Hydey-Hydey-Ho!

Ok this post is special... very special in fact... first, because i'm returning to the blog after a very long time.. i guess this is the longest i've stayed away from the blog... me returning to the blog and making a resolution to post more frequently on every occasion reminds me of something else... the times when we used to come down from the 'Gelf'... every year we came down, the house here was in a mess.. cobwebs, broken furniture, plaster falling apart, signs of break-ins and more... and every time we clean up the mess and repair the house... by the time we're leaving, mom n dad make a resolution to take more care of the house and repair it more frequently... and yet, we come down the next year and it's the same story all over again! anyways, moving over to the second reason... this is the first time i'm going to visit hyderabad... and the third reason... this is the first time i'm blogging live... as and when things happen...

For starters, this is a thirty-hour journey... after an initial half hour confusion regarding the status of my ticket, i'm finally settled down... before boarding the train, i'd made the decision not to eat much until i reach hyd... but then, the craving for steaming vadas made me eat a crappy dosa and the soggy vada that came with it... so much for breakfast!... wonder what crap is in store for lunch...

Just woke up from an extended nap... (started off with a serving of bad news... a good friend's (from work) dad passed away...) i've been glancing at my watch every two minutes for the past 45 minutes... still about 24hours to go!!!... how do people survive for so long in a train??... ah i guess i'll know by the time i reach tomorrow... meanwhile, the girl sitting next to the window (no... she's not a Girl By The Window... yet) looks 'interesting' and 'not interested' at the same time... note the two usages of 'interest' used here...

Just entered Tamilnadu... i am forced to relive all the horrors of train journeys during college days... stinking beggars who keep touching you, half-naked kids, people eating pongal and sambhar endlessly... gahh... i hate this... i really hope i won't have to encounter a eunuch... it's the worst of all evils....

Darkness is setting in... i can still see we're stuck somewhere in tamilnadu from the vast stretches of barren land on both sides of the train, dotted with the occasional pink, green and yellow houses... i've embarrassed myself well enough so far with the zillion bangings of my head on the iron bar next to my head while asleep... i know that because every time my phone buzzes and my sleep is disturbed and i open my eyes, i see the people sitting around me staring at me with a sympathetic smile that reads "poor retarded you"...

Dinner time... everyone's proudly unpacking their newpaper-covered dinner... the excitement on their faces is similar to that of a five-year old unpacking his birthday present excited to see what's inside... hell i know what's going to be in their packages!!.. it's just a huge pile of rice and perhaps, some sambhar??...

Well... several 'dal vadas' and 'banana fries' later (i'd promised myself not to eat anything so that my tummy would hold up till i reach some accommodation in hyderabad with a decent toilet... but then, i'd ended up eating more 'dal vadas' and 'banana fries' than i would in a week!!!... talk about me and keeping promises!!), i have finally reached the place - HYDERABAD!!!...

For the past couple of minutes, i've been attempting to dodge auto drivers by pretending to be a very busy person waiting for a friend/driver to come and pick me up... the city is pretty much in between bengaluru and chennai, look-n-feel wise... i am walking out of the railway station and onto the telugu streets, still pretending to be a busy person... i am trying every person i know who has a connection with hyderabad, but the best response i've been able to gather so far is 'use Google Maps'!!!... so then, i continue walking down the streets till i reach a row of hotels, to my luck!!... and now, here i am... checked in to Hotel Meena Classic (is what i think the receptionist said the name was...)...

Moved into my room, watched tv for a while, and now back on the streets... just remembered i'd dropped my toothbrush on the train bathroom floor, and so, it was time to get a new one... i walk to the nearest auto driver and ask him if he knows where the nearest supermarket is... and he says 'no'!... ok... strange!!... i continue walking... and walking... oh did i forget to mention it was drizzling earlier??... well, it's pouring now!... i walk to the nearest Baskin Robbins and take shelter in front of it... the shopkeeper is outside too... just to make small conversation and to ensure that he doesn't drive me away, i ask him if he knows where the nearest supermarket is... and there he begins his detailed explanation of the route to a supermarket that is galaxies away... i hadn't realized supermarkets were so hard to find in hyderabad... maybe i should make use of Google Maps, like my friend suggested!!... my train of wandering thoughts is suddenly interrupted... not by the shopkeeper... but by an Assamese mom and her 3 kids... she just ran to the front of a shop, to take shelter, on the opposite side of the road... after she looks around for about five seconds, our eyes finally meet... and almost immediately, i know i'm in love... until an auto arrives, she gets in, and drives away... BAM!!!... that was just the opportunity to kickstart a 'worthwhile' life in hyderabad, and i'd just washed it away in the rain... sigh...

I pick up another auto and instruct him to go to the nearest supermarket... it takes us a good fifteen minutes to reach a damn supermarket!!... he offers to wait until i'm done with my shopping and take me back... i reluctantly agree (auto drivers are never upto any good... if they're being nice, it only means they've found means of making an extra buck, through you...)... i finish shopping and i get out and he's still there waiting for me in the heavy rain... i ask him to stop at a good biriyani place on the way... (hyderabadi biriyani is the ultimate stuff, according to my telugu roomies in college)...

I clearly remember ordering a single biriyani, but the parcel that has just arrived is good enough to feed two starving families in Bosnia!!... i politely ask the shop owner to give me a smaller pack (extra politeness because from what i've seen in movies, telugus aren't the kind you would want to mess with... they may just draw out their sword and slash you into pieces)... i finally get a 'mini' biriyani, which is still good enough to feed a single starving family in Bosnia!!... i decide not to ask them to make it smaller, and quietly walk out into the rain... i take the same auto back to my hotel room...

I just realized that the time is 6.30!!!... there's a long way to go in the evening... i decide to grab a beer from the nearest beverages store... 


Back in my room, i just caught a cold reception from the receptionist when i asked him for an opener... apparently, such a huge hotel does not have an opener!!!... i finally open my beer with a pair of scissors that i had brought down... my plan is to drink myself to sleep early, so that i'm fresh in the morning tomorrow...

And it's morrrrninnnngggg!!!... ahhhh... steaming hot water in the shower... awesome!!... ok ok... it's not as pleasant as I'm trying to make it sound... it was actually "FAAAAAA!!!!.... steaming hot water! WTF!!!"... yes i almost got scalded in the shower... anyways... it's time to check out... and get on with what i came here for...

300bux??!!!!... you've got to be kidding me!!... 300bux to get to where i want to go by auto!!... i bargain for about 15minutes and we finally settle for 200bux... i reach my place and what do i see??... hyderabad's F-Lounge is right next door!!... ssssweet!!!... i walk into my place at 10.20am...

7.30pm... i'm finally done with whatever i came for... exhausted i step out into the light drizzle... damn these auto guys... they're just impossible to deal with!... 350bux to get back home!!... no friggin way!!... i wait and i wait and i wait... till finally... 180bux... an auto guy offers to take me to my place for 180bux!!!... MORONNNN!!!... ha!... ahhh... but he doesn't seem like an idiot after all!!.. he takes in another family for 150bux, and reduces my fare to 150bux too!... all the more good for me!!... the 'family' consists of a woman and her two daughters... it's raining harder and it's getting even colder... the driver is stopping for some hot hyderabadi tea... as we sit sipping the piping hot tea in the auto, one of the daughters finally breaks the silence and decides to talk to me... and then she gets talking... and talking... about her engineering scores, her current training, her dream of moving to the US... she keeps talking and talking till i finally start pretending like i'm getting a lot of phone calls... the trio finally get down and i move into a hotel room... the second one in two days... after a rather heavy dinner (trust me, food in hyderabad is always way too much!!.. if you are ordering food for yourself, make sure you have two people with you to share it!!... i've been wasting a lot of food over the two days here...), i'm finally settling in to sleep... it's midnight already... nothing interesting on tv.....

Back in a train... the long journey back... my mind is so full of questions... will i???... won't i???... yet another seat next to the emergency window... (when i came to hyderabad too i was seated next to an emergency window) perhaps it's someone sending out a signal... gahhh... i hope there's no bomb on this train... if there is one, i might have to extend my leave at work... that wouldn't go down really well with the boss... i might lose the job... the trauma of the train blast and now the added trauma of losing my job would make me mentally retarded... and then my... wait a minute!!!... i'm already mentally retarded!!!... so what difference does this make??!!!... ok ok... i need to stop... my thoughts have gone far far away...

The train ride back looks like it's going to be a boring one... not that the train ride i took the day before was particularly interesting, but still... the grandpa at the other end of my seat is already sleeping... Dr. Raj Kumar i recall his name was from the reservation list... yes, just like any mallu of my age, i too have the habit of going through the entire reservation list to see if there's anyone in my vicinity of around my same age... great!!... this telugu couple with a baby just walked in... they're sitting next to me... a baby!!!... A STUPID BABY!!... this means i'll have to put up with the stupid baby's crying and the stupider parents antics till the idiots get down!!... ahhh my iPod!!.. always comes to my rescue... now i can't hear anything that the... no! no! wait! NOOOO!!!!!...great... the iPod's battery is dead!!... damn you Apple!...

It feels weird in a way that i'm seeing all the places that i saw two days ago back in reverse... most of the places are still fresh in my mind... the kid sittting in front of me won't stop talking... she has doubts about everything she sees outside... even after realizing that her mom is clueless about most things, she just won't give up!!... and yes... that stupid baby is still screaming her lungs out!... why? why? whyyyyyy?

It's 1.30... 24 hours more to go... why is everyone staring at the baby and commenting on everything she does??!!!... makes it look it is some endangered species that has been imported from Lithuania...

So now two of them are talking about their past visits to the US... i love the way the telugu guy pronounces Manhattan as 'Maan-hutton'... gawddd... indians!!!.. meanwhile, the stupid baby's stupid parents are trying to put it off to sleep... funny thing is they're singing "ooo-la-la ooo-la-la thu hai meri fantasy" and "kolaveri" to put it to sleep!... fathetic...

Religion, kids, temples, doctors, saris, illayaraja... the range of topics these 'intellectuals' discuss is endless!!!... every once in a while i'm dragged into the conversation, and then i pretend like i'm getting a text and i slowly drift away from the discussion...

Ok joke of the evening!!... this fat guy (who's part of the 'intellectual discussion') tells this female (who's also part of the 'intellectual discussion') that he'll show her something, gets up and bends down to reach into his bag... and what does he show her??... a full-blown view of his humongous ass!!!... i can't control my laughter... oh gawd... i'm going to burst.... somebody hold meeeeee!!!!.....

I just noticed that the female sitting in front of me looks like a crow from the side!!!...

The sad part about traveling in air-conditioned compartments in trains: no open windows through which you can throw your garbage out (yeah c'mon, i'm an indian too!!)... the good part: good food - even the veg food has paneer in it!!!...

Great!!!... it's time for bed and the stupid baby has puked all over the place!!!... the dad is now cleaning up the entire place with the bedsheets that were supposed to be slept on... and while he's at it, he's also giving us a generous view of his humongous ass!!...

Aaahhhh anyways... i'm done for the night... yet another night of the hyderabad episode... i'm all tucked away into the lower berth... ahhh lower berth after so many years... i remember the last time i got the lower berth was back in my third year of college, when i secretly watched my batchmate getting 'molested' in the dark till cops came in and threw the molester guy out!!...

It's morning!!!... in just a few more hours i'm going to reach cochin!!... all the noisemakers who were sitting around me have left, which has come across as a huge relief... the picturesque view rushing past my window makes me feel thoroughly welcome to God's own country (yeah, God alone knows what lies in wait for me in this country place!!)...

I guess i'm done with all the shockers for this trip... just this last one... the guy sitting next to me, a 25-year old MBBS student, his laptop's touchpad ain't working... he looks up at me and asks, "dude, do you know what the shortcut for closing a window is?"...

Bahhh... these specimens will never cease to amaze me... anyways i'm over and out... i'm only minutes away from my destination... updates on the outcome of my hyderabad trip will be posted soon... that is, IF the outcome is in my favor... ;)... ciao!


PS: Thanks to Evernote for making this post a success!... guys with a good Android phone should try it out!


PPS: Pls forgive any typos you may find in this post, i'd typed the whole thing on my phone... not an easy job to do... and pls don't try informing me about any typos either... honestly speaking, i don't care!

Freedom-di-di-dumb

Gabbar used to be a resident of Unfree Village... now, the specialty of Unfree Village was that job opportunities was zilch... so every man was a thief... small boys were trained to become professional thieves when they grew up... getting caught and going to prison was part of the job nature...

And Gabbar got caught too... he was placed in a tiny prison cell - barely enough place for a bed, a table and a commode... but life was kinda good... the food was excellent - he didn't have to steal to earn it... however, two years later, the prison management changed hands... the new management wanted to give the inmates more 'freedom'... so they shifted all of them to new cells... these cells were much bigger than the previous ones... but, there was no bed, no commode, and no good food... the inmates had to sleep on the floor, they could shit and piss anywhere they liked in the cell, and the only food they got was the remains of what the prison officials had eaten...

And the new management called this 'freedom'... some people liked it because they were allowed to do whatever they liked as long as they remained in their cells, while others despised it because life had become a ball of crap, and the new management was simply terrible at management...

This... is independence in India... Happy Independence Day to all fellow Indians!!...

What are we really independent from??!!... God alone knows... at least if the Brits were still here, we would have had more Pizza Huts, McDonalds' and KFC's everywhere!!... and we would have had Brit gurls in college!... that way we wouldn't have to put up with the attitudes of the plain-looking local girls!!...

Anyways, that reminds me, i was at Chicking yesterday... yes... i keep going back to these places inspite of them having fooled me a zillion times... i guess i simply have no other choice!!... i was going through the menu, and suddenly i came across this offer... yeah... yet another offer!!!... this time it was called the 'NRI Fest'... i didn't really get the whole idea behind the thing... there's this regular chicken bucket that costs around 400 bucks normally... in the 'NRI Fest' package, all they did was throw in a box of fries and a PET Coke, with the chicken bucket, and lo!... it's 750 bucks!!!... either they think NRI's are dumb (which seems like the more likelier case), or they think all NRI's own Cadillacs, and three-storeyed houses with jacuzzis and a separate room for the home theatre, and a couple of poodles!!...

Phew... Onam's just a week away!!... (wooo!... time's surely passing real fast... i still remember last year's sadhya)... sometimes i wonder whether Mahabalipuram was named after Mahabali... hmmm... nahhhh.... that couldn't be... the tamils would never be so generous enough to name a whole place after a non-tamil... that too, a MALLU!!!!!!!!... oh these tamils!... they surely do have the knack of making a mallu feel out of place... sigh... the woes of a mallu should-have-been-engineer-but-became-writer-thanks-to-a-wicked-twist-of-destiny...

Speaking of 'should-have-been-an-engineer', there was this time when the TV at home began making weird noises at the back, but the picture was just fine... my mom kept pestering me to check what was wrong... i asked her to wait till the picture went out... the pestering grew even more pestering, till i finally got up to check what was wrong... but at the back of the TV, there was this sign that read "This cover should be removed by experienced professionals only"... since i wasn't experienced or professional, i went back to my seat... my mom got utterly butterly pissed off and screamed, "What kind of an engineer are you? Simply wasting 4 years!"... come to think about it, why this injustice only towards engineers??... by the time we complete 4 years of engineering, we're supposed to know how to repair a television, a car, the local substation, a space craft, a time machine, and a satellite flying in space!... why is it that people don't ask a medical grad to perform a heart surgery or a liver transplant at home???... why only us?????...

(Ok, i guess i'm getting addicted to Facebook as well... almost every second post in this blog has something about Facebook!) There's this recent annoying habit few of my friends have gotten into... they blog about some crap (called 'Notes' in FB lingo) and then they go about tagging each and every one in their friends list to the blog... and then, idiots like me go through the entire crap, hoping to find our names mentioned somewhere in the blog... very clever!... that's made all the idiots in their friends list go through the entire nonsense they've written... wish these 'clever' people would use their brains for the development of the country!!... now that it's independence day...

I can't wait for BSNL to launch their 3G and 4G services... as Deepika Padukone says, i'm expecting it to improve my life and make it more exciting!!... ah... life's really gonna turn exciting when i turn 30... i've promised four friends that i'll be going on an all-India roadtrip with them (individually!) as soon as i turn 30... haha!!... should be fun... as long as the world doesn't end by 2012!!!...

PS: i hate the fact that Blogger doesn't have the autocorrect feature...

ciao!

The Great Indian Bargain

Two reasons why the Indian sales department will never do well enough...
1> the 'take-it-or-leave-it' attitude...
2> creating special offers that never encourages a customer to come back...

Something that has always ('always' not as in throughout my life… hmmm… but yeah… somewhat close to that…) left me wondering is whether the Indian salesmen are the best, or the worst, in the world… now, salesman could be anybody… the guy at the car sales showroom… the guy serving you chicken at KFC (grrrr…)… or even the milkman who leaves a pack of milk outside your doorstep everyday (in India!)… they know it… we don’t… all Indian customers are stupid… no matter how much they manage to bargain and how much they know about the product… sales outlets come up with offers like ‘Buy 2 Get 1 Free’ or ‘Win a Trip to (blah blah)’ or ‘50% off’ and the customer gets easily suckered in… the offers look very attractive and decent on the outside… but a deeper look into it would reveal the cheap and dark side of the ‘offer’… think about it… you shop for 5000 bucks’ worth and then ask about the free trip to Sri Lanka, they tell you the offer is valid only on Tuesdays… you get into an Adidas showroom which offers you a 50% discount, but you can’t find a single item which comes with a 50% discount simply because they are short on stock of items which actually have the discount on them… the fault lies with the Indian customer… the ‘we-came-all-the-way-now-we-gotta-buy-something’ attitude… unless we learn to walk out of the store, if we don’t find what we’re looking for, things are never going to improve…

Bet you’re wondering why the utterly senseless post, out of the blue (??)!!! (not that all my other posts made much sense, but still…)… yep!... I got punk’d too!... as recently as yesterday… I was having a dull day (certainly not the first instance)… and was a little under the weather… weirdly, I felt having some chicken might make me feel better… and off I went to ChicKing… one of the many local equivalents of KFC… since I’d got an e-mail about the ‘offer’ two days back, I was very sure about what I wanted to buy… it was the ‘FIFA offer’ (FIFA offer… like duh!... in a country whose football team has never even qualified for the qualifiers!! (or have they??)… and that too in a state from where a certain ‘mentally challenged’ cricketer is the only person to make it to an international sports arena!)… you buy two wraps and you get two mini-burgers free… (perhaps I missed the ‘oh-here’s-another-FIFA-offer-dumass’ smirk on the face of the guy at the reception)… it was only when I reached home and opened my package that I realized the horrors of horrors!... the wrap was barely thicker than my middle finger… the burger was worse… at a distance of about 15cm, the brown-colored fillet seemed non-existent, and the brown color that I saw here and there made me think it was because the lettuce was wilting!!... sigh… yet another stupid Indian customer… sometimes I do think that Russell Peters was perhaps right (though I still maintain that he’s a ree-tarrrd) when he called Indians ‘Cheap Stinkin’ Bastards’…..

PS: for those who missed it, I've uploaded the Munnar video in the previous blog... since both Chowder and me have the reputation of not having a 'crystal-clear' speech, I've added subtitles as well!!!... how caring of me!!...

Defecative Thoughts

• The other day i was at work, sitting at my desk and blankly staring at the blank monitor, waiting for something brilliant to happen... unfortunately, nothing brilliant did happen... and that was when i decided that i had had enough with life... and decided to... download some jokes (and not kill myself! duh!)... just to make me feel better...20 jokes later, i went back to Google and searched for "funny jokes"...

• Ok... i'm taking a wild guess that 90% of you didn't get what i meant there... heh!... kinda reminds me of those Reader's Digest jokes... they have an entire page dedicated just for jokes... and none of them are funny... sometimes it gets real hard to even figure out what they meant!

• This is for drunkards... ever wondered how, when you are absolutely senselessly drunk, you have managed to switch off the light, and then, after fifteen minutes of sleep, you realize that you want to puke... and then... wonders of wonders... you can't find the light's switch... and you can't find your way to the loo in the dark either... and then there are a whole lot of possible consequences... 1. some smart people crawl all over the floor, and finally find their way to the loo... 2. you scramble all over the wall, and finally end up standing against the wall and sleeping off... 3. you quit trying and simply puke in the room itself... all over the walls, floor and the bed...

• After having watched four of his shows, i still can't figure out why people still continue watching the Russell Peters shows... it makes no sense... a third of the audience around the world who watch his videos are (i'm guessing) Indians... and he calls all Indians "Cheeky Stinkin' Bastards"... a third of his live audiences around the world are (again i'm taking a guess) Blacks... and he calls all Blacks "Black Motherf*****s"... duh!

• My close observations have led me to conclude that the most misspelt word in South India (i don't know about North India because i've never been to North India) would have to "Gobi Manchurian"... following are the common variants found here...
• Gobi Manjurien
• Kopi Menchurien
• Gopi Manchoorian
• Kobe Minchorian
• Kobi Manjoorian

• Oh!... i was in Pondicherry recently... and i happened to visit this place called Auroville... supposedly, this place symbolises peace and tranquillity... but then... the height of irony... the place was designed by an architect named Roger Anger!!...

• It's kinda hard to believe, but the name 'Gaylord' has been picking up pretty fast here... you see Gaylord Travels, Gaylord Garments, Gaylord Restaurant, Gaylord Time House... don't these people see what the name implies??... or are they trying to prove a point?????...

• I've always felt girls, no matter how hot and popular they are, who call each other 'babe', 'darling', 'gurl', 'sweety' etc. amongst their little 'girl gangs' go right on top of my loser ratings... jeezzz!!!.... they just have no lives!!!... pathetic!

• I was at a pretty famous church in Kerala a month ago... the kinda place where everything is quiet, and you see old females sitting here and there, murmuring prayers to themselves... and then... this Swedish couple enter the church (Swedish because i couldn't understand a word they were saying to each other... not that i would have understood if they were talking in French or Slovakian... but i prefer to stick with Swedish)... and they go right under the Crucifix and stare at it like they were seeing one for the first time... and then... the female draws out a camera and clicks a pic with the guy posing under the Crucifix... she even clicked a pic of the signboard under the Crucifix that read, in bold letters, "PHOTOGRAPHY STRICTLY PROHIBITED"... they went around the entire church clicking pictures... during her photography spree, she passed my mom who was sitting at the other end of the church... my mom, who normally scorns at all injustices in society, managed to greet the female with a faint smile... think about it... an Indian couple entering a church in Europe and clicking pics... for sure there would be someone who'd come up, throw the camera out and say "Get ouda here!... Now!!!"... Indians... sheeesh!!!...

• Ever wondered why it is "Good heavens no!" and "Hell yeah!"....???

• In any part of India, when there is a very big crowd outside a particular shop, it simply means that there is a television in that shop which is telecasting a live cricket match played by the Indian team... however... in Kerala, if you see a very huge crowd outside a particular shop, it simply means that the shop is a liquor store...

• I have never understood the point in holding these cross-city marathons for world peace, or for the world's heart patients, or AIDS patients and crap like that... do they think Bin Laden's gonna see the marathon and think "Oh crap... i shud never have taken down the WTC... i give up terrorism... i quit!"...????

This ad for Hero Honda keeps coming up on television... if there is anything such as a born loser, it is certainly that guy!!... and if there is a second place for being a born loser, that would have to go to the female!!... first of all, the guy travels halfway across the city just to say goodnight to a female who wears a curtain for pyjamas... in spite of having traveled halfway across the city, just to say goodnight to that loser female, the female doesn't let the guy sleep over and sends him back... and if that weren't enough, the guy comes back all the way a second time to reply to her!!!... whatever happened to men with balls!!!... sigh...

      

Trip to PCB!

That's the entire Pondy-Chennai-Bengaluru trip in a nutshell...!... exciting... depressing... relaxing... pissing off... dangerous... tiring... memory-reviving (though i wouldn't exactly call it nostalgic... 'cos the whole thing didn't have much of a positive effect)... blah blah... 

Ten days was all it took... Chennai -- B'lore -- Chennai -- Pondy -- Chennai - and back home...

B'lore was ok... though nothing much can be said about the b'lore trip, meeting couple of school friends after around half a decade was pretty cool... otherwise ugly weather... couldn't go out much...

Chennai it was the four of us back again... the only difference being we were much richer and there was very little aimless wandering (since we were tight on schedule) this time round... but on the whole Chennai did seem pretty different... few dead people, many 'dead' people, and many people who think i am 'dead'... 

Then of course... there was the much-awaited visit to Cake Walk... a grab of one of those blueberry cheesecakes was all i needed to make myself feel right back at home...

Ajo did seem pretty charged up during the entire trip... this was on our way to Pondy... Pondy did seem like a tiny highlight in the whole trip... partly 'cos i was supposed to visit the place for some work, and i ended up doing everything else other than work!... the return trip was quiet adventurous... with Ajo getting tensed up every time we passed a police checkpost (since he was carrying the bag laden with "treasures from Pondy" if you know what i mean)... but we did manage to get back safe and in shape...

Now you know why Chennai's so dirty!!!....

And then... post partying with all the goodies from Pondy, we had the usual "Thrash-up-abhi" session... where we took turns in thrashing him... (he did thrash us back though... but i do not wish to make him look good by uploading the pics with us getting thrashed!!!... however... if you're really curious... i'll give you a preview.... that's Ajo getting thrown around (below)...)

Then there was the much-awaited Ajo's treat at B-B-Q Nation (did i just say treat???!!!!.... Mumbai's been really getting hard at Ajo off late!)... 

The grills were simply irresistible...

...that Nandu and Abhi could hardly wait!!!....

The dessert... equally delicious...

...that Nandu and Abhi could hardly resist!... Abhi started eating the spoon!!...

Ajo with his usual "wanna-get-beaten-up?" expression...

                                           

That's from our visit to Mocha Mojo... the pic in the middle was a result of our brilliant special effects....

Sai and Karthik popped in as well... my ex-roomies from college... was a pleasant surprise...

That was Abhi's perunal celebration pic... (i still haven't figured out what the right spelling of perunal is!)

And finally!!... THE roadtrip... 3 (jobless) men... out on a mission (to do nothing)... Chennai to Trichur...

...Nandu and me took turns driving...

...and Ajo tried his luck at getting us killed...

The long road ahead....

...break time...

KERALAAAAAaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!......

...and finally... Nandu's place... Home Sweet Home!

The car locked up safe and sound...

On the whole, the trip was refreshing and fun... but... something did happen... something that has changed my life forever!

 

Payday, Murder and the Indian Restaurant

a month of work over!!!!!!.... it's finally payday!!!!.... woooooooo!!!!.... my first pay!!!!!.... (i hope my teammates have forgotten about the treat i promised them!!!... or rather made me promise them!!!).... i can't wait to see the five-digit balance in my account!!!.... it happens only on rare occasions.... like when i'm shifting houses and need to pay the owner's advance, or when i had to pay my college fees....

oh... then of course there's the murder part!!!!.... it's nothing actually related to a murder.... let me elaborate.... i've been to a couple of interviews so far... and i have to admit, the question that has left me totally bamboozled at all interviews is "Tell me about yourself"..... i have never been able to figure out the right answer to that!!!!.... before every interview, the only question i prepare myself for is this!!!.... and yet... at the interview, when the dreaded question arrives, i'm blank!!!!.... luckily for me, this time round, at the interview, they forgot to ask me the question!!!... (perhaps that is why i got in!!!!....).... instead they substituted that with another deadly question.... "What type of books do you read"??...... the fact that i read only books related to psychopath killers has led my mom to come to a conclusion that i'm a psychopath and will make a fine serial killer some day!!!!.... i guess the interview panel thought the same too, when i told them about my taste!!!.... and today, i just consolidated the fact!!!.... i was the only person in office today.... my CE walked in later, and found me laughing to myself!!!!.... luckily, he was amused, and didn't take it otherwise (i think!!!)....

and finally.... the Indian Vegetarian Restaurant....(or is it just the Vegetarian Restaurant???... most of the vegetarian restaurants are Indian, or have Indian staff!).... after staying in Chennai for so long, i'm always under the impression that all veg restaurants are run by tamilians... so whenever i walk into a VR (even in kerala!), even if the waiter talks to me in malayalam (or some language other than tamil), i still end up saying "anna... konjum thanni.... oru masala dosa"!!!.... anyways.... since i'm on a crash diet (like duh!), i've been sticking to veg food for sometime.... long enough to have made a survey and a very important conclusion.... it's about the chutney.... or whatever re-serves (like sambhar etc.) you can get, without paying extra.... first of all, chutneys are never served fresh.... if a chutney is prepared today, it hits the serving dish only from tomorrow (onwards)!!!.... so whenever you ask for a refill of chutney, if the waiter makes a face equivalent to why can't this guy just leave, it means the chutney was just prepared the day before... however, if the waiter repeatedly comes to you and keeps refilling your chutney, it means the chutney is atleast three days old!!!.... so, the next time a waiter keeps refilling your chutney, don't think that he was born into a nice kudumbam, and that he's living upto his family's great name!!!.... he's only trying to get rid of the old chutney in the kitchen!!!!.....

peace out!!!

Sadhya For Thought.... (warning.... might cause severe indigestion!!!!)

~It's that time of the year again!!!... the only time when mallus feel more important than the Rest of India!!... it's Onam, baby!!!!... Onam Ashamsakal to all mallus around the world.... it's the time for mundus, white sarees, mallipoos, delicious sadhya (for those non-mallus who don't know what sadhya is, it's not the name of some girl!!!!... [hmmmm.... if it were so, "delicious sadhya" would have been much more interesting!!...], sadhya is malayalam for the "feast" they serve during Onam).... wait a minute! did i just say "delicious" sadhya??!!!... trust me, it is far from delicious!!!.... rice (belch! i hate rice!), sambhar, rasam, hundreds of pickles (well.... not exactly 'hundreds'!!!...) with some more garbage.... EEEWWWWW!!!!.... half reminds me of the horrors of life in Tamilnadu!!!.... the only thing missing, however, is a dosa!!!... lol!!!... why can't all festivals be like Christmas, where wine, chicken and glamour make up the entire festival??!!!.... sigh.... the woes of a Christian mallu!!!.... (oh by the way, in case you can't find me in the pic, the guy who looks aged and bored on the extreme left.... that's me)

~I've been conducting an intense survey of Indian culture, and i've come to the conclusion that mallus are the most culturally open people in India!!... you take any show, be it reality or live, at least 90% of the songs sung or danced to are either hindi, english or tamil!!!... now, like all indians, even mallus have the habit of planting a huge box speaker right outside your door and blasting your ears during festivals... ok, now the bomb!!... this time around, guess whose songs were playing for Onam.... none other than the legendary Daddy Yankee!!!!... (haha!!!... i must be the only guy so far to have called the guy a legend!!!...) let me remind you that these people who are in charge of blasting your ears do not exactly form the middle or the upper echelons of society... hmmm.... DY seems to be making waves in rural India!!!... lol!!!...

~Ok... let's have some fun with words... hmmmm.... let's start with FUNERAL... rearrange the letters and what do you get???.... REAL FUN!!!.... and what does that imply???... Funerals can be loads of fun, or, it could also mean that having real fun could end up in your funeral!!!!....

~Indians are the most suspicious people in the world... they don't even trust their car keys!!!!.... they walk a few yards away from the car (like as if expecting the car to blast in flames when the lock button is pressed), lock their cars using the remote and then walk back to the car and go around all the four doors making sure all the doors are really locked!!!.... i don't really get the point of having a remote key then!!!!....

~Gone are those days when Super Glue used to be the unrivalled champ when it came to fixing broken stuff.... the other day, something broke in my house and i had to rush to the supermarket to get some glue.... my head began spinning when i saw the number of choices!!!.... there was Mr. Fix, Ms. Fix, Quick Fix, Ultra Fix, Magic Fix..... i closed my eyes, quickly grabbed Ms. Fix and ran out of the place....

~Why do almost all music records come with a bonus track???!!!!.... why can't they just include the "bonus track" as a normal last track????.... why the bonus????.... what good deed did we mortals do, to deserve such a huge bonus???!!!!...

~There's this new facewash ad in which a female (must admit that she's pretty!!!!) keeps throwing coloured water onto the screen.... perhaps they thought that we'd duck thinking that the coloured water is going to come right through the screen and splash onto our faces!!!... Idiots!!!... they have no idea how intelligent we are!!!.... anyways.... what's weird about the ad is that the soundtrack goes like this: if you think i'm fresh, i'm fresher than you think!!!!... uhmmmm..... doesn't that mean that the female is very fresh, but after using the facewash, she doesn't look as fresh as she actually is????!!!!!

~Suffering from lack of concentration???.... what are you waiting for???.... here's the ultimate remedy.... listen to Xzibit's Concentrate, and watch all your concentration troubles vanish!!!....

~Ever wondered why we don't have coke-vending machines in India???... it's because the primary requisite for the CVM is a crisp and clean currency note!!!.... so, obviously, how would it work out when more than 80% of the currency notes currently in circulation in India closely resemble soiled underwear??!!!!... perhaps a good idea would be to introduce CVMs that use coins instead of notes.... that would also help in eradicating poverty in India!!!... wondering how???.... since it uses coins, beggars would take out couple of coins from their daily collection and get themselves a can of coke... this way, together with the garbage they eat, the combination provides the ultimate unbalanced diet!!!.... thus, eventually, the beggars start dying and lo!... no more poverty in India!!!!...

~I've been watching a lot of CSI lately... kinda love the way they say "DB" for a dead body... makes dead bodies sound really cool and complicated....
Oh... and by the way, i've been seriously considering spending my retired life in Miami instead of the Bahamas (thanks to CSI!!)... atleast i'll have a hot coroner examining me in case i get murdered!!!!....
But the problem is the damn attire.... just every damn person walks around in white clothes... white shoes, white pants, white shirts, white caps.... so damn blinding.... even the polished and shiny black niggers (somewhat like the singer Akon) wear white!!!.... it's always either a plain white shirt or a white shirt with big orange or blue flowers on it!!!... that sucks!!!... i always wanted to walk around in a lungi and a vest when i get old!!!.... it's much more easier to take off a lungi, in cases of sheer emergencies, than the traditional unbuttoning, unzipping and pulling down!!!....

~ok... i know this may come as a shock to many, but i still gotta tell you... i've been going through couple of CAT papers lately.... and.... yeah... i'm giving CAT this year!!!!.... my fortune tells me that something unexpected is going to happen to me towards the end of this year, and that it's going to change my life forever!!!!... so i'm expecting to murder the CAT this year!!!.... lol!!... ok here's a question from one of the CAT papers.... now remember.... the question is exactly word-to-word and i'm not making it up!!!....
Ms. Rima leaves a station at 5pm and goes south on the highway at an average speed of 50kmph. Mr. Tony, her lover, leaves the same station at 5.30pm and chases her at an average speed of 60kmph. Mr. Tony will
a>overtake his sweetheart at 7.30pm
b>overtake his sweetheart at 8pm
c>be 25km behind his sweetheart at 5.50pm
d>catch up with his sweetheart at 7.45pm
now.... doesn't something seem oddly out of place here????..... (for those jerks who're actually working out the question, the answer is (b) )

~couple of days back, i happened to watch "Tamil's first superhero movie"... ha!... i must admit that it was insanely superheroic of me to have wasted 40bucks and 2.5 precious hours of my life!!!.... honestly speaking, it was Shreya Saran's hot hairdo that pulled me towards the movie (everything else repelled me!).... ok, SS did do her part of 'heating up' the movie, but then.... there it was!!!!.... back again!!!..... her stupid belly dancing!!!!... why does she belly-dance in each and every movie???!!!!.... it's making me sick in the stomach!!!!.... ah... guess we can do nothing about it!!!.... anyways... the movie was about a CBI officer who doubles as a superhero in a cock's (i mean the rooster!!!!.... no pun intended!!!....) costume... all i can say is, you really have to be a superhero to sit through the whole thing!!!.... oh.... not to forget.... the name of the movie..... KANDASAMY..........

Monsoon Blues

it's been a week since the end of the IPL frenzy... it's been pretty peaceful ever since!!... no more of weird accronyms like CSK, RCB, DD etc... no more of the very "smart and illustrious" Lalit Modi.... no more of the mediocre anchoring and 'Mandy'!!!.... and sadly no more of the hot cheergirls either.. (bah!)... anyways looks like it wont last much long, with the world cup coming up in less than a week!!!... cricket... cricket... cricket... so annoying!!...

hmmmm... looks like good ol' recessions hitting me pretty hard... even though i see "the" shimmer of light at the end of the tunnel, i'm taking real long to approach it... and thanks to my seizure last tuesday, i'm not even allowed to go anywhere beyond a 10km radius from my apartment!!!... so it's pretty much like a house arrest.... sigh... since i'm spending so much time at home, atleast its helped in finally making my bedroom look like a bedroom!!!.... till a month back, the only things in my entire bedroom was a bed and my mom's sewing machine (my mom's ultra modern sewing machine, mind you!!... not one of those black types, which those tailors use, with brand names like 'butterfly' or 'eagle' or the sorts... this one's got a sleazy black handheld electronic controller with a cluster of push buttons... k i guess that's enough about the sewing machine...)... my perfectionist mom wouldn't tolerate a drop of water on the floor, let alone a piece of paper!!... anyways, now that i've been spending 'quality' time at home, the floor is strewn with clothes, dirty floaters and shoes, then there's a lizard in the room and the sewing machine has now officially become my medicine rack... yeah.... there're loads of medicines... during monsoons, my immunity levels are usually at an all-time low.... oh!... something on the lighter side.... i was driving around today morning and i saw this very huge mongoose waiting to make a dash across the road... (let me remind you that it's always been a fascination for me to kill a cat by running over it with a car... though i've never got the opportunity to do so..)... so now here i was!!... with a ripe opportunity... even though it wern't a cat, a mongoose was a substitute good enough... however, the smart mongoose was already making smart plans... it'd figured that, at the speed i was driving, it'd have enough time to clear the road and wave back at me... poor thing!!... it jumped!!... and i jumped onto the accelerator!!.... CRUNCHCHCHCHCH!!!!.... the head was flatter than my mom's chapattis and was pasted to the ground... i slowed the car and watched the action through the rear view mirror... the mongoose's remaining body was twisting and turning rapidly (in pain, i guess! lol!!)... anyways, that's the story about the ill-fated mongoose... oh... recently i was reading this book by an indian author... it kinda made me wonder... almost all low key celebrities (those who're less gossipped about) usually are stuck in a job that todally sux... and their bosses are total whackos, who need their heads to be chopped off!!!.... and these celebs usually have a weird nickname for the boss... (in this case it was 'Shruti the Horrible'... ok no prizes for guessing the name of the book!).... since everyone's doing so, even ive decided to follow suit... (i like to consider myself a celebrity 'cos, for one, i'm bad at handling relationships, and two 'cos ive been on TV twice... the first time was in my first year during our college's strike... a large number of us were moving out of the college as a group, and a reporter was interviewing two of my friends in the front... and i was frantically jumping up and down and waving at the camera from the back... thus i made my TV debut on CNN-IBN.... the second time was in my 3rd year, i think... VG and i had gone for a play... and after the play, SS music was taking a video of the crowd gathered outside.... and i managed to make a 1.2 second cameo.... even though offers have been pouring in after that for TV appearances, due to my busy schedule, i haven't been able to accept any...)... since currently i'm jobless and don't have a boss, ive decided to name my ex-boss... the boss, who was my boss for a single working day, the next non-working day (i took leave that day), and the next half day i got fired... so two and a quarter days to be precise... hmmm... his name was Doug... it used to be funny the way pandis used to pronounce his name!!... 'Duck-uh' was how they did it!!... bah... these pandis!... anyways, abt the name for Doug.... hmmm... i guess Doug the Bug should do... haha!!!... weird!!!.... (hehe... Doug was a nice guy actually.... sad he didn't approve much of my blogging 'skills'...)

oh... i was walking down the streets today and i saw this poster of a new malbari movie... looks like 'Mollywood' is trying to cash in on the Slumdog Millionaire success.... i can't recollect the name of the movie, but i can clearly remember the catch phrase of the movie - "Story of a dog and a millionaire"... gawd!!!... these mallus!!....

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phew!... i just got through with a very entertaining session in church!!... (the sunday service actually)... back in college, attending church use to be a 'once-in-6-months' affair... now thanks to my mother's persistence, i attend church every weekend!!... anyways, the church has certainly evolved and become more fun over the years... back in the 90s, going to church only meant sitting, standing, kneeling and lip-synching... but these days, a lot of fun activities are also included during mass... one of the more popular games is 'Locate Your Parent'... but this one's strictly for kids below age 3... but if your kid's retarded, a special consideration is given upto 5years of age... the rules of the game are pretty simple... the kid has to first decide which parent he wants to stick to (in india, men and women are made to sit separately.. even if the woman is the guy's wife/mother/sister/aunty/gramma/mistress)... then the kid has to memorise the exact location of its parent... the kid then has to run around all over the church... as fast as it can... extra points are earned for beating up other kids, stepping on others' feet and walking through pews... after a minute or two, the real fun starts.... the kid has to retrace its way back to its parent... a time limit of 10mins is set... if the kid doesn't locate its parent by then, it loses the game and it has to stop and scream at the top of its lungs till its parents begin to flush with embarrassment... for those people without kids and over 15yrs of age and not retarded, the best way to keep you occupied is to take out your mobile and browse or play games on it... but this is absolutely not suited for people (like me) with 'uninteresting' fones (like mine) with games like snake, tetris etc... the third and most popular activity, suited for people like me (categorised 'cos of my fone) and old age people, is to go to sleep!!.... but you should be alert enough to stand and kneel at the right times... and it can be really embarrassing if you begin drooling on your shirt, let alone the shirt of the person sitting next to you!!...

come to think about it, these activities are allowed only in indian churches.... back in muscat, there used to be enough number of 'scantily-clad' chicks to keep us distracted... (sometimes when you think about it, it's funny how almost all the guys in my school were perverts, even the toppers!!!... but then... look at what fine gentlemen we turn out to be!!!... we owe ISM big time!!!...).... but the disadvantage is that it can be a real embarrassment if you're seated with your parents... and more so if the chick is your friend!!!!.... lol!!!.....

Peace Out!!!!!!

The Walk That Went Wrong

ha! i was debating with myself whether i should name this post "the walk that went TERRIBLY wrong"!!!!!..... anyways i decided that then the title would be too long, and you people'd fall asleep before you even start reading the post!!!... k... enough for the intro!!!....
this was way back in third year.... when i was staying in thiruvanmiyur in chennai.... in the house whose landlord had committed suicide..... it was holiday time.... since my roomies had gone home, i was alone in the house.... (with the owner too.... i said i was alone, 'cos firstly, i don't count that guy as a human being... of course he's not a human being now... he's dead!!!!.... but even before he died, i'd never counted him as one!!!... and the second reason is 'cos i didn't want to say i was alone with the owner 'cos then, you weird people'd start using your weird brains and start coming up with weird ideas... maybe something on the homosexual side!!!... :p).... anyways.... the basic idea is that i was alone at that time and i called my friend ajo over for company.... (the good thing about ajo is that, after me, he's the second most jobless guy around!).... and whenever i meet this guy, superchargers are always present.... and that night too there was supercharging.... now, my house at that time was just in front of the beach... so all you had to do was get out of my building, walk around it to the back.... (oh and don't forget to watch out for the birds above you on the trees!!!!.... they're beautiful to look at... and even more beautiful when they shit on your head!!!.... VG'd got bird shit on her frankie once.... and she accidentally took a bite of it too!!!!..... belch!!!....)... yeah you walk to the back and bingo! you're at the beach!!!!.... so late night, after getting "whizzed", we decided it was time to hit the beach.... (now before you read on.... a word of caution.... i'm terrible with directions.... when i shift houses, i usually take more than a week to figure out the directions to my house....)..... the beach was cool... nice breeze.... it was around half past three by then.... suddenly the bulb above my head brightens and i come up with a brilliant idea.... i suggested we should go to the malbari tea shop and have a lime juice!!!.... now the malbari tea shop is right next to my friend's place, which is a 10min walk away if you take the main road.... my second brilliant suggestion was that we should walk along the beach.... and so it was.... we started walking.... we walked.... and we walked.... and we kept walking.... we saw a lot of things on our way.... fishermen pulling their boats in.... guys shitting on the beach and washing their derriers in the water (in which, the next day, people happily go and wet their feet!!!!....).... we tried to look around for turtles but didn't find any.... we kept walking.... the last thing we saw was a Barista cafe.... now... i didn't remember any Barista cafes in thiruvanmiyur!!!!..... i tried to think harder.... and then i saw the familiar long stretch of the parking lot.... and then!!!!.... then it struck me!!!!.... we'd reached Besant Nagar!!!!.... i looked at my watch... we'd been walking fer the past one n a half hr!!!!.... all i said to ajo was "dude i think we passed the juice shop... and now i think we're in Besant Nagar".... and all he could afford to say was "WHAT THA !@#$????!!!!!!"..... since it was early in the morning, there was no transport on the road yet.... we had no choice but to walk back all the way back to my house!!!!.... i don't even remember whether i woke up the next day!!!!!....

DON - Still Being Chased

it was one of those weekends when ajo and me were totally jobless... we're always jobless!!!...
whenever the rest of the gang is not there, all we do is sit at some place, maybe get an ice cream and imagine weird stuff!!!...
this one is particularly worth mentioning...
we imagined ourselves to be the next Dons of Chennai...
we wanted it to be somewhat like a mixture of Don Corleone's attitude and Billa's style.... hmmmm... now that's whack!!!!... we would go around in a black coloured Scorpio (India's most stylish SUV, according to me) with two black Scorpios on either side of our Scorpio...
we would smoke only the best Cuban cigars... there would be loads of Russian girls at our disposal... as we walk on the streets, our sidekicks would carry disc players with loudspeakers and would walk along with us... the disc players would be continuously playing Billa theme music...
and then one day, while walkin on the streets, a sniper from our rival gangster organisation would shoot us down... (k... this wasn't part of the original plan... i jus wanted to give this post a happy ending!!!....)

Time For Slow Food??????

after moving to india, my life has taken to a lot of changes, for the worse most of the time....
along with being uninteresting, another major change that took place was my change in food habits...
the ever-lovable 'ghar ka khana' had suddenly vanished out of my life....
it was suddenly the invasion of the fast food era for me....
honestly speaking, i love eating out rather than sitting at home over a silent dinner....
but eating out everyday was not exactly the thing i loved....
for the past 3 n a half years that i spent in india, it has been eat-out every single day for me...
the good thing about fast food is that it is fast (of course!) , it doesnt taste healthy! (the rule is healthy food never tastes good) n there are no particular ethics for the way you eat it....
so this was how it was till a few weeks back, when a friend of mine took me to a restaurant for a multipurpose treat (multipurpose because it was his birthday, he'd got a job, he'd got his first pay and he was hitting on a chick from work)....
now... the thing about this place is that as you enter the place itself, the fact that it is a very very formal place hits you right on the face, and it was the kinda place wherein if you let out a very feeble cough just enough to clear your throat and just enough for the person, sitting next to you at your table, to vaguely hear it, the entire restaurant would be frowning and giving you ugly stares!!!...
so God help you, if you happened to sneeze in this place!!!!...
all this din't seem to bother me much...
then the starters arrived....
'Ah!!!.. Beautiful!!!...'....
i dug my fork into the first piece of chicken....
good! so far so good!....
few pieces later, i confidently dug my fork into the next piece....
ZZHOOOOOP!!!!!.....
the piece goes flying out of the plate and lands on the table....
without looking up, i immediately grabbed a piece of tissue and threw it over the fallen piece....
hoping that no one had noticed, i looked up....
DAIM!!!... all four of my friends who were at my table were giving me the frown and the ugly stares....
it was friggin' embarrassing!!!....
i suddenly started feeling hot down my back, and i started blushing!
now i hate it when i blush... it's because i'm a little dark....
so when i blush, instead of turning into the normal red colour, i turn into a very dark maroon colour, which is very horrible to look at....
however, the remaining lunch went uneventful, atleast on my part....
but it was this day that opened my eyes....
i realised that i'm having too much fast food....
perhaps it was time to slow down!!!....
i'd lost the art of going to expensive restaurants, waiting for 30mins for the food to arrive, open a bottle of wine, have a healthy conversation and so on....
i wasn't even man enough to stand up to the challenge of having a formal dinner!!!....
all i can hope now is that my parents don't invite me to a formal dinner before i remaster the art!!!!....
i cant stand to see the stares my mom might give me if i drop a piece of chicken!!!...
and Godddd!!!!... she'll scream when she sees the ugly maroon colour i turn into when i blush!!!!....

IMB

OFFICIAL NAME : ISM Malabari Brotherhood

FORMED IN : Late Summer 2006

MEMBERS : Abhishek Anand (Ramachandra Medical College)
Thekkedath Ajo Jacob (Madha Engineering College)
Kalady Nandagopal Prathap (Loyola College)
Peter Davis (Loyola College)
Randeep Joseph Roy (Sathyabama University)

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES : 1> To achieve the perfect way of life
2> To find the ultimate girl (also known as "charak")

DESCRIPTION :
After spending a year in college, RJ (formerly known as RJR) had lost hope in most of his college friends and set out in search of his old school friends in the same city. Realising that finding friends would be impossible without the help of the internet, he used Orkut as the ultimate friend-finding tool. That was when he hit upon Nandu (formerly known as Nandagopal). Within a few weeks time, RJ met up with the remaining members of the IMB.

These youngsters soon came to realise that they shared similar problems such as problematic roomies (Ajo's!!!!), being surrounded by "backstabbing" friends, lack of good food, lack of funds etc... This inspired the five to be best friends.

But it was not until late summer of 2006, that the group decided it was time for the inevitable... the formation of the IMB.

Once the IMB was formed, Chennai saw a new light dawning on the city. The face of Chennai would never be the same again. IMB was here to take the city by storm. There was no looking back for the five young men. Weekend was the time the IMB usually came together for action. There would be aimless wandering around the city's premiere shopping mall, Spencer Plaza. This mall soon became a second home for the members. Then there was the occasional movie (which usually crashed at the box office) and the night-time crash at RJ's place for "refreshments".

Inspite of all these activities, the primary objective of the IMB was 'charak-hunting'. Soon the motto of the group became "Enjoy life!... when ur broke, depend on Nandu".

Nandu, being the HOD of the charak-hunting department, soon became the official financier of the IMB when funds were alarmingly low.

After more than 18 months of vigorous acivity, the time came for one of the members to split from the group. This happened when Peter had to move out of the city.

Inspite of the split, the remaining four members continued to meetup until late October, when a second member had to move out of the city.

Even though the IMB no longer remains as active as it was in its initial days, the members still resolve to be united and continue to be a source of inspiration for the hopes and dreams of the millions who look up to the IMB.

OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPH: