Going to be MS

I will be MS by this time, next month. Wondering if its graduation time, for a person who is working? Well, I will be Mayuravalli Santhanam by 11 AM on the 9th of July, 2008.

Malaysia- Truly Asia

God knows how I was selected for a training involving sales people who are very very experienced in my field of work. They wanted someone who was inexperienced in the Product that I work on and lo I was asked to go to Malaysia for a week. Malaysia surely reminds you of shopping and lots of places to see, but here I was going for some techie stuff. Not one person asked me to have a good training, learn something properly and come back. All of them only said, enjoy Malaysia and truly I did that.

29th evening saw me leaving from Hyderabad with about a 5 hour halt in Chennai. Caring that mama is, he fondly offered to bring me dinner and brought along mami, Krishna and Athuzhai apart from my brother. After having awesome Arisi upma and nice butter milk and some photo/video sessions(thanks to Krishna’s new web cam!) I went off into the immigration area directly, having gotten the Boarding pass directly from Hyderabad(sometimes traveling by the same airlines with halts helps). I was a little nervous when I was going, as it was my first trip outside the country. In spite of a couple of colleagues attending the same training from Hyderabad as well as Bangalore, none of them had the same itinerary as mine. I tried hard to doze off in the 4 hour long flight, but “Naan Avan Illai” seemed to be more interesting than sleep. The flight was full of fellow Tamilians. The colleague who had take the flight earlier to mine was waiting at the Airport and I was more than glad to see her. We took a Taxi for 60 Ringitts and the 75km long journey took just about 45 mins. Amazing roads and also the lack of traffic in the early morning seemed to have helped us a lot. En route to Kuala Lumpur from the Airport revealed to us the awesome skyline of Kuala Lumpur, full of tall buildings. We squeaked with delight at having seen the KL towers and ofcourse the Petronas towers. Apart from asking me to enjoy Malaysia all of them had told me to see the Petronas.

After dropping our bags off at the Hotel we did some roaming around to change the currency. In the meanwhile we managed to find a Malaysianish Tamil hotel, which served nice “Tosai, Onion Rawa, Masala Tosai”, apart from Kopi. The sambar wasn’t that good, but the chutney and dosai were awesome. We were not able to finish the Tosai’s. The pricing was also reasonable, with plain Tosai at 1 Ringgit and Masala at 2.20. 1 Ringgit is about 11 Indian Rupees. The Kopi was really bad. Seemed like a little cream was added to the already very dilute decoction. After having looked around a bit more, we retired back to the hotel and after resting for about an hour, we were woken up by the third colleague. After he also freshened himself, we tried to look for some good vegetarian meal, for 2 of the 3 were vegetarians. We managed to get some Veg Pizza at Pizza Hut, though the Pizza majorly had Pineapple. After lunch we decided to visit KL towers. To achieve this destination, we got across the foot over bridge and took a Taxi for some 10 Ringgits and reached KL towers. The winding slopes to reach the place reminded me of the local Mahendra Hills. There was nothing much to see there, except for the amazing height. After some mandatory photographs, we took a taxi to Petaling Street, the Burma Bazaar of KL. The place was really crowded and I felt we were back home, somewhere near Ranganathan Steet, except that the language there was a little alien.

We then went on to Central Market and after some shopping there, the male colleague of ours was quite tired(men get tired soon of shopping!!) and so we retired to the hotel. It was about 5 in the evening and so we took some welcome rest and dozed off for about 1.5 hours. Then we went to the famous Suria Mall, KLCC which is the basement of the Twin Towers. After lots of Window Shopping we started to look for the vegetarian meal. Most places point blank said there was nothing vegetarian available there. Then, we zeroed upon an Irish eatery which had a few vegetarian stuff called Wrappos. Quite tasteless they were I would say. How do those folks manage to survive with no salt too. Less spice is acceptable, but whats wrong with some little bit of salt? Anyways, something to fill the stomach and we retired to a good night’s rest to be fresh for the training(we hadn’t forgotten about that).

The early morning dawned pleasantly. After a breakfast of Cup Noodles and some biscuits we set off to the office that was just opposite to us. Carrying the Laptop was the only pain. After showing our passports we were given visitors pass to proceed to the 38th floor of the 45 floored building. There are 3 sets of lifts in that building for a set of floors. 1 to 19 have one set of 6lifts. 20 to 34 have another 6. 35 to 45 have another 6. The lifts are simply amazing. They just give the feel of traveling in an aeroplane. To stop at the 38th floor, it will start to slow down from the 33rd itself. There were people from all over the APAC region. Koreans, Taiwanese, Chinese, Indians and people from Singapore. With the training from 9 AM to 5:30 PM everyday we had about 2 to 3 hours to roam around everyday apart from searching for some Vegetarian fare. Lunch was for an hour everyday and it were the juices and fruits that were more tastier than the actual lunch, consisting of some cooked veggies and rice.

We again went to the Suria Mall on Monday. Tuesday was spent at Avenue mall, just opposite to the Suria mall and also another smaller one, with lots of Malaysian dresses all displayed at discounted rates for the festival of Ramadan. Wednesday was spent at Low Yat Plaza in the Bukit Bintang area, famous for electronic goods. One of the shops there, i-Setan had an awesome sale and we did pick up a few things.

Thursday was hectic at training and we were able to leave from work only at around 7:30 PM and so we just went out for dinner after making some calls home. Dinner was again at Pelita’s, now consisting of some Aloo Paratha and Naan, served with Daal and nice mint chutney and also some lassi.

Training finished quite early on Friday and we decided to roam around a bit. After some lunch of Bagels we took the mono rail from the Avenue Mall and reached Mid Valley Mega Mall. The Mega Mall deserves a special mention for it caters to the needs of the High Class as well as the Middle class. Amazing variety, satisfying men as well as woman. This 5 floored mall is 5kms in circumference. We were not able to finish all the floors. We just completed about 3 floors and left. Phani(our male colleague) took the train directly back to the Hotel, while we got off at Central Market to do some more shopping. Petaling Street was quite scary at that time of dusk, with hawkers calling out loud and forcing us to buy things. We actually tried to go the Masjid Jamek close to the Central Market, but that was open to visitors only until 4:30 PM, while we reached there at 5:30 PM. After the rest of the shopping at Central Market, involving small souvenirs from the place and chocolates to some extent we reached the Hotel at around 8 PM. Dinner was again at Pelita’s consisting of Masala Tosai. It was my last night there. After managing to pack my stuff with a jeans and my jerkin(which I didn’t need at all) pulled out of the suitcase. 4 hours of sleep and then the usual monotous things of settling the bill I got into the taxi to finish off my sojourn at Kuala Lumpur. The journey was pretty un eventful, except for some nice, general chat with the driver.

Now that I was relaxed, it was easier to enjoy as well as take in the amazing way in which KLIA (Kuala Lumpur International Airport) was constructed. The security check and baggage clearance are in one building, while the terminals are in another. They have the nice aero train facility to shuttle you across these places. The airport is maintained very clean and there are lots of sign boards to help you through. Also, the immigration clearance takes very less time. 4 hours from then saw me at Sunny Chennai, with immigration taking almost an hour for just our flight. People at home were flooding me with questions, as though I had returned from another world. They were quite proud to show off about me. My awkwardness didn’t seem to matter to them at all.

All in all, my first International experience was very good, albeit a short one.

Bangalored-yet again

The last weekend was supposed to be a long one, with Monday being off for Ganesh immersion. But, the holiday was postponed to Tuesday. I had a strong feeling that the gults dont do much on Tuesdays, but was proved wrong this time. Inspite of the Govt of Andhra Pradesh wanting to have it on Monday, instead of Tuesday, the holy heads prevailed over them and managed to convince them for Tuesday. Thus, making this weekend really long for me. Managed to have Monday off from office, having convinced my Manager saying, my absence would not matter much(height of NTPK, what to do?). With things, finally falling in place by around 3PM on Friday, amma and I took the 7 o clock train to Bangalore. Inspite of the new iPod Nano accompanying me, I seemed to prefer my chit-chat with amma, to the new iPod, irrespective of amma's response.

12 hours later, we were welcomed by my sleepy brother. I believe, he had set his alarm quite early for a Saturday, just to welcome us. After some idly-vada, amma started her cleaning work. This is a ritual when she goes to Bangalore, thanks to the way my bro keeps the house. Well, it was surely cleaner than before, for he had made some efforts to make it clean for our visit, but like all mom's, amma was not satisfied.

After lazing around for quite sometime, I left home to meet Nirmal (my college senior, with the same roll number as mine), at his usual place, FORUM. Thought its easier to meet the lion in its den. It was not difficult at all catching up with him. Did not require any updates from him, as we have been in touch ever since he left college, but were unable to meet after July,2005. Hence, this meet. The meet was obviously amazing. Nirmal has changed quite a bit. Seems to have become the typical Banglorean, but for his time sense. He proved to be my senior, by arriving well in time for the scheduled 3 o clock meeting. His dress sense has changed. I only remember his collared neck, horizontal stripes, brown and white. This was the only t shirt he used to wear. Now, he has changed a lot!! Let me leave it to your imagination to think of what he wears now. All I can promise is that he surely wears decent stuff. The topics that we discussed ranged from CAT, MBAs at other instis, on site chances(we both work for the same company!), girls he might like, boys of my kind, why girls dress so badly in Bangalore(could be a feast to most guys), still. I wonder how they leave their hair open. Isnt it irritating when it comes onto their eyes, not allowing them to see properly? Well, tastes differ. After lots of chit-chat along with some Potato Wedges, Veg Burger and Sprite at Mc Donalds(my first visit there), all at Nirmal's cost, we moved out of Mc Donalds, only once we were asked to. After the Mc Donald's sojourn we roamed around a quite a bit with and then left. 2 hours well spent.

Sunday was spent with cousins. After break fast of Sambar Vada at Koramangala, we managed to get a bus to reach my aunt's house. Cousins are always fun, more so, when all the cousins in India meet together. It was just like old times, irrespective of the marital status of the cousin, we enjoyed immensely. Lunch was outside and then there was the mandatory Corner House visit. Corner House seems to have most ice creams with just chocolate flavour. For once, I thought of trying something other than chocolate and was surprised to see that there was very little choice, so went back to my faithful chocolate. In spite of the really heavy lunch, we managed not to fall asleep, thanks to the company. There were 3 generations in the same house, the generation previous to mine, my generation and the one after mine. The kiddos surely rock. Their childish banter seems to be the best stress reliever.

Monday saw some more cleaning of my bro's house and then we left. The iPod and Kumudam kept us company. The train was late by an hour. That did not matter at all, as today is off for me.

It is raining quite heavily here. There are about 20K idols being immersed in Hussainsagar just today. Atleast 10K idols are already immersed. Hyderabad is expanding. Will Hussainsagar be able to catch up to this? God save the Buddha!!

Ganeshas Ganeshas

It is Ganeshas all round in the city now. The 10 days commencing from Ganesh Chaturthi has lots of Ganeshas in the city. Decorated in various Avatars that Ganesha is, yellow, black, brown and blue, sitting, standing, reclining are the various postures. The size also varies from as small as my palm, to about 60 feet. Ganesha is not just in various colours, but takes on different parts from Mythology. At places he is found sitting on Shiva's lap, sometimes Shiva has a conch and Ganesha is on it. Or sometimes he is with Durga, or for all you know he may be playing cricket or acting like Amitabh in KBC.

The already strained roads manage to accomodate the many pandals. The pandals come into life only during the evenings with lots of loud music. The songs need not be on Ganesha as such, but Ayyappa, Siva and many a time, the movie songs. Looks like its a time for get together, in the name of Ganesha. Yesterday, the Ganesha near our house had dappankuthu music played by about 10 ppl for him. Well, we werent actually sure for which Ganesha it was, there are so many all around.

On the day when Ganesha is sent back into the Lake, they also have the system of breaking pots filled with water, similar to what is done in Bombay for Janmashtami. The city is a total mess and so is the life of the policeman, on the day of Immersion. Immersion day usually starts late and goes on till day break the next day. Hussainsagar lake is totally cordoned off. It would be stupid of someone to take routes surrounding the lake on this day. But, you can surely visit the lake for some nice eye catching Ganeshas, if you have the right kind of company. Inspite of the Immersion day being split up on days 3, 5, 7, 9 and 10, the 9th and 10th days are totally crowded. These are days that liven up the city, inspite of the traffic chaos!

Weirdo Tag

Tagged by Fairini. Sorry for the delay!

Have to think a lot to get a list of the weird things that I do...though I am weird in general!

1. While on the road, if I see some guy in a dhoti, I will automatically look at his face to see if he wearing a Thiruman!

2. Can remember the name of a person along with the roll number. Can guarantee this for my Engg class mates. The name is usually followed by the roll number, hoping my friends will remember it.

3. Anything anybody said, I had to counter it and say something else. But, the last week's meet with my Engg mates said, I have totally changed in this regard. A change in me is really weird.

4. I like to have curd rice with rasam. This really rocks!

5. I talk in my sleep. Mostly in a language other than Tamil. In school days it was Shakespeare, now it is usually some Telugu conversation with a friend.

6. Switch on to a different language(I mean the one that is spoken) easily. Was well known in my Satyam training period for this. People always used to tease me saying..arrey she keeps switching channels.

7. I prefer to sleep with my head covered from head to toe. Even in the summer season this would be ideal for me, provided the a/c is on.

8. I am so good at cleaning the house, that the house is surely clean when guests arrive. This is wont be the case if there are unannounced guests. If you just give me 2 mins, the house will be clean for them, provided they promise not to open the closed cupboards!

Taken Charge

Amma is thoroughly enjoying herself. She will be away from home for another 6 weeks. Hence, I have taken charge of the household activities. My mind is full of things....has the milk curdled yet, have I turned off the gas cylinder, when I switched on the washing machine did I turn on the water tap, add the soap powder, and mainly switch on the machine at all? I tend to forget one of these most times! Before going to bed, is the door locked properly, have I put out the bag for the milk packets. The milk packet bag is fine, as I will surely be wide awake from tomorrow before the the milk boy comes. These are just a few things.

Once I start cooking in full swing, which will be from tomorrow, I will either forget the salt or some other thing and adjust it ultimately. It is sometimes easier to adjust the dish than to make it correctly in the first go! I have taken down a few recipes to try this time, not sure if I will manage to do them the way amma makes it. Obviously, there will be a small crib session that the dish didnt come out well and amma will say, it will come with experience.

Have planned out all weekends in August, as I will be all alone at that time, with appa gone too. First weekend will be with an Engg class mate, to chat the whole of the 2 days as we are meeting after a long time, in spite of the fairly frequent phone calls. The next weekend, have asked my bro to come over here, so that we can spend some time together in absolute solitude and talk over lots of things. The next weekend is a trip to Chennai for a Sudarshana Homam and also to meet a cousin who is coming down tomorrow from the US. Chennai trips are too busy irrespective of such planned meetings.

I am hoping to give back a fairly neat and clean house back to my mom. Have to see how it goes.

Sivaji-The Boss!

After all the hype and expectation, I have seen Sivaji finally, though in Telugu. There are so many reviews already available on the net and so I am not going into any details. Rajini rocks as ever. Shriya has done a good job, though she comes only in bits(bits of the movie and in bits of clothing in the song sequences), the typical Rajini heroine. The scenes where Rajini and his family are trying to woo her are good. There are hajaar fight sequences, guess they became too many to combine Rajini’s style and Shankar’s grandeur. Shankar appears in the first song sequence. Looks like they have all taken a cue from K S Ravikumar and ofcourse Subhash Ghai. As expected there is no logic in the movie, though in parts of the second half, the strategy taken up by Rajini is good. The film reiterates the fact that Rajini is invincible. The scenes involving him as Mottai boss, though for a very short while, are good. Songs seem to miss the Rahman touch. And most of the song locales seem redundant, reminding you of songs from Shankar’s other movies.

I would typically use the the Telugu dialogue-“oka saari choodochu” (Can be seen once) for this movie.

Ahobilam

As appa’s mama-mami were in Hyderabad and they were visiting us after almost 20 years, we wanted to go on a long drive somewhere. What better place would be there, other than a Divya Desam? Andhra Pradesh is home only to 2 of the 106 Divya Desams. One is Tirupati, which is closer to Chennai, than to Hyderabad. The other is Ahobilam.

Ahobilam is home to 9 Narasimha mUrthy’s. Compared to my earlier trip 12 years ago, there has been a lot of change. During our last trip, PV Narasimha Rao was visiting his constituency, Nandyal, due to which we had to divert our route, hence delaying the trip. This time it was straight, Hyd-Kurnool-Nandyal-Aallagadda-Ahobilam. Hyderabad to Kurnool is 210 kms. Kurnool to Nandyal is 80 kms. Nandyal to Aallagadda is 30 odd kms. Aallagadda to Ahobilam-25 kms, bringing it to around 350kms from Hyderabad. We had decided to leave at 7:30 and hence, managed to leave at 8:30. We reached the highway after going through some of the by lanes of Old city, most of them we would not visit otherwise. As it was the morning, there was no traffic and hence were able to hit the highway fast. The highway, since quite sometime is being converted to a four laned. 2 months back it was one side that was having the changes, now it is the other side. As, the summer is only now coming to and end, there were no fields full off greenery. December was nice, the time we went to Srirangam for Vaikunta ekAdEsi. Wonderful, yellowy sunflowers were guiding us along the way. But, to keep us good company was my dad’s mAmi, who is pretty strong in the Srivaishnava Sampradaya fundaes. She did give me a lot of fundaes, I doubt, if I remember even half of what she said!

We took 2 major breaks in between, one for breakfast and the other for lunch, apart from the small stops to put eye drops for mAmi pAtti. Breakfast was at the Reliance A One, near Shadnagar. The second break for lunch was after Kurnool, en route to Nandyal. The road was deserted and we sat on the ground with a cloth spread out. The pleasantly flowing breeze, amidst the small chunks of hilly formations that are part of the Deccan Plateau, amma’s thayir saadam. It rocked! Oh, how long is it since I had such a lunch? There have been many times, when we were young, we used to have moon light dinner around the well at Thatha’s place in Chennai, or at the terrace. Now, life is so mechanical. I am sometimes very happy if I find time to have food. As we were nearing Ahobilam, the whole surrounding seemed to change. It was more cloudy, the fluffy clouds, seemed as though they were painted. The vegetation kind of thickened and as we were still looking, we had entered Ahobilam. It was 4:30 PM. It had taken us almost 8 hours, mainly due to the breaks.

We then went into the Ahobila Matham guest house, freshened ourselves and were off to the temple. It took us sometime to get the rooms, as a set of about 30 ppl from Chennai were leaving only around the time that we went in. We were asked to finish sevai at a couple of other sannidhis, a little way off from the main temple at Lower Ahobilam. But, there were no archakas and we were told that they would be open only in the morning, which is also not sure. Compared to 11.5 years ago, the only change is that proper sannidhis have been built for the Narasimha vigrahams, in the forests. There were no archakas then, there are no archakas now. 11.5 years ago, we atleast had sEvai of the perumAL in the forest, after managing to light a kerchief or some such cloth. The main temple in Lower Ahobilam has awesome architecture, the typical Krishna Devaraya period one, similar to the Vittala temple at Hampi. I didn’t seem to remember much of the temple, and it was a nice experience to see a temple with wonderful architecture such as this in the midst of a forest. There is the main sannidhi, home to Lakshmi Narasimha perumAL as the moolavar, with Prahalada Varadan as the Utsavar. It is said the utsavar granted what Prahalada had asked for and hence called Prahalada Varadan. There are also a couple of more Utsava vigrahAs of the Narasimha mUrthy’s in the forest, apart from AdivaN SadagOpan. Also, the Utsava mUrthy’s of all the AzhwAr’s are there. There was this interesting mUrthy, where in a person with Narasimhan in his hands. We thought, it was nAdamuNigaL, akin to BhavishyadArchAryan at Thirukuruhoor, but they said it was AdivaN SadagOpan with Narasimhan in his hands. ThAyAr sannidhi had Ahobila Valli(moolavar and utsavar) and the utsava mUrthy of Chenchu Lakshmi, the thAyAr at “bilam”. The smile on Ahobilavalli thAyar’s face is still fresh in my mind. There are also sannidhis for AndAL, SrinivAsa PerumAL, Udaiyavar and Ramar. Udaiyavar didn’t have the tridandam, so I am still wondering, if it was Bhaashyakaarar as they said. And to me all AzhwArs and AchAryas seem a little different in Vadagalai ThirumaN. We stayed over for the “sAtrumurai” and got some awesome sundal with milagu dOsai (dOsa with lots of pepper).

Just as the things mentioned in Thirumangai AzhwAr’s pAsuram, we did get to see Jillikka( an insect, which emits sounds by rubbing its feet), mAmaram(mango tree), and were told that there are many “nelli” (amla/usirikkai) trees on the hills.
The next morning we went to Bilam. Bilam is 7 kms from Lower Ahobilam. After reaching a particular level, we have to climb up another 60 odd steps to reach the main temple. The view here is very picturesque, with small rivulets flowing here and there. There is also a main water fall, which is very beautiful. The perumAL here is right inside a cave(bilam). He in the “HiraNya vadham” posture. They have depicted that with the silver kavacham, with PrahalAda also standing by the side. The massive pillars in this temple left me in awe, as to how they managed to build a temple like this at the hill top, amidst a really thick forest. The thAyar Chenchu Lakshmi (of tribal origin) rocks. After taking few photographs, we came back and had awesome food at Ahobila matham and came back home at 6 in the evening.

BTW this is my 50th post!