Dear Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar,

The, The, THE biggest influence in my life; that's what you were to me, dear Sachin till a few days back, when a so-called Vahad Siddique hailing from north Kerala went ahead and called you a RICH SHIT.
Now you may ask me, who is this Vahad? Why does it bother you if he calls me a Rich Shit? Does that change the equation between us? Have I not entertained you throughout my career, have I not lived for you, have I not had a poise that carried the Indian cricket team through the various allegations spanning match-fixing, bribery, and scandals. Have I not helped you live the Great Indian Dream with my life as an example.
Yes, Sachin, a 10000 'likes' for that; I won't deny any of those, and you are my idol, and I am not disowning you; it is just that I would like you to UNDERSTAND when I reach out to Vahad Siddique and say .."Sorry my friend."
There are friends, good friends, and best friends and I won't categorize Vahad Siddique as he falls in a different league. To be frank Sachin, you don't befriend a Vahad Siddique often; he is just like you my idol, an entertainer, a philosopher and if you play cricket, his 'moothappa' may have invented cricket...
To cut it short Sachin, we have stood by each other during up's and downs, and today we have fought over you, and with all your magnanimity, please do forgive me because he is too dear a friend to me.

Your greatest fan,
Pappan

A Reminder

To my married friends... A reminder

A Saturday morning 2000 - Venue - CUSAT, Cochin

Wake up with a hangover, bodies sprawled across; 'lolan' in the bathroom; a porn flick in the computer; beedi smell in the air; plans to borrow money from juniors; plans to eat at Edapally Palli or Town Hall (free food); plans to visit CP(bar) with a plethora of like-minded friends, a game of cricket or football(maybe), some political gimmick planning etc etc

A Saturday morning 2010 - Venue -Bachelor haven (934), Bangalore

Bad hangover, smelly room, bodies sprawled across, 'JD' in the bathroom, ice and bottles in the fridge, plans to visit forum (babe watch), plans to visit Le Meridien for their unlimited alcohol buffet, visitors at 2am(with cigarettes and liquor, sometimes with lathi and jeep)

A Saturday morning 2011 - Venue - My Apartment

Wake up afresh, clean room, wife nearby, dosa batter, milk, etc in the fridge, plans to visit the temple, plans to watch a movie followed by washing plates.

Well, we signed up for this. Don't we... :) All the best my married friends.

Lov,

Pappan

My Career - The Initial Stages

* A series - about my jobs, my acquaintances, life in different metros, friends, girlfriends, incidents and in short, my life till now.

I remember the date vividly. It was March 23rd, 2004 and I was all set to join Syntel India Ltd in Pune as an Associate Software Engineer. Going down the memory lane, I still remember how perplexed and confused I was at that stage. Now let me make this very clear. I studied Btech in Cochin University. To be specific - Bachelor of Technology in Information Technology. But sadly, a year after graduating from college I still didn't understand computers, forget Java, C ... etc.

I was a happy, go-lucky marketing professional with Standard Chartered Bank. I had joined the bank as a Business Development Professional immediately after college. Though the salary was meager (3000 if you achieve targets, else...forget it.), I made in-numerous friends in and around Cochin.

I had befriended a lot of locals during my tenure at the bank and through them, a lot of loving warm hearted people and a lot of bullies too :)

A typical day in my marketing life is as below -

• 8am - get up (if the hangover isn't bad)
• 9am - Report to the office(wearing neatly ironed dress and a tie)
• 9 - 9.30 - Hear nice things from my boss about my dad, grandfather and more in my family lineage
• 10.00 am - Start work (Play rummy with my fellow associates atop Pioneer towers, Marine Drive)
• 10-11.30am - Hard Work(Above activity continues)
• 12pm - Lunch at any place that offers it for less than 10 Rs.
• 1-3pm - Stationery hard work(Sleep at a colleagues place)
• 5 pm - Arrive at the office after ruffling my clothes and hair to resemble a hard-working professional
• 6 pm - 7pm- Meeting with my boss and a bunch of losers.
• 7pm - 9pm - Some bar (With colleagues or my boss, bitching about the other group)
• 10pm - Knock Out.

Now amidst all this, I mastered the so-called art named marketing. Between giving presentations to business teams in different companies to being overwhelmed by the love and affection showered on me by the newly made acquaintances, I did learn marketing.

I worked in the liabilities section of Standard Chartered Bank, and my job involved procuring savings accounts for the bank. No mean task because the account opening amount in SCB was Rs 10,000 at that time.

On non-hard working days, I would walk to random offices or shops and say
"Excuse me, sir, I am from Standard Chartered Bank, Can I have a few minutes of your time? " (In English and Malayalam. Circumstances have even forced me to try out Tamil ).

The replies varied from "Get out before I call the cops" to a decent "Not interested, thank you.". Once a customer says, please have a seat, I will go for the kill.

The process is straightforward. I entrust upon the customer that banking with SCB enhances their social status. For those who don't fall for that gimmick, I use the seasoned marketing campaign(facilities, interest rates, etc.).

My customers in the bank varied from High Net Worth Individuals to butchers, waiters, etc....I love cochin and always will. What they say about Kochiites are 100% true

"You befriend Kochiites, and they will give their life for you". I don't want to mention the opposite scenario. I will narrate an incident that made me realize that.

Now there are some weeks where nothing goes your way, no matter how hard you try. On this particular day, I was exasperated with myself as I was short on accounts and dreaded going back to the bank and incurring my boss's wrath.

I was sitting in a coffee shop opposite my office thinking what to do when Ravi Chettan (head waiter) came across and asked me.

"Pappa" What bothers you?. Why are you so upset?"

I told him about my dilemma. He was quite aware of my predicaments. To live, commute and eat with just 3000 is tough and non-performance would lead to a cut in that amount.

He sat beside me and told. Da, I have 20000 Rs at home. I have kept it for my brother's daughters marriage. If you can return this amount within a week, I will lend you that amount. You go and start 2 accounts in my name.

I quite didn't know what to say. I found my throat getting dry and knew tears would spill out the next moment. Ok, come to my house tomorrow, and I will give you the cash. Ok? and he walked away.
For some, life is so uncomplicated...for others like me, best left unsaid.

So cutting a long story short, within 3 months I got a promotion. They put me on the bank payroll with a salary of 10k and asked me to lead the telemarketing team. What more could I ask for? An excellent salary(in 2002) and the honor of leading a bunch of beautiful girls... Itz a cool job, provided you have the flair.

It was during that time I attended the entrance exam conducted by Syntel at the behest of Thoma (my dear friend). Thanks to Satish, I cleared the exams :)

Now came the tricky part. Personal interview. The interviewer asked me 5 technical questions, and I happily skipped all of them.

"Why should we take you into Syntel. You don't even know the basics" the interviewer told me.

That's precisely the same question my boss at SCB asked me while recruiting me sir" I said...

I told him, Sir, give me a chance and I will prove my mettle.

The interviewer kept staring at me, so I continued.
Now I am a junior officer trainee at the bank...
He just sighed...
Any questions, he asked.

Will I get selected, sir ? He just shrugged...

Mar 21 - 2004

Well, things did work out, and here I am en route to Pune to kick start my career as a Software Engineer (God knows what that is..)


to be continued...

The longest 2 minutes in my life

Nov 27th 2009 will remain entrenched in my memories for a very long time. It was on this very day that a bunch of bachelors from 934 embarked on an eventful journey to kattappana in Idukki.

Protagonists - Srihari, Jayadevan, Gibu, Gifty and myself

Sabin Thomas a.k.a vals getting married...Oh god, thou do bless these sinners so much. Don't you hear my prayers? Anyway he was getting married to Elizabeth on Nov 29th and we started from bangalore on the 27th. Soban, sabins sweet brother told us that he has booked us the best seats available on the kattapana bus. When we arrived at the bus stop, we found out that in his terms... best = last.

Jd was quite pissed off when he found that we had to travel to kattappana hugging the rear seats. Since the boarding point, madivala was quite a fond place for the guys at 934, I didn't want to create a scene. Well it was easy to pacify Jd; mere mention of the convenience of drinking alcohol at the rear of the bus did him in.

Sabins sister, gifty was also accompanying us and she must have been quite amused by the time the journey ended. Drinking had started en-route to the bus stop and by the time the bus started from madivala all of us were on a high. Jd and hari were quite intent on pulling gifty's leg and made sure that she was still familiar with all her degree topics by questioning her on the same; she accepted all that with alacrity :)

Well I was very tired and just wanted to doze off. Since it was a sleeper bus, 3 of us had bunks; jd and gibu were quite content sitting by the window. I dozed off almost immediately and was soon accompanied by hari. Time was almost 11pm

Time - 2pm :

I woke up hearing a horrifying scream and found myself being hurled against the ceiling of the bus. I turned around and saw hari screaming and falling down from the bunker.

The whole bus was toppling and everybody were being thrown around.

Friends, I really saw death...... I mean, someone was telling me that your whole life flashes before you at that instant; well not quite, but close....

Suddenly the bus came to a halt and started tilting to one side. It was pitch dark outside and I couldn't see a thing. There were old ladies in the bus and they were screaming aloud. My mind was racing...have we fallen from a bridge? Are we going to drown? God help me..I prayed out loud....

All of a sudden the bus came to a standstill. The whole event may have happened in 2 minutes, but they were definitely the longest 2 minutes in my life.

The first thing I did was to check on hari. A loud groan from him confirmed that he was alive. I heard a familiar voice hurling out abuses and was relieved to find that jd was ok. Gifty and gibu were also fine and all of us heaved a sigh of relief.

People were still crying out aloud in the bus and it was sometime before all of us got out.

These are some of the pics hari took after the incident. The only thing that saved us was the fact that we were seated at the rear. Thanks Sobs, that really turned out to be blessing in disguise.

Well all the people who were seated upfront were injured seriously and we could see a lot of blood around. By the time we came out of the bus, they were moved to the hospital. There was chaos all around with some cranks trying to get into the "I will do everything mode".

A night patrol gave us a lift to the nearest tea shop and we did a bit of bus hopping and reached kattappana the next day.

To think that I almost risked my life attending this buggars marriage.... Mr sabin, are u listening? :)

Ps: I was browsing through haris orkut albums today and came across the pics. Thought I will share the details...

Reminiscence

There is a video attached to this post and that makes this virtually self explanatory. For those who are unfamiliar with the chauvinistic way of life at 934(home to a good number of mallu MCP's) an intro is required, especially to get attuned to the lead character in this video.

Vahad K Siddique a.k.a as Jihad was born into the rich, aristocratic, affluent Kiliamannil tharavadu in the historically prominent Malabar region in Kerala. 

Jihad is someone who is proud of his aristocratic background. He often regales us with stories of his family's close relationship with the viceroy and their important role in supporting the government in Kerala and preserving Muslim values in specific regions. He has an ingrained sense of entitlement and expects deference from those around him, a trait that has been passed down from generations of ancestors who held power over others.

Hailing from a privileged family he obviously graduated from the best university in Kerala(CUSAT). King-Maker, that’s what he calls himself, during his tenure at CUSAT. He was a force to reckon though. The SFI leaders from Cusat (99-2002 era) should be able to validate that claim.

Anyway coming back to the video, Jihad believes that all of lalettan's movies(chauvinistically tuned) have a marked resemblance to his character or personality. That belief is deeply instilled in his mind and he always entertains us by trying to enact some of Mohanlal's famous scenes. Here he is trying out the famous "Kanda aappa oopa rashatriya kaare kootu ...sdhalam mattikalayum onnum alla...Konnu kalayum njan" scene from Devasuram.

I was browsing though the videos in my mobile today and happened to come across this masterpiece, so thought of sharing this with the world. This happened some 1 year back...and to be true. this just made my day... :)

So ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, The Mangallasery Jindan..... :)

Love u jihad...

The Metrosexual with a difference

Prasanth Pillai - Metrosexual with a difference

Guys, for those who are unaware of the term metrosexual; its a person who is Young, Dashing, Confident, with a good job and high disposable income and who belives in living life to the fullest. There is none who symbolizes that word better than this young man hailing from the capital of Kerala.

Smart, Young, Handsome and Employed with Societe Generale, one of the major players in the European Financial League, this guy has been climbing up the corporate ladder like crazy. So it didn't quite surprise us when SG honored him with a 34% salary hike and a lakh in bonuses. Now, when metrosexual's celebrate,they celebrate in style. So I found myself with the rest of the 934 folks at the Take 5 restaurant to celebrate this monumental day in prasanths life.

Well celebrations started in style with hari, machan, prasanth and myself treating ourselves to the TAKE 5 speciality - The Long Island Iced tea. I restrained myself from over indulging into the treats present before me; the hours of hard work at the gym acting as a brain paralyzer

For a seasoned party-man like hari it was a natural progression into the other cocktails that were on offer; especially after being joined by his soulmate JD.

They do make a good pair. Their latest idea was to call up roshini(hari's would-be); jd posing as hari's maternal uncle and pull her legs. :) Pavam kutti.

The silent assassin machan was downing peg after peg. He had recently progressed into alcohol from beer and was consuming it with vigor. I knew that something bad was going to happen. Well didnt have to wait long. It culminated with machan slapping JD, and JD rushing off from the restuarant in a huff (Bar had closed around that time...allenkil avan evide pokan)

Well machan tried to make it up with JD which again resulted in machan slapping him 2 more times...JD, exasperated hit out at machan; this time machan left the scene in a hurry.(Kittendathu kitti)

Well reached home by around 12...but had to stay awake for 1 more hour as I was subject to some histrionic stuff from vedi and machan...

Well alls well that ends well...

Famous quotes of the day :-

Soban to prasanth - "da the bill is 17000"

Prasanth - "Ayye athraye aayullu...ninakku vallom venokkil iniyum vangichu kudi"

Anyway cheers to u bro(prasanth) on this tremendous achievement...God Bless...

* Those who didnt understand why prasanth is a metrosexual WITH A DIFFERENCE, I request to have some pegs with him. You will get to know the DIFF after around 4 rounds.. :)

A train journey, an wolf and cupid

Life has taken a U-turn in the last 2-3 days. Well, I am not complaining though, since it has bought about a fresh lease of life, into my otherwise dull and monotonous life.

Yes, you guessed right, its a Girl and a very sweet one at that. I met her while returning from my home town via train. Traveling 2ndAC in trains do give you an added advantage; no jostling, scampering and you have all the time in the world to take out your flirting tools :)

She boarded the train from Tiruvalla. I was reading a book on the "Relevance of Hinduism in the 20th century" and was literally bored to death. I kept my book aside and keenly observed the Mallu "Good Bye" process. A stern dad instructing his daughter to keep to her seat, to beware of wolves, monkeys, etc. and a mother with a forlorn expression on her tired face waving her daughter a tearful goodbye. Unfortunately, this particular dad caught a wolf staring at his princess and gave the wolf a stare; the wolf reclined gracefully into his cabin.

As soon as the train started chiming away, the Princess took out her flirting device and started dialing someone. Oh God here goes...Why can't at least one girl be naive?

Whattt ?...Did I just hear a female tone on the other side of the F device? Well well well, here I am with a chance unless of course fate plays a cruel role. Women can be Sapphic too :)

These random thoughts were playing on my mind, and I didn't notice the TTR standing beside me. He looked at me with a bemused expression, being quite used to wolves praying on single women and said
"Sir, a small request."
Ya what, you are gonna arrest me for staring!!
"Sir, you are occupying the lower berth here, and the Old Lady over there in the next compartment(where the princess was sitting) has an upper berth. Do you mind switching?
The sly bastard was quite sure that I would jump at the mere suggestion. To hell with him.
Well, I obliged...Not with any intention of flirting with the princess; out of compassion for the old lady :)

I barged into her coupe, sat opposite to her and started pondering through my "Relevance of Hinduism".  She just kept looking out of the window.
I lost interest after some time; come on you can't wait forever for the dialogue process to begin; the girl should at least acknowledge your presence.

Well, wolves are renowned hunters, and this particular one was not willing to give up on his prey so easily.
Me - Which station is this?
She looked at me with a blank expression. I got confused. Did I lose my voice; didn't she hear what I said. "Come on lady don't play games with me..."
Seeing no response from her, I looked out of the window and said "Some station near to Cochin." Again a BLANK stare.

"Is this your seat," she said after about 5 minutes.
God - you are divine, thank you so much
Me - Nope, the TT asked me to shift here.
Me - You are traveling to Bangalore? (Yuck, what a stupid question)
Ya, she said
Me - U working?
Princess - Yep, Wipro Bangalore
The question was not reciprocated. Did I look like a loafer?

Princess - u working?
Me - Ya Ya. God gave me that much intelligence...
P - Which company?
ME - HCL technologies(Best Company in India, Madam)
Me - U a fresher?
P - Ya, joined 2 months back.
P - U?
Me - I am a LION..Sorry, a Project Lead(Equivalent to the President of the United States).
P - Oh...
P - U r from?
Me - Kollam?
P - Oh..that's bad
Me - Sorry, did I hear right...What is wrong in hailing from Kollam?

Well from there the conversation was pretty easy. She was quite scared of people from Kollam, having being scarred during a trip there. I tried to impart upon her the fact that it's quite a nice place with well-behaved people (Wolves transform to kittens in the home territory).
The train halted at Cochin; I was praying "God please don't let anyone board from this station, give me some time to woo this beautiful girl..."
"Thomas , I guess this is our seat said a lady as she crashed into our coupe. A 6 member(English speaking mallu family) boarded from there.
Cursing my fate, I leaned back and opened my "Relevance of Hinduism"
I noticed the princess getting irritated by the family's constant blabbering.
I kick started the conversation again...
I was quite fascinated with her. Good Looking and not afraid to voice her opinion...
We talked about a lot of things and her accent was quite cute.

We traveled in the same bus after alighting at Bangalore and en-course I took down her Mobile No and Email. Well, madam, we will keep in touch(Ya give me another 10 minutes and I will send my first message)..hi hi

I caught her online in the afternoon and we chatted for sometime...She messaged me later and I called her at around 9pm. We talked for some time and I kept the phone quickly lest she get a wrong impression


NexT Day

She called me some time in the afternoon and followed it up with some text messages. Well I called her back after returning from office and then Everything Changed..... :)
We were talking for around 2 hours and had breached the friendship divide. I was getting a awkward feeling and conveyed the same to her.
Well the princess was quite smart and told me
P - "Well I knew you would call me yesterday"..."Yuck was I so obvious? "
P - I knew you would call me today too....
Me - (Quite pissed...ego hurt :), "Then y the hell did u reciprocate"
P - Well...I ....athu pinne....
P - Let me ask u someting...U called me today, u will call me tomorrow, maybe for a week more...so what happens after that....

Me - Oh Oh Oh....

Well I pondered about that for a while... What was the chemistry between us?
Was it love? Na Na..I am past that age (Love at first sight)...
Was it a Crush...(Well maybeeeeee....)..Cute Girl, Cute Smile, Cute accent..Ya anyone can have a crush...So what?

Anyway she jolted me back to realty with that comment...
Thanks sweetheart for reminding me that we are 2 grown up sane adults :) ...

A new saga of friendship begins...Sometimes you have to re-prioritize your relationships. People who do that frequently are quite successful!!!
So my princess - wishing you a happy and eventful life....

As for me...Back to Square One.....