A whole new world

The Juice has Stopped Flowing

2007-04-21T10:15:00.000-07:00

Naw i'm just plain lazy to write anymore .... mayb some day i will be in 'The Mood' and write some more crap!!

Peace....

Damn Prawns Fry!!!

2006-08-02T06:31:00.000-07:00

It must have been the Prawns that I ate that night. I’ve had Beer before, and I’ve had Vodka. But neither had made me do crazy things like this.

It was Dins treat that night and after that disastrous plate of Prawn Fry at Shangri-La we decided to return home. I wanted to check out some comics, ‘Shopping’ can be therapeutic to guys too*. As usual Blossoms did not have any of the comics that I was looking for. And that is when I saw ‘The Complete Calvin and Hobbes’ collectors edition ‘Smiling’ at me from one corner of the store. I have had my eyes on it for a long time now , only thing that was holding me back was the price and a clear head ! ‘AND’ being the key word.

“The Complete Calvin and Hobbes," a 1,456-page art-book epic of every panel ever published in the 10 years that Bill Watterson drew them … and the cost Rs 6200/- ; I used to survive on that kinda money for at least 2 months a couple of years back!!! Din was with me, though he aint a comic collector he is a Calvin and hobbes fan. The Shopkeepers here have learnt to identify people who are out of their mind i guess. He saw us staring at the book and came over

"Sir, Very good book Sir.. We managed to get only 50 copies of it, and in a week already 30 of them sold, Sir. And we are selling it for just 4700/- Sir"

Now who could resist such a bargain!!

5 mins later Din and I were walking in search of an auto carrying 2 copies of the 3 Part Edition weighing just 14 KG each with a stupid grin on our faces and a Hole in our wallets! Actually there wasn’t much left of the wallet after paying for the book! Have been a bit crazy when spending on comics, and this must have been the craziest, and I have no qualms about it.

Funny thing is I don’t remember thinking that buying a set of comics for almost 5K was such a bargain before that night…. Must have been the damn prawns fry.

* ’Shopping’ usually has Undesirable Results when guys are Accompanying Girls on their shopping Sessions.

Oru Saamindarnu...

2006-07-13T07:43:00.000-07:00

My 'Almost' 5 year old niece told a story about a swami, her dad recorded it and sent it to me ...

People who dont know malayalam ... I'm sorry guys

Upload music at Bolt.

The Certified Software Quality Analyst ….

2006-06-02T00:56:00.000-07:00

Yeah tatz me :)

So finally I did clear the test, I don’t think I have prepared like I did for that than any other exam I have given in a long time. Money my friends is a really great motivational factor… even more so when u are in danger of Loosing a months salary if u don’t perform.

They said I’ll have to wait for 3 months for the results, so I decided to take rest and start preparing for my last chance to clear it. But then I got The Mail, the results are out check out the web site, so I did clear the exam and that too with 82.5%, Now I was high , after all I have finally broken the 80% barrier compounded with that rumor going around that 85% of the people who took it up last time from the company didn’t make the cut.

Then came the second mail, this time from one of my Managers with the list of people who cleared the CSQA from our Project alone… they had so many names in it that they decided to include only the people who scored more than 85%!

But hey I’m still A Certified Software Quality Analyst

Back?

2006-06-02T00:55:00.000-07:00

So itz been a long time I blogged … now what do I say … I’m lazy, and getting better at that.

I had been home; thought I’ll blog about the vacation … but then there only so much that you can write about sleeping and eating.

The day I reached I had to attend a classmate’s engagement… Maddy and I went together, reached home and we drove up to the place. The car stalled mysteriously on a inclination just outside the church and Maddy had a good time pushing the car up. The evening the guys wanted to go to the beach, so again we started off in my car… the car was acting real strange, I could feel that it was barely moving. I should have stopped and got it checked, one big mistake. Somehow we did manage to reach the beach, I wasn’t too sure we would make it back in MY car. The guys went to the beach, I didn’t have anything to change into so I stayed clear of the water, anyway tat beach is nothing new to me .. my home is just a Km away from the beach anyway.

I decided to do some investigation on my car, opened the hood and i could see it smoking, opened the radiator on a hunch…. And guess was EMPTY, called dad said he had checked , yeah mayb a year back. Saw a small hut near the road got water from there and filled it up.

We reached back, dropped off the gals and went to the hotel where the guys were staying, they washed up and changed then we all went out for dinner. Now tat was fun, the guys after being used to seeing the menu cards in B’lore couldn’t believe the rates and ordered almost everything on the menu, was sure we wouldn’t eat half of it.. the parotas here are twice as big as the ones you get in B’lore. Now people who know me will know how full I would have been to have wasted half a plate of PRAWNS :’( I still regret doing it …but I just couldn’t eat anything more.

By the time we reached Munni’s home to drop off the gals it was already 11, I left the place at midnight, the roads are awesome to drive on at night, lots of turns, no traffic.. I Just love it. It took just 45 mins to reach home and it took an hr more than that in the morning to get to the engagement.

Away for a ( Long ? ) while

2006-04-09T23:40:00.000-07:00

Been busy for the last couple of weeks and the firewall in office is messing with the blog pages, half the pages does not open up from here, and cant access the comment pages either.

Won’t be able to log on till end of month. There is Easter and Lent to break ( 40 days without meat or alcohol is taking its toll ) ,Have a certification ( which i have no hope of clearing ) coming up in two weeks for which I have to prepare and then will be off to visit my parents, and hope to catch up with the rest of the family too on this visit.

Hope to be back with something to blog about …

Till then

Take care

TheKey

Tadiyandamol Trek

2006-02-07T08:02:00.000-08:00

I love the outdoors, my fav vacation's are the ones I used to spend wit my cousins in the tea/coffee estates that they owned in different parts of Kerala. After coming over to Bangalore, I haven't gone anywhere with my cousin. For one, I go home only for a couple of days and hardly finds time to finish the usual quota of 'Visits' and attending 'Functions'.

Back in office we have a 'Travel club' and I had joined it with Din. Went for 2 treks with them but then didn't go for anymore mostly coz I wasn't free during the times the trips were planned.

Last week I got a mail from the Club
"Its travel time again folks! This time to scale Tadiyandamol the highest peak in Coorg district. Located 250 Kms from Bangalore,Tadiyandamol is a favorite trek spot in Coorg, the Scotland of India. This is planned to be a 14 Km two way trek through exotic green slopes and valleys! "

I wasn't actually planning to go for it, but then the day before the trip I had gome to meet some friends who were actually organizing the trip, they caught me there and since I had no real reason to give for not joining then I tot what the hell and decided to go. Well I don't regret doing it.

We were supposed to be a group of 22 people. But as usual people dropped out in the last moment ( I actually was a replacement ;) ) and by the time we left we were only 15 of us. Our guide for this trip was Ravi Shankar from the organization 'The Wild'. We left from office at around 11:00Pm in a mini bus. Was a comfortable ride to Coorg …we reached the place where we were supposed to stay at around 6:00. It was a 'home stay';the owners of the place are coffee and paddy planters, and like many of the planters now decided it wont hurt to make some dough from ‘Nature Tourism’. The cottages are basic, neat, and the view is great. The place is called 'Kings Cottages'.

All of us freshened up, and breakfast was served at around 8:00. what they served still remains a mystery, but whatever it was everyone hogged it up. By 9:30 everyone was set to start the trek, we had the customary introduction session and we were off.

The trek was amazing, the view was beautiful, and the trek up the peak was tough. I was out of breath by the time I reached half the way. But when we reached the top, it was worth it. The climb up was only half as difficult as the climb down. The climb down was not tiring … but ppl who have trekked up peaks will know how difficult it is to climb down. My legs were hurting but the time I reached the bottom. Trekking shoes are a must or else you are gonna get hurt for sure.

All the water we had carried was over by the time we reached the top, luckily the water in the streams was clear … ( we could even see the leafs rotting in the bottom ;) ) so we filled up at the streams. Strangely there were no leaches to be seen. We had our lunch at one of the streams, even though I wouldn’t have called what we got to eat good food, at that time it tasted like the best food I have had in a long time.

We reached back by 4:30, everyone were too tired to do anything else so all of ‘em went to sleep. We woke everyone up by 6:30 and set up a campfire.The owners of the place told us something about the people of Coorg, the lifestyle,about their plantation etc, The fav food of Coorgies it seems is Pork and alcohol, only a couple of us were non-veggies and even in that only 2 of us ate pork. So I had to drop the pork part of it …but not the next time. We had a couple of beers before dinner, which again was the ‘Best food I had’ in a long time;). After all this no one had the energy to do the usual campfire dance. The girls were having puking competition, might have been the water from the streams.

Then next day we didn’t do much, after the ‘Best Breakfast in a long time’ we went to a market to do some shopping, since I didn’t have anything to buy, I was appointed as ‘The cart’ carrying everyone’s bags.I bought one more ‘Livestrong’ wristband; one that glows in the dark. After that we went to the Tibetan monastery, , the temples are beautiful, and is definitely worth seeing, and inside the temple there is a feeling of calm (even though it is always full of visitors running around taking snaps.

After some more shopping and lunch we left for Bangalore by 4, we had a tea break on the way in Mandia, and reached back at 9:00PM.

We did not visit half the good places in Coorg for that you need to be there for at least 3 -4 days. There is the Abbey Falls, Talakaveri among other placer worth going. But this time we went to trek up Tadiyandamol, and we did that, the rest of the places will have to wait .

UPDATE: Photos taken by Sreejith ,Vikas and some amazing snaps by Arvind

Going Home

2006-01-24T22:35:00.000-08:00

Going Home for a long weekend. Been a while since all of us got together, Sis and niece are coming over, Hopefully bro will also be there this time.. But then …hope all of us get to stay home instead of running around visiting ppl. Need to attend a friends wedding on Thursday, but am free the rest of the days.

Last time I met my niece she was all exited about going to playschool… but the latest news is the inevitable … she hates going to school, what can I say … ‘Like Mother, Like daughter’, she even ‘ran away’ with my parents for a week the last time they visited, just to stay away from playschool. Heard tat some boy keeps teasing her, So me and bro planning to give her a crash course on bashing such guys up. LOL

I’m looking forward to the break from the boring routines of my monotonous work life.

Weirder Side of The Key

2006-01-22T22:35:00.000-08:00

Icy Tagged me for this, she wanted to know the weirder side of me .

1. I used to travel by boat daily while in college. I get this strong urge to jump into the water when I see the water foaming behind the boat. Sometimes it is so strong, that I scare myself. BTW I cant swim

2. I have to Knock on the door or ring the bell thrice or in multiples of 3. I do try to control it nowadays.

3. I break things when I’m angry. Used to stock burnt-out bulbs and bottles to break, when I was at home. Can’t do that now coz my roommates might think I’m crazy.

4. Am Extremely Ticklish. ppl who know me knows abt that.

5. Am scared of heights, but climbs everything, look down from the top of high buildings and cliffs just to see if i still get scared. Usually get a ticklish feeling when i do that.

6. I wanted to be a Hit man : D

Now there are other weird and crazy things that i have done, some of my friends have call me a Psycho.

I'm pretty sure ppl who read this will think I am a Psycho with an obsessive compulsive disorder and strong suicidal tendencies. But guess again, I am 60% normal >:)

You Are 40% Weird

Normal enough to know that you're weird...
But too damn weird to do anything about it!

How Weird Are You?

The 8 thing tag

2006-01-22T22:26:00.000-08:00

Vishnu Tagged me for the 8 thing tag.

The rules of the game are (were ;) ):

1. The tagged victim has to come up with 8 different points of their perfect lover.
2. Need to mention the sex of the target.
3. Tag 8 victims to join this game & leave a comment on their comments saying they’ve been tagged.
4. If tagged the 2nd time, there’s no need to post again.

Sex Target : FEMALE ( since none are available in Mars, I’ll settle for one from Venus)

This is not the 8 things I want in the perfect better half …it is the 8 things I want in the Perfect LOVER.

1. Face of an angel
2. Long legs
3. Athletic body
4. Straight long hair
5. Beautiful eyes
6. Lips that makes u wanna kiss them
7. Intelligent
8. Faithful

Ok so for the perfect better half the 8 things are

1. Understanding
2. Caring
3. Sensible
4. Respect my ‘Space’
5. Supportive
6. Good Humor
7. Must carry herself well
8. GOOD COOK ;)… hey my kids too will wanna boast about their mom’s cooking

now since all the ppl I know have already been tagged and since I don’t have 8 ppl on my list that I can tag I am not tagging anyone … so guess I’m disqualified :D

A Quarter

2006-01-16T23:24:00.000-08:00

Yesterday 16th January I successfully completed 25 years on the third rock from the sun. I tried waking up early to go to church … managed to wake up by 6, went to attend the mass …but by the time I reached church the mass was already over… so I just sat there in church for some time … not praying…just sitting there … maybe reflecting on life.

Reached office to find that my team mate had sent out mails to whoever was on the mailing lists of my friends …mind it … he didn’t mail it to ppl on my mailing list …. But the mailing list of my friends…. So I started getting birthday wishes from ppl I had never heard of before!! I got more wises from ppl whom I didn’t know than from my own friends, most of ‘em forgot, but then I aint much better either, so I have even appointed Icy as my official ‘Birthday Reminder’ :D

Afternoon, met up with Icy for the first time after that prank, luckily she forgot all abt it, she got me a gift ,but seemed disappointed coz I guessed what it was when she asked me to guess … with Icy it has to be blue and it will be aquatic. She gave me a pen holder with 3 blue dolphins …. Now that her Bday is next I tried finding out what she wanted, I’ll blog abt that some other time. We did some catching up, and then returned to work. she tried to pull a prank on me by making her teamm8’s call up and wish me …but then, I had been receiving wishes from ppl I didn’t know the whole day, so it didn’t have the affect she wanted LOL… she still is an amateur.

There were no plans to party in the evening . The guys get back from work only by 8- 8:30 and one of my roomie’s works the graveyard shift from 00:45 Am …so he sleeps through the evening. By the time I had my bath one roomie got back from work …another friend was supposed to come and we tot we’d go out for dinner…

Earlier the evening a friend’s sister messaged me asking me how my day was … I said it was just like any other Lousy day, no cake, no party …. Just me and the TV. Within half an hr one guy comes knocking at my door with a cake. Now I never expected her to send me a cake just coz I told her my Bday was lousy , and I must tell u I was quite touched. That the cake and the icing ended up more on my face and hair than anyone’s stomach, and that I had a tough time washing away all the cream is a different matter altogether, but this was a real Surprise Party all thanks to her.

Finally we never went out for the dinner and the party has been planned for Saturday night …when everyone can get sloshed without worrying abt work the next morning. Whatever itz gonna be I’m sure I’ll be broke by the end of this week… but then again … itz my birthday

Time to Start Saving

2006-01-16T21:46:00.000-08:00

January 16th 2006

I turned 25, so after a long time I took the bible, opened it and read

Mat 6:19-21 (TEB) "Do not save riches for yourselves here on earth, where moths and rust destroy, and robbers break in and steal. Instead, save riches for yourselves in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and robbers cannot break in and steal. For your heart will always be where your riches are."

so mayb it is time i start saving riches in heaven... :)

First prank of 2006

2006-01-10T21:24:00.000-08:00

I love playing pranks on Icy, she is one smart gal but when it comes to playing a prank …she is the best person to play it on. This is the first one for the year. And my partner in crime was Dinesh . These are the conversations that took place yesterday, between me, Din and Icy

Varkey and Dinesh

Key: Told Icy that ur getting married .. she wants to pull ur leg
Din: tell her i am ready for getting leg pulled
Key: Ash is the girl
Din: 'ASH' ??
Din: oh ash...ok ok *ash was an old prank we played on her*
Din: God knows..hw she gets first rank...
.
.
.
Din: HAHAHAHAHAHHHHHHAHAHAHAHA
Din: ya got a mail
.
.
.
Key: ROFL
Din: LMAOROFL

Icy and Dinesh

Icy:

hey.....
coooool dude...heard some good news around the corner...
whoooaaa...!!!!
so did u ask Ash if she is free... and ready to tie the knot with u by April ?? I think u will hv to do some filmy dishum dishum with Vivek to get her.. And buddy u hv just 2 months... And wat a pity.. u r stuck in UK while Ash is roaming around the world with Vivek ;)
Do keep me posted on how ur progress goes... ;)
TAKE CARE and enjoy ur last 2 months of bachelorhood.

Reply from Din

Wait till I get my hands on that bone structure who calls himself Varkey......That idiot..hw did he let the news out so damn early before things get ship shape. Now that u know the stuff....u know wat to do..keep mouth shut...else u mite embarass yourself and me if Ash cant wait for me come back from UK....and there's no vivek in picture....its just DinAsh....wat say?

Earlier

Varkey and Icy

Key: din is getting married
Icy: din getting married... hahahaha
Key: din getting married either next month or in april ...
Icy: heheh...
Key: according to his grandpa ( he is a pundit) the best time is either 29th of next month or 31st of April
Icy: so his mom must be pressurizing him
Key: yeah .he said he aint coming back from UK
Icy: hahahaa....this is good...feel like pulling his leg...
.
.
.
Key: hey ask him when his wedding is ;) ask him if it is the old 'Ash' ;)
Icy: hehehe
Icy: who is ash going around with?
Key: ash is wit vivek
.
.
.
Icy: ok..am going to send this...
*Mail to din*
Key: lol
Icy: sent
Icy: now to hv some entertainment :-)

Key: i am already having it
.
.
.
Icy: he replied!
Icy: hahahahahhahahha
Key: wat
Icy: *Din’s Reply*
Key: lol
Icy: so shall i reply
Key: whatever u want, just dont get me killed

Key: i'll just sitback and enjoy the fun

Varkey and Dinesh

Din: do I burst the bubble now...or wat?
Din: i rather not burst the bubble yet
Din: we burst the bubble tmrw?

Key: or do i post it and ask her to read tomorrow

Din: yeah..post it in blog first

New Year Resolution

2006-01-02T22:45:00.000-08:00

It’s a whole new year, a whole new beginning …. So it is the best time to start afresh… its high time that I start taking life more seriously. Become more focused, set myself new goals and make sure I achieve them. So here goes

See Movies … last year was a bad year for my movie watching career, Got to find more time for those new movies. And let all those hard working Directors, actors, script writers, producers, the stunt coordinators and all the others that we care.

Gain 10 Kg … Managed to gain 10 last year, will repeat the feat this year too.

Join the gym … Yes, after years of careful planning careful planning , it is time to put it in action. Need to join a Gym…. And no, it is not to loose weight, if I loose any I won’t be visible anymore.

Learn Kannada … 4 years in Bangalore and all I can manage is ‘Kannada Gothilla’ need to learn at least 2 new words this year.

Reduce the stray dog menace in B’lore … Again NO I don’t plan to take any of then in as pets. I have other plans for them, like exporting them to South Korea.

Learn to defuse bombs and Dodge bullets … Anyone can be carrying a bomb and you can get shot at anytime, anywhere in the world I think these are basic skills for survival and should be taught in schools.

Help increase the Pollution and Traffic in Bangalore … convince Din to buy a bike when he comes back, learn to ride and then buy one for myself.

Hair care … take a snap of my head full of hair and save it as evidence, to prove that I too had hair on my head. Also give growing a mush one more try.

There were a lot more resolutions that i had taken ... but forgot most of it. shall update it here when i remember them :D

Xmas Mass

2005-12-25T23:30:00.000-08:00

Xmas mass is always Midnight Mass for me . Mom always have to go for the midnight mass.. I guess she always want to be one of the first to wish Christ one his B’day.

Our Parish church is just 10 mins walk from home. It is a pretty safe neighborhood, but we don’t like mom going to church alone, so someone ( one of the Guys… sis doesn’t Qualify for the job ) has to go wit her. And usually I end up being the one. The only time I escape is when we celebrate Xmas at gramdma’s( mom’s mom’s ) place.. when me and my cousin make sure we are nowhere to be seen at the time for mass.

Xmas Dinner ( at home ).

9:30

Mom: So who is coming for the Midnight mass?

Dad: NOT me … I’m going in the morning.

Me: me neither, I’m going with dad.

Bro: I’ll come.

Mom: ok, we’ll leave at 11:30.

* Phew … escaped this time*

10:30

Bro: I’m going to sleep, wake me up after some time.

* damn … I better go sleep too …or else mom might drag me along*

11:15

Mom All set to go to church
Dad Asleep
Bro Asleep
Me.. Dreaming about the gifts Santa is gonna get me this year

Mom walks in and sees all of us asleep and wakes ME up…

Mom: take me to church.

Me: waa .. huh … where? Wat ?

Mom: Drop me off at church

Me: what about him?

Mom : hez asleep..

Me: What was I doing till now??

Mom: Ur awake now … get dressed… drop me off there and come back … I’ll walk back ..

Me: yeah right …

* Grumbles something abt midnight masses and gets dressed *

Me and mom and something sis off to church ..While my bro and dad sleeps and dreams about the gifts Santa is gonna get them..

* wait till I get back home … I’m gonna steal all the gift Santa left for u :-P*

This year I didn’t go home. Instead I decided to spend Xmas at my aunt’s place in Bangalore. A couple of weeks back my cousin told me that the mass it at 8:00 Pm..

* Wow.. No midnight mass this time … *grin**

Xmas (this Year)

7:00

I reach my aunts place, all dressed up to go to church. No one is ready..

Me: so when are we going for the mass?

They: Midnight

*WHAT!!!*

Cousin: This year the English mass is at 12.

Me: Thank god … I would have been disappointed if it was at 8:00

*GOD ….. WHY ME??*

The midnight mass in B’lore is not all that bad… Lotsa hot chicks … but then I was too damn sleepy to take stock. Service was good… there were the usual dozers and the snorers around, had a tough time making sure my nephews and nieces stayed awake… ( must agree the sermon was a bit tough to handle )

I missed the Crackers that they keep bursting back home in our parish during mass to keep these guys awake.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

2005-12-22T22:36:00.000-08:00

MERRY X'MAS

Am going out the deliver the gifts, so dont forget to keep some cookies for me ;)

Wish you all a Wonderful Xmas...

Sick Leave

2005-12-06T03:56:00.000-08:00

I'm down with ACUTE Bloggers Block ...

The Collection

2005-11-29T20:13:00.000-08:00

During one of our team meeting we had the usual ‘tell about urself’ rounds. Everyone said the oft repeated ‘I love Music, Movie, reading, cricket, traveling’ when they spoke of their hobbies. So I said ‘I collect things’ the whole group started laughing … I have absolutely no clue why.

So what all do I collect? I decided to make a list of things I Used to/Still collect over the years

Note book Name Labels – all kinds of name labels, I think I never actually used any on my notebooks!! They are still lying in some drawer at home.

Match box labels – threw them away

Cigarette box - Threw them away

Match box and Cigarette labels were used as some sort of playing cards … I don’t remember what the game used to be though.

Stickers – Still in my drawer at home

Stamp – Still have a couple of albums lying in one of my drawers at home, many of them were stolen from mom’s collection… and most probably it will be handed over to the next generation!

Coins – gave them to my brother for his collection. I once found a real OLD one from the gravel that was bought home for some construction… and that started the coin collection era ;)

Currency – Spend it all :D

Butterfly – This was an interesting one , even used to chase butterflies with a net for some time, after some futile attempts to preserves them, gave it up. Killing beautiful butterflies aint all that fun either!

Feather – Ended up collecting too many chicken feathers,threw them out

Leaves – gave it up after I figured that I didn’t know the names of the plants.
‘Aaah, this is the plant with long leaf, and this is from the one with the round leaf!!’ … u get the picture

Hot Wheel (Toy car) – Still have 60 odd cars

G I Joe Figures – Have more than 45 of ‘em, Quite a good collection, I also have a good collection of G.I Joe vehicles, and artillery. Even managed to make barracks and bridges for them, I even mixed and matched some of the guys …arms of Gung-Ho ,body of Shipwreck and head of Scrap Iron … made a whole new generation of Joes and Cobra’s

Hot wheels and G I Joes are safe inside a Cupboard with glass pane, with the keys conveniently “Missing” to keep away kids :D

Sea Shells – this is something I bring back home EACH time I go to the beach… but if never stays for more than 2 days …but still I ‘Collect’ them each time I go to the beach!

Mobile Recharge Cards – recharge cards of Mobile phones, is a recent one.

Ceramic Figurines – gave them to mom’s collection because there is no place to display them at my room, and it is difficult to keep them dusted! I love the cute small figurines; still buy them for mom whenever I find good ones.

The Weird one

Skulls - :D yep that’s right,itz a Very small one only a couple of em till now .. started off with the skull of a crane, then a rat, then the usual Chicken and a few other birds… cant keep it inside the house … mom will break my skull then. So kept them hidden in a big pot,on the terrace outside my room back home… last time I checked , I found a rat's skull with a beak! I really wanted a snake skull… will find one someday…. It would be easy to start a good collection … but truth is I am scared of living in a house with skulls stored in one room :D so I think that is one “Dead” collection.

The Current Craze

Comics – Superhero comics , collect Batman, Xmen, Spiderman ( most of their series) but not a big collector of other superheroes. Calvin & Hobbes is one comic strip I used to take printouts and collect , but a new collection called ‘The Complete Calvin and Hobbes” has come out, it haseach and every one of the Strips drawn by the cartoonist in the 10 year when Calvin & Hobbes were around… …. By the looks of it I’ll be kissing good bye to half a month’s salary in Dec!!

Future Plans

Miniature bottle – Plan to collect miniature bottles soon, as I find place to keep them

Crystal Figurine – As soon as I Start Earning enuff to Start a collection

CD/DVD – Once I buy a good Home Theater and move into a bigger place.

I might have missed out a few ... will be adding them when i remember :D

Just curious .... what do you collect?

Gifts

2005-11-27T00:10:00.000-08:00

I was watching the serial ‘According to Bex’ yesterday. It is Bex’s birthday and the guys in the series want to buy her a gift, and each of them comes to her and asks her what she wants, and like a Typical Female, she wouldn’t tell … and wants the guy to ‘Put some thought into it’ ….

They showed a scene where Bex is anchoring a discussion on ‘Why men are crap at buying gifts’

Is that true?

Guys have a tendency to think

‘I’ll give a cheque /voucher which he/she can use to buy something he/she likes, instead of me buying something that he/she might not like’

Guys, this works well if u are buying the gift for a guy ,BUT it is the biggest mistake we can make when it is for a girl, buy them something … buy them something absolutely useless … they will like it better than the cheque. Actually it turns out to be cheaper too ;) buy them a bunch of flowers, or chocolate and you got yourself a very happy girl.

Girls on the other hand usually spend too much time in the shop, checking out things and invariably end up buying some mushy message wall hanging, or something that can be kept on your desk.. C’mon girls … have you seen a guy’s desk? Where do you think he will find space to keep it? I’m NOT telling not to buy us gifts :) buy us something useful…

My friend bought me a ‘Scrabble’ I still haven’t opened it, I am waiting for my next birthday, she has promised to buy me a dictionary and come play scrabble wit me. I don’t think she will keep the promise since she won’t be in town for my next birthday. But then that is one gift I wont forget :).

The best dialogue in the episode of ‘According to Bex’ was that of a guy who goes

‘364 days of the Year, you tell us that we don’t understand you, and on this one day you expect us to be Mind readers!’

Girls IT IS TRUE… we are crap at buying gifts … so help us, tell us what you want.

Till that happens I will be on the safer side , Bunch of Flowers & a Box of chocolate it is.

PS: Make sure you dont tell all the guys you want the same thing.I remember once i told i wanted a Nail Cutter and ended up getting 4 of em!

Will figure this out?

2005-11-19T21:35:00.000-08:00

One day I was having coffee with my friend, talking about everything in general and the guy she had a crush on in particular ;)

“I don’t mind if he flirts with other girls.”

“Then?”

“I’d have a problem if is close to another girl.”

“Close as in Close friend?”

“Yep, I’d have a problem with that. Any girl will have a problem with that”

“You gotta be kidding me”

I know more than a couple of girls whom I consider very close friends, INCLUDING the one I was talking to! So I set out to prove that she was just an exception. After all why would a girl have a problem with the guy having a close female friend, when she knows that they are just friends, but not have problems with him flirting with other girls?

I went to other friend

“Imagine you are my gf, I have another female friend whom I am close to, and I flirt with other girls. Who would you consider to be a threat to you?”

“It would be Your Close friend”

DAMN!! These girls think alike .I need to find someone else to ask this to, so I find another one.

“Imagine you are my gf, I have another female friend whom I am close to, and then there is this Real HOT Chick whom I am flirting with. Who would you consider a threat to you?”

“This is a tough one, but I’d be more concerned about the friend”

“WAT??? What about the hot chick? Why don’t you ask a few of your friends who ACTUALLY have a boyfriend and tell me”

This cant be happening!! How could I be 3-0 down?? There must be at least who think other wise.

She messages after sometime

“I asked a couple of them and they all said the same thing”

I gave up.

Next day I asked my roomie

“Dai, Imagine you are my gf, I have this HOT female friend, my Very Close friend, and there is this ok looking girl that I am flirting with. Who would you consider a threat to you?”

“HAH, I know the answer to this!

It is the Chick you are flirting with.”

Give it up buddy. We’ll never understand them!

Patience is a Virtue

2005-11-14T01:34:00.000-08:00

Patience is a virtue. And I think I am a very patient person. I was not born patient. It takes a lot of help to become patient. I must thank the computer in my room for helping me become a patient person. My comp is a 64 mb, 633 MHz P3. Be it playing new games or trying out software, my comp taught me that Patience is the Key. I never knew that NFS was so much fun in slow-motion.

After a while my computer decided that I have graduated from my ‘Basic’ Patience training and needed to be on the ‘Intermediate’ level. It got together with the keyboard and started my training; the space bar, the ‘a’ and the ‘i’ key decided to stop working. Now this was a bit tougher than the Basic level, but I managed to clear that too.Other keys were introduced gradually to this list, and it helped My patience was growing.

All was not well with my computer and the keyboard. There was major communication gap between them, the keyboard decided when it wanted to work and when it didn’t, when I type something, the keyboard decided to tell the comp a completely different thing. To overcome this test of patience, I typed in all the characters and Numbers and started using the mouse to copy paste them to write what I wanted. Now the keyboard has decided that it wanted to Quit. It doesn’t work for my comp anymore. But with the mouse and the full character set on a notepad + my now ‘Expert’ level Patience I work very well on my comp.

Now, that my computer has finished teaching me patience. It is going to help me relieve stress. I read somewhere that smashing stuff helps in relieve stress.Oh, How I love my computer.

It is times like this, when you are waiting for someone to come back online half an hour after they said 1 sec that you realize that Patience is really your virtue.

Eight Legged Monsters

2005-11-08T00:01:00.000-08:00

I sure would love to meet Spiderman, but the spiders … No Thanks. Arachnophobia, Is it hereditary?.. It sure seems to run in my family. We are a family of 5 (now it is 7 including bro-in-law and niece), and 4 out of the 5 are shit scared of spiders. Dad being the only exception. And it is pretty much the same story in every family on mom’s side. All of mom’s sisters and brother, and most of the kids are scared of spiders. Maybe it is a genetic problem passed on to us from mom’s ancestors!!

This is the usual scenario at home, evening we will be in the living room watching TV, one of us decides to have a bath and heads of towards the bathroom, then the bloodcurdling scream

“MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA”

Mom springs into action, within seconds she appears with a broom in her hand, ready to take on the monster. Mom is scared of spiders too, but more than 28 years of experience saving her kids from them sure seems to have given her new courage.

My house is surrounded by trees, mainly mango trees and whoever planted the trees around the house had made sure that there was at least one tree whose branch in next to the bathroom ventilator or window. During the winter time, it is Spider season, not that there is any shortage of spiders in the house during the other times, but winter seems to be their favorite. And this is the time when you get to see the senior members of the spider family walking the walls for our bathrooms. The average size of the spider is surely 5 inches from tip of one leg to the opposite leg (it might be bigger that that, but I aint particularly interested in going and taking exact measurements) and the Monsters have this particular knack to hide behind something till you are completely undressed, locked the bathroom door, and started your bath before making their appearance, usually on the towel or the lock of the door. In case the spider in on the door then the “MAAAAA” waits till it is a safe distance away from the handle, or else run out, wrap yourself in something and Scream.

My cousins had come up with a coupe of neat ideas to fight them , we made wax pellets for out air guns… but after a couple of broken light bulbs later we gave that up, then came the Vacuum cleaner with its long pipe, but how do we get it out once it gets sucked in? so that idea also got dropped. It is back to the brooms now. Over the past few years I have tried my best to overcome the fear, and have managed to kill a few spiders on my own, now I know what a soldier in a battle field might be feeling, KILL OR BE KILLED.

I have been in Bangalore for more than 4 years now; my friends who know about my phobia tease me about it. I have often wondered why the guys here are not scared of the Eight Legged Monsters. I have found the reason for that now, It is Lack Of Experience … In the 4 years in Bangalore I have not come across a single spider that is at least a quarter of the size of the spiders ( the medium sized ones) from back home. How will you get scared of spiders when the biggest spider you see around here is just a centimeter long? And most of u big shots are afraid of lizards or cockroaches and I aint … so don’t mess with me :-P there are lot more lizards and roaches here than spiders.

Learning it the hard way

2005-11-07T00:21:00.000-08:00

Monday afternoon, sitting at home, jobless, after all I am on vacation, No TV, dad, mom, niece, aunt all asleep. Sis comes up.

“Do you have any work in Ernakulam?”

“No, why?”

“Can you take me to the Beauty parlor near St:Theresa's ? I need to do Henna, will take only 30 mins”

I am getting bored anyway, so what the hell, will take her there, after all, this place is just behind St: Theresa’s college ;).

“Sure”

4:00 Pm we leave, haven’t driven the car for a long time now, Open road, beautiful view of the ‘Goshree Road’ from Vypin to Ernakulam.. I feel the need… The need for speed: D

4:15 … reached Ernakulam and the Beauty parlor just behind St: Theresa’s. Sis goes up.

“I’ll give you a call when I’m done here”

“Ok, I’ll b around” * grin *
Found a place to park the car. Now time to get back and check out what Ernakulam has to offer.
4:16 am in position.

4:30 no chicks in sight.

4:40 *getting frustrated* … no chick, am I late? Naw … cant be.

4:45 suddenly it struck me … DAMN,it is Diwali, that is the first reason I am at Home!! So much for the STC Chicks!! At least 30 mins needed for my sister’s henna is up.

5:00 No call from sis. And no one answers the phone either.

5:15 Enough of waiting, shall walk to MG road, called up Shreyas.. and gets the usual
“I’m off to see a client, will call u up later” I know him too well for that.

5:25 MG road … hmm the place has changed, Meets Shani, she is in a hurry, promised her that I’ll visit her on Friday. (she must be thinking ‘Yeah rite … I know him too well for tat ‘ ) Still no news about my sister.

6:00 reaches back, goes to Archies, It is dad’s Bday, checked out for some cards. Nothing good here! But finds a cute looking cup wit the words ‘Dad ur the best’ the cup is all of 1 inch tall. But then I like small things, Sure it is dad’s Bday…. But I am the one buying the gift :-P

6:15 waiting outside the parlor… no call …. Yeah rite 30 min henna job, have been here for more than 2 hrs. It starts drizzling. Runs into the nearest shopping center.

6:20 people eying me suspiciously, some giving me the ‘Poor dude must be waiting for his girlfriend behind her college’ look and some giving me the ‘ Son, all the girls have gone home, cant you go home at least now? ‘look!!

6:45 Finally she calls …

“Sorry I am late, had a haircut before the henna”

“2 ‘n a half hours for tat? “

“Had to shape my eye brows too”

“Yeah rite, BTW why did you cut your hair?”

“ Ohh … they charge for the henna job based on length of your hair”

*confused* “And so you cut your hair?”

“Yeah”

“Hey next time you ask me to take you to the beauty parlor, can we time it so that I can watch a movie while I wait.”

“Did you get bored waiting?”

Hell no, I learned one more thing about women (Mothers, sisters, girlfriends, Friends Included) the hard way. DO NOT Wait while they are in the Beauty parlor.

Breakfast Menu

2005-10-28T02:43:00.000-07:00

I got a forward in the morning from someone about different Indian Breakfasts. It must have been written by a Mallu, coz the first Breakfast mentioned is the Kerala Breakfast and it starts like this

‘Kerala breakfast is adjudged as the 'best breakfast of the world' by some. ’

There were only a couple of items mentioned there, but when you have not had breakfast and read about some of your favorite dishes, it sure makes your mouth water. Being a Mallu myself, and since I am going home on a vacation for a week I thought I’d list out some of the things I’d like to have when I am home this time. My breakfast menu is influenced by me being a Christian and a Kochi /Trissur family.

‘Puttu with Kadala curry’ I have Puttu with Beef Curry, Papadam, and Banana, but Kadala Curry is my favorite.

Appam with Chicken/Mutton stew If you are in Trissur and it is a Sunday, do not miss out on this, you will find ladies outside their houses making and selling Appam (you have to make your own curry) for the early-morning Church goers on their way back home.

Idiyappam is another type of appam, and I like it with coconut milk and sugar.

Kappa, Meen Curry (Tapioca and Fish Curry), this is a bit too spicy to be having early in the morning, but it’s just too good to pass.

Kappa Biriyani, I have no idea how the name came around. It is just a Kappa and Beef cooked together. I had actually not heard about it when I was in Kerala, and got to know about it only after coming to Bangalore. But everyone else from Kerala seems to have had it before.

I remember eating ‘Muthira , Thenga peera’ ( Muthira is some kind of gram that you give horses and grated coconut), I love it and that would definitely be in my list.

And now for my all time favorite
‘Kanji’ even thought ‘Kanji and payar’ is a hot favorite, Kanji with Porkum Kaaya ( Pork and plantain) wins hands down. I guess it comes from my mother’s side; it is a must if you go to Trissur during the ‘Perunal’ season.

Now that the breakfast menu for the week is set, I have to call up mom and send it over to her. I don’t know about the Kappa breakfasts because the breakfast is not made only for me. It might be the usual Uppuma, Idili, Dosa, vada, chapatti or if dad had gone on one of his shopping ‘Explorations’, egg, Bacon and sausages for breakfast.

Cost Cutting

2005-10-26T23:58:00.000-07:00

Like most of my friends I too find myself broke by the end of every month. With most of the salary gone on paying off loans, rent, and food (I eat out). And after spending most of what is left on Eating out (on a grander scale), shopping, movies and having the weekly quota of beer, I end up with not much of a balance in my bank account by the end of the month.

Some months back, I was talking abut this with my roomie – Shenoy, we decided that the loans, and rent are things that we can’t do much about, so the only thing that was left was the food and other expenses. We decided to introduce drastic cost cutting schemes. We started with movies, It costs 130/- to watch a movie in PVR on a weekend, and 100/- on a weekday after 1 Pm. But it costs only 50/- to watch a movie if the show is before 1. so we decided that we will only watch movies before 1 on weekdays. I get days off on every alternate Thursdays and Fridays. So for the past one or 2 months we have been regulars in PVR on alternate Thursdays (saving 50 – 80 per movie depending on when we would have seen it otherwise). The other cost cutting plan was with out daily expenditure on food. We eat out daily and we are both Non-veggies, the plan was to cut down on the non-veg food, buy only half plate of chicken, fish or beef when we want to have non-veg.

The schemes looked all good when we started off. But by the end on the month, we realized we broke again; and that too with a week to spare!! Where the hell did we go wrong?

We used to watch movies once in a month or 2 in PVR or in some local theater, but now we watch movies every alternate Thursdays, movies means the accompanying snacks and drinks, and at PVR it costs us more than the amount needed to get by for a couple of days at out local mess. And with the introduction of the half-plate policy we have become very devoted non-vegetarians, instead of the thrice a week non-veg menu, it is a 7 day a week non veg menu now.

So much for cost cutting!

What’s in a name?

2005-10-10T03:01:00.000-07:00

My name is Varkey, people ask me what it means. Depending on the person I am talking to I give different interpretations, I am a techi, and most of my friends are techis ,so I usually go with ‘The Variable Key’. Well what the heck does that mean? …seriously, I don’t know, but that seems to satisfy most of them. And why does it matter what it means, I know of ‘Santosh’ who is not really Happy, I know ‘Shanti’ who is not really very Peacful, after all it is not like choosing a Screen name for yourself where you try to project yourself… (Or what ever you want others to believe you to be), It is just a random name that your parents liked, it does not reflect on what you are or what you will be in any way.

There was a time when I used to wonder why my parents chose to name me Varkey officially, instead of my baptismal name Joseph. It was mostly because all my class mates used to find my name funny and pull my leg about it, giving it slight modifications in the process.And guess why my parents named me Varkey - ‘coz my grandpa was know as Varkey, and it is a custom among us Mallu Catholics to name the first son after the dad’s father. All my elder cousins escaped being named after our grandpa, coz he was alive when they were born, and he wouldn’t allow any of his grandsons to be named Varkey.

Being the only ‘Varkey’ in the family had its advantages; I was always my grandma’s favorite. And everyone keeps telling that I am exactly like him…. I don’t believe any of them. Though I have no clue what kind of a person my grandpa was, I have this feeling that other than the name being the same, and of course being Grandma’s Fav we are no way similar.

I feel good about my name, It is a rather old fashioned name, but it is so old that most of the younger crowd haven’t heard it, and if you are not a mallu then I don’t think none of your ancestors would have heard it either! And what does it mean? I still don’t know and neither does any one else… so now the purpose of ‘Varkey’ is exactly what it was meant to be in the first place, it is just a NAME.

I am Varkey and am known as Varkey and not ‘ABC’ which means ‘Just another name for Lord XYZ’ or ‘DEF’ which means ‘ man strong as n tigers’. Am I happy with my name, hell yeah. Will I allow my grandson to be named Varkey? … Naw...just like my Grandpa I rather like being the only Varkey in the family :)

Timepass or Pastime

2005-09-29T00:22:00.000-07:00

What does a single male software Professional do after 6? I don’t think that would be a tough question for any one to answer – They stay back in office!

There can be 2 reasons for this. One, He has a deadline to meet. But more often than not it is a completely different reason that he does this He has absolutely nothing to do at home.

There are only so many things that a single guy can do in the evenings.

Go out with his girlfriend. ( u still are single even if u have a girlfriend)
Go to a pub and party.
Go Home and watch a movie.
Go home and cook dinner.

From the options available, how many of them can a sane person do day after day 7/365? Except maybe cooking, but usually we bachelors are too lazy to cook so end up keeping a bhai to do that for us, or as in my case eat out daily. Even if you mix and match the options you end up bored in a couple of month’s time. Finally u end up doing what every guy like you are doing, Stay back in office. Doing what? Doing the same things you do the whole day long, read & forward mails browse the net, play games online, chat, and if you are interested in writing start blogging ;).

Unfortunately for me, I take the office transportation, and my shuttle leaves at 6:15, so I am Forced to go home at 6. I have been evaluating my options. I still don’t have girl, nor do I have a bike to go out to party. The cd’s available at the video rental shop are of pathetic clarity. I have cable at my room, and I feel like I have watched the reruns for like the 100th time now, and as I mentioned I eat out! So much for the 4 options that I had.

But I have found a new way to spend the evenings, Join a GYM. Now that is a brilliant idea. I was able to spend my evenings for the past one month Planning to ‘join’ the gym. I intend to spend the next month planning ‘What’ I’m going to do there. Eventually I might join the gym. And by the looks of it I think I have found the perfect solution for spending my evenings.

PS: I have managed to build some muscles already.

Ooty in the rain

2005-08-20T03:16:00.000-07:00

July 23rd 2005

It was one of those trips that you go for on the spur of the moment. It all started with a call from Relish on a boring Friday afternoon in office. He called up and told me that he will come and pick me up after office coz we are going on a trip. Where? When? How? These were questions that didn’t hold at that time, for one we just wanted to get out of the city and also we didn’t really have a clue where we r gonna go.

Finally the evening Relish picked me up from my room and we reached his room, there were gonna be 7 of us and we were going to rent a vehicle and go to some place within a 400Km radius of Bangalore. We short listed 2 places Kodachadri or Jog Falls. But as in all trips there were people who backed out at the last moment leaving 5 of us with a budget that wont allow us rent a cab! But we were not about to give up; after all our reputation was at stake here.

At 8:45 Pm Santosh came up with a brilliant idea of taking a train and going to Ooty, considering our budget we thought that that was the best available option. Only problem was Rejin was still in office and was not expected to be back before 10 Pm and the train was at 11:15 Pm. Any way we decided to give it a go. By 9:30 the five of us were in the taxi heading to pick up Rejin.We reached the railway station at 11:15 and for the first time in my life I saw a train that was on time .. and I still don’t have a clue how we got into the train! After ‘Talking’ to the TTE we managed to get berths in one of the compartments and thankfully a good nights sleep.

We reached Coimbatore at 7 in the morning, but we missed the train to Mettupalayam from where we could get on the Nilgiris Mountain Railway. We booked our return tickets to Bangalore from Coimbatore and were on our way to Ooty by bus.

The day was pretty clear to start off with, but as we neared Ooty the skies started getting a bit cloudy. We didn’t mind it that way, after all we didn’t come to Ooty for a Sunbath. We reached Ooty by midday and it was drizzling a bit, as soon as we set foot in Ooty there was a swarm of Tourist guides who were showing us pictures of hotels and rates of guided tours. Trust me .. The pictures of the rooms they show are nowhere near what the actual rooms look like. Finally we decided to look for a room ourselves, there are quite a few hotels in Ooty, and the room rents are also pretty reasonable ( except during the Season), you can also rent out Cottages for Rs350 – Rs600, depending one how far away from the ‘City’ it is and how good you can haggle. Cottages will be a better option if you have a car and if you are with your family, you can cook or they will arrange it for you.

We decided that we didn’t want to be too far from the shops ( especially the Booz shops ;) ) so we took a room in one of the hotels, Rs 1000/- for a room with 2 double beds, TV and Hot water ( haggling is Valid here too ) . The room was real neat and huge. We settled in, freshened up, had our lunch and decided to hit the road. The Botanical garden was our first destination.

The Ooty botanical garden is a beautiful place. It is one of the places where you find at least a couple of South Indian Stars (or North Indian B grade Movie stars ) running around trees singing songs. It is acres of beautiful trees and pure Oxygen. Unfortunately for us as soon as we entered the garden the Rain Gods decided that it was time the water the plants. The five of us got completely drenched; we found refuge under some trees and made a dash for it when the rain let up a little. We made our way back to the city and roamed around window shopping. One thing I noticed about Ooty is EVERY shop sold ‘Home Made Chocolates’ I have no clue where they get all the chocolates from and who buys them. If everyone makes chocolates at home who will buy them except for tourists, and tourists are not around in Ooty throughout the yeah. We got back to the hotel, and decided to warm up with some Smirnoff, after downing a couple of rounds, we decided it wasn’t helping us much in getting warm. So we had our dinner and retired for the day.

Sunday, the train from Ooty was at 3:15 so we had half a day to see the rest of Ooty. We found a guy who said he will take us to see Ooty for Rs600/-. From then on it was a race against time (and the Rain Gods) we went to see the Pine forest, The 9th Mile, the Dam, the Lake we even went boating in the rain! The guy who took us around ( was a malayail Krishneetan :D ) started explaining to us about the services that they provide, and has agreed to take us camping, trekking and to Places you never knew existed in Ooty; if we can come again for a 4 day trip. As a bonus he even promised he will arrange for an overnight stay in the CM’s Guest house. We went to see the CM’s guest house. It was the palace of one of the kings, and Is a beautiful place. From there we had to make a dash to the railway station to catch the train.

The train journey was a good experience, the view is excellent and traveling in a old steam engine train is quite a different experience; It is one of the World Heritage Sites. And I was a bit surprised that there was a ‘Reserved compartment’ on the train. It is a 3 hour ride from Ooty to Mettupalayam. From Mettupalayam we took a bus to Coimbatore, had our dinner and waited for the Bus to Bangalore.
The Bus from Coimbatore to Bangalore in which we had booked the ticket took us all the way back to OOTY – Mysore – Bangalore!! Rejin was lucky enough to escape alive after doing something like this.

In the end it was one ill planned, wacky trip. Going twice to Ooty in as many days, during the Wrong Season, getting drenched for 2 days, and coming back. But it was one Hell of a trip and we had fun!

what is this thing?

2005-06-14T04:27:00.000-07:00

Been hearing a lot about 'Blogs' and 'Bloggers' ... had been wondering what the hype was all about. What better way than checking it out myself ... so here I am, in the world of blogs and bloggers, all set to explore a Whole New World!