Multi-lingual message

'Please close the door, daivacheydi gateue vayyandi' goes a voice everytime I get into the elevator in my building. Stating the obvious, at least to me. But what is interesting is how many times I hear this message through the day because someone has not shut the door properly.

Really, how many more languages must this message be played in? I guess we must do Hindi being the National Language and all. But in the India that we live in now, every city is a potpourri of languages with everyone speaking all and nothing at the same time. So the next best thing is pictures, because a picture says a thousand words, right? Step by step illustrations of what must be done to close the door properly.

And if even that doesn't work, hire a lift operator to open and close the door. All day long. There are enough people that would want to do that.

Going up in life might never be as easy.

You can call me xxxx

When help around the house changes, the way I'm addressed also changes. Amma, madam, akka, mam. And now...UNDI! Pronounced exactly how its spelt! I have heard it used many a time before but just not at me. Undi is sort of like giving respect while addressing the person except that all it does is crack me up! Here's an example, one a true incident and the other, just silliness.

Babu nidram poyinda? (Has the baby slept?)
Ownu undi. (Yes, undi!)

Babu undies ekadaa? (Where are the baby's undies?)
Undies aa undi? (Baby's undies, undi?)

Just typing that up made me smile :).

Magician, artist, dare I say God? - Part 3

Part 1
Part 2
Some stories will never end. There will always be a new chapter every so often. This one, its almost the perfect story. A dream run that ended in triumph. A well-deserved victory too. So said the conquered. All of them.

True champions fight all odds and come out on top especially when they are most doubted. Setting new standards, raising the bar to even greater heights is what is left now. I hope it happens in the next few weeks. The place where it all began.

Good luck.

CSK and DC, which one is really home to me?

After CSK lost in the IPL semis, I naturally supported DC because after all, they are my 'second home' team. Having lived in Hyderabad for 3 years now, I kind of qualify as a Hyderabadi (when it suits me only). But when the last ball was bowled, I did not feel the same euphoria that I would have had it been CSK walking away with the trophy. Try as I might, even spite (which was aplenty as DC beat RC which had beaten CSK) could not replicate those emotions that are usually reserved for favourites only.

And then a thought zipped through my mind. As long as I live in Hyderabad, my kids will always put the Chargers above the Kings. Naturally. DC will be their home team.

That should make for very interesting future IPL parties!

Brain Freeze - Part 2

Nothing unfreezes my 'writers' block than sports!

peRFect
That's what he has been for the last few years until Nadal came along. With a victory at the Madrid Masters he's kickstarted his claycourt season but what that will mean at the French Open is anyone's guess. Good luck RF, this could be your last chance!

Lakers
My favourite team! In the Western Conference Finals again and 1 game up too! They should go all the way this time. I will die if they don't.

CSK
A new addition to my sporting teams list. Chennai Super Kings. In the semis of the 2nd IPL season. Go Kings go!

What would I do without sports...

The Nano - Part 2

It's finally here. And I actually feel sad. A Walmart-style car, low cost, probably average to poor quality (based solely on the Indica) and supposedly the travel answer to the masses. I've already written about this here so I won't go on.

Take away from the equation that it is an Indian company that has come up with this. Would we still be proud of this accomplishment? As much as I want to, I'm unable to compare this to Ford's Model T that made car ownership possible for the masses in America. Everybody wants their own set of wheels but at what cost?

1 lakh times 'X' is too much of a price to pay in the long run.

Languageu lessonsu

I've learnt a fair amount of Telugu in the last three years, no credit to the book that I bought soon after I moved to Hyderabad in 2006. Not only was the vocabulary useless (the first word in the list was 'causeless') but also the presentation was just terrible. Anyway, it turned out that the better source for Telugu lessons were my house help teaching me more slang and dialects that would turn out to be more useful on a day-to-day basis.


But my 'unending quest' to continue to learn made me go back to the vocab page in this book. Among the many other useless words written up, I came across two that made me 'rofl'. The words for telephone and principal. In TelugU and just like the title of this post!

Any guesses?

Profile pic

It's been about a year and a half since I created an account on Facebook. I've probably changed my profile picture at least ten times. To keep up with the changes in my life, no doubt. Similarly all my friends' pics have changed too. I don't think even one has the same picture that they started out with (except for those with the old question mark).


Is it possible to find one picture that can be a constant? Not necessarily of the person itself but of 'something' even. Something that when a known person looks at makes them go "Oh, that has to be X". Is it humanly possible to identify with a few things or even just one thing for all of ones' life?

Or is life too random to prevent that?

Second wind

Boring, tiring, same old beat going on in my head, huffing and puffing and not enjoying any of it. That's me on a treadmill. Hate it...always hated it. Then this on my shuffle! Catchy beat and imagining thalaivaa dancing (his version of dancing anyway) made me smile and get going with great gusto! Too bad that it lasted only until the song did but an extra 5 minutes is not too shabby...a much-needed 5 minutes too.

Soup split

1 by 2, 2 by 3, 4 by 5 and anything else by anything else. It's all possible. When you order soup in India, that is. A very common practice that experts say results in more soup per serving per person than if one were to ask for an extra bowl and split it themselves! In fact, I even know people that do this for takeout!

Can you imagine the restaurant doing this though? Will they actually fill out two bowlfulls, then take a 3rd one and evenly split from the other 2? Or are they so used to this strange request that the guy is a pro at it and knows exactly how many ladles go into each? Whatever it is, the request has never fazed anyone in any place that I've been to. The only requirement is that the person doling out the soup has to be a math whiz...how else would they understand 23/30 should such a request come by??

On a related note, I wonder if this tactic would work with alcohol. Margheritas please...3 by 4 but all for 1!