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Parallel Parking Invention

Posted March 18, 2009

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Interesting memories from Arul's marriage

There are some things which I would like to make a seperate mention about during my 3 day trip to Tiruppur for Arul Mozhi's marriage.

Arul's House
I simply love Arul's house in Nambiyaampalayam. Even though we used to tease her about the village, the place was nice. I didn't goto any other place than her house. But it was neat and I loved it - primarily because of lots of trees which means less sun light and the great location on the terrace. I would like to have some house like that - remote, away from city lights, plenty of trees and garden area. Almost every room should open out into the garden/terrace. In such a place I would like to try my hand at astronomy with some telescopes out in the terrace.

Never drive in Tiruppur
Tiruppur is the worst city for you to drive. The people out there drive without paying any attention to the rules or signal. I saw two accidents there - one involving a lorry hitting the median and lying on its side and second a bike rider hit by another and people carrying him (unconscious) in front of our eyes. Even though I have seen my shares of accidents (one was a tractor driving on a man who fell from the bike), these were horrible.

Learning to multitask
This is one talent which I need to develop - inspired by Vanathi. But it would be difficult as men always have only one thing on their mind. I would like to have constant inputs from my immediate surroundings even if I were immersed in talking/working on the computer. Sort of like SpiderMan (even though I was bitten by a spider, it didn't work).

Plan better pranks for weddings
This one is something which is easy to accomplish as many of my friends will be married off in a few years. I need to think up better pranks and gifts which will make them laugh. One tip I got from one of Arul's friend (Taxi) was to gift one chocolate instead of two - so that the couple will fight over the one small piece. If someone else have ideas/tips for such pranks leave a comment. But I have started receiving threats from some of my friends that they will do something even worse for my marriage.

Missing Arul
I began to miss Arul right after I returned back from Tiruppur. It sort of feels like the way when Reena quit her job (I was still thinking that she would be back soon). Similarly, I am still under the impression that Arul has gone for a short trip to Bangalore and would be back to her Chromepet house. I would miss her hot tea/filter coffee (without sugar or milk sometimes), the omelettes she used to make, Top Ramen whenever I felt hungry, Chappathis and the discussions where I would bitch about work. But one thing sure is going to change. My telephone bill is going to increase many times again (I atlast reduced last month's to Rs.430).

Anyway, it was great fun before and during the marriage. Hope it is even more after.

PS: Most of my friends would think that the last part about "Missing Arul" wasn't written by me - because I am the guy who didn't fill up slam books in college. But guys, sorry to burst your bubbles - I am the sole author of this post.

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Posted March 10, 2009

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Tiruppur trip - Day 3

On monday, I kept the alarm at 4 AM, didn't hear/felt anything (even with vibration) and ended up waking up at 4:30. We both got ready by 5:30 and called up the cab driver to ask where he was. Till he came, we were waiting outside and was talking to one of the MS guy from AU-KBC. Around 6 we started and reached the marriage hall by around 6:30 and again were invited by the elders (when will I learn these stuff?).

We got some place near the gate of the hall - which became advantageous for Sathya. He saw a woman in some blue saree and immediately started looking out for her very excitedly.

In the mean time, on the stage some Tamil Teacher (I think) was reciting some tamil poems instead of the usual Sanskrit mantras. There were the usual rituals which took most of the time and energy of everyone. Unlike yesterday, today the entire stage was full with their relatives.

One important person I forgot to mention was Arul's aunt. If it weren't for her, Karthik would probably have walked around the flame alone. She was the key person who helped (read as dragged) Arul Mozhi walk to every place. Arul insisted that the weight of the dress + jewels + long hair was the reason for discomfort. But we all knew that entire setup was for a normal woman and Arul couldn't get stuff for her size. The only piece of jewellery that she got for her size was the "oddiyanam" (waist chain) from the kid's section (I swear this is true).

At 8:53: “Poor arul cant even walk. Someone must hold her and drag her through.”

After the marriage was over, we went to have out breakfast. Sathya went around all the tables looking for the woman in the blue saree. While coming back (confirming that she was eating), he told that she was married and all the efforts were in vain. However after eating, Vanathi came "asking for a help" - to get some Cadbury's Dairy Milk. Sathya immediately jumped in and asked for a return favour.

After giving the dairy milk, he asked Vanathi, who the woman in blue dress was. She cleverly escaped from him and went away without answering. But if you know about Sathya, you would probably have guessed what would have happened. He called Vanathi by phone and asked her again about the woman. At that time, she revealed the background of the woman. That her name was Swathi and that her husband was a "vettu aruval kaarar". Sathya immediately backed off and said that "Oh its ok. I was just telling that she was pretty. Nothing much".

At 9:15: “Indha satya thirundha ve maattaan”

By around 9:30, the groom, bride and her aunt (of course) went off in their new car (Hyundai Verna) and we thought that was over and started for the hotel. We called up Vanathi and told that we are leaving and learnt that she was in far away from the hall in Tiruppur (wonder what she was doing and how she went there so soon).

After sleeping till 12, we had our lunch and rushed out to the train station. Sathya didn't have a ticket and so got an unreserved ticket. In the station we found two other guys (MS in AU-KBC) and discovered that they were in the adjacent seat to me. Sathya got a confirmed ticket after asking the TTE and sat with us as the guy sitting before us got down in Erode instead of Chennai.

The return journey was pretty boring and when I called Arul sometime in the evening, I learnt Reena's parents had come for the marriage by around 10. I also learnt that they weren't going home. They were supposed to go out and return back - some kind of a custom.

We reached Chennai by around 10 and the two guys ran off as they have to be inside MIT hostel before 11. We both went to Saravana Bhavan (as usual ;-) and after dinner went towards the bus stand.

I immediately got a 15B (A/C vehicle) and since this was one of the trips I wanted to take for a long time, I hopped in. The others trips are a train trip to Chengelpet, riding a double level bus, riding the same bus from start-end-start, etc. I had done only the Chengelpet train trip - once partly with Arul and the other alone.

At 22:40: “Travelling in the ac bus. One task over. Next task - double level bus. Wish arul was here now.”

The bus was superb - no stops inbetween, some really old movie songs, a rear view camera for the driver, etc. It is cheaper than auto and more comfortable. I would recommend you to take it, if there was a bus in your route. But our chennaites tore the seat of even this bus. These are the things which makes us proud.

Click here to download:

Tiruppur_trip_-_Day_3.zip (1525 KB)

I got home from CMBT by around 11:30 PM and hit the bed after checking some mail and feeds. Overall it was a fun weekend and I really enjoyed the trip and the marriage.

And, to finish this series, congrats to the newly wed couple - Arul Mozhi and Karthik.

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Filed under // arul mozhi karthik marriage sathya tiruppur vanathi wedding

Posted March 9, 2009

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Tiruppur trip - Day 2

Day 2 started off with me waking up at 6AM only to set the alarm again for 7AM. Atlast I woke up and had to go and bring the small boy (Balu) from AUKBC to our room. While going to the station, I went in a bus. But returning back I tried to get an auto and the auto drivers in that town must be given some kind of award for cheating customers. They asked for Rs.50 for coming to the hotel. After we came to the room, got ready for our breakfast.

After that we went to the beauty parlor where Arul was getting her face fixed. From there, we went to the Avinashi Temple (which they (Vanathi and Arul) claim to be a copy of the Kasi lingam. I haven't been to Kasi, so I can't verify their claim. After seeing the place, we returned and was waiting for Sathya to come from Coimbatore.

After he came in, Arul sent us a cab to come to the wedding hall. We were supposed to start by 4:30, but ended up starting an hour late. However, by the time we reached the hall, it was 6 PM and people were already getting ready to start with the main event of the day (buffet).

We were invited by a group of elders outside and they invited with usual Vanakkam ("bring two hands together") style. For me I haven't done any such stuff, it was awkward doing it (it would be funny for those who watch the video later).

There were a few things which surprised us:

At 18:21: “In the marriage hall. No cinema songs. Some south indian instruments. Too loud.”
At 18:23: “Why are the ladies and gents sitting seperately. Is this some school auditorium?”
At 18:40: “Hey. Saxaphone. Havent seen that in any marriage.”

Apart from these, the bride and groom came out of their rooms very early (by around 6:45). In Chennai, it would be around 7:30 for them to come. Also there were no groups of people standing behind the two of them (an usual scene in Chennai receptions). Also there weren't any long queues waiting to give the gifts.

We both decided to go and give the gifts (not our gift, other's gift from office) to them. Immediately after giving it, we came from the other end and gave out gift. We were pretty bored and decided to play around for more. We decided to go up on stage again by around 8:30.

In the mean time, Sathya got a bright spark of an idea to give the couple Glucon-D to drink. After getting that, we went to the main road and decided to wrap two Eclairs choclates and give it as the third gift. We got that ready and also avery small chain for Sathya which didn't even fit his neck properly.

By 8:30 almost everyone were finished with everything (gifts and food). We finally gave it and Sathya started to talk about his comedy of "mixing quarter rum instead of Glucon D". He was doing it every 5 minutes and I (and I think many more) was pretty much pissed at it.

We also found that Sathya knows atleast 1.63 people on an average in any place - drop him off to some remote village in India, he is sure to meet some senior of his college or a friend of a friend. He knew some 2 or 3 friends of Karthik and was putting mokkai with them. Some kind of a network he has.

After having the dinner, we hung around the hall to watch what was happening and for some unknown reasons, Arul was mad and angry at Sathya for acting crazy (which is natural for him). If there were a day where Sathya didn't get scolded by Arul, then it would be raining in Chennai.

We left for the day and since we had to wake up early (4 AM) in the morning we decided to hit the bed.

Update: About the gift, it seems some small girl picked our gift and wanted to open it herself. The attractive packaging kindled her curiosity and when she finished opening it, she was terribly disappointed. Last I heard, Arul was planning some slow and painful death for me and Sathya for this prank. She said the same thing when I presented her a T Shirt a year back. I wonder when Arul is going to slip some rat poison in the tea.

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Filed under // arul mozhi karthik marriage sathya tiruppur vanathi wedding

Posted March 9, 2009

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Tiruppur trip - Day 1

Arul Mozhi's marriage was in the last week and we (Sathya and me) sure had to go for it, even though she didn't invite us formally (who needs invitation cards BTW?). Actually Sathya left a bit early for his college alumni meet saying he would join me directly on sunday and I had to go alone. I booked the tickets for an early morning train (Kovai Express) and had to get up very early.

When I reached the train I started tweeting and you can read my tweets or I will also try to paste some interesting ones here (Twitter lost some of my tweets, so better head for the friendfeed page).

At 6:15: “Sitting in kovai express - off to arul's marriage. Departure 615. Books, podcasts, figure across the aisle - everything check.”

Even though there were two girls across the aisle, it wasn't very interesting as they were just eating or sleeping or typing furiously on their mobile. Oops, I also was doing the same thing and they too would have thought about me the same stuff. What a weird world?

The journey was pretty eventless except after Erode there were two blind people trying to sell some stuff for kids. Two constables came around and they were asking them about their life and livelihood. They usually make about Rs. 4 profit for some articles by selling them for Rs.10. But there are some toys which they are unable to sell because of the recent ban on China goods (it was revoked later). There are also people who cheat these blind guys. It was also during this that I learnt that this kind of blindness can run in the family.

Soon Tiruppur came and I got down and called up Arul Mozhi. Her sister, Vanathi answered and was asking me where the hotel was. She said that she is near the place and would pick me up.

At 13:07: “Waiting for the limo.”
At 13:26: “Oh. Not a limo. Just a Hyundai.”

We reached the room and I was told that Arul was having massage and would probably be ready by evening. On our way to the hotel, we had to cross the road and that was total nightmare for me. Vanathi just kept going on without even waiting for the vehicles to stop. I crossed one half of the road with her and the other I was left alone. It took me couple of minutes to get to the safe side.

In the hotel, I waited for a very long time and was watching some really bad songs on the TV.

At 13:35: “Wow. What a view from the window. The next building and the ac compressor. Ah there is the road.”
At 14:26: “My god what song is this? Ajith and some girl. Inge giggly thana ka... Why? Why? Why me?”

Atlast they came we set off to Arul's village - Nambiyampalayam. I really need to tell about the village here and the series of jokes that go around in office.

There was a rumour that her village was so remote that there were no bus stops. All it had were two speed breakers. Here are the steps to get to the village.

Step 1: Throw out your bags out during the first speed breaker
Step 2: Throw yourself (and others with you) out at the second speed breaker.

Failing to follow these, you would find yourself many miles away from your destination (Mettuppalayam).

The second rumour was that there are only 7 houses in total in their village and of that 4 belong to Arul's family. So they form a majority and they make up all the law.

Even though I wanted to go to their village in a bus, she insisted on me coming in the car (confirming rumour 1). On reaching their village, there were about 4 constables (my guess is that they are looking for Arul). They parked the car in their brother's house and made me come into their house through their brother's house and then through the back door. This confirms the second rumour about the entire family occupying majority of the village.

I was taken to their room and there their relatives were asking Arul to get ready for some customs of theirs - to bathe the bride. That was when I confirmed my doubts about Arul not bathing regularly.

I was then asked to go out and wait in the terrace till she gets dressed. I spent about an hour walking on the terrace and found the place beautiful.

At 18:31: “Wow. I love arul's house. No wonder she goes home too often.”
At 18:40: “So many trees around. What was that white bird? OMG! So many diff species. All this time I thought arul was the only one diff.”

But really their house and the village was nice. Put together some bean bags, a projector and some speakers, the terrace was a very good location for an all night hackathon or a roof top film festival. It was a pity I didn't have enough time to look around. Maybe I should go back again sometime and go take a tour of the 7 houses.

Vanathi was my instructor and was telling me to stand/sit/wait in some place - and after a few hours would come back and tell me the next task. After all the bathing stuff was done, they began collecting money (மொய்) from their relatives and it was a huge crowd (meaning big collections). This went on for almost an hour and people began to know about me and that I have come from Chennai. They were thinking that I haven't been to a village and was asking "How are things here? It must be different right?". I was almost bored when my instructor came and dragged me into the crowd (I hate crowds) inside the house where they were doing something with rice, jaggery and some stuff. I forgot the actual term for it and told that it was all part of the custom. Then we had our dinner and everybody (arul's aunt, her sis and a few others) kept teasing me as a "Kid" (குழந்தை). It all started off with Vanathi calling me as Anna (Big Brother) a few days back and she was determined to have fun.

After the food, we were sitting outside near a group of elders (including arul's father) who were discussing about politics. Me and Vanathi were sitting there and talking about all the tamil movie jokes when suddenly Vanathi exclaimed something about what they were talking. Maybe she had two processors or something - she was listening to them and also talking to me. This is some trick I need to learn from her. She was telling that this is very common for their father to talk about all the politics in the world. True to her word, they started off with the economic crisis in US, Congress and the central government, DMK and AIADMK in the state to the Sri Lanka war. She also told that most of the times they would be contradicting themselves which they said 5 mins ago (I know of one person from my college who self-contradicts).

Later when Arul came in and sat down, the first thing she asked was "What is the topic they are discussing". It seems everyone in their family knows about this and after I brought her up to speed on the topic, we were listening intently. It was fun. I have only done this in office meetings. I should try this at home too when my relatives come.

Later I started off to my hotel and we stopped at some place and found that people there were waiting for water so late at night (10:30). In my village, people usually goto sleep by 9.

I went to the room and slept and kept the alarm at 6 AM to pickup a boy from AUKBC. What happens the next day and what time I wake up comes up in the next part.

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Filed under // arul mozhi marriage nambiyampalayam sathya tiruppur vanathi wedding

Posted March 3, 2009

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The Living Dream and my dream

This wednesday I got a chance to attend the Living Dream - Indian artists' tribute to Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. The schedule was a poetry by Vairamuthu followed by two songs (Bombay Dreams theme and Jai Ho) by A.R. Rahman's KM Music Conservatory. Then was a dramatized reading of "I have a dream... " speech by Kamal Haasan. If A.R. Rahman had come to Chennai 24 hours earlier, he too would have come for the show.

Atlast the KM Music Conservatory played a bhajan "Vaishnava Janato" - Gandhi's favourite song and "We shall overcome" - Martin Luther King's favourite. The last part was brilliant where they moved from the original We shall overcome to the indianised version and went on to sing "Ham honge kaamiyaab". This was the conservatory's first on stage show and it was excellent. I got goosebumps on hearing the Bombay Dreams theme.

I got two pictures at the end of the show (this was the best shot I could get with my camera phone).

The funny part of the story was when they checked us before allowing us into the auditorium. The police constable asked me to open the bag and

Police Constable (PC): What is this?
Me: Laptop. I am coming directly from work
PC: Oh. ok.
Another officer: Ask him to switch it on.
Me (thinking): Oh shit. This laptop has a faulty power switch and it would switch on only after trying various positions for atleast 2 minutes. I am going to get busted.

Luckily it switches on almost immediately and before I could show the splash screen, the next guy comes up.
Even standing there and thinking what to tell if they cuff me, I couldn't help but notice his Apple Macbook Pro (hibernated).
After that my thought was, if only I had a Macbook, it would switch on immediately and I wouldn't have any problem.

I wish I could get a Macbook soon.

Click here to download:

The_Living_Dream_and_my_dream.zip (129 KB)

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Posted February 27, 2009

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(Un)Wanted Marriage Alliance

If you have read my previous email (about the mixup between my email and another guy's email ID) you would understand this post. I have been usually getting emails from insurance companies, (girl) friends of the other Srinivasan R. But this time I got an email asking for marriage alliance.

Yes, you read it right. Actually it was to some other guy and this email address (srinivasan.r@gmail.com) was in the bcc field. Some guy in cuddallore has mailed his daughter's horoscope and his entire family's details.

The girl works in Oracle and is a BE computer science - but I was dissappointed on checking the date of birth (1981) and decided to hit the "Report Spam" button After reading through their family details, I was interested after reading one part - "One younger sister - BE working in TCS Chennai".

I now have two options and need help in deciding which to do:

Reply to that mail telling "Oh, my son is not suitable for your daughter. He is a drunkard and has all the nasty habits that you wouldn't even come near the city he is in. He already has a kid and he wants to marry only that kid's mother."
Or reply saying, "Thats a good deal. How about a better one. You send your younger daughter's name, email ID, IM, phone number and address and then we (me and the younger girl) will talk and decide".

So which one do you suggest me doing? Please do comment if you have an even better option.

PS: I always get into trouble for the posts I do in here. Some of my friends would take things I write here seriously and tell "You have changed a lot. You shouldn't hurt other's feelings. I don't like you for talking ill about someone." And so on. For all those people, I would suggest you to read the disclaimer in side bar of the blog.

Things I say in here are not to be taken seriously and are in no way related to my current/future employers.

If you find anything offensive to either you or things which you like - it means you need to read the previous sentence again carefully.

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Posted February 24, 2009

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