தீபாவளி - Let the Celebration Begin..!

Deepavali (I hate calling it Diwali), one of my favorite, exciting, colorful, fun festival. I really enjoy this festival as much as anything. And, the only festival I look forward to every year when I was a kid. This post is on how Deepavali was some years before and how it is now for me.

In school days, we would start preparing for Deepavali even before a month. It was fun, all our discussion will be on crackers alone.We usually start with getting the price list of crackers from all crackers shop and start selecting our crackers. The best part of that list preparation is selecting one "Fancy" item from the cracker's list. We will have no idea of what it does, we will decide by its fancy name like "Missile Launcher". This preparation will go on for weeks and finally our parents will buy us on their own without even looking at our list :(. But we will forget all those lists once we see the crackers, it's the usual story every year.

The one-week before Deepavali will be spent visiting each and every one's house of our friends to look at the crackers they have got. And, our daily hobby is to take a look at those crackers and to decide at what time each and every cracker should be burst. Don't tell me we were polluting, I guess there are so many other ways out there that can be followed in other 364 days of the year, which we are not.

On Deepavali there will be a small competition on who wakes up first and starts bursting. Mostly one of my friends will be the first every year and he will start with "Krishna vedi" (according to him Krishna is the reason behind this festival, so it will be only fair to start with that :)) as a sentiment. I will usually start with "Saravedi", no reason behind it though. The whole day will be spent only in crackers. We will have a specific cracker for every hour.

All these fun was during my school days. It was all over now. In recent years Deepavali is not the same. It is just yet another day where we will wear new dresses and may go for any new release. It has lost it's charm now, as we get old. Nowadays it's mostly spent sitting home and watching those useless Deepavali special programs in TV.

Deepavali should not be like this. Deepavali should be celebrated. With all your family and friends, enjoying crackers, wishing each and every one you see in your street, praising your neighbour's dresses, sharing the sweets prepared, having a nice breakfast and lunch together with family. This is how Deepavali should be and it was before some years, but now, we are too lazy to even celebrate something.

Wish you all a "Happy Deepavali". Let's Celebrate..!!

People in Facebook - Just for Fun

• Everybody is happy when it rains, going by their statuses. Aana yen da mazhai vantha ellarum oodi poireenga? nanainju enjoy pannungalen da.

• Everyone is a film critic, nothing wrong in it. Aana ellarum orey padatha pathi vara kanaka pesi kaduppakareenga.

• There will be always a Like vs Comment fight between any two actors in any of the facebook pages. Dei ithu ellam nattukku romba mukkiama?

• People now only started realizing their MOM cooks well, I don't know whether they realized it before. Facebook la update pannunga aana athuku munnadi unaga amma kitta neradia sonnenga na innum santhosa paduvanga.

• They always miss their hometown and it gives them extreme pleasure to get back home. Dei Chennai, Bangalore la irunthittu vettuku porathuku ennamo US la irunthu return aagura mari feel pannatheenga, every week neenga veetuku easy pogalam.

• Everyone is having a great birthday year after year, even though no one calls or even sends sms these days other than posting on their wall.

• Even if they are sad they want this world to know this through their statuses. Yen da yen?

• Even in Facebook we have peoples who think if you don't like or share a God pic then "Saamy will kanna kuthify". Unagala ellam thiruthava mudiatha?

• And another set of peoples who thinks facebook will donate money for their likes and share, dei SMS kalathula irunthu ippa vara itha ellam nambitta irukeenga? romba peria manasu da ungalukku, neraya pera save panniteenga.

• Last but not the least, a mokka figure's profile pic will get a minimum 50 likes and 30 comments of "awesome dear". Dei awesome ku artham teriyuma da ungalukku?

and, lots more. Even I have "been there, done that" :).

Girl or Exam?

It was in the year 2011, when I finally joined MCA in distance education. The only thing to do was to attend the final exams. No need to attend any classes or labs. First year exams were scheduled in May. After nearly three years I went to write exams. It was good to be a student again, after all I got one week off from my office.

I went into the exam center some 15 minutes before exam. Looking those people around the exam center, I was really disappointed. I saw only aunties reading hard before the exams :(. It wasn't colorful at all as I expected. When I entered the classroom, was obviously looking for any girls to be present here at least. I saw a girl sitting at the last desk. On checking my seat number, it also comes at the other end of the same desk. I counted again and again to confirm, yes it was. I was feeling little happy to sit in that desk.

Once I got seated, she turned around greeted me with a Hi. She asked whether I am also there for MCA or any other exam, etc., Then the regular question "Padichacha?" and we both answered with regular "No". I think 99 out of 100 students will say "No" if you ask them this question. After wishing "All the best" to each other we started our exams. I finished so early, but she went on and on getting so many additional sheets. I didn't even complete the main sheet. I left the hall early. So my idea of talking to her after the exam and eventually getting her number didn't happen that day, but with still four more exams to go I thought I will talk to her in the coming days.

Same thing happened the next day. I finished so early and dint have the patience to wait until she finishes. On third exam she was at different class (checked seating arrangement, which I usually do every day to know her seat). So didn't even see her. On fourth exam, as usual finishing early I thought to wait for her to complete. While waiting outside stopped another guy going home and started discussing the question paper, managed to make him wait for 20 minutes so that I won't be alone, but she didn't even come. I wondered whether there is another way to go out of that exam center. After waiting for a longtime I left without seeing her.

On fifth day, final exam, I know if I miss today I won't get another opportunity to talk to her at least until next year. Luckily she was at my hall today as well. I have decided to write this exam slowly so that I can leave with her. After finishing a question, I will take a break for 10 minutes. After one hour I saw her getup from her seat, I thought as usual she will be getting additional sheet, but to my surprise she gave the answer sheet and left the hall. WTF. I was about to shout "hey stop, you are not supposed leave early". I thought about leaving after her, but if I leave I am sure I will fail since I have completed only two questions because of my idea to write slow and take a break after each question. Really what happened was an unexpected, I was laughing alone, while writing the remaining questions, thinking about my plan. That was really an anti-climax which I never expected, but it was really funny if I think about it even now :).

I Too Had A Love Story - Ravinder Singh

Finally I Too Had A Love Story, I mean I read that book which I was planning to do from last year, but reluctant to spend money on this book. Ravin says it's his real life story. Ravin's way of writing is so simple, using most common words in English. But he needs to be more mature to become a good author. And, suddenly he uses hindi or punjabi or whatever without any translation which was irritating for me ( cos I can't understand).

In the first chapter I came to know this guy had no idea of becoming an author, as he said he is an author by chance. First chapter was a get-together with his college mates. He kept adding "we are together after long time" for everything they do. Ravin, we are not going to forget this is a get-together.

The way in which he gets to know about his girl, Kushi was really unusual. I mean I haven't heard any love story starting this way. He gets to know her from a matrimonial site. Usually if you get the info about a girl in the site, you talk to their parents, then they discuss marriage and if everything goes well they get married. That's the end of the story, that's what I was thinking  about matrimonial sites. But, his love story starts from here. After reading this, I am thinking about creating a profile in a matrimonial site to get a girlfriend.

They get to know each other. Most of his romance happens over phone since they live in a different places. Soon they found out they are made for each other and their engagement is fixed. This is a veggie love story, unlike Chetan Bhagat's, so nothing happens except a kiss. It was a perfect love story until a truck hits Kushi which was fatal.

And, the story ends even before the last chapter. The last chapter was really boring you know what's going to happen so it was very redundant. Yes it was sad at the end but too much of buildup before the end. He was surrounded by Happy (one of his friends) and Kushi (his girl), but what happens was a tragedy.

It is another love story with a really sad ending. It will be very difficult to come out of it. And, he has really done well to recover and pen down this as a book, should appreciate that. But I don't know how it became a national best seller. I don't think I will recommend this to someone. Even though it is said as his life story most of the time I felt like a cliched story, especially the end.

My 25th Birthday

Starting ellam nalla than irunthuchu..

October 2nd, 2013, my 25th birthday and how did I spend it? One day outing with my office mates (only boys :(, believe me) to Mamallapuram in bike, spent until evening there, surprise birthday celebration in a public place and dinner with my friend at Ampa Mall, Skywalk. Sound really a perfect birthday bash, but it isn't.

The first mistake is to go out on a sunny day in Chennai, second mistake is to choose Mamallapuram as the destination, third mistake is to go by bike. Even though we started as early as 7:30 the sun was scorching when we reached there, Mamallapuram is a very dry place nothing to enjoy much and to ride nearly 100kms in a day is a real pain in the you-know-where.

The good thing is we started early so the ride to Mamallapuram was pleasant. The first place we visited is the shore temple, the structure, statues, etc., was good, a brilliant temple on the seashore. Once we have seen that, we are already dehydrated and tired. Next we visited the beach nearby and played "Rattinam". It was really thrilling and the only fun moment in the entire outing.

Intha sirippukku pinnala oru marana bayam iruku

The next spot was "Pancha Rathas", which we have seen in many Tamil movies, where a big Elephant statue made of a single rock situated. My friends bought cake and coke somewhere and celebrated my birthday there. It was the first time I am celebrating my birthday in a public place and only the third time I am cutting a cake for my birthday in my 25 years.

The next places was very boring, I don't even remember the name and we left Mamallapuram by noon. And, on the way back we stopped in two places, first at Tiger Cave, another boring place. Next, was crocodile park, we were moving as slow as the crocodiles around that place. Then, we saw how venom is extracted from a snake live, only good experience at that place and then back home.

It was really a tiring, dehydrating and boring outing which I should have avoided on my birthday. So, some lessons learned, don't go out on a sunny day to Mamallapuram with a group consisting of only boys in bike. Anyways, will remember that cake cutting and "Rattinam" ride, two good moments to remember for sometime at-least.