time to blog. Alright, first for some news, the queen of England has invited me for tea ;) So maybe the queen of England in reality didn't but my cutie pie niece did...and I'm off the UK for a holiday! Yep, will be off in a week's time and will get back prbbly sometime next month. Shall blog from there as often as I can and keep you posted on how pretty the daffodils are.....uhm..alright other stuff too.

Started the day on a very wrong note today....had to drop my dad off at the airport and since I happened to have an Indian license, I can't drive a car :) Just kidding, so maybe i can drive a car, but well I don't have one and hence can't get anywhere. We rented a cab to get to the airport and on the way back I made a huge mistake of responding to the cabbie's conversations. Ended up getting pretty pissed off and well I still am a bit.

It all started off with a discussion of the recent revision of fuel prices here. Hey I agree it may not be thoroughly justified, 'coz all of us have to end up paying a huge sum from our tiny pockets on fuel, which is an essential commodity. But when you think in numbers, it doesn't seem so bad, considering the fact that the oil prices have risen a whole 10$ a barrel while the increase has been restricted to just 3Rs a litre. Yeah I know, there is a huge difference between a barrel and a litre and they could have kept it a notch lower. Oil prices have been on the rise for the past few months and continues to rise all over the world, and India ain't the only place this is happening. Why else would you explain ppl around most developed nations switching over to more efficient engine technologies and environment friendly means of transportation (read as walking). Our country, atleast my state seems to think otherwise. Guess the communism inside them just makes them want to give everything off for charity and put our government in a greater loss than it already is in. Alright so they want the excise duty reduced, I agree that could help. And I really wish the Central Govt does take a look into that....but seriously, will that end all our problems? I don't think so, if its not fuel, its something else! Yesterday was a state-wide protest on the same and none of the taxis, ricks, and private buses were running. Thankfully Trivandrum has a mass transit system that is run by the State Govt, and hence we weren't affected, but the rest of the state suffered....and well this ain't the first time!

Most people here love talking about how China did this and China did that and then about how Russia did this and Russia did that...hey im no anti-communist, infact I was a pro-communism guy till I got down to Kerala (odd isn't it, most ppl change otherwise...guess my Civics texts had me fooled for a while). At present I just can't understand why each party in our country seems to be contradicting their views which they held when they were the opposition. So China has been growing fast, well so have we...the figures show, and that's one of the reasons why Foreign investments in the country are on the rise and that's the reason why most of us have jobs with pays that our parents and grandparents couldn't dream of when they were youths. China has a lovely way of giving everything to their ppl, but they expect their ppl to do their duties perfectly as well, if not....guess I wouldn't know much but I've heard its hell...Indians on the other hand love getting freebies and goodies out their way, but if you ask them to take a walk down the park and buy a newspaper on the way, they'd say its none of their business! You have people here who actually run around protesting for "God knows wat" just 'coz they get a free meal and 50 bucks at the end of the day (at most times even they have no idea wat they're protesting for!). If they had used their senses and just worked for something that could prove to be productive eventually, we'd prbbly never have had to protest in the first place! What's worse? There are people here who complain about VAT. Guess the rates aren't really all that sensible but well I'm glad they're finally auditing taxes...and hopefully within a year or two the rates should come further down rather than the usual up. More than 50% of our population doesn't really pay taxes properly. Do you?? Why even I doubt if I do. Lets take a normal procedure of buying a computer for example (alright so maybe its not normal but this is one instance i could think of), most shops ask you a question before you pay up....do u want a bill? Uhm...if this was any country besides India, the consumer would have screamed the hell out and probably called up some friends in higher places 'coz of that question, but we indians casually ask if the rates would be lower, to which we get a response that we don't need to pay the sales tax then and we readily agree to purchase a 20k-40k commodity without paying a penny to the government. The government at this point must have an idea to probably build a lovely new road from you home to your office, but its short of funds thanks to you not putting in your part. We end up with a road that has more holes than the moon has craters and end up protesting for the same (oh yes, ppl in here would protest for that). I pity our finance minister who tries so much to get some sense into our ppl's heads about this fact, 'coz well as we are, we just prefer taking everything for granted!

Anyways, I put the conversation to an end when he actually mentioned that he would prefer having the rules of Saudi Arabia in India (no offense to those from KSA). hmmmm...so i guess he's a guy who prefers being held on four sides by bars rather than the freedom which our forefathers so bravely fought to achieve. The air we breath, the words we speak and the thoughts we let out....our freedom! Just can't understand how ppl could have such thoughts crossing their minds. Trust me guys, I've seen things there and I've met people from all over the world (Indians ie.) who just wanna get back and get work here if our country is ready to provide them a decent living. Something that at present seems possible, provided we do something. :) You have no idea how proud I felt when I was in Abu Dhabi talking about the oppurtunities that our country promises us now, our IT sector (it has its problems but its great)...our airlines industry....and almost everything under the sun. Life's just so much better here and we've got all the freedom our heart desires. And yet we complain about the same freedom we take for granted! Oh well.....this is out to deaf ears...so might as well shut up.



Disclaimer:

To all those from the US (including any Govt Agency that may be reading this including Blogger.com's administrators), these are individual views and not meant to cause hatred, but just love for my country. I have absolutely nothing against any of the nations I've mentioned in the article or yours and respect the way of life in the respective countries with all my heart. All I wish to express in this is my frustration at my own people who so readily complain about their Govt, when they are not ready to do anything themselves.

Just another Friday in Trivandrum

Hey guys, thanks for all the feedback :) Alright Alright, I get the picture, will cut down the length of my posts from now on. Hope you guys will continue visiting.

Today I finally went for Friday prayers after a whole 2 weeks....no I wasn't lazy, its just that life wasn't letting me. Two weeks back I was halfway home from Abu Dhabi (ok so maybe Bangalore ain't halfway, but you get the picture) and then last week I was in Administrative hell....also called Kerala Water Authority....the buggers actually charged us close to 5k on water! Alright so we haven't been paying for 10 yrs, but seriously, hasn't God gifted us water and hasn't He given us the right to use water without paying for it!?! Sigh....anyways after a bunch of walking up to different offices strategically placed 10 kms apart from each other in the city, I've finally been instructed by the accounts dept in my ward to pay the bill 4 days later (4 days from today ie.) as he has to update the details of my account. Four days to update a record?? Talk about efficiency....uhm...but wait, I would too, 'coz it would take forever to find a record in the piles of dusty files that lie in these offices.

Anyways, back to where I'd started, I went for prayers and it felt good. Finally got to talk to God about a few things I needed. Its like a huge shopping list everytime I go for Juma'a. Once the prayer was over, I was out and on my way to my bike, which I had to park on the other side of the newly constructed underpass in the city. This is another architectural wonder in Trivandrum. Why a wonder you ask? Well firstly, it really doesn't serve a purpose (yet). The approach roads are designed such that you will reach the tunnel at an alarming speed of 10kmph! No I didn't miss a digit there, I actually meant ten kilometers per hour! The other day I had decided to actually use this underpass....wanted to go from Palayam to Bakery Junction and well this was the best option (the alternative was to drive...ok ride my bike 4kms round two stadiums and cut in to ..... oh well u get the pt, go a long way round). I moved in a real slow pace and finally got to the tunnel, was impressed at the design (barring the bump at the bottom of the tunnel) and was able to cruise through at 80kmph (yeah guys 80 is pretty fascinating here....and considered reckless, more on that later) and finally when i got out of it I get to see a broken down sign that says "One Way"!!! A huge screech and a stare from the man in white and khaki later I was stopped right at the center of the road. Started moving reeeeally slowly and with a huge smile I asked the cop if it was safe to move further or had I lost another 100bucks as a ticket. He just laughed and said it was ok...shocked me! Supposedly PWD considers all sign boards on the road as art and they refuse to remove the same once its no longer required....wats worse? The real "One ways" don't have signboards, just a cop on the other side of the road with a big fat book of tickets. (I've always been lucky, high speeds and tactical movements behind buses and ricks have always helped)

Speaking of my riding, yes ppl I'm considered unsafe on the roads, and so are the rest of the licensed drivers in Trivandrum. Owing to my speeds, most people refrain from sitting pillion on my bike (barring a few friends who love taking risks....got all of them to sign Life insurance with me as the benefactor ;)). So the next time you are in Trivandrum and you see a Blue CBZ with a person whose face is blinded by a bright white light (no this is not my halo....neither is it an ad for a toothpaste...its just the glare off my forehead) avoid sticking your hand out for a lift, 'coz im sure you would regret it.

So what exactly had I started this blog for again....aaah yesh, the Palayam underpass...Its soo beautifully constructed and the engineers have to be applauded for their innovation. This can surely be considered the most idiotic construction as we actually have to walk almost a km to cross over to the other side of the tunnel thanks to there being no provisions for pedestrians....to the guys at Punj & Lloyd, atleast a ropeway would have been good.....besides that, well I'm in for progress, and I'm sure within a year or two, once the road works are finally complete in our heavily dug up town, its gonna be one smooth ride.

Suggestion to Punj & Lloyd, please allot a lane for protesters from the Secreteriat to the Legislative Assembly. You really don't need to build more roads, just get that done and all traffic problems in the city shall disappear.