YSR is missing

The news that I heard on the TV channels jolted me . Jolted me enough to get going with my blog which I have been postponing for over a month now. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y. Rajashekar Reddy has been missing since today morning. His helicopter has been missing amid the bad weather this morning. The whole of A.P has been praying for rains till now and now when they came, they have come so hard that they seem to taken the CM of Andhra along.

I guess the whole of A.P is tuned into their television sets. Our cable connection ( yeah.. the good old cable and not DTH) went kaput and we had switch on DD-1, the national channel. Hearing the TV sound, the aunty from the opposite house wanted to know if the cable was working. Her next question was about the C.M and his well-being. I also saw quite of few messages on TV, most of them praying for him and some cursing him. It was the same story on my aunt's phone call with her friend cursing him and my aunt wishing him the best.

Now on to Social Media from the traditional media. Nope. I am not talking about my blog. I am talking of the twitters and Google searches of the world. Just typed YSR on twitter and found quite a few tweets on the subject. I tried typing YSR on Google and was prompted by 'YSR misisng' and 'YSR dead' options.

I couldn't help but laugh when I found one Gtalk message which blamed telugu actress Roja for the entire episode saying that she has proved to be the bad omen for the Congress. This was my school friend who used to say the same when her movies flopped during our school days.

Now that I have started this blog, I wonder what category falls into. Umm.. ?Wow! ? or Huh? ? Perhaps it's mix of all these with the security forces wondering what went wrong with the helicopter and people across the state reacting in different ways. Or may be it is a shocking news that needs to be put under a different category. Well, the first post has been a bouncer on that front.

A universal Donor :)

Right now, I am wearing a red and white shirt. Well, nothing too romantic about it, but then this is a shirt which I bought during the 'Friends to support' run. 'Friends to support' is a social group that helps the society by providing information about blood donors and organizing blood donation camps.

Coming back to my shirt, the message on it reads ' I am proud donor' which is ironical because of the fact that I being a diabetic, can never donate blood to anyone :(. But I still think that I am a proud donor. And what makes me think so? Well, listen to me now. I happen to fall in love ( that's what I think it is ) every other day and end up giving so much that makes me feel that I am the universal donor. Just as Aarya points out, I guess I have so much love embedded in me that a single gal would never to able to take it all. And hence I need to spread the love around to all the gals around me :)

So in order to sync the message with my 'Dil se' and 'Dil de' thoughts I turned the friends2support logo upside down and tweaked the turned version a little bit. And lo! you can see my heart there, right on my shirt proclaiming that it is the proud donor. The logo on Kumar's shirt ( to the right) is the original one. Cool!!! Isn't it? :)

Uncle!

I went to Care Banjara Hospital yesterday to submit some of my reports and met a doctor whom I hadn't met for the almost 1 year. Here is how the conversation went

Doctor: Hello

Me: Hello Sir

Doctor: Kya bhai! French beard. You have put on weight. No walking. No Diet-control.

Dad nahi hain....! Total change!

Me: (pissed off at the weight comment) Arey weight kuch hain.. I appear hefty just because of this jerkin!

Doctor: Acha.. par yeh to baahar nikal raha hain . ( he said that patting my tummy)

Huh! Not again! This is happening a bit too frequently now. It reminds me of the hair dye ad where a guy hears the word "Uncle" echoeing his ears. Just a couple of days ago, I happened to pose for my style photos in a marriage. I put one of the photos as my profile-pic in Orkut, ultra-pleased with it. ( Glam-boy dikh raha Main.. was my feeling). As expected there were a couple of scraps about the changed pic in orkut.

Hello, Abu Salem!

Hi...yeah Uncle photo kya hain! Since when did you start wearing those glasses?

I was shocked when I read those. I immediately changed the pic. Alas! I, in my best pic now look like an uncle. Uncle ! Uncle ! Uncle! The words still echo in my ears. Reflecting further on these lines, I now understand why Mom n Dad ask me if they should start searching for my better-half every other day. I do look to be in need of one. The french-beard is my only armour. It makes my chubby cheeks less obvious. Rishi Kapoor, the bollywood actor started sporting a French beard after he was 40. And I just turned 26.( By mistake, I happened to typed it as 46 a moment ago :( ). I believe that people put on French-beard when their face has nothing else to offer . There are some who put it on just to sport a "new" look. The later was my reason earlier but now the former seems to be a more appropriate reason.

Realization Aftermath: Abu Salem seems much better! He seems to occupy lesser space and didn't have the puffy face :(

Jog! Run! Yoga! Gym! What next? Ask me this question at 7:00 am in the morning and my answer would be "Arey, i'll get going from tomorrow!!"and Tomorrow has never happened till now :)

Abu Salem pic - Courtesy - www.tribuneindia.com/.../spectrum/main1.htm

Bday eve Blues !

Pepe Jeans, Spykar and Brand factory. I spent a good 2 hours roaming around all these places. Par saaala Ek shirt nahi mila ! I just wanted a 'simple sa' collared short T-shirt for my birthday. But I couldn't find any to my liking. Of course I wanted to buy a trouser as well. But I had made up my mind that I would buy one only I found a good shirt and that never happened. Me wearing formals made things worse. For once, I agree with Kiran who hates freaking around on Wednesdays in those Tie-Full sleeves - leather shoes formal wear. Well, today I happened to wear a checks shirt , which when not tucked into my trousers is too big for for me.

Start-Flashback! Aah.. it all started around 15 years ago when Dad realizing that I was a Complan boy growing fast and rapid bought a T-shirt of a bigger size than mine. I looked good in it ( parents always think so and i didn't know that then ) and it lasted long. I was never comfortable wearing anything tight because that would not sync with my flexible body which at any given point of time was either in a bowling or a batting pose. Thus started the "Thoda bada size lele" funda. When I was in high school, wearing Dad's shirts for me was a cool option. It continued even while I was in college. Hmm.. in fact it never mattered in college although the short-shirt fashion had just begun. Then came the job. I now had my own money and shopping with friends was more than a one-off event. The usual comment from my friends as well as the salesman would be "Wait!! Isn't that too big for you?". A few shoppings later my heart started feeling the same and thus started the "Wear what seems to fits you " revolution. The word "seems " assumes significance because some of the shirts don't quite fit you, but you go ahead with them for that is the latest fashion. Just a few days, I found a shirt in my cup-board that I used to wear during my final year and I was like "God! It's sooooo big. How did I ever wear it?" ( And that was supposedly one of favorite party wears !). End-Flashback!

Since I have been working only for the last 3 years, I have quite a few extra large shirts and most of them happen to be formals. Today happened to be one such formal day. With the formal shirt on, none of the trousers looked good! The moment I wore the jeans my the loose shirt would divert my attention. And when I did finally remove the shirt, my paunch would grab my attention. Huh! So I needed a good shirt for the trouser to look good but that never happened.

Frustrated,I started home. On my way back, I came across a Kwality ice cream hawker. "Yummy! I need some ice cream", I thought and stopped. I wanted to have Chocobar but as luck would have it, that was missing. The hawker urged me to take a "Choco-feast" but I refused since I wanted to have something less sugary." Hmm.. Ok... Give me a Mango bar"I said . He had it and it was Rs 15 but neither of us had the change. I searched all my pockets and found Rs 4. I wanted a rupee more and continued searching, hoping that I would find one. Finally seeing disappointment written all over my face, the hawker let me have the Mango bar for Rs 14.

I came home and opened orkut. And this is what I saw:

Today's fortune: Your luck has been completely changed today

"Oh...how true", I thought shaking my head in disbelief!

And all fell down!

This has not been the best of times for Hyderabad. After the twin blasts in the city on August 25th, the Punjagutta Flyover has collapsed today killing at least 15 people and injuring several others. I called some of my friends and sighed relief when I found none of them were near the flyover at that time. I feel sorry for the innocent victims who were near the flyover. I wonder how feeble the construction was! How could the fly-over collapse because of the rain? Aren't these basic things taken care of, when a masive fly-over at one of the busiest commercial centres in the city is being constructed. Luckily it was a weekend. There would have been greater damage inflicted if it was a week day.

The below picture was taken when the construction of the flyover had just started. I thought that I would share this picture with my friends once the flyover was ready , proclaiming myself to be the first guy who set foot on the Punjagutta flyover. Sadly, I was not only the first but also the last.

Ragging Mana hain!

I happened to switch on the TV just in time to watch The Ragging debate on CNN-IBN yesterday. The news is that ragging is now considered a criminal offence and any junior who is not happy with his seniors can lodge a complaint against them. So the situation has now taken a complete 180 degree turn with the juniors doing the masti and the seniors walking around the campus keeping a safe distance from the juniors.

Rings & Hallucinations. It's flashback time now. Yours truly was in the first year of college. I remember it all. It was my first Sunday in college and I was having a very "healthy interaction" with my seniors. I wanted to make an impression ( what a wrong choice) and started asking the names of the seniors around me. I found quite a few seniors staring at me. Just then a senior whom I knew since school days walked in and I lost no time in greeting him "Hi Shankar, How are ya!!!". Awwwh... I didn't know that the as per college rules ( senior rules) a junior should address a senior only as "Sir" or "Madam" and not by their name. The seniors found a bakra in me. And the quizzing errr I mean healthy interaction went on till 12:45 in the night. As I was about to leave, one senior told me his room no and asked me to wake him up by 6:00 am. Huh! I thought. I went to my room and lied down on the bed. But I couldn't just sleep. till about 4:00 am. The alarm rang at 5:45 am and woke me up. I went to my senior's room ans woke him up. He didn't wake up instead he asked me leave. I came back to my room but couldn't sleep again. That day was just the beginning. In the next few days, we marched round the campus, measured distances using a 1 rupee coin, counted the number of steps at every place steppable place ( I mean a place with steps), gave impromptu dance/singing performances and what not. We also did a Fashion show, draped in bedsheets ( a saree replacement) posing like the sexy babes on FTV. And at the end of the event there was a Miss Boys hostel as well :) . All this lasted till the Freshers party where we had a DJ ( my first and the best) which lasted till early hours of the next day morning.

Although I do remember instances where I really got fed up, I thought the overall experience of ragging was fun. It made us know our seniors and more importantly helped us shed our inhibitions. Most of us there were shy, introverts ( who had cleared a tough entrance exam and hence had the "studious" image hanging around) who preferred staying in their own rooms. We could no longer do that once a senior had asked us to shake a leg or strain our vocal chords.

What's happening right now in the universities of Delhi seems to be the exact opposite. Of course one can always say that "Ragging should not be taken to an extreme. It should be within limits". But guess we can only imagine or else at best blog about such things. Once the freedom is provided, there seems to be an equal chance of it being taken to the other undesired extrme . It is unfortunate that ragging has now become a criminal offence. Ragging mana hain aur students ko yeh maan na hain!

Huh! I can only hum the Pink Floyd anthem " We don't need no education ..!" shaking my head in disbelief.

The Static and The fleeting

Ha ha Hasini! I finally managed to watch the telugu movie "Dhee" today. I wanted to watch this movie since a long time, ever since I saw the pics of the lead lady "Genelia" on one of the idle filmy sites. I have gazed at her photos a hazaar times since then. How couldn't I when she was on every wall of my life- in my room, on my computer and on my cell-phone. And then she would appear on the TV screeen every now and then. I couldn't just wait to watch her on the 70mm screen. So when one of friends called me at 5:45 pm asking me if i could join him for a 6 pm show, life seemed to ooze of out the dead Mainframe screen. 2 mins later - Log off, Shut down. 4 mins later- I started my bike.15 minutes later , I was at the theatre and in front of me on the big screen stood the beauty.

Two and half hours later, I wasn't exactly mesmerized. Naah... the quality of the film had nothing to do with it neither was the fact my dream girl lacked the brains and fell for that dumbo hero. I remembered that I had seen her films earlier. But it wasn't then that my Dil went mmmmmm... it was only when I saw the pics. After some amount of R & D ( office mein zyada kaam kar ne ka effect) , I have come to the conclusion that Genelia is a static beauty. Hee hee.. Let me explain. These static beauties are very photogenic and make maximum impact in the pictures and when one keeps on gazing at them in a single pose. Although they are beautiful and look cute even otherwise, they wouldn't quite make the same impact when set in motion. ( yeah, I studied some Physics at the +2 stage). So a fan like me would end up wondering why the female who looked like an angel on his wallpaper, teasing and mesmerizing him appeared just like another heroine in the movie. Well, remember the "Static beauty theory".

The exact opposite of this is Piper Perabo, the girl who plays "Violet Sanford" in the hollywood movie "Coyote Ugly". I happened to catch the movie around 2 weeks back on Star movies and when I stopped swapping the channels once I saw Piper Perabo on screen. She seemed to have the perfect smile, the most natural smile that I had ever seen. Post-movie, I found some images of Piper Perabo on the net ( I didnt even know the name till then), and much to my disapppointment the spark was missing in her pics. The reason was simple. Any picture in the world would be able to capture only a particular instant of that lovely smile while the smile would continue for the next few seconds. And one can appreciate that only if one sees the complete smile from the moment when her lips start widening to the moment she flashes her teeth. The effect is not about a single moment. It lasts a few seconds and hence no photo can capture that. A fleeting beauty you see :)

Special thanks to:

Google Picassa for the collage

Genelia pics: www.idlebrain.com, www.raagalahari.com

Piper Perabo: http://www.wallpaperbase.com