When a Chicken cursed a Chick!

It all started last year. She was way too thrilled to meet her long lost friends but destiny had other plans. The day she landed, her mom was laid up with "Chikun"gunya. She knew that it was her turn to look after her mother. Her plans to meet her friends had gone awry.

By the end of the trip, she learnt a lot about herself, a kind of introspection and enlightenment! As she boarded the bus back to her place of job, she promised herself to be a more dutiful, dependable daughter.

In her place of work, she was assigned a new project, a work to be completed offshore, but one day, out of the blue she was asked to apply for visa. She did, but fate played spoilsport again! The week when she was supposed to travel, she was diagnosed with "Chicken" Pox. She needed somebody to take care of her, so she headed home to be with her parents. All through the journey, she was thinking of the hard work that had gone haywire, a classic example of God proposes, human supposes, God disposes!

She reached home and was taken straight to what is known as the isolation room. She was given strict instructions not to strain herself in any manner –not to surf, read books etc. Other excruciating instructions were not to have bath, cut nails, comb hair etc till the pox recedes.

Imagine her plight! Blisters all over her body, quite itchy but not allowed to scratch. On top of that, the blebs were wrapped up with Neem and Haldi paste. She had to withstand the pungent odor of the pus and the paste. She was quite hungry but the thought of having food with dirty fingers made her feel sicker. Any noise downstairs enthuse her and she yearned to be a part of the conversations but not allowed to move out of the room. She always enjoyed loneliness but all of a sudden she craved for company, somebody to share her anguish and annoyance. She made animated communications with ceiling and pedestal fans (Yep, two fans to beat the heat!). In her good days, she enjoyed wakefulness and when she needed good rest, she was denied, for humidity and blisters played dirty. Weird dreams traumatized and tormented her. For two weeks, the regime of being dirty and dingy continued.

One fine day, she was allowed to take bath with only water and no soap. She felt like a new born baby having its first bath. Three days later, she was allowed to take bath again, this time around, Haldi and Besan powders were provided. This bath also took her out of isolation. She was quite elated being back with her folks, discussing and dining with them. Her doctor advised her not to use any cosmetics (which included soap and shampoo too) for another two months. Diet restrictions would continue for the same amount of time.

The disease taught her a lot about life – One need to keep improving one’s inner beauty, for the external one can be tarnished quite easily. In the hour of the need, one gets to know the people who one can really rely on.

Now, she is back to work, quite astonished as well as annoyed to see the number of mails that have bombarded her inbox. On top of that, she has again moved to a new project, challenging one once again!

She has decided to take life as it comes, no point in wailing about the past and vexing about the future. There is always a "Chicken" that can ruin the current flow of reality.

A Different Take on a Romantic Tale!

Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaayaa – a love story about a boy chasing a girl, a girl chasing a boy and with a climax that the audience might not expect or accept!

Karthik (Silambarasan), 22 year old tamil boy, mechanical engineer, aspiring film director falls in love in the very sight with Jessie (Trisha), 23 year old malayalee girl, program analyst with Polaris and his neighbor. He stalks her, proposes to her and at a later stage she does reciprocate his love. Will they live happily ever after? That forms the different and distinct finale of the movie!



Silambarasan, unlike his previous large than life outings, has come up with finesse, flawless performance. Gautham Menon has indeed underplayed him, like the way he had done with his previous heroes. Trisha equally match Silambarasan with her restrained act, her chic sarees, salwars, western attires add to her confused, conservative character. Nobody could have acted the role of Karthik and Jessie the way Silambarasan and Trishan have portrayed, they share a visible, vivacious chemistry! Of the other support actors, the character of Ganesh, enacted by one of the producers, truly stands out.

The music and the background score – Maestro A R Rahman has done it again! Aaromale haunts you, for it plays throughout the movie! How could one do such wonders with Malayalam lyrics?

The flow being a little slow being the major flaw, but isn’t it made for audiences who love romantic tracks and have plenty of time at disposal?

I wonder and ponder - Is there anything called TRUE love?

Remorse, Regret & Repent

Why do I fret?
Why do I regret?
Some things are not meant to be
As they are pre decided by Thee!

When my life takes dreadful turn,
It’s your presence that I really yearn
To let you go was the biggest mistake
I wish I never did make!

Why am I still on a blinded grope?
Why am I driven by futile hope?
You are always there for me
But not the way I wanted it to be!

PS:I scored a century with this blog!

Will Miss You!

Many thoughts clog my mind... irrecoverable loss, inexplicable fear … may be a temporary phase leading to a better, bigger, brighter moments! Change is inevitable, the only variable that remains constant (isn’t it an oxymoron?).. This time I have no choice, can’t flee, and need to tag along.

I will miss him very much, for the past two years, he has been an integral part of my life. Its time to leave him and move on with no hopes of ever coming back! I will lose my address for a while, very soon will know my new coordinates.

Our parting wasn’t decided by me, but by huge set of bigwigs for whom all that matters was revenue
The walls, the corners, the spacious cubicles - its time for me to bid adieu and explore the new avenue!

Never noticed that an inanimate object could make a profound impact in my life!

Adios till we meet again!

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

I have been reading couple of books recently, thanks to the book club that I am a part of! The one book that really caught my attention is “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” by “Mark Haddon”.



The story revolves around an autistic boy, Christopher who decides to investigate the death of the dog in his neighborhood and in this process unravels a lot about himself and his family. Though he is quite detached and doesn’t understand human emotions, he is a genius when it comes to Mathematics. He tries to handle the situations quite logically and programmatically.

The chapter numbers in this book are prime numbers, unique concept to illustrate the mathematical inclination of the main character. The book also brings out the reasoning power and inquisitiveness in a child marvelously. The author’s deep insight of autism is clearly visible for the entire book is written in first person.

Some of the quotes that was quite impressive

I like dogs. You always know what a dog is thinking. It has four moods. Happy, sad, cross and concentrating. Also, dogs are faithful and they do not tell lies because they cannot talk.

Prime numbers are what is left when you have taken all the patterns away. I think prime numbers are like life. They are very logical but you could never work out the rules, even if you spent all your time thinking about them.

I think people believe in heaven because they don't like the idea of dying, because they want to carry on living and they don't like the idea that other people will move into their house and put their things into the rubbish.

A quite delightful read and must say, it revived and relived the moments of child within me!

The Call Worth Answering!

Karthik Calling Karthik – a thriller which doesn’t really send chills down the spine! Overall, it’s a well crafted movie with decent performances from the lead cast. The music and soundtrack really stands out, must say, Shankar Ehsaan Loy proved yet again that they are here to stay (for a very long innings!)

The movie revolves around Karthik(Farhan Akhtar), in spite being a IIM topper and diligent worker, is a loser in his personal and professional life. One night he receives a call from Karthik and his life no longer remains the same. He undergoes a transition from an introvert to an extrovert, gets promoted, and wins the heart of his colleague, Shonali (Deepika Padukone) who all the while was ignoring him pre metamorphosis! Now, the man behind his makeover remains the suspense of the movie!

What to say about Farhan? A multi faceted personality with eagles’ eyes picking up the character that suits his style! Deepika, looks gorgeous, her tresses and dresses make up for her acting skills! Farhan and Deepika share a reasonably good on screen chemistry!

The most important lesson learnt – If you are planning to change your landline phone, never go for the Chinese ones! Verdict – It’s worth one time watch, a tailor made movie made for the classes and not for the masses!

Did you pick up the phone? If so, did you enjoy the call?

From Sin To Asin

Astrologer studied my “jhatakam” (horoscope) with profound attention. At once, he gestured “She is going through testing times. God seems to be quite unhappy with her. She needs to make few visits to temples to get things back to normalcy.” This caused a huge concern and commotion in my aunt’s mind, she made a frantic call to my mom and said “Its time for pilgrimage. Call her up and summon her as soon as possible.”

And that was it! Last Thursday, I packed my bag and made a short trip to appease and make peace with deities at Guruvayur, Palani and ancestral home.

Day 1
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I reached home early morning on Friday and within an hour’s time, I was on my way to Guruvayur. Newspaper reported of a huge crowd swarming in to get “darshan” of "Lord Guruvayurappan" (avatar of Krishna), but Friday seemed to be my fortunate day or should I say, Lord was indeed in a generous mood/mode. Apart from a decent "darshan" of Lord, got an invite to have “prasada ootu” (sumptuous feast at temple) which was quite lingering and lip smacking!


At any time, on any day, the atmosphere in Guruvayur is serene and silent, amidst vast turnout the temple, the sanctum are maintained well, clear and clean, adding more luster and sheen. We called it shots, by evening we were back in Palakkad, discussing and deciding to meet at wee hours, the next day.

Day 2
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Now that we had pleased Lord Vishnu (The Preserver in Hindu mythology), it was time for Lord Shiva (The Destroyer) to shower his blessings. We started our journey to Palani at about 6am, a temple which had "Lord Murugan" (son of Shiva and Parvathy) as the main deity. Having a cuppa tea in the empty stomach, we were pretty hungry on arrival at Palani. We headed towards “New Tirupur Hotel” (supposed to be the best in the town), but there are no words to express the nauseating experiences we had there w.r.t lavatories and food. It’s high time for my fellow Tamilians to work on their personal and environmental hygiene (no offense meant whatsoever!)


While mom and I decided to climb all the way up, dad and aunt chose to use the rope way, their ill health shattering their hopes to do it the hard way! It took us solid 15 minutes to ascend the hill while dad and aunt reached in less than 5 minutes. Money speaks a lot in Palani, we indeed had a special “darshan”, a kind of direct rendezvous with the Lord. Throngs of “pujaris” were conducting “pujas” and distributing “prasadams” to the special set of devotees! It made me wonder how Lord was taking in and tolerating all the corruptions that were unfolding in front of his divine eyes! What were scarce at Palani were found in abundance at Guruvayur – sacrosanctity, serenity, decorum and discipline!

On our way back we decided to surprise my uncle by visiting him, but he wasn’t surprised at all because we had informed him about our visit while having lunch at Pollachi. His wife prepared some scrumptious “gobi bhajji” (a delicacy made of cauliflower) for snacks and must say it was the best food that I had on that day! We reached Palakkad at about 7pm dog-tired.

Day 3
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A day when I tracked down my ancestors, being a Malayalee, I inherently inherit maternal surname! We reached “Nallukettu” (ancestral home) at Kuttanur (nearly 10 to 15 kms from Palakkad town) by 10.30 am. We were welcomed by an old grannie (still not able to figure out how she is related to me) who remembered my mom and aunt. Though it was extremely hot outside, the Nallukettu was quite cool and chilly, must say, craftsmen during those times had immaculate skills! We prayed to our “Kulla Daivam” – "Amma Bhagavathy" and "Lord Ayyappa"! I also got to meet the oldest member of my family – a dignified, distinguished grandpa. Talking to him was indeed an eye opener for me!

Overall it was an enriching and exhilarating experience to trace my roots, a feeling similarly shared by Alex Haley!

Three day pilgrimage did cleanse my soul and spirit, so isn’t it time to get back to my sinful, sinister ways again?