ExpertDabbler

Those days Amma used to make sweets, murukku, kara sev at home for Deepavali. Then came the Sri Krishna Sweets Mysorepa phenomenon. Two days back, I got a mail from my employer stating that I could collect Diwali sweets at 4th floor. The crowd on display would rival the crowd I’ve seen in Coimbatore ‘Chinathamani’ for crackers. I took it easy and decided to go for the sweets in the afternoon. The crowd had gone as expected. But what was unexpected was the size of the sweet box. It should easily exceed 2.5kgs, from Haldirams. I had several challenges now. The first was logistics. I already had my hands full with my lunch box, office machine, scribble pads, now this sweet box to be accommodated in a single bag. The second was consumption. I am not a sweet buff. Amma is n’t either. I immediately thought of our maid servant, watchman, apartment friends as potential targets.

I had another shocker when I returned to my seat. This time the mail was from my client, who is also distributing Diwali sweets. For once, there was a problem of abundance. They could’ve given the sweets to some place where people would really need it and appreciate it. Why such pampering to some folks who earn as much as IT pros?

As I was wondering came my colleague, ‘Mama, namba client sweet box size parthiya?

Me: ‘Yen idhai vida perisa?’

He: “Illai da, rembo chinnadhu.. cha at least idhey size irukkum nu nenachen..

Me: ‘Yen veedu pakkam edhuna side business poda poriya’

He: ‘Illada, veetla ellarum sweet saapidanum la?… Ippo velila vera vanganum!’

I guess his family is as big as Bharatha Vilas. What this means is that there are no easy, universally accepted solutions, even for sweet problems.

And for sure no problem has ever been solved by ‘Manidha Sangili’ on Mount road except maybe that of parliamentary election. Since someone had solved one part of that problem by sending telegrams to the Prime Minister, this is another attempt to consolidate that result and bring the matter to a logical conclusion.

Last week, I was talking to my friend about the Kashmir situation.

“Imsai nga.. Arundhati Roy article padicheengala? Pesama Kashmir ku freedom kudutha dhaan enna..Evlo loss twenty years ah…Namba oore vandaam gravanuku edhuku selavu seyyanum..Ellam namba kaasu “

He,”Adhu epdi… Idhai kudutha nalaiku Punjab venumbaan,..Hyderabad venumbaan”

“Ippove North east sila areas, Jammu vuku mela ellam map la dhaan irukku…”

He,“Ippo problem ellathukum solution irukanum nu edhavadhu irukka..? Ellam iruka dhaan seyyum….Idhellam eppadiyum prachnai dhaan.. irundhaalum prachnai kuduthaalum prachnai..indha prachnai laam solve agama irukakradhu dhaan neraya peruku aadhayam…”

Its kinda irony that people never talk of Tiananmen square nowadays. The end was relatively swift and brutal. Everybody had forgotten it. The developed nations have certainly forgotten it.

A problem should be treated like a dead body – either burn it, or bury it or preserve it like in a Pyramid. But what our governments do is akin to the aghories’ methods – they neither burn it, nor bury it, nor preserve it, but cut and consume it, piece by piece, bone by bone, as and when they feel hungry. No wonder we have epidemics.

Even as I am consuming Murukku, haldiram sweets, Someone is holding worthless currencies numbering several hundred thousand dollars in Zimbabwe, someone is getting killed in Sri Lanka, Yasin Mallik is put in jail in Kashmir, someone is planning for the forthcoming election in Mount Road, and I despite wishing all these were resolved, continue to live my life and celebrate a festival.

Wish you a Happy and safe Deepavali!

Jai(to me):
Surya voda six packs partheengala?

Me:
Illai… but enakku eppovume three packs dhaan!

Jai:
??

Me:
Sambhar rice, Curd rice, Poriyal - neatly packed in Tupperware!

Jai did not talk to me much for the rest of the day.

PK (pin kurippu): That Surya had salt-less chicken for six months became such a hot news. Enakku matter a purila. Enga office cafeteria la varsha kanakka uppe illama dhaan neraya peru saapidaraanga!! Whats the big deal?

This post is in honor of my friend and colleague S~ herein after referred to as CCW.

What’s so smart about him? Can you get a loan of Rs. two lakhs at a net interest rate of 9-10% per annum without security, without blank cheques, without any records against your name? And without any due dates to pay?
He still stays within the legal ambit. He does not commit any fraud for sure, I can vouch for that.

He has managed so far with nothing but just credit cards. Please bear in mind that ordinary users in India end up paying as much as 37% for credit cards debts. Also bear in mind that its difficult to get home loans at 9% now in India.

He would like to publish the way it works, but only after he is done with all his commitments lest the banks and card companies change the rules of the game

He is a pucca hacker in positive sense even otherwise. He is junior to me by five years. I wish I had his current maturity and intelligence now, or at least five years into the future. Very smart character.

Its time this blog got more suave and cool. So let’s do some case analysis like the B-school types  with some real world situations. Once upon a time, there lived a good looking girl, working an IT company. Let’s call her Rani Mangamma for now. As is usually the case with all good looking girls, atleast one guy is after her. So this guy, lets call him ‘Maanga’, proposes to her over instant messenger. ( Now you know why I called him Maanga).

Now, to my mind, the girl had all the liberty in the world to

1) Accept him, or

2) Reject him and give the familiar ‘Naan unnai nalla friend a nenachen’ dialogue, or

3) Put him on hold by playing hard to get.

But what the girl did had me scratching my head.  She took a screen shot of the guy’s message and had promptly sent a mail to the HR.

As far I know, proposing to someone is not the same as misbehaving.

This is something personal between the guy and the girl. I don’t see how the HR got anything to do with it. In what way will it solve the problem?

Let’s assume the HR calls and says, “Amma,  Rani Mangamma, Andha payyan - Nallavan, Vallavan, Matter therinjavan, adhnunaale ok sollidu.” Will the girl accept the proposal?

Apparently the HR had called and advised/warned the guy. What would’ve been the advise? That one should never propose to a girl one likes?? On the one hand, the top leadership advices us to be proactive, take ownership, initiative and all. And see what happens if we try to follow their advice for a change? Unfair world!

If I’d been the HR and if I am asked to advice the guy, I would’ve just said,

“Dude, you deserve a much more sensible girl.”

Yesterday was workplace decoration day in our office. Man, the kind of sets my colleagues came up with was just mindblowing!

The funda is like this. There are 4 floors, each with 2 bays in our SDCs. There are 3 other SDCs in chennai. The preparation time was like 6 days but like all Indian techies, nothing was really past the discussion stage till the last couple of days.

But came the hour and the work they displayed would’ve made Thotta Tharani proud.

I was in for a pleasant shock when I went to my floor y’day. Our theme was ‘Village’, and the whole floor was transformed to a pukka tamilnadu village.

If the set was authentic, the casting was just awesome. Check out the pics… My bay got the 1st place for ‘Best creativity’. The 1st prize for ‘Best Theme’ went to karthik, monu ,risha and team.

Touring talkies featuring “Ali Baba vum 40 thirudargalum”. I dont know from where they go the CD. :)  

Our ladies decorating the Puthu Kovil set

The village ‘Naataamai’ worshipping in the temple.

‘Tea kadai’ set

‘Veedu’ set.

The only difference between those guys and me was that they worked like hell for the whole week, while i stayed away from this because I felt my floor guys will goof up big time. i was the one who missed out all the fun in the end.