I'm Engaged !!!

It was the 7th of march 2009 when I was told by Mom that, cuckoo... I have seen a girl for you and I would like you to talk to her over the phone and find out whether you are comfortable. My Mom continued the conversation talking about their family and how she is impressed about it and blah blah.. For a second I dint know what to reply and with no other go I said "Ok Mom... let me see".

The day just went pass that and on 8th of March my Mom starts again saying the girl will call you anytime and you be prepared and talk nicely. Says "All the best" and rushes to office. As usual I switched on the computer and started browsing and listening to music which I usually do on a Saturday morning. There was no call and with curiosity I called up Mom and asked her whether it was sure they said they will call me or should I, and she says coolly.. Ok so they haven't called you.. so you call them whats the problem. Great, so here it starts .

I call up, the ring goes.. goes.. goes and no one picks up. After a few minutes I receive a call from the same number and here it goes. She introduces herself as "Bhargavi", and says she has come for a company outing and having fun and continues talking about her mom who said she would get a call fro me and blah blah blah. Time went pass and to my surprise I am still in conversation with her for the past 1 hr. After a lot of talking, I said I need to meet you and she said ok and then we decided the time and place.

Bright Sunday morning (8th March), got a few words of advice from Mom as if I am going to attend my public exam and I was just nodding my head and listening to her as to how to talk and all the stuffs. The time we both decided to meet was 11 am and as usual I was late and made it up at 11.30 am. Walked in with a smile and a bit of tension in mind.

To tell you guys the truth I was actually impressed by the way she was talking over the phone and it was just that small instinct within me that I wanted to meet her and ask.... man how did you ever think I was the right partner for you??.. So we happened to meet and talk a lot of about each other which made us decide finally we can make a good pair. This is how it started and time just flew by making us both getting prepared for the engagement which was scheduled on 22nd March.

With such a short span of time, I managed to get the invites ready and call most of my close pals and yes missing few which I thought I could invite them for the wedding. It was quite hectic to get the engagements stuffs ready within a weeks time but the amount of effort delivered turned my engagement ceremony to be a grand one.

For more pics: click here

Thanks for all your wishes and blessings.

Deviance.. Family Fun!!!!

"Mom, I've decided to get married."

The Seshadhris were only too ecstatic to here these words pop out of their elder son's mouth, yet afraid at the the same time. After all, their son did study in the United States for 3 years. And from what they heard from their neighbours, the States "do things" to perfectly normal sons. What if he wanted to marry a white girl? The blasphemy! How would they ever explain to their relatives?

"Indian no?", Mrs.Seshadhri asked, nervously.

"Iyengar...."

"Oh thank god! Chamathu da nee. We'll see the girl tomorrow!And I'll have to call all our relatives to inform them. Ha! First I'll call your aththai. Her son went to the states and ended up with one of those...punjabi a? Ya, punjabi-o ennavo. But my son? Chamatha Iyengar ponnu paathutaan.""Amma..."

"What? I know I'm getting excited but its not everyday your son gets married! First ponnu paakanum. Give me her address."

"I can't give the girl's address."

"Why not? " interrupted Mr.Seshadhri. "Is it because they don't know? Its okay, we'll convince them""No, its because there is no girl""Ennada solra?" chorused the parents.
"I am in love with an Iyengar, yes. But its not a girl. Its a boy"
Silence.

"Is this some kind of TV show? Is some shanniyan going to come with a camera and say all this is some joke? I know! Vijay TV-la Simbhu is doing something like this. He's going to come now, isn't he?""No mom, nobody's behind your almirah. This is real. I want to get married to him and him only""This is not normal, you know that?""Appa, who're you to say that it's not normal? How do you know that it isn't normal? I want to get married to him and that's the end of it" and he stormed out of the room.

The Seshadhris were appalled, and did what any other parents would do when presented with such a private confession. They called the entire family over to discuss it.Mamas, Mamis, Thathas, Paatis, Chithappas, Chiththis, Aththais, Athimbers, Perippas, Perimmas and a motley crew of cousins promptly assembled to exchange their views over filter coffee and masala vadais.

"Enna kodumai Seshadri idhu""This is not the time to joke, its a very serious issue pa. Namma community-la this is just not done""Are you sure about this? I mean was he joking?""Will anybody joke about things like this? Avan serious-a dhaan irukaan. He's gay.""Amma Amma, what's a gay?" interrupted 6 year old Achu, loudly. Silence."Sshhh, Achu. Go play outside with Kichu." said his visibly embarassed mother.Achu promptly ran outside hollering KICHU! GAY-NA BAD WORD DA!"Kids""Yea. I'm hoping he gets a girlfriend soon.""Shree, he's 6""The earlier the better. And I'm so not sending him to the US""Not everyone turns out like that. My son married a perfectly nice girl. Enna, she's punjabi. But very nice girl.""You know she has a beard, right?""Oh please! At least she's a girl.""Enough enough. This is not about her daughter-in-law's beard. Idhu konjam serious-aana matter.""Yes yes. There are so many fundamental complications""Like if this marriage does go on, who gets to be the Maapla veedu?""Chechu make it clear to them that we will be the groom's house. We will demand our rights""Hey, who gets to tie the thaali?""Will there even be a thaali?""Maybe they'll tie a golden poonal around him""One more doubt. The girl usually sits on her father lap when they tie the thaali. Does this mean that the son sits on his mothers lap? How does that work exactly?""Yea! And then usually the girl wears that special koora-podavai before she ties the knot. Do we have to get this guy a koora-veshti?""Atleast you'll save on all those silk sarees.""And that Mehndi thing. Unless your son wants it, ofcourse""Hahahaha! Thats so g...nothing" '

An uncomfortable silence followed, but was swiftly interrupted by the Periappa.

"Come to think of it, that golden poonal will weigh a lot""Does your future...err son-in-law cook?""Aiyo! Don't call him son-in-law! I don't even want this to happen!""Maybe you should do that. Vidaatha. Then he'll come around""No way, then he'd elope. Odi poyiduvaan!""Thats not good for the family name.""Thu! As if marrying a boy is very honourable.""And besides, eloping-na, usually the girl runs away, gets a baby and then only gets accepted back in the household. This is how it is in all tamil padams""Ok, but how the heck are these guys going to get a baby?""My point exactly, so they won't elope""Which is worse. What if they get together like those villains in Vettaiyaadu Villaiyaadu?""Aiyo! That's a movie about homosexual psychopaths! You're son is too sensitive for that. He cried in the climax of Kabhi Khushi Kahi Gham, for heaven's sake!."Appove we should have noticed...""You think there's some kind of homeopathy treatment for this? Or Ayurveda? Some kashayam or something?""No no, its a state of mind. No kashayam can cure it""Or should we send him to a psychiatrist?""Illa. Those psyciatrists are Peter parties. They'll end up brainwashing us about how we are educated and must accept him the way he is""Adhaan pannanum" said Mr.Seshadhri, finally.The entire household went mute."You mean...we have to get him married? To that...that boy?""Yes""Only then, he'll be happy.""Aiyo sentiment thaangamudila""My decision is final. I'll go call him and find that other boy's number. I have plenty to talk to his parents."

The household watched him go with a rather stern resolve in absolute silence. The only sound was the jowku-jowku of Paati eating Vadai.
"Enna paati? What do you think?" said one of the cousins, finally breaking yet another uncomfortable silence.
"Ennadhaan payyana love pannaalum, atleast Iyengar payyana paathu love pannane, adhuve porum"
[Note: Taken from a fwd mail....]

Trip to Rasipuram and Kollimalai

Was eagerly waiting for the long weekend i.e 24th, 25th & the 26th Jan to do a trip to bangalore to see few of my buddies whom I haven't met for a long time. The plan was on until 23rd afternoon when all of a sudden I had 2 of my close pals calling me and saying they are rushing to their native to spend the long weekend. Unfortunately I had to drop out the plan for bangalore. On 24th morning I was cleaning my bike just thinking as to what shall I do for the next 2 days. Tringg.. Tringg... my phone rings and it was Karthik alias Maadu. As usual started as .. Sollu da (meaning tell me dude)..he was asking me the plan for the long weekend and had to tell him I had no plan. For the first time karthik suggests a plan asking whether we can make a trip to Kolli Malai. Blink.. Gosh.. I asked Karthik.. How come dude??.. How did you crop up with this idea and confirmed the plan immediately and called up 3 other colleagues of mine of which one had come from bangalore to spend the weekend. Plan set, all geared up and one of my colleague (Sriram) picks me up from home and we land up at Tambaram where he had to pick up his bag. Karthik, Suresh(pal who had come from bangalore), Me and Sriram met up at Tambaram and started our Journey to Kolli Malai. This was my 2nd trip to the same place.

The plan was to drive down in Karthik's car (Maruti Swift) to Rasipuram which is near Salem where one of our colleague named Gokul resides. So we thought we shall stay up at his house and pick him up to and visit Kolli malai. So we had called up Gokul and he said you guys are always welcomed and we were much excited about the sudden trip. Normally trips like this which is planned all of a sudden works out well. So we as usual started making fun of each other and started taking snaps in different styles. The route which we took was NH45 from Chennai tamabaram - Tindivanam - Villupuram - Salem - Aatur - Rasipuram which was close to 300 kms.

So as we were driving down something stuck me and I had asked the guys whether we can call up Sudharshan (another colleague who has gone to his native Villipuram to spend the weekend) and the answer was why not. After a few hesitations he accepted to come with us. So we picked him up after some confusions in the route told by him. Now we were 5 people in the car happily making fun of each other, hearing good music, having beers except Karthik who was driving. After some halts for nature calls and water we land up at Rasipuram at 8.30 pm. Gokul had a big smile on his face when he saw us and greeted us. Picked up food and drinks for the night and made a small visit to his house to wish his parents and then we rushed up to his Grandfathers house which is nearby to celebrate the ride and the weekend plan. Cheers.. gulp.. gulp.. gulp..and we had to say enough guys and went to sleep at 3.00 am.

Next day Gokul's grandmom waked us all up by switching on the lights. Woke up and saw the time , it was 6.30 am. Machan yennada da ithu... was the first word which came out of my mouth. We managed to get up and the comedy for the day begins. We dint have toothpaste for brushing our teeth. The suggestion given by Gokul was to brush our teeth with Neem sticks. I waited until I found everybody had started brushing their teeth with neem sticks and I had no option than following them. With neem sticks in our mouths we started brushing and started walking to have a view at the groundnut field which was maintained by gokuls grandpa. Awesome climate and a fantastic location to spend a weekend. After few chit chats we hear a loud sound from Gokul saying. .. Dude.. I found the Toothpaste.. grrr.grrr..exchange of words happened and then we all had the second round of brushing with toothbrushes and toothpaste. His grandma offered us fantastic ginger tea which refreshed us. We had to leave at around 9 am to kolli malai, so had to do a dash and splash in gokuls house to visit his mom and have breakfast. Done with the breakfast and we start to kolli malai.

We had to adjust in the car as we dint have space for 6 people. But adjusted and started the ride. Good roads and we had stopped at few places to pick up food and beverages and have some good snaps. Sriram was busy with the camera in taking some good snaps. Me, gokul, sudharshan, Suresh and Karthik as usual blah.. blah.. blah. Reached the top of the hill, which had close to 85 bends. Changed our costumes and straight walked down to the waterfalls. We had to walk down about 1200 steps to reach the waterfalls which was mind blowing. The last visit when I made, I was able to go and stand below the falls, but this time the falls was too heavy and I was even unable to swim and make it close to it. So we had just dipped ourselves for abt 1/2 hr in the water enjoyed the beauty of the falls. Had food and started walking up. This was the toughest part I would say. The steps were big and we had to take bigger steps to reach the next one. This drained down our energy levels fully and by the time we could reach the top of the hill we were damn tired. After a small halt reached up to the nearby shop to have lemon soda to refresh ourselves.

Took a good amount of rest and then started driving downhill. On the way we again started taking snaps. As suresh had to deliver some stuffs to his friend who lives next to rasipuram we had to travel to their house. Made suresh deliver things fast and rushed up to Gokuls house to have good food and take rest. On 26th Morning we had to leave by 7 am as Suresh had to take the bus back to bangalore in the evening the same day. Woke up, brushed our teeth, had some good refreshing tea, took snaps with his parents and drove back. One the way we halted at sudharshan place which is in Villupuram to meet his parents and have some snaps with them and finally reached chennai at 4 pm. On the whole we had enjoyment to the max and made sure we kept ourselves loaded with fun throughout the weekend.

F60| Ferrari F60| 60th Anniversary| Ferrari 2009| F1 2009

Ferrari celebrates its 60th anniversary of F1 by launching their latest Formula One car - the F60. The new Team boss Stefano Domenicali underlined the significance of the car's name at the Mugello circuit - The car was actually named the F60 which predates the World Championship, which began only in the summer of 1950. The front and the rear wings had been modified this year to improve overtaking.

Massa for the first time was behind the wheel at the Mugello circuit and was happy with the performance and the technology of the F60 after completion of 100 kilometers in it. Ferrari retained the constructor's championship in 2008, but F1 is entering a new era with cost-cutting measures and rule amendments set to change the landscape of motor sport.

The F60 would feature the kinetic energy recovery system (KERS) which will introduce the first hybrid concepts into the sport. Ferrari has developed a system in league with electronics partner Magneti Marelli. One of the key elements in the design of this year's cars is expected to be the weight distribution. In the previous years many teams have designed cars that were well under the weight limit, thus allowing the engineers to move ballast around inside the car to get the optimum balance at each race.

Ferrari as of now has won eight Constructors titles in the last 10 seasons, but only six Drivers crowns. The team hopes to be able to continue this extraordinary sequence and both Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen are keen to win the title.

Pongal Celebrations

Hey guys!!! Wishing all viewers a Happy Pongal

13th Jan 2009 - Started as a normal day where I woke up as usual at around 8.15 am, finished the morning duties and sat to read the paper. Was going through the news about Satyam frauds and what they are upto still and the other happenings when I hear a loud noise, "Cuckoo.. would you mind having a bath it is getting late to office" Courtesy Mom. Ok ok.. and got myself prepared for the days work.

I reached office at around 9.30 am signed in the register and the first thing which stuck in my eye when I entered was 4 sugarcanes lying on the floor and the office boys starting to tie the thin ropes at the corners of the walls to hang few decoration stuffs. Ohh.. then I realized that the pongal decorations are on in the office. This usually happens every year where the ladies take some time off there work schedule to sit together in preparing the rangoli.

The day started for me by getting myself busy in working out few reports which have to be submitted for the day and replying mails. This took about half the day for me and just when i thought I need a walk, I could see the office boys and the ladies of our office getting themselves ready to decorate. The ladies as usual started their chatting before starting up with the rangoli stuff and then got themselves busy in doing it. This is the only time where you could actually see the ladies putting in there full efforts and concentrating to make the rangoli look as beautiful as possible. The only work where there is a lot of involvement among them. ha ha ha..

This time there was some add ons in the decorations like fixing up serial lights around the reception area where the decorations were made. The rangoli was prepared with a mixture of salt and color powder this time. Last time it was fully prepared with flowers. The sugarcanes were placed around the pongal pot and the decorations went on well this time. At 5 pm the pooja started and after the formalities we wished everybody and then settled ourselves to take few snaps.

Trip to Kodai

Hi Guys!!! Wishing you all a Happy and a Wonderful New Year 2009.

Been a while since I had written something in my blog. Anyways I'm back to let you guys know as to how I had spent my vacation in Kodaikannal this time from 26th Dec 08 to 30th Dec 2008. Me & Dev(my school friend) had plans of driving down in his car to kodai on the last week of Dec after Christmas to spend few days in his house in Kodai. Plans were all up as Ramanathan (another school pal) had also told us that he would join, who was actually driving down his Tata Indigo from Mysore to Chennai.

As usual I had to rush up with my official work and make sure things are settled before I go for my vacation. I got an approval from my heads and my plans were all set and geared to visit kodai for the first time in my life. Rama calls me at 2.30 am sharp on 26th Dec early morning and asks "Dude, I am ready what abt you?", I said " I am ready bro, lets start". As Rama's house is quite close to mine he picked me up within 10 mins and we left to Dev's place where the great chap was cleaning his car (Premier 118 NE). After all the cleaning and chit chats we prepare to leave from Dev's place where I and Rama took the Indigo and Dev and his dog (Kruger) in his 118 NE.

We start at 3.30 am sharp and plan to leave chennai outskirts by 4. The planned route was to take NH45( Chennai – Tindivanam – Villupuram – Ulundurpet - Perambalur – Trichy – Dindigul – Vatlagundu - Kodaikanal). As I dint have much sleep the previous night and thankfully I wasn't driving this time, I managed to take a good nap in Rama's car. Peaceful roads had helped us to reach the outskirts of chennai by 4.00 am. We also had a problem. You know usually we always have when we ride... Dev's 118 NE doesn't go above 80 kmph. (Wow!! what a maintenance I say).. Nonsense !!! So we had no other option than following Dev's car.

As usual we had few stops for tea and nature's calls and managed to reach Villupuram by 8.30 am. The comedy begins out here. We managed to find out a place where we could stop for tea and also take the dog for a walk. The shop was managed by a local female out there and I said to here to give 4 cups of Milk (which Dev had actually told me to do so), and to my surprise the 4 cups for the dog it seemed. Then after a few exchange of words I had ordered 3 cups of tea and few biscuits. I do not know how the female took it as she had actually had asked another person to buy 4 packets of milk and come and we had tea already served for us. Me , Dev and Rama were puzzled as we had only asked for 4 cups of milk and why is she sending out a person for 4 packets of Milk !@#$. Anyways after a looong wait she gives a bowl of milk which is piping hot. We asked her to serve warm for the dog but she seemed to be a very brainy female in serving it piping hot. We waited for some time and the dog managed to take few sips and then we had to leave. This time I sat with Dev in his 118 NE and since he dint have a music set and I kept myself busy by taking few snaps and videos.

We stopped at places were it would be good for the dog to take a stroll and have our breakfast and lunch with ease. After a good lunch I managed to take a nap in Rama's car and when I woke up there was confusion. Dev stops at places where he has been asking people for the route to Vatalagundu, and unfortunately we had taken the Palani route which leads us to 15 kms more in reaching the destination. So as we ride and with doubts in our mind as to which route are we going in we managed to figure out the correct route to Kodai and reached his House at 7.00 pm (26th Dec).

Climate was awesome, I would not say it was cool it was freezing when we got down from our cars. The first thing that came out of my mouth after seeing his house was WOW!! caman the fun I say. This house is built by Dev's great Grandfather Judge Devadoss. His family members after the dimissal of the Judge used to visit this house twice a year for retreats. The house was built at the top of a hill and the area was called as Observatory. The judge had actually owned the entire hill wherein after he expired his kids had sold out few pieces of land as there were in need of money. As the years went by the house was used to be visited by Dev's family once in 4 to 5 mnths and he used to spend few bucks in repairing things. I would say it is actually hard to maintain such a place.

Ok, we landed up and there was a care taker who has been living in the outdoors for about 50 yrs who had helped us to light up the fire at the fire place and set up the bed and quilts for us. Dev and Rama said that they would go down hill to grab some food and told me to stay up with the dog until they come. At the starting I dint feel scary at all as I was busy looking around the house. After say about 45 mins there gushed a silence, It was shit scary I would say. I tried sitting near the fire place and managed to gaze at the entrance waiting as to when these guys would arrive. As I got too scared I started calling Dev's mobile about 5 to 6 times asking as to where are you. And the answer was that " We are on the way". Time passed and it was close to about 2 hrs these guys dint turn up. I was stuck to one place without much of movements and finally they come. The moment I saw them , I started blasting them as to what the F@#$ where have you been you Idiots it is shit scary out here and the two laugh to their glory. Gulped few drinks and had a good dinner and with the amount of tiredness we just dozzed off.

The next day morning, Dev gets up before me and Rama and takes his dog for a walk and in order to wake us up he rolls on us. Amma.. Appa and with a lot of shouting we get up brush our teeth's and I managed to prepare few cups of tea and Dev's walks me up to the different places in and around the house. I personally wanted to spend a vacation peacefully after a lot of work and this was the right place I would say. No pollution, less noise and chill breeze passing by and the amount of silence is the one which would be expected by a person like me. Awesome place as this was my first visit to Kodai, I enjoyed each and every moment of it. The only problem which I had was that I dint take my creams to beat the chill which resulted in drieness of my lips. The only plan for that particular day was to roam around the house and ride down to the town and get some stuff for dinner and next days breakfast. As we started chatting all day long about the history of the house, we finally came to the end of the day were we sat next to the fire place with whiskey and wine with us. I had played some light music from my Mp3 player and we happily enjoyed the night by making fun of each other.

The next day Dev had to go to the town to pay the taxes for the house along with the caretaker .Me and Rama prepared breakfast and tea and had it. For lunch we went downhill to have some good Tibetian food. On the way back managed to take some snaps and pick up few drinks to settle for the night. 2 to 3 days just went on by visiting the reservoirs next to Dev's place and the other places like Coakers Walk, Pillar rocks, Guna Caves, Suicide point etc. We kept our nights busy by engaging ourselves with whiskeys and Wines. Good fun we had where Rama as usual trying some stunts of pouring the hot Tomato soup over himself and his usual fundas of scolding the dog (Kruger). All Fun and enjoyment 100%.

On 29th Night we had packed our bags to leave on 30th early morning. We had left at about 5.30 am on the 30th morning and reached chennai by 7.30 pm the same day. Great Ride and Great fun all the way. Waiting for the next trip.

Hamilton World Champion 2008; Massa wins Brazilian grand prix

The most dramatic race of the season where in the 23 year old Lewis Hamilton needing only a 5th place finish to win his first ever world championship title. The drama continued till the last lap of the race, when Massa finished up first and Lewis was 6th until the last corner of the race when Timo Glock of the Toyota team who was placed at the 4th spot had an engine failure making him slow down right at the last corner of the race making Lewis clinch to his 5th place and taking up the title.

Lewis 23 years and 301 days old became the youngest driver to break the age record set by former McLaren team mate Fernando Alonso, the Spaniard who won the first of his two titles with Renault in Brazil at the age of 24, one month and 27 days.

It was indeed an emotional moment for the Brazilian Massa who gave in his best to clinch to the World Championship Title, but luck dint favor this time. Anyways the Ferrari team and fans were happy as they took the Constructors Championship from the Mclaren’s this year too.

Race Results
1 Felipe Massa Ferrari 71 1:34:11.435
2 Fernando Alonso Renault 71 +13.2 secs
3 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 71 +16.2 secs
4 Sebastian Vettel STR-Ferrari 71 +38.0 secs
5 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 71 +38.9 secs
6 Timo Glock Toyota 71 +44.3 secs
7 Heikki Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes 71 +55.0 secs
8 Jarno Trulli Toyota 71 +68.4 secs
9 Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 71 +79.6 secs
10 Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber 70 +1 Lap
11 Robert Kubica BMW Sauber 70 +1 Lap
12 Nico Rosberg Williams-Toyota 70 +1 Lap
13 Jenson Button Honda 70 +1 Lap
14 Sebastien Bourdais STR-Ferrari 70 +1 Lap
15 Rubens Barrichello Honda 70 +1 Lap
16 Adrian Sutil Force India-Ferrari 69 +2 Laps
17 Kazuki Nakajima Williams-Toyota 69 +2 Laps
18 Giancarlo Fisichella Force India-Ferrari 69 +2 Laps