The Story of Boy Besties

Note: The following was originally written by Poet “Manushiyaputhiran” in Tamil in uyirmmai.com. Having enjoyed reading it, I tried by best to translate it to English, just to test my Learning, Understanding and Proficiently of Tamil. There could be some mistakes in the Translation.

I think I passed, at least on the border. Hoping to improve my proficiency further.

The Story of Boy Besties

A Boy Bestie 

Is Not the One made of dreams,

But, is One made of tears.

A Boy Bestie 

Is Not the One who lives

Half-An-Animal and Half-A-Human,

But is One, who lives as

Half-A-Husband and Half-A-Lover.

A Boy Bestie 

Waits for that moment,

When the girl gets into trouble

To help her at that time, waits near her

Not only as a shadow, but as a shadow’s shadow.

A Boy Bestie knows,

In front of her husband,

How distant he should appear,

And also as her friend, at the same time.

A Boy Bestie knows how dignified,

He should behave in front of her lover.

That every moment he should prove that,

He is just a neighbor or an Outsider to her.

He very well realizes that he is used,

Just as a handkerchief by her, when she cries.

But the thought that he is used,

At least as a handkerchief, consoles him.

A Boy Bestie performs carefully than a doctor

In fixing her health issues,

When she gets into worries, he consoles her,

Like how her mother used to do.

A Boy Bestie

Exaggerates the small problems of the girl

And carries them on his shoulder,

He goes in search of a fountain

When she asks, for a glass of water.

A Boy Bestie is always eager,

To pay the bills, in restaurants.

Spends long hours,

To buy gift for the girl.

When she slips on the stairs, To him

It appears as an worldly injustice.

A Boy Bestie

Gets fondly hugged by a girl,

Leans on his shoulder for support

A Boy Bestie wonders

If at any time, can he hug or lean on her

In a similar way.

A Boy Bestie

Is one who feels like a Dog tied to a chain,

The length of the chain determines

The love he can show or get,

And this makes his heart broken.

A Boy Bestie always

Keeps himself ready for use

And like a soldier waits for the orders

His horses of love

Are always ready to jump into action.

A Boy Bestie is always waiting

For the girl to get betrayed by his lover

For the girl to get doubted by her husband

For the girl to get hurted by her friend;

That’s when he can emerge there

That’s when a small door opens

That’s when he gets space for his words.

A Boy Bestie secretly fantasizes that

At sometime, a wonder will happen with the girl

But that never happens,

But when that happens for someone else

In front of his eyes

He asserts himself that,

He needs even more patience.

After not talking for two days,

On the third day,

In the name of being generous,

He himself calls on her mobile,

As a coward, 

who could never materialize

His suicidal decisions.

A girl who was never with him

But who is always with him

Is something

A Boy Bestie

Could never understand.

A Boy Bestie

Neither has the irresponsibilities of a lover

Nor has the powers of a husband

He changes himself to be both the

Father and the son of the girl.

A Boy Bestie

Once in a while, tried to tell his love to the girl

She first shows a shocking reaction on her face

And creates the image of an unexpected one.

A Boy Bestie shivers with guilt

And offers a hundred apologies

And that becomes a huge funny scenario

And he too joins her and starts laughing

For that funny scenario.

No one is born as a Boy Bestie

Fate takes its course somewhere

And sends a flower to those men in hunger.

******************

Original : By Manushyaputhiran  (In Tamil, To read the original click here)

Translated in English by: Pavala

- SPGR.

Ilayaraja and his efforts to learn a Musical Instrument

The first question I asked when I got to know that my cab mate's name is Ilayaraja
was "Do you play any musical instrument?". For sometime I was using the company provided cab to commute to office. He immediately said "No," but went on to add "Infact, I tried" and continued "When I was in Madurai, in the floor below my apartment, there was a music school, where they teach music to kids" (So, our Ilayaraja stayed close to music, at-least.)

Ilayaraja added "Once I went to that school teacher and told him that I want to learn a musical instrument... And also told my wish to learn violin...". But the master had told him that he will get neck pain eventually as the violin had to be held in-between the shoulder and the cheek..."

Undeterred and also to do justification to his name, my cab mate still wanted to learn a musical instrument. So, he replied to that music teacher, "Sir, then I will learn guitar.." For which the master also agreed.

Our friend bought a guitar, paid the fee to the Master and started attending the classes. But soon, another trouble came. The musical notes were too difficult for him, to understand and to learn. So, after a couple of classes, Ilayaraja told to the Master "Sir, the notes are a bit difficult for me to understand and remember. So, can I drop Guitar and switch to Keyboard...". For some reason Ilayaraja have come to conclusion that the notes for Keyboard should be easy, as playing a keyboard is very easy. Not need to strain at all, all we have to do is to select a key and press it. It always gives some sound, unlike the violin or a flute, where it takes weeks to hear the first sound. But he lost all hopes of learning a musical instrument when his master said "The notes are same...".

After this incident, he stopped going to the classes, and never thought about learning any musical instrument in his life again. But it seems that frequently he comes across this question "Do you play any musical instrument..." Whenever people get to know about his name. I was happy in a way. When people hear my name, all they ask is its meaning, and what it refers to. Had my name been something similar to Ilayaraja, life would have been a bit more tough.

- Pavala
05-Jul-2019.

Ramanan - The Weather Man

The earliest memories of me seeing Mr. Ramanan - The Weather Man of Tamil Nadu - dates back to my high-school days. A simple-man, with a small mustache, in white shirt(most of his shirts looked white in our Black & White TV), sitting behind a table. A few computers - two to three in number - that belonged to our grand-fathers generations would be there, facing the camera, in front of him. Unlike these days, there were not many cameras in front of him, but only the DD's. No mikes too. Once the camera rolls, he will bend forward and look into those computer monitors, which makes one to wonder if that is the first time he is seeing those monitors for the day. He will pause for a few moments, when one is supposed to assume that he is thinking and analyzing the data, mostly black & white images of clouds floating over the map of India. Then he will look into the camera and tell his prediction, which most of the time will be exactly opposite to what is going to happen. For example, when he says if its going to rain heavily for the next two days, people got used to interpret that as that the sky is going to be clear and no rain will be there. On the other hand, if he says that the weather will be good and there wont be any rain for the next days, one can safely assume that its going to rain heavily for the next two days. But in those days the government and the authorities didn't go to the extreme of declaring leave for schools and collages, since they too appeared to follow the well-established interpretation of Mr. Ramanan's weather forecasts.

At times the prediction given by my grand-father, just by seeing the sky used to be somewhat accurate than the prediction of Mr. Ramanan and his metrological department.

All of a sudden, after I grew up into adulthood, I saw a colorful Ramanan in Sun TV (By this time we had switched to a Colour TV). In the mean time, Mr. Ramanan has completed a doctoral research and has become Dr. Ramanan (so, lets also change from Mr. Ramanan to Dr. Ramanan). His cute little mustache was also gone. So many mikes in front of him, based on which one can also assume that there should also be many cameras in front of him. The computers in front of him were missing.  But at times, we could see him standing in front of a big TV that displays clouds over the a world map and Dr. Ramanan explaining how the wind is formed and how it is expected to travel. Having seen his predictions from my childhood, I never worried about them and sometimes have planned and executed beautiful outings in pleasant climates, when he said that we can expect a heavy downpour for the next two days. But now there is a big change - the government and the authorities seemed to believe whatever he said, and are going to the extreme of declaring holidays whenever he said that there is going to be a heavy downpour. May be, with improved technology, his predictions are somewhat close to that of my grand-father's.

Move forward a couple of years... I receive memes about Dr. Ramanan!!! Looks like he has become the favorite darling of school and college students, since he is pivotal in prompting the regulators to declare holidays, sometimes up to 2 weeks at a stretch!!!

Some of the memes below...

And here is the ultimate one :-)  (which made me to laugh continueously for 5 minutes while having tea in our office cafeteria, which made others around me to assume that I have gone mad...)

You are "Hot"

"You are Hot".

I was shocked when my manager told these words after shaking my hands, wishing for my birthday.
I would have been a little bit happy if some lady had told the same. But that was not the case now, and I got confused.

I asked him again "Hmmm..." and mumbled.

He repeated again "You are are a bit Hot..."

After a small pause, I understood that he is actually referring to the elevated temperature he felt in my hand, during the hand-shake...

I blushed and replied "Yes... May be, since just now I am coming from outside..."

- Pavala.

Designated Story Teller

You have to believe me. Like "Software Engineer", "Senior Assistant", "Section Engineer", "Technical Assistant", the "Designated Story Teller" is the job title of a person who came to my little friend Deepak's school. Her main work is to tell stories to the kids. I was surprised to find that such a job exist nowadays. 

When I was a child, it was my grandparents who used to tell stories. Primarily my maternal grandparents and when considering the number of stories told, its my maternal grandfather. I still remember many of the stories told by him. Most of those stories were from him his imagination. One of his famous story was that of a King who makes an attempt to go to a war, but the wheel of his vehicle gets broken. He tries all vehicles right from a chariot till cycle, but the cycle too gets punctured. Finally he decides to go by walk, when he falls into a pit and his leg gets broken, where the story ends. 

But these days, the grandparents neither have the time to spend with their grandchildren nor they have the time to tell stories to them. This situation has given rise to jobs like "Designated Story Tellers" like the Madam who visited Deepak's school. They charge a hefty amount it seems. They come with lot of charts, toys, and using them they tell stories to the kids. I am not sure if kids enjoy them, but got to know that some kids slept while hearing them. This is a success on their part to some extent, since the main intent of telling stories to the kids is to make them sleep. 

Due to the changing lifestyle I think we can expect many such new jobs which we would have never had heard. 

- SPGR.

12th Valantine's Day Celebrations

Last week, on 14-Feb, we celebrated our 12th Valentine's Day in a simple way by visiting the nearby mall with our little friends. Looking backwards, its actually my 17th (???) Valentine's Day. If I go further backwards, I realize that its actually my 35th (???) Valentine's Day.

An interesting activity of me is to watch the couples on the Valentine's day morning. I have come across many interesting stories and situations over the years on the Valentine's day mornings. This year as we walked towards the shopping mall, the first couple I identified appeared more like an uncle & aunty. But who prevents uncles and aunties from celebrating the Valentine's day. As I entered the mall, I couldn't locate many couples. May be because it was early in the morning and it was Saturday which was a holiday for many and the social day would not have started for many. So I could spot only a few.

The couples who celebrate the Valentine's day can be broadly classified into two categories - "the lovers" and "the engaged". By lovers, I refer to those couples who came to know of someone in their known category, fell in love, had the courage to propose and the proposal got accepted, and are strongly believing that one day they will get into wed-lock. "The lovers" couple have certain common traits through which they can be identified. The girl in this group - most of the time - has a mask around her face with only the eyes being visible. "The engaged" are those couple whose partners are identified by their parents and their marriages are arranged by their parents. They got engaged to each other, and are in a period that is in-between their engagement and marriage. The word "engaged" has a special meaning in India, and many mistake this word that they are "engaged" in their phones (which is also partially true). These couples have the full approval of their parents, relatives and the society and unlike "the lovers" they are not scared of anyone and do not worry of anything. They do not have to worry about being "pre-maturely" caught and issues related to that. On the other hand, if "the lovers" are pre-maturely" caught (caught before they themselves disclose about their love to their parents & family), it brings in a lot of associated issues and in the current situation in my country, their life as a lover may come to an end. For the purpose of clarity, in this discussion, let us consider only "the lovers"- the real lovers, since Velantine's day is celebrated on the birth day of St. Valentine, who helped lovers to unite in life. The approved couples do not need any such help.

In the shopping mall, I could see only a few couples. But I saw groups of girls and groups of guys. The group of guys, who had no girl friends were constantly looking at these group of girls, in an attempt to make one. I could understand that Valentine's day is taking a diversion these days wherein, the Guys are trying to get a girl-friend. Contrary to this, I could also locate Guys with two or three girls. They may call themselves friends, but some of their activities do not say so. I remember the statement in a recent movie "Ippaellam friendu friendu sollittu kiss adikarathu than trendu...". Hope I was born after ten years. I never had this culture while I was in college :-(.

Not breaking the universal law, the Guys were spending (or forced to spend) heavily by their girl friends. And the girls appeared to be happy at the receiving end.

I particularly noticed the variety of dresses that girls were wearing. I couldnt spot any girl in saree. Even aunties and paatis were in Chudidhaar. Chudi, Midi, and I dont know the name of other kind of dresses that many were wearing. Guys had no option but to wear the age old shirts & pants.

But in my opinion, India is still not mature enough to this kind of Valentine Day celebration. In US, lovers do not worry about going out with their partners or being caught by someone in their known circle. But here it is not the case. The girls have to wear a mask. And unfortunately if caught in their known circle, their love will come to a pre-mature end (or) they have to face problems that they have not anticipated.

I could see the girls (alone) in "the lovers" group running here and there in the mall when the media's cameras were turned towards them. India will become a super-power (In my opinion) only on that day when the lovers can go out freely without any masks and they can publicly give pose to those media cameras, that are constantly chasing them on the Valentine's Day.

Finally, in school I have written so many essays on "If I became the Prime Minister of India". But if I really became the Prime Minister of India, I will declare February 14 a public holiday. (Belated) Happy Valentine's day wishes to all "the lovers".

- spgr.

No Comments.

 (1) The day which God created God (probably through Mitosis or Cytokinesis) 12.12.12

(2) Wishes to tomorrow's Tamil Nadu's throne (Only to the throne??? And not to the person?!?!?)...:-)...

  (3) 12.12.12 - A wonder born on a World’s wonderful day.

- Pavala.

Foreign Direct Investment - A Layman's attempts to understand it.

In the recent days, lot of talks is going on about something called Foreign Direct Investment. This made me to assume that all these days Foreigners were making investments indirectly. As a lay man who never made any investments even for tax saving purposes (mainly because I do not know how to do it) - until my friend entered my life - and it is she who still devises the various investment plans. But wherever I turn, people and media and newspapers were talking about Foreign Direct Investment. Being a layman this was sufficient enough to trigger an interest to know more about this subject.

Last Friday evening, after I came home, as usual I was watching TV and browsing through the channels. At 8 o' clock, there was message flashing on the screen on DD National “Please stand-by for an important telecast”. Having seen DD right from my child-hood, I know very well that after such an announcement some “mokkai”(useless) program is going to follow.  But the announcement on the screen stood still for a while and then our Prime Minister Manmohan Singh appeared. To my surprise, he started explaining about the need for diesel price hike and more importantly on Foreign Direct Investment. I wondered how true is the statement “When the student is ready, the Teacher comes”. Manmohan-ji himself have come(though on TV) to explain Me about FDI.

But unfortunately he was talking in Hindi. With the little Hindi I know, I still tried to follow him. I also appreciated his efforts to explain every citizen about FDI, as he knew very well that more than 80% of his subjects would not have understood what it means. Also I got a secret note from believable sources that some among the protestors against FDI do so without understanding what it is. And I am sure now they would have glued to their TV sets to understand it from the person who introduced it. But the only mistake done by our Prime Minister is having selected DD which has only 0.0001% viewership and that too while jumping from one channel to another. Had I been the Prime Minister, I would have selected something like a F TV or M TV and suddenly would have appeared in between an  important program. But being a gentleman, I am sure our Honorable Prime Minister cannot do that.

Tears ebbed out of happiness and I became emotional on knowing that we got such a responsible Prime Minister who has taken the pain to explain it to each of his citizens. Since I was the only person in home who knew (little) Hindi, all others in home were looking at me to translate and inform them. But, I myself was having a hard time in understanding what he said, so I kept a stern face and never took my eyes away from the TV screen. Since I couldn’t understand anything, I started noticing his gestures & expressions. I believe he also had a hidden agenda where he gave a “punch on the face” to those people who said that he never opens his mouth. He was indeed opening his mouth while talking (though it requires some effort from our side to notice this) and was giving mild smile at times.

After the Hindi version, he repeated what he said in English too. But I changed the channel so that people in home believe that I indeed understood what he said in Hindi. I moved to our Tamil News Channels and as I expected, they were rightly discussing about it. In one channel, one guy has translated the whole speech on the fly to Tamil and was explaining in Tamil (at the same time when our Honorable Manmohan-ji was explaining in English). Now I was ready to explain to all in home, but no one turned to me, and they were listening to what he said on TV.

But in spite of all these, I have to secretly admit to my readers that I couldn’t understand what is meant by the Foreign Direct Investment, as the Tamil Guy also was also mostly using Jargons in his speech. Our Sweet PM explained that in 1991 people opposed liberalization when it was introduced, but now we are reaping the fruits of it. I agree with him on that. I know of people who booked a telephone connection and waited for 10 years, whereas we get it now the moment we provide an address proof. Also it almost eradicated the un-employment problem which was in its acute stage when liberalization was introduced. I was in my high school during those days. So our PM says that people who oppose now will also fail, and we will reap the fruits soon. As a side note, I would like to inform my readers that I hate fruits. I like only bajji, vada, etc.

But I still wanted the issue clarified, as partial knowledge is very dangerous. I called upon my friend, whom I believe is an expert on these things, and he is also a small scale business man.

“Hi Biva(name changed to protect identity), how are you doing”

“Hi Pavala(real name of the author), I am fine… how are you doing?”

“Fine here Biva… I wanted to know about an important stuff”

“Yes Pavala… whats it??? am glad to help you…”

“What is this Foreign Direct Investment… why are people creating fuss about it…”

“Its dangerous Pavala… Its not good for people…” he told in an alarming voice.

“How Biva??? That’s exactly what I want to understand…”

“It will chase all the Annachees(that’s how all small scale business men are known in Tamil Nadu..) from business…”

“How Biva???"

“Now WalMart will come and give all items at lower prices…”

I don’t know why all people target WalMart all the time. Why wont  some other company will come. To me it just shows how WalMart is keen in its business and mission and utilizing every opportunity to spread and grow.

“Hmmm… if WalMart can give at low prices, why cant our Annachees give at low prices…”

“WalMart will buy in large quantities and get huge discounts from seller and they will give at lower prices to people…”

“Why don’t our Annachees also join together and form an group and buy in large quantities and get huge discounts from the sellers and give it to us for lower prices…”

There was silence at the other end.

Though our Annachees join together for protests, I know that its tough for our Annachees to join together for business purposes, and in a hypothetical situation if they do so and get huge discounts from sellers, they wont pass it on to us, instead they will see huge profits.

“Tell me Biva, for consumers like us, is it good or bad… We will get items (not the item as in “item songs”… here it means commodities :-)…) at lower prices no…”

“Yes Pavala… But our Annachees and their families will suffer… it will drive them out of business…”

“But, why should I worry about Annachees Biva… are they worrying about Me or about My family… The 'mukku kadai' Annachee (corner shop Annachee…) is not even giving Me free Corriander leaves nowadays…”

“Yes Pavala…” He was a bit sad and embarrassed and we talked about something else for a couple of minutes before we dis-connected.

That cleared it… Soon there is going to be increased competition and we are going to get commodities at lower prices. But our PM said that the accusation that it will drive away Annachees is baseless and they will have their share. I have to agree on this too, as I can see that the road side food stalls co-exist with big restaurants.

I also have business people is my very close circle, but I am really scared to ask them about this.

Note: This article is purely based on the author's (poor) understanding and assumptions and if this hurts the feeling or sentis or anything else of our Honorable Prime Minister or the Annachees or anyone else, it primarily has be to attributed to the poor understanding and writing skills of the author in which case, the author apologizes to them in advance.

Travel Diary : Nagerkoil Trip May 2012 - (2) - Nagaraja Temple Visit:

The Nagaraja temple was very close to the city, contrary to my guess that it will be in the outskirts. The temple is just around 4 kms from Vadasery. When the car crossed the main entrance, my little friend Dhanu immediately said "Appa, Ithu snake ooda temple"("Appa, this is snake's temple"). I was wondering how he identified. Later got to know that he had noticed the 2 big Nagaraja statues on either side of the entrance. Forgot to tell, the city got the name Nagerkoil due to this temple.


They are allowing the cars and vehicles inside the main entrance. It was very narrow and for a "Katthukutty"("Learner") driver like me, it was very challenging and indeed I managed to drive the Hyundai GETZ into it. I have to thank my Mama for beliving in me and allowing me to take the driver's seat. But once upon a time, I had to run around the car to take that seat :-). More on that later, if possible :-). Finally we parked the car inside the temple(parking charge Rs. 10). When I came out and turned behind, I saw a beatuful, old temple, with a nice pond in front of it.

 [Pic: Front view of the Nagaraja temple]

We entered temple, we men were supposed to remove our shirts and banians, as per the tradition in Kerala and Nagarkoil. My little friend Dhanu refused to do that and he declared that he wont come inside the temple if he had to do that. Then, the people nearby said that since he is a baby, he need not remove his shirts and he can enter the temple.

When we went to the main Sannathi, there were some Poojai going on and people were standing and some were sitting in front of the God, waiting for the pre-poojai events to get over. I had a good time watching the funny single packs of the half-naked men there. Those men also would have had a nice time seeing my single pack :-).

Then the Poojai started and we prayed to the Nagaraja God. Mama went to the front rows to get the Prasadham. Mama said that we have to give atleast Rs. 10 to get the Prasadam, otherwise there are chances that we may not get it. On hearing the word "Prasadham", I thought that Mama will come back with Pongal or Puliyodharai or something similar to that and was anxiously waiting. After a couple of minutes, Mama came with a banana leaf. I was even more happy to see the banana leaf in his hand, and my hope of finding an eatable increased. But Alas!!! It had Sandanam, Thiruneer & Puthuman(Sand from the snake God's home). My friend explained that this is the Prasadham.

[Pic: Prasadham of Nagaraja temple]

Pond in the front

One of the Nagaraja statue in front of the temple

Then we went around the temple, visited to other Gods there and came out. I was surprised to see that people were buying milk in small Mugs. Found that they pour that milk to the numerous Snake Gods planted in front of the temple. Think this type of praying is unique in to the Nagaraja temple.

While driving back from the temple another challenge awaited me. Not only the entrance was narrow, but there was a steep slope from the temple leading to the entrance. I managed this time too :-)... Think I am no longer a "Kathukutti" driver...

The Challenge in front of me

[Pic: Way out from the Nagaraja temple]

Girls Names

Another set of freshers arrived and joined the project. Like last year, this year too, Renga was given the responsibility to groom them, both on technology and application. Shivaraj, who had been the onsite co-ordinater for the project has recently returned to offshore due to visa issues, and who will be going back to onsite once his visa issues are settled.

On a fine day, their manager Hrithik called them and said: "Guys, we got another set of freshers..."

"How many guys and how many girls..." interruped Shivaraj, stressing on the word "girls".

"Allow me to complete first..." said the manager and continued "They have been recriuted and trained by our Noida branch and due to the openings here, they have been sent here..."

Our branch is in South India.

"So we can directly give them application knowledge training and deploy them in project?" asked Renga.

"Nope... They are trained in C & C++... and ours is a Java/J2EE project, so they need to be trained in our Java & J2EE technologies..."

Renga understood how hard its going to be to bring them to a level so that they can be productive. And by the time they come to the level of being productive, they will put down the papers and leave the company. Thats the fate of this industry.

"So Renga, my expectation is that you will identify the trainers from academy, schedule the training sessions, and make sure that they catch up with others soon..." said the manager and finished with these words "And whereever needed you can take the help of Shivaraj until he is here..."

Renga just nodded and understood the hidden message behind those words - "You do all the actual work, I will put them in my appraisals and get the credits for it..."

"Any questions..." asked Manager Hrithik.

"No", said Renga.

"How many guys and how many girls..." was the question from the person who never stops until he gets what he wants - Shivaraj, again stressing on the word "girls".

"2 guys and 5 girls..." came the reply which seemed to make both Renga and Shivaraj happy.

Soon Renga and Shivaraj started working on the schedules and started booking the training rooms, co-ordinated with the network department for the systems and softwars and within a couple of days everything was set for the training sessions.

On the first day it was PHP training. The freshers batch of 7 people came and sat in the training rooms. The room had a capacity of around 30 people, and the freshers occupied the first row.

Renga started addressing them. To his right was Shivaraj and to his left was the PHP trainer from academy. Renga introducted the trainer, explained the importance of the training and how serious this training has to be taken. Shivaraj also continued Renga, more or less repeating all the points told by Renga.

Renga then asked the freshers to introduce themselves telling their name, where they come from, college they studied and their hobbies.

After the introduction session, training started and Renga & Shivaraj went and occupied the seat behind the freshers.

On the third day of the training, Hrithik entered the training room, thinking that he is giving a surprise visit to see the progress of the training.

He asked Renga "How is it going?"

"Good Hrithik, they are able to catch up the concepts quickly and these training sessions are going to be very helpful to them and to us..."

"Good good..." acknowledged Hrithik.

The freshers were busy executing some examples on PHP in their systems and manager Hrithik wanted to have this discussion within three of them, without disturbing the freshers team and the trainer.

"And what are their names..." asked Hrithik.

Renga started "She is Alka, next to her is Liya, after her is Ishitha, On the right side is Deepa, next to her Soumya and he is Sohan and next to him is...." Oh no, what is his name... thought Renga as he forgot his name...

"What.." asked Hrithik...

Renga paused for another couple of seconds and said "He is Sunil..."

Shivaraj gave a confusing look at Renga.

"Oh Ok..." said Hrithik and continued "Guys, come and meet me once this session is over..."
Having said so, Hrithik left the hall.

"Hey Renga, he is not Sunil, he is Ashish..." said Shivaraj.

"Oh Ok Shivaraj, I forgot his name..." said Renga

"They why you said that he is Sunil, you could have told that you forgot his name"

"No yaar, then Hrithik will say that I remember only the girls names... Why to take risk..."

"You will be in trouble when Hrithik comes to know that he is Ashish..."

"Nothing to worry Shivaraj" said Renga and continued with a smile "He also will be remembering only the girls names..."

- Pavala.

Nokia 2600c Vs Sony Experia

After a long time I met my college Parthi at the lunch queue in office. He stood behind me and was constantly doing something with his mobile phone. Last time when I saw him, he was having a Nokia some N-series. What he was having now was a device, bit larger than a mobile phone.

On seeing me taking a glimpse of his mobile, he smiled and said "I have bought a new mobile last week."

"What is its brand?", I enquired.

"Sony experia... 23k..." he replied.

I was thinking what that 23k could mean, whether he was referring to its inbuilt or supported memory or its price (about which I never asked). Memory is always expressed in multiples of 2 upto 8 and multiples of 8 beyond that. As he continued to explain about his new Sony Experia, I could understand that he had indeed mentioned the price of his phone.
I would hesitate to buy even a computer for that cost.

We reached the buffet counter, got our food and sat in the available table in cafeteria. He went on to explain about the features of his new phone.

Suddenly he asked "What phone do you have dude...?"

"Nokia 2600c.."

"Oh... come on man, still using the same phone... I remember you showing that to me 4 years back when you bought it... At that time itself, it was an outdated one and its a base model..."

He continued "You know what my Sony Experia has... It has an inbuilt multimedia converter... you just drop a video file into it, it automatically converts into compatible format, and the video is ready to be viewed..."

He never stopped or allowed me to talk, but continued "You know its camera dude... Its 5 megapixel, high definition... You dont need to have another camera for taking a picture..."

When he stopped for taking a breath, I took the chance and asked "Can I take a look at it..." and took my left hand forward so as to take the phone from his hand. He just pulled his hand backward (far enough that I will not be able to grab it, even if I stand) and said "Dude, even I have not explored all of its features... May be I can show you what I know..." and he went on to operate the phone, showing video, playing songs, showing the pics he has shot from it...

At this point, I clearly lost interest in his phone and was plainly nodding my head without taking any effort to understand what he tries to explain.

We finished our lunch, washed hands and went out of the cafeteria, at which point I asked him "Parthi, can you do what I do with my phone..."

He was surprised and gave a big laugh and said "Oh... come on man... yours is a base model... and mine is Sony Experia... Definitely it can do all that your base model Nokia 2600c can do... You will understand only if you have a Sony Experia..."

Having said so, he keenly looked into the display of my phone, to notice what I am going to do and also kept his phone ready in hand to repeat do what I am going to do.

I smiled at him and......... dropped my phone on the floor.

- Pavala.

Mankatha Free...

See what and all has to be done to fill up the theatre where Mankatha is put up...

புதிய பழமொழி - எண் 10041

வீணாபோகுதேன்னு குப்பைல போட வேண்டியதை தூக்கி தொப்பைல போட்டேனா, நீ வீணா போய்டுவே....

- பவளா.

என்னோட நண்பி இதை புதிய குறளாக இப்படி மாற்றி உள்ளார்:

வீணாவதை குப்பயிலிடாது தொப்பையில் இட்டால்
நீ வீணாவது உறுதி.

- பவளாவின் நண்பி.

Marriage-Make Up (Bridal Make-Up)

These days applying make up for the bride has become an inevitable and unavoidable event during marriage - for the obvious reason - many people have to face her and she also has to face many. And we can understand how this situation will be without a 2 or 3 layered coating of make-up. Also one has to remember this make-up or anything is not applied for the Guy, again due to obvious reasons :-).

The event of applying the make-up takes atleast 1/3rd of the total time allocated for the marriage. For a bridal make-up, the make-up lady comes a couple of hours before the marriage along with her acquaintances. I have difficulty in understanding why this lady has applied more make-up to herself than the bride... She will take the bridge along with her for the make-up session. They will lock themselves up inside a room, and we Guys never ever know what happens inside. After a couple of hours when the bride comes out, she will be an entirely different person.

The girl before the make-up may look pretty or average or anywhere in-between. But after the make-up session, they all look alike. I appreciate this uniqueness of the make-up process which brings all the girls to a common platform - pulling-down the good-looking ones, pushing-up the average-looking ones and adjusting the in-between ones. Some men before tying the holy knot get confused whether its the same girl which he saw before in the earlier marriage related events. (Here I would like stress my stand on the point that beauty is a relative term and it always lies on the eyes of the beholder. A girl who appears to be good-looking amidst one set of girls may appear average or below average amidst another set of girls. But I have to agree that to every guy, their special ones always look beautiful and pretty, not matter what :-)...).

Now this event appears to have taken another dimension. Ladies, who will be otherwise mere spectators of the marriage, also started having a make-up session before attending it. Though they may not confront the situation described in the first para of the article!!! May be they think or assume that they also face such a situation in the marriages they attend.

In my grand-mother's days, the bride would have just washed their face and come to the stage. In my mother's days, they would have applied a coat of talcum powder in addition to washing-face. But now... This makes me to think or assume that over the period of time, due to evolution, girls have lost their inherent beauty and because of this they have to augment it with supplements.

- SPGR.

Bonda Koli

For long I had this doubt - Why those white coloured hens are called 'Bonda Koli'. While helping my friend in cooking I just posed this doubt to her.

She told "See, while making bonda sometimes people immerse egg in the bonda flour and and make egg bonda. This bonda is not natural at all(???). From that egg, which is inside the bonda, no Koli will come out. Similarly, in the eggs laid by those Kolis, no Koli will come out and also those Kolis developed using an unusual process and because of this they never reproduce. So they are called as bonda Kolis. "

I was totally confused as it seemed both logical and un-logical. Can someone validate the above statement of my friend and / or call tell why those Kolis are called bonda Kolis???

Also I have one more doubt - Why we have only bonda Kolis? Why not bonda Aadu??? or Bonda Maadu??? Can't we create them using the same un-natural processes??? Please answer...

- Confused Pavala.

How to identify a newly married Guy...

Having written about Girls, now its time to write about newly married Guys, just to maintain the balance:

(1) Bracelets... Most of the guys wear this on the day of their marriage for the first time in their life. If a Guy appears with new bracelet, chain and rings(probably on both the hands), for sure, he is a newly married guy.

(2) Wrist Watch... I wonder when this tradition came in. Definitely the in-laws will get a new watch for the Guy. And some Guys protect this watch more than the Girl they married. In earlier days, the Guys should have got a good HMT winding watch. A couple of years back, a good Titan watch used to be the standard and normally it will be a Gold colored one. But things have changed now... I was surprised to find that the cost of the watches got for the Guy runs to several thousands of rupees, and sometimes several tens of thousands. And those watches have all the features that you can think of. It has a thermomter, pressure meter, altimeter, speedometer, ammeter, voltometer, tachometer, auto-meter, taxi-meter and any other meter that you can think of :). I even have a doubt that the father-in-law sometimes even set a small chip with a transmitter in the watch, which keeps sending signals and messages to him through which he spies his son-in-law(Proof will be provided on request). I have 2 questions related to this:

-1- Why only analog watches(watches with hands) are given? Why digital watches which can accomodate even more features are not given???

-2- In this electronic age, where every gadget shows time, why still wrist watches are given to the Guy. Why not an i-pod, or i-phone, or a ultra-modern mobile phone???

(3) Coat & Suit... The guy will get have a coat&suit (probably the first one in his life and the only one for many in their life).

(4) He will always be roaming around with a foolish smile...

(5) These days the Guy gets a bike during marriage itself. His old, if he ever has one can be exchanged for perichambalam (dates). Most of the father-in-laws hand over this bike with a the condition that the pillion should always be reserved for his daughter... And the transmitter in the wrist watch will send a message to him, if he ever happens to dis-obey this request(or order).

(6) The Girl... Wherever he goes, a new girl will be accompanying him. He will be happy and proud to have such a company. As time passes, time will teach him, that this company is the source for most of the troubles in his life...

Disci: Readers are advised not to get serious about the points listed above, especially point (6)...

Comments are welcome...

- JAVA Pavala.

How to identify a newly married Girl...

How to identify a newly married girl (applies mostly to south Indian girls only):

(1) Whatever be her original skin complextion, now it will be yellow with due to the turmeric paste that was applied during the marriage.
(2) In addition to the normal bindi she normally has, there will be an additional red turmeric bindi on top of the forehead. I guess this is a newly adopted culture from north India and I doubt whether my grandmother or my mother ever wore such a bindi.
(3) She will be a bit more fat, and continue to grow fatter exponentaially for the rest of her life from the day of marriage.
(4) Sometimes people will mistake her for a Model doll kept in the showcases of the Jewelery shops due to the quintals of Golden Jewels that she will be wearing.
(5) She will be wearing a mangal sutra. (I brought this point to the last position, since these days Girls sometimes dont wear it (or) dont wear it when they go for work (or) they conceal it when they go for work.)

Thats all I can think of. More are welcome in the comments...

- JAVA Pavala.

Engagement means Endless phone calls... part (2)

Hmmm... Nothing great... One of my colleague got engaged recently. Contrary to normal engagers, I never found him with a mobile phone stuck on his ear. And no other feature which I have normally seen among people who got engaged. Unable to resist the temptation, I many times thought of asking why he is like this... But since I felt that that might be a intrusion into his privacy, I didnt ask.
But it made me understand that there are still some engaged couples who are never like what is written in this title of this article...

- JAVA Pavala.

Engagement means Endless phone calls...

Engagement means Endless phone calls...

Disclaimer: All characters, incidents, descriptions and anything else that you could imagine, depicted in this article are imaginery. Any resemblance to anyone living & currently undergoing an engagement-period (like notice-period :-)..) is not intentional, but purely coincidental...

(Appada, Maniratnam padam maathiri oru Disci-ya pottachu... Ini enna venna eluthlaam...).

A couple of

Engagements and m

arriage fixe

s happened in our family and in my friends circle recently, which is the main motivation for writing this article. I will try to highlight all that happen

during the engagement period and where ever possible I will give hints which would help yo

u to identify between different types of couples.

Couples can be broadly classified into 3 types - Approved couples, Un-Approved couples and Yet-to-be-Approved couples. If the parents see a guy or a girl for thier kid and once their kids say “ok”, at times after a bit of persuasion, the engagement starts. In this case, the couple is an Approved cou

ple as these type of couples have f

ull Approval from their parents and the engagement period

starts from the moment they mutually say “ok”. The interesting thing here is that it takes less time for a Girl to decide on the Guy for them, than the time they take for buying a saree

or

a jewel for them. Same should be the case for the Guy too, I guess. If a guy falls in love in a girl and the girl never approves (or) accepts his love(whic

h is normally the case...) (or) if a girl falls in love with a guy and if the guy never approves (or) accepts her love(a rare case :-)...), then they fall under the catagory of Un-Approved couples. This type of couples never have an engagement period. If a Guy and a Girl fall in lo

ve with each other, and the other party also accepts the love, but still their parents are yet to approve t

heir love and get them married, then these couples can be bro

ught under the catagory - Yet-to-be-Approved couples. In this case, the engagement starts right after one person proposes and the other person accepts.

Irrespective of whatever be the type of

couple, a lot of interesting stuff happens around the persons getting engaged and it is a good

entertainment for the people around them, until marriage.

The first thing is phone call

s. In the case of approved couples,

things are quite easy. The parents get the number of the Guy or the Girl, pass it on to their ward and ask them to call and talk

to the other person... How nice it is.... But take the case of the Yet-to-be-approved

couples. The Guy (most of the time...) does all the tricks that exists in this world and somehow gets the girl’s number and starts first with missed calls, then with blank calls, and finally with all courage starts speaking... only to

receive scoldings from the other end... :-(...

As there is no problem for the Approved couples to give or receive phone calls, they keep getting calls day and night, in and out. At times the immatured and yet-to-grow-up people like me wonder like about what they will be talking all day and night, and at one point what will they do when they exhaust discussion

on all the topics in this galaxy?!?!??? And what will be left out to talk after marriage?!?!???

I have an idea for the mobile network providers. They can come with a plan like engagement-period pack. In this plan, a person who got engaged can add the number of the person to whom he got engaged. In order to avail this plan, the person should produce an affidavit or atlea

st a letter signed by parents on both sides stating that they are indeed engaging their kid to the other person.

Otherwise, there are chances that this plan will be misused heavily. In this plan, call charges are free between both the numbers from 10:00 PM to 3:00 or 4:00 AM, and then charges are 10 times the normal charge until 10:00 AM (in an attempt to give rest to those poor mobile phones and also to bring down their network traffic), then again normal charges from until 10:00 PM.

Again, here we get a chance to differentiate between approved and yet-to-be-approved couples. When the girl or the guy gets the call, and if their parents quietly move from that place in order to enable them to talk peacefully, then they are Approved couples. On hearing the ring tone, if the parents rush and come near the girl or the guy to observe what they are talking and (or) or to find out to whom they are talking to, then they are yet-to-be-approved couples.

Invariably, as I confirmed through my friend and other friends, most of the girls after sometime, find the conversation from the other end to be monotonous and boring. They use several techniques to avoid such boring talks, after sometime. The most common being “hello... hello...

signal illa... appurama call pannuga...” (no signal... call me later...). This also gives an insight into the fact that almost all

the calls originate from the Guy. In the case of yet-to-be-approved couples, the girl says “amma nearby, call me later...”, or “mama nearby, call me later”, etc.

Going around the city (or) Roaming is an inevitable activitiy for the couples during the engagement period. When the parents bring their ward safely, make all facilities, fix the place and duration of roaming, then one can easily guess that they are approved couples. In some cases, the approved couples even go to the extreme of having feast in their relatives home, during the engagement period itself. Yet-to-be-approved couples do not have this privilage as they always have the fear of being seen by anyone in the known circle.

Giving gifts is

another inevita

ble activi

ty during the engagement period. Needless to say, in this case also the gifts originates from the Guy. Don't imagine too much about the gifts. Items like

baloon, panchu mittai (cotton toffee, if my translation is right...:-)...),

and dolls which normally would delight a 2 or 3 year old toddler would be

given or exchanged as gifts. Only to the immature and yet-to-grow-up people like me the question would arise “Why stuff that would normally delight a 2 or 3 year olds are given as gifts...”. Again here we get an opportunity to find out what type of couples they are. If the gifts are neatly packed and sent through parents or through to-be-parents-in-law and handed over the girl, then they are approved couples. If the gifts are just dropped a

t the door of the girl, even without the details of who dropped it, th

ey are unapproved or yet-to-be-approved couples.

Another thing is the visit to in-laws home. If the Guy visits the to-be-in-laws home, or to any of the in-laws relatives home and if the Guy receives a Royal tre

atment, then they are approved couples. If the Guy just stares at the in-laws home from some distance and never gets a chance to enter the home, then they are yet-to-be-approved couples.

These days, its not uncommon so see

the girl also visiting the in-laws home (or) extended in-laws home during the engagement period itself, most of the time

for reasons like their extended in-laws wants to see the girl.... Let me try to guess what will happen during such a visit... The girl will sit somewhere like the center of the house and the in-laws will com

e one-by-one, either in a queue (or) by some other means a

nd see the girl.... Or.... may be like they will be seated in front of a dias and the girl com

es and walks here and there on the dias, like the parade that happens in a fashion show.... Or... may be in a traditional way the girl will have a big tray with tumblers filled with coffee and she will be serving to in-laws and there-by they also get a chance to see her... But this normally happens in the

girl's home during the 'pon paarkum padalam'(girl seeing function)... Ok... Ok... let me stop my imagination here...

Lot more things to write... If possbile will continue in a sequel to this...

Whatever it is.. the couple in their engagement period are a good source of entertainment to everyone around them...

Disci 1: All characters, incidents, descriptions and anything else that you could imagine, depicted in this article are imaginery. Any resemblance to anyone living & currently undergoing an engagement-period (like notice-period :-)..) is not intentional, but purely coincidental...

Disci 2: Incidents related to un-approved or yet-to-be-approved couples are not based on my personal experience.

Disci 3: This article is purely fictional and not based on real incidents. Any claim that it is based on anyone's personal story or incidents will be summarily rejected.

Disci 4: If this article hurts the feelings (or) sentis, (or) anything else of anyone, it really has to be attributed to my poor writing and depicting skills, in which case, I personally accept my fault and offer my apologies...

- JAVA Pavala.