I’LL GET ONE TOMORROW

I always wanted my hair long and this is the time I thought. Four months of stay in Pondicherry had helped me in this cause, but the premonition of going home was always there. I somehow avoided going home, but this time around I had to come home on a holiday, a holiday which was too difficult to refuse (freaking 5 days holiday, I could have easily made it to 7 if I had been voting).

First couple of days I could successfully dodge my parent’s attempts to send me to a barber shop. The resistance my side was stiff but I had to yield to their sayings. They had won this altercation on growing hair. Like a warrior taken captive after a loss in a war I walked to the barber shop. I could not help myself but remember this funny little poem that I had read in my 9^th standard. This poem by Ogden Nash is one of the few poems that I loved to read. (I feared that the syllabus would have changed, but it did not. I wondered why the guys don’t change the state syllabus…).I liked a few stanzas as it holds some relevance even today to us, but the entire poem is equally wonderful. The poem titled “I’LL GET ONE TOMORROW” goes like this…

Barber, barber, come and get me;

Hairy torrents irk and fret me.

Hair and hair again appears;

And climbs like ivy round my ears.

Hair across my collar gambols;

Down my neck it wayward ambles.

Ever down it trip it tickles;

Yes, where it trips it tickles.

Barber dear I wish I knew;

Why i do not visit you.

Why I grudge the minutes ten;

In your smiling den.

Why I choose to choke on hair;

Rather than to mount your chair.

Men no busier than I;

Weekly to your office hie.

Men no busier than myself;

Confront the armory on your shelf;

Men no wealthier than me;

Gladly meet your modest fee.

And for a fraction of a dollar;

Keep the jungle off their collar.

I alone am shy and flustered;

Solitary, cowardly custard.

Shaggy as a prize angore;

Overrun with the creeping flora.

Barber, barber, you’re in luck;

The bell has rung, the hour has struck.

Sloth strong, the hair is strong;

I cannot stand it any long.

Barber, barber here I come;

Shake up the odorous bay rum.

Bring on your shears your scythes, your snippers;

Bring on your crisp electric driers.

Employ a dozen extra sweepers;

Bring giant harvesters and reapers.

I warn you a bumper crop;

Waits to overwhelm your shop.

Baber, barber, be verbose;

Be anything but clip me close.

Leave me razored, leave me scissored

Leave me hairless, as a lizard;

Barber, barber, single and scald;

Barber can’t you make me bald?

I will be the happiest of men;

And never think of you again.

P.S: Google Ogden Nash for his poems and I bet you’ll not have found this before this post.

Not any-other Day

...We all sat around in a circle. Someone in the group lit it, it then passed from one person to another. It was my turn, I inhaled then immediately exhaled. I then passed it around to the next one in the circle. This time it was my turn again, I enacted the act again. After three - four rounds i wanted to control my breathe, when it was my next turn, I inhaled ....and passed it....waited for my next turn.When it came again i exhaled. Bloddy hell! I thought...what was happening to me...?

The party ended. We immediately went in and locked ourselves in a room. Started music. Dev-D one song after another, Pink Floyd one after another;I close my eyes I can see the universe. Names of friends i could recollect them all..I open my eyes I can hear only three sounds Aa ..uu..and mmm...Was i getting enlightened? (def not maybe). There was excessive mirth later, people would continue doing what they had to do for indefinitely long...Laugh for a silly thing, all join in...the mirth... we were all joyous...I started to fear.

I suddenly thought about this, last time around this same time i was missing a lot of similar fun...This time it was a similar occasion..Hostel Nite. Same friends around, I wanted to stay alive this time. The circle of smoke was fun, It was helping in my cause. Now, suddenly i see around the room and find everyone slept(some snoring, the rest dead). Was this an achievement, for it was not any other day for me??

Confession: I wont take it again unless its a real big occasion.

P.S: I had written this on that day, so in case you don't understand this, don't demand an explanation

This day - today

Earlier in the day i was reading this. This post was very refreshing. I do not know this person neither the person knows me, i thought i will expand his list with mine(no blog activity since long) . Also feel that every rookie blogger must have these nostalgic moments captured somewhere( thumb rule)

• DD2 - those good old times when we used to tap DD2 connections without my dad's getting aware
• Big-Fun bubblegum - we used to buy those for the cricket cards; rupee 1/- for a gum and a cricket card(we had an option to chose). Later we decided we have to buy those cards for 50 paise avoiding the bubble gum; Collect 100 BF wrappers and mail it to ... to win (cool) soap (bubble) watches
• Video games - Those 100 (sav) chance mario game for 10 min by paying 2/-
• Champak/Tinkle books - we borrowed from a local library. And come every summer vacation we used to buy these comics (Tinkle digest costed a huge 25/- bucks, how much does it cost now??)
  
• I got my first cycle at the age of 14, I used to play marbles/hide and seek/occasionally street cricket until then

These 5 are the things i got in mind now. I definitely know i have many more of such incidents. (This post may be continued).

Further in the day when i wanted to post this, I had to be shocked because of this (related blogs) .I had to tile my blog as Itchy fingers (because i blog when my fingers itch...arbit funda!) ... wait, do i have to give a explanation... Until i gain a new recognition here i go with the old name no matter what.

A strand of hair

A long strand of hair was whirling on my bedroom floor when I switched on the ceiling fan today, just like a whirlpool, just like the ripples created when there is ebb, like how the clothes spin inside a washing machine. I wondered where this particle could have been from.

I immediately recollected that this particle belongs to the person who inhabited the room for almost a month since the person was not present now, and I was maybe disappointed (or maybe obviously rejoiced). The person had come into the team a month ago; the person seemed to be a reasonable team mate. We were earlier four members in our team, had one bedroom each. Due to this person’s entry we had to make immediate adjustments to our sleeping positions. One of us had to share rooms with this new entrant. Everyone pointed fingers at me, I was the obvious one.

At the start, we slept with our faces facing each other. At nights we would go to nair kadai for a cup of tea, my partner would hate this tea. I would neither complain nor comment. Later when things happened to go on well, and I happened to understand this person well, I changed the sleeping position. We aligned at 96 positions. (Ask me why? I really had no choice here) One weekend we were momentarily separated, the next week we were 160 Kms away, the week next I called him home to Chennai – we were not allowed to share the bed there. In the forthcoming days I had a room vacant. One of my colleagues was either absent at the work place or attending interviews or entering into a new era of their life. I had to choose the separate bed available for me. This is how I was separated from him slowly and it was no more my room. Everyday when I switch on the fan I would notice a long strand of hair circling, next morning the vellaikari would sweep that into dustbin.

Today, I picked this swirling hair strand (which was obviously hiding from the vellaikari’s reach) and throw it in the dustbin and hope that this is the last time I see that hair strand again, for the strand’ was that of a surd.

In Pondicherry

The teacher was taking attendance. The teacher called out roll no 40. The student shouted Present!

“Last couples of weeks were good; I was involved in a lot of traveling from Chennai to good old Bangalore back to Chennai. Bangalore weather was fine, I loved it and most of all loved the reason why I had been there – for my cousin’s marriage (and obviously to meet a couple of my friends). The marriage was a nice moment for the couple but for me a nice opportunity to meet my lost cousins. We planned a trek to Nandi hills the next day. I must say that was more than welcome, for people in Bangalore who love traveling and most importantly sick of coffee days and malls this is a place you can visit (There are many such places though – that’s why good old Bangalore).

To spice it up further I moved to Pondicherry from Chennai (literally from Bangalore) on work and then during the weekends travel back to Chennai. I was going to Pondicherry (lucky enough that I avoided Kerala and more lucky it was plural – I had a team now) for 6 months on official duty.

As expected, we had set up a home at Pondicherry (The Indian French town) - we set up a house at Kakayan Thope (Does it sound enough French? I hope it does, but it’s not). This place is quiet remote to the city centre but believe me it’s an awesome place to be staying in. The company that I got for staying in this place is just next to perfect. And thanks to broker Shahul Hameed – next time you are in Pondicherry you just have to contact this guy for anything you desire.

Talking on all this I trivial things I almost forgot the point. This weekend when I was in Chennai attending PAN IIT. I had got an opportunity to listen a few lectures on India, Terrorism. The lectures by Stephen Cohen and Amartya Sen were most inspiring and more importantly who can forget the night before. Also the networking was great. I was proud about my institute hosting the meet, the feeling of not visiting the institute for quite a long time had paid off; it was better feeling this time when I went to the institute. And one more moment of satisfaction was when I came to know that all my friends in the institute had got placed – they did the right thing – not to panic. Congrats guys! Now my future visit should be not until Saarang – but let’s see. The next PAN IIT is going to be in Chicago during October; so all my app friends make sure you make it there. You will definitely come back and comment! “

This is not funny

You barely finished understanding my last post is when the terror strikes again. Mumbai…The brutality that these people displayed is simply atrocious. I would describe it as a class and mass attack. Attacking *******hotels (7star hotel) as well as crowd filled railway stations, did you imagine! Whom did they want to target? Class or mass? Look, the terrorists are also confused people here! I hate computer games, but after looking at this act, I certainly believe that these people who invented those games are better people, atleast they give us a chance to attack, they just don’t attack us by making us unharmed. Give us weapons too and we will show what it means to attack! (trivia: The institute after the LAN, has produced fabulous quake players)

Back home, it was raining cats and dogs and life was tough here as well, I would have been equally tough for the dirty people as well to attack here (that’s why Mumbai I guess). Anyway, Life is slowly getting to normalcy as it stopped draining, raining.

Shocked with, all these happening, with a fit of rage and more emotion, it’s time for us to realize that Indian government needs a fundamental change, and the public needs to change their attitude towards the government as well.

What (to do) now?

Hello everyone,

Excuse me for my long hiatus; it’s been over 15 and couple more days I logged into blogosphere. I was busy, for wrong reasons; I was at the office making a proposal, a proposal inviting bidders for a project that I was totally not aware of. Believe me I had to do all these fancy stuff - copy, paste, edit, re-edit, Shuffle, check, read, review, and format, add a template and make the document look like a proposal. Is this Consulting I wondered for a moment! Documenting this work made me feel, all the projects are one and the same. (This ain’t be true)

Looking back from where I come I started, I stopped, Yes trivandrum job was the one that gave me a flavor of consulting, it taught me how to handle these clients. I thought I have made a impression there. Anyways, the documentation being the core essence of my work, I must not speak foul about it. Seriously! This long documentation had consumed most of my time. (Tip: order Microsoft 2007 for all the fellow documenters there). The work was completed on Saturday and I had thought I have time to relax and a Sunday to enjoy, but something was waiting to be answered, yes, it was the entrance exam that these IIM’s conduct every year, saying, xxxx seats to be filled in y colleges; zzzz PG courses, but only one exam. (No, they don’t advertise so cheaply, but sometimes looking at the questions they set, makes you feel, that in future such advertisement is possible). CAT 2007 was a absolute chaos for me, CAT 2008 was expected to be utter chaos, but it failed to be. I did it fairly well – atleast on par with my friends – no better than the last time; so, let me hope!

When I was busy doing all these things, there was a separate mob that were busy making headlines for the wrong reasons, yes the Ambedkar law college incident is what I am referring to. People were busy experimenting with iron rods, sharp pointed tools; they were demonstrating the use of this along with some momentum on human body. This event was very well shot by the media and was applauded by Chennai police; for now they in person know the result of this experiment. This makes me dwell into the past – would I been alive now? Had the police had done a similar thing on the great holi-day at the Elloits beach – IITians remember?