Eagerly welcoming the new year!

Oh! Finally!   Good bye 2013!   Welcome 2014!!

     Didn't think i had say something like that but having had a shitty year overall it is now a pleasure to say this :) Damn last year (2012) was too good in comparison!!

     In all these years every time the 31st of December  comes, i try to recap everything in this year and see what i wanted more of and what i wanted less of what happened that year or what i had that year which is of course followed by some kind of resolutions that i would be sure to fail. Especially the ones that i am serious about on the new years eve. Let me see, the last year the one resolution that i thought i should strongly follow is waking up early  ( i mean like 7 30) which obviously didn't fare with my habits at all. So this year i decided i wouldn't make any resolutions but just live that day in whatever way i wanted! oh wait! This seems like a resolution i can actually follow. 

     The first half of this year passed by too quickly in work and the second half too slowly in that i fell sick. Now that i think about it in a way it actually balances huh? But still i would have preferred a rather normal speed life and some memorable legendary moments that i would actually remember later on! 

     So coming to more and less account, lets see...i want more fun and less sadness, more accomplishments and less expectations, more exploring beautiful scenaries and less risks in it (last week when i went to a bridge nearby while sunrise i saw a bucket load of mosquitoes ready to attack and ran from the scene literally. I have become a little more health conscious huh!), more yummy recipes to taste and less money to spend on them (....surely a man can hope), and definitely more blogging and reading and be more magnificent (if i can manage) and less dreaming about it (....isn't this already becoming impossible? ), feel alive in more moments and less disappointments of all kinds, more careful investing money ( if i can manage to think with this grey matter of mine) and hopefully less mistakes while doing so, be more helpful to others and me if possible and less of a pain in the ass which i am sometimes, more elegance (one can never have enough of that) and less embarrassment, be more calm in the mind and less killing others (in the mind! :P) and finally more naturally eager in new things to learn!

So please O please 2014 be legendary for me!!

I wish you all a very happy new year and may your year be legendary too! :)

Bing's sake!

I am quite puzzled while thinking about the Write tribe's Festival of words Day-4 prompt 'music' and as usual my mind became blank. So I shut my computer down, closed my eyes and tried to think about the song that i would appreciate myself for sharing with my readers. A few songs competed but this one came on top! You see...i almost came to tears while reading the song. Yeah! you read it right. I read the song before listening to it and it moved me like anything. To grasp the song you should definitely know the context, so i will try to explain that as briefly as possible.

The protagonist is a member of Rumbar pirates who are known for their music and singing songs. The protagonist especially even fights with music. Don't question the realities here as it is the #1 work of pure fiction and fantasy all over the world! They are on a mission to conquer the worlds toughest ocean called grand line where great treasures and legends are said to be present. On their way to entering the ocean they meet a school of whales of which a baby whale named Laboon gets attracted to the songs and their non-stop singing and follows them. Since the journey in the Grand line will be quite dangerous for such a small whale they decide to depart with it ( They consider him part of their group because he understands human language and intelligent enough to grasp meaning of actions that humans do ) with a promise to return after successfully travelling all the way around Grand line.

During their adventure they encounter enemy pirates who wipes all the Rumbar pirates out. So everyone is going to die except the protagonist because our protagonist Brook ate a cursed devil fruit which lets him have a second life in exchange for not being able to swim. In the last few minutes of their consciousness they sing this song and record it in hope that Laboon gets to listen to them for one last time! Laboon is still waiting for them even after 50 years and Brook didn't forget their promise. ( Don't be shocked by the skeleton...that is our brook with his second life ).

If you read manga of course you would have known about OnePiece. But if not you can read it from here. The series is still ongoing! You will be glad i recommended it!

Credits to Fruit-fragrance from deviant art

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                  I am taking part in The Write Tribe Festival of Words 8th – 14th December 2013. The above post is written for Write tribe's Festival of words Day-4 prompt Music .

The calling!

I roamed in the unknowst roads,

hoping to discover that i have no clue of!

But each time the road diverged,

tempting is the road not taken!

Before i could decide i felt the pull,

of a amiable but powerful stream!

I felt like breathing again,

after catching the whiff of soul!

An all too familiar calling,

of a musty antique book shop!

Picture credits : Sunshine28 , oolostentity , Aconitum-Napellus , gitoku  and creativemikey from Deviantart 

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I wrote the above post for Write tribe's Festival of words Day-3 prompt "Books" .

And....Capsicum it is!

I am taking part in The Write Tribe Festival of Words 8th – 14th December 2013.

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I have been in Chennai for an year now but still i am angry at myself for not knowing it better. I can point everything i know in a single para! Don't believe me? Let's see..

There's this nice burger joint in Chennai central though not world famous but still satisfactory and a 'ok' sandwich point nearby and Hotel Saravana Bhavan where there is supposed to be the best sambar in Chennai only i didn't notice it previously but the last few months i couldn't climb the stairs so still sulking for not tasting it. There is also a Thalaipakkatti joint but its is in no way comparable to the quality when i had it in Venkatnarayana rd, Tnagar. Then there is Barbecue nation on the other side of the Tnagar bridge where my friends forgot to mention me about a party since i was working hardcore till 10pm daily. Ever since i am trying to find a good excuse to go there sometime but haven't found any. Near it on the main road there is Murugan Idly hotel in front of which there is a mix-fruit drink stall, the best i have had in years. The best sambar i have had till now would be in Annapurna mess somewhere near Tnagar bus terminal and then there is hotel Buhari for a decent egg biryani on a Sunday afternoon near Audi showroom in west cit nagar. Then there is this best shawarma joint in south west boag road better than the one i had in Pheonix mall in Velacherry. In Thoraipakkam, there is Satpura - one stop parotta mall. And that's pretty much sums it!! You agree right? I infact don't know much! 

At first i thought i should write about what i liked about the above mentioned dishes but after trying a little i found i couldn't possibly do justice to all of them and it will definitely be a long post and half of my readers..that's.. you would lose interest before reading it right? So i decided i should consider just one but am no where near picking one of these. In the end i decided to start thinking about what dish i like the most not just in Chennai and then it hit me. Ofcourse, why didn't i think about it earlier? You see, about two or three years ago i fell in love with Capsicum! When i was visiting a relative of mine in Bangalore i picked it up in the market and from then on its a rollercoaster. I wondered at how i liked all of the varieties that were made with it. How could one vegetable be so awesome? Its the special ingredient of a sandwich (well! Home made one's anyway), Its tastes so good when stuffed and burnt or chopped or fried or cooked and i wouldn't know what else!

Capsicum heaven!

Thank you Corinne Rodrigues for making me realize this through your prompt! Now that i realised, i googled it and found its used most in a lot of awesome Mid-eastern dishes as you can see in the pic above. If you want i have piled up some of these recipe's here and i intend to taste each and every one of them. A quest for a life time! :D

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Picture Credits : Wikipedia, Tarladalal.com, taste.com.au , hark

The above post was written for write tribe's Festival of words - Day 2 prompt Food-food.  

Scrambling memory!

I am taking part in The Write Tribe Festival of Words 8th – 14th December 2013. 

I have been blogging to Write tribe prompts recently. Though not as soon as the prompt comes up but before the deadlines anyway. And then this Festival of words came up and since i currently have no work i decided i should follow the week long daily prompts and come up with something creative. But, every time i come up with an idea, i would soon feel that is not so good and we are back to the start. This post took as long as one and half week to come up with. So i dearly hope everyone likes it and at the same time i am baffled about how i am going to come up with anything at all for the rest of the prompts. Here goes nothing! The prompt is "Recalling memories" for Festival of words - Day1!

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It was 11 pm.

The grenade goes off right behind the target and kills him instantly. But Muzammil couldn't get proper cover in time and the blast hit him hard throwing him away. The blast envelopes the room, smoke coming out of everywhere. In the scary dark night, the blast lit like an Olympic torch as if signifying the beginning of an act to decide the fate of billions of people . He hit the wall and is knocked out. If he is not dead by the sheer force of the blast, he is going to die of inhaling that smoke. And the worse part is that he is unconscious to even fight it. His country needs him, now more than ever, but there he lay unconscious.

Just then, as if his fate called upon him, three men with big beards and rifles in their hands burst open the door and are searching for survivors. They quickly carried him downstairs where 2 other men stood guarding and together they disappeared into the secret tunnels. After an hour, he slightly regained consciousness. His whole body is aching, especially the back of his head. He tried to reach it but couldn't. His hands are tied behind him. He thought of standing up but nothing happened. He can't feel his legs at all. He tried to open his eyes but everything is blurry. His mind is totally blank besides the pain. He couldn't think anything at all. His memories seem to have vanished!

Soon people noticed his frantic breathing and surrounded him asking something loudly. He couldn't understand anything at all. But he can hear some noise with blank gaps. His memory is blocked totally. The blast must have affected his hearing and memory or damaged it entirely.  He fell unconscious again.

While he is unconscious he remembered a part of a conversation

..........Now i know for sure that you are an Indian undercover agent  (..in Urdu..)

After that he woke up panting and looked around. As he saw their faces he remembered they are a group of Al qaeda terrorists. And then it came to him that he is a part of that group and he yelled at them.."Why did you tie me up? Omar is an Indian undercover agent and i blasted him to hell because of that". The group muttered among themselves for a long time. They weren't expecting this at all. They were actually planning border shootouts at India so that the peace between the countries gets disrupted which will in-turn result in an emergency meeting for president. The terrorist group planned to blast the whole building to kill every member on the meeting. Then Osama bin laden would take over the country and wage nuclear war on all its enemies. They have already moved their troops to border patrol wiping out the real border patrol at few places already and Omar lead the attacks on some of them. If what Muzammil tells is true, then they might have to execute the plan before schedule!

"What do we do with him?", one of them said.

"Knock him out while we confirm this and inform our brothers. Jihad!"

They knocked him out and one of them went to check Omar's belongings for anything suspicious. Upon receiving the information, the other members decided all possible outcomes. If the government by any chance knows about this, they will definitely wait for the attack to capture all of them and all their effort would be for nothing. But they have planned everything and can't let it go to waste. Even if it means sacrificing some of them, their leader must be alive to take their ideals forward. And so they decided to move their leader Osama to the secret base. In the mean time they found something suspicious in Omar's belongings and decided to trust Muzammil.

They gave muzammil some treatment while he is still knocked out. He is now in bed. He remembered the same conversation but this time it is more clear.

Omar: Now i know for sure that you are an Indian undercover agent

Muzammil: So what? you of all people can't do anything about it. you thought i didn't know?

Omar: I already gave the location of the secret base and they have scheduled an attack at 1 am and all i have to do now is to make an emergency and your dead body will suffice for it

Muzammil: you can't do that! I have duties to my country too

Omar: But my objectives always comes first to me!

...with that omar tried to take his pistol with silencer out but muzammil reacted instantaneously reacted and carefully hit the back of Omar's knee so that he would loose balance. And in that time that omar tried to regain balance, muzammil pulled the granade pin and dropped it and began to run towards the door when the blast hit him!

The memory totally shook him. So both him and Omar are undercover agents working for their own countries! He woke up with a jolt and looked around. A familiar face greeted him and said everything is alright and that they are executing the border attack in an hour. He is overwhelmed by the consequences of what he said previously with out recollecting everything but didn't show it in his face. He faked to rest and began thinking a way to stop the attack. Then he remembered how Omar said they planned an attack on the secret base. He is determined to use the America's attack to delay the ongoing attack on India.

"But how??.....yes! i will do that!"

It is 12:30 am.

Muzammil got up, took his arms and said "I will see if everything is alright!" and went to their base where he found Farookh, the Intel and communication head checking all the details of the attack. He silently locked the door shut and came behind him. He put the silencer on and killed Farookh from behind. He then took control of his comm and issued new orders to the terrorist border troops which says that the Pakistan military troops are forwarding on their west and plan to sneak attack on them because of a leaked Intel. He then ordered the other terrorist border troop to assist the first troop in the attack.

It took at least an hour for them to realize the trap and by then their leader was dead and chaos spread everywhere. He used the chaos to sneak into the Indian embassy and relayed the info to alert the military. America attacked the secret base and killed Osama at the decided time. He succeeded in saving his country just in time! 

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Every day a lot of soldiers put their life on the line to protect millions of innocent and unaware people of such dangers. I wrote this post in honour of those heroes whose stories we know of and whose stories we might never come to know!

Please note that this is a total work of fiction and the names used here are but some names i know and not racial. So, did you like how memory or lack of it lead to evading a major war in my dream world? Please let me know through your comments!

Treasure in the Old mansion

The treasure -  A wednesday prompt

I knew bringing professor Agasa to that parent's meeting was a bad idea. As soon as he heard of the Detective Boys club he had wicked ideas running over in his mind and now i am stuck with these three. A treasure hunt in an old mansion? Seriously? He probably came here last night to set up a fake treasure. I bet the treasure is a bunch of candies. "We are almost there. That one building over there is what i am talking about! The owner was a farmer and a friend of mind. They say that before he died he hid the greater part of his treasure somewhere in that mansion because he didn't want his criminal son claiming it by inheritance and surely he died when his son is still in prison. After he got released, the son stayed here only for a week and left the city to do farming in their family land. so as the owner's old friend i became the guardian of his house. I am sure you boys will find that treasure!" said professor Agasa. Everyone is exited except me ofcourse.

As soon as we entered the mansion, there it is...so obvious...Its 10 30 in the morning but the main clocks showing 6 30 and that too the minutes and hours hands coincide. Let me see what is right under the clock. Its a puzzle ( quickly putting the puzzle pieces together ). It shows the direction of left but there is only stairs there. Lets see what the upstairs is like. (runs upstairs and checks all rooms and stops at a room). Looks like this is the only room whose entrance coincides with the arrow direction. ( Enters room and takes a look. Everything looks dirty except the study table and on it a toy aeroplane ). The aeroplane when looked from top view is an arrow mark so that must mean there is something under the bed (Hidden under the bed is a treasure box. He dragged and opened it). Stuffed toys huh? 

He put the treasure box back and started to come out of the bedroom but something didn't feel right. He looked the room once again. Only this time he found something written on the ceiling. The words were stuffed and formed a rectangle. He checked the racks to look for a mirror. There are none except the one hangin in the room right across the bed. He began to come to a place so that he will be able to see whats written in the mirror. Upon adjusting he found himself lying on the bed, head to the pillow. Its perfectly visible when you sleep on the bed. I see may be that is why the son left the mansion. He couldn't stay here after having to read that everyday.

The writing read,

Forgive you, I might,

When you can prove your might,

show me that i am right,

that i can entrust you with my scythe.

So that is why the son is farming now to prove his own worth to his father. I called professor Agasa and others to show them what i found. "Oh! That treasure is not true after all", he said slighly dejected. So he was expecting to find the real treasure after all. But i still think there is treasure here. While telling his son to be a farmer may be the father's true intention but i dont think he would've said "when you can prove your might". It almost like he is asking his son if he can grom some plants to prove he can.

Wait!Thats it!!! He wants his son to grow some plants where he hid the treasure. And seeing how he is rewarded with the treasure the son would take it as a sign to be a farmer for the rest of his life! yesss....I should do some digging in the backyard! Surely after some digging here and there, there it is, the treasure box, the remaining riches of the father, the treasure!!

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The above post was written for write tribe's wednesday prompt - Treasure . I took inspiration from a manga that i read - Detective Conan . He is a highschool detective who gets stuck with kindergarden children (he becomes one) . Do read if you have time and please comment if you like the post! 

Picture credit - Mirabellatook from deviant art

The problem with business listing

When i got a job in Chennai, i was totally freaked out. I didn't know tamil for starters and i wasn't sure if the food will be ok. Unlike experienced people joining, we freshers do not have comfort period to look for apartment's and hostels. Lucky them, they get about 7 to 10 days of corporate guest house facilities. But i had to report and go on foot searching for hostels and pg accommodation. But ofcourse since a ton of us fresher's get dropped at a time, information was passed quickly and it became a little easy to find them. But soon i was asked to go to another branch! What am i to do? I checked company portal for accommodation listing but couldn't find any. So i tried business listings like justdial. It saved my day..true...but i couldn't find what i was hoping for. After looking for a day or two i thought to myself ...is there really no place where i can expect good cleanliness, moderate furniture, comfortable bed and spacious almarahs ( not even rooms )? And i adjusted with the best option available. 

The truth is there were places like that but there was no direct networking to such places. Unfortunately word of mouth can't reach everywhere...atleast not in time! Another problem is what i faced today. When i went accommodation hunting with a friend, we reached a place where we were asked to wait 10 minutes to meet the manager. During that time we met some people already staying there and chatted a little. They said about available facilities which are impressive like geyser, free WiFi, sofa, tv and all only the twist is they also told that they had been robbed of valuable things and are planning to leave that place too. Had we waited for the manager we would have surely taken that accommodation but the consequences might have been bad. The main source of income of business listing is the paid reviews and ratings. We once tried to put a bad review only to find it goes on a loop of moderation and never gets published. I guess they were paid to do so! Since these free listings give heavy competition to paid business listing they would be easily closed down right? Wish there was a middle ground between all these where ultimately the common consumer wont be disappointed!

Confusing stance!

           Finally, i found a way to put the Google's friend connect back! You see previously ( before an year) i have not explored other blogs that much. You could say i wasn't ready, because i didn't take blogging to heart or else i would have known the importance. So a few months back when i started blogging again, i revisited all the gadgets that i had to remove some if unnecessary. I didn't want the page to be overloaded with them. That's when i was introduced to the Google plus commenting system and the new Google follower's gadget by Google of course. It made sense to me. Everyone i knew or who read my blog would have a gmail for sure and since Google took the pain to bring G+ profiles mandatory you could say i was kind of expecting everyone to use these gadgets more than the old Google friend connect. Because you see with friend connect i would be able to follow other blogs like a feed reader but with G+ follower's they would directly get a notification about the new post. Since Google inserted this notifications into all its product's, i assumed it would be easy this way. So i removed Google friend connect and put up G+ commenting system.

         But boy have i been wrong! As soon as i started reading other blogs more frequently i noticed everyone didn't think like i did. Or may be they did but got cold-feet at the first sign of trouble and left it that way. You see its a problem with people during transition. Google didn't want to integrate existing commenting but created new one because its light and have a lot of strong points and also they want people to embrace it leaving the old system to ground so others wouldn't have a choice but to follow. But when they actually tried it, since both the systems are not connected, the reply to comment alerts on old system stopped working. They didn't want to miss important notification even during the small time of transition.

 

          Well i put them because change is always inevitable and in the long run it will always be good to adapt. But since i am blogging regularly for the past few weeks i am getting cold feet because there is no rise in visitors and people who are visiting aren't leaving commenting. So how am i to know if its working or not?  So proud me started thinking of reasons ( read excuses) for why this is happening. So i figured Google friend connect might be a reason as so many people are used it and didn't find it on my blog. But imagine my surprise when i couldn't see the old Google friend connect anymore! Then i thought they are totally removing it and left it as it is but the day never came. So i googled to find a way ( silly me...didn't even think of googling it before) . so you see i got the Google friend connect back! (**drum roll**). But there is still another problem. The blogger commenting system! Should i go back on that too? But i liked it...it instantly shares to my profile and anyone who receive my notification will get it. Since i have more G+ friends that have me in their circles than my blog readers, it is somewhat important. So i checked if i can put both of them since someone mentioned a way to put both of them. But i already have facebook commenting enabled, so that makes two already. Adding another would totally be a over effort really. So i am in a fix!

.....If only everyone changed to G+ comments along with me...

My grand weekend!

                 I am almost sad the weekend trip is coming to an end. That is if you call a 4 day trip a weekend trip. Add a day and it might as well be a full week trip right? If its from Monday to Friday that is! But who would make a Monday to Friday trip when 4 more days can be easily added anyway? Unless of course its a business trip but we are talking about a weekend trip. Are there any weekend business trips? I have never heard of one but who knows...mans greed knows no bounds right? You could say that's too much to say about someone working on a weekend but we software guys love our weekends too much to make them business-useful! I suggest there should be a law about it :p

           Oh!wait..back to the current trip..that is my trip that is about to end. Its about to end! Whaaaat? Well i liked it soo much so...saying it twice surely wouldn't make it continue....yeah! I guess..sigh! You were saying....?? Oh yeah! The weekend trip was good...i got that already! I might have to kill you if you say it again... I was about to say why when you rudely interrupted (...adjusting throat ) need some help? I can strangle you if you like it? No thanks! I like my blog be blogged by real human being rather than an alter ego or a ghost. Like thats gonna stop me? Aren't you a handful? (....looking intensely murderous...)

             So about the weekend ...(...feigning disinterest...)... Since its an unplanned journey i had to travel in daytime. Since everyone tells that night travel is best, i took them for granted. Maybe its so if its a bus but since its a train i thought otherwise. Because during night journey everyone is in a hurry to sleep that nothing really happens but this day travel lets us actually talk a little to co-passenger's. But that's not really why it felt good. It felt good because i get to read! During my graduation, i was always able to read a book that i started to the end till i could read. Doing anything in between didn't feel right! But these its become so hard to keep my concentration on reading for the duration of the book because i was getting distracted a lot. I am not sure if its because the books got less interesting or the distractions became more important. So you see the journey during which there is no cell phone signal and hence no calling or texting, no movies to watch well watch comfortably anyway, is perfect for reading books. This combined with the kind of books i get to read is what made this trip special. The first was a marvellous fiction called Enders game about which i already wrote in my previous posts. The second was a book called Chasing Air. When i saw the cover and book name, i didn't know what to expect. But it was rated 4.5 on Amazon so i took it on a whim. But since its a new book, the ratings couldn't be trusted you see. Even if the ratings were true that wouldn't mean i had like the same things everyone else likes so....there were no expectation except one i guess. I wanted this book to be good because i didn't want it to let my Goodreads reading challenge!

          About the book, it was an easy read. The first few chapters were too easy even like a pre-teen language almost but of course the content later on is not so pre-teen or teen. There weren't many twists in the story and also some plot emotions were too artificial like the text is screaming.... (**drum roll**) now its this characters turn to be the person chased by demons of its past.... Also the funny thing is the significance of the name. Surely everyone expects things linked to the name should be awesome but it is just a silly dialogue of heroine which hero remembers and makes her chase air by skydiving with her. Well i expected more although i like skydiving and scubadiving. They are pretty high on my To do list goals!

             Besides the books, very rarely i haven't been that disappointed with myself. Not disappointed but just didn't regret anything. I wasn't that active to be called hyper or that inactive to be a bore. Took some initiations well appreciated by my family and i got to enjoy it too! Believe me, they rarely intersect. Did i say how the stars lined up and i got to catch the train just in time, i almost didn't believe my luck! Being lucky is new and feels good! I wish the streak continues :)

.....in so many words ;) 

Thunder of regret and responsibility

What's this pain? I looked around. I was in a hospital, plugged in to a bunch of monitors.I can't lift a finger. It didn't make any sense. I looked furthur. My aunt and my sister were sleeping on the other side of the bedroom. Aunty?Where's mom? Then it came to him, they were dead in an accident few years ago. He became the provider of the family of him and his sister but his sister stayed with his aunt. It wasn't safe in the city. It slowly came back, my accident caused by my rash driving. I looked at my sister...never again! Then I thought I'd do things differently.

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Its a true story. I met his aunt during the time i was in hospital. He came home for some family function in town. Rash driving destroys dreams for you and for others!

Tales of stockmarket!

Although you just met me,
I waited here for an eternity.
Although you aren't my favorite,
I am still your humble servant.
Although people praise me and curse me at the sametime,
I will bestow fortune upon the right mind.
Although you have mixed opinions on me,
I can still make you a king.


*Conditions Apply

The boy : A Wednesday prompt

      Its almost 9 pm but karthik is still sulking! Why wouldn't they get him the RS helicopter? He said to himself. Its his birthday but his parents disappointed him by bringing Hotwheels track set. He knew its a good gift but too many of his friends already it! How am i going to brag about it?

   He is an only son and is pampered a lot by his parents. May be he saw too much of their love too soon or may be he took them for granted. He loves then a lot but he cant say the same about his grandparents or other relatives. He didn't see them a lot to begin with. His parents are board members of a popular company so they stayed in Delhi while all their relatives are in relatively small cities. He is rich and he gets what he wanted and he knew it! That's probably why he is never grateful for anything. 

His mom came upstairs to bring him to dinner but he wouldn't come until they pleaded and his mom did exactly that. I can always get it afterwards and my classmates don't need to know! He smiled at his cleverness and came downstairs with his mother.

    His father asked, "Why are you not playing with your gift? Its a limited edition too! Don't you like it?"

Limited edition? I didn't know that yayy, but i want the rc helicopter too..he said to himself and replied.. "I am sad because even though i asked for rc helicopter you bought something else. May be you don't love me that much"..he put his head down.

"I wanted to buy you that only but your mom only selected this! "

"So you will buy me that also then?"

His mom came from the kitchen and said...."may be next year".

They just need a little push. He started rubbing both his hands against his eyes and began crying.

"Don't cry now! Your mom is just teasing you. I am going to buy it tomorrow OK? Now show me your smile".

He wiped his tears and ran to hug his father. Yes they loved him so much!

That night they put him to bed in his favourite Ferrari bed and left for a late night flight for a meeting somewhere. They always did that. He is not surprised when he found out the next morning from his nanny. He knew it has always been for him and they will bring a memorabilia from where they went. Little did he know the flight crash-landed and both their parents died in the accident! He started getting ready for school. Just when he is about to bath his aunty and uncle who lives not far away from them came and his aunty hugged him tightly. None of them dared speak but tears were flowing from his aunty and she just wouldn't let go of him. His uncle rubbed his head with his hand and said...Just 8!what should i say to him?. His voice broken and betrayed. Karthik knew something just wasn't right. He wanted to ask what happened? But words weren't coming out. Its probably because his aunt is crying so badly that he is afraid even to ask. Soon a lot of people came and consoled him. He didn't know why but he was crying anyway. His gifts didn't matter anymore, he just want his parents to come home and tell him that everything is alright...mother..."where is my mother and father?" ..He asked. He didn't know who he is asking but it didn't matter. He asked again and again and again...at last his aunty said they went to another town for a meeting....he didn't believe her! "Then why are you crying?" She couldn't hold it any longer and cried again! His mother was her best friend after all. After sometime they put his parents photo in the hall with a garland around it. He knew what that meant but he just couldn't believe it! He stopped asking! Tears started to flow intensely. He just sat there and cried and cried and cried..he only slept when he could no longer cry. He woke up several hours later and cried again! Its been 10 days already. His grandparents couldn't leave him alone and took him with them. It didn't matter to stay there anymore. His parents are not coming back. Nothing mattered anymore. He never let any others get close to him. He didn't have close friends or cousins. He never gave them a chance. And now his life is but empty.

      After a month, he still felt empty but didn't cry anymore. His grandfather took it as a good sign and joined him into a nearby school. Karthik didn't complain. He got ready in his school uniform and started heading towards school. His grandpa showed him the way the previous day.

On his way, all his old school memories flashed by. He always separated himself from others because he is rich. While everyone cracked jokes with each other he only spoke to them about his new toys or his parents new car and discouraged others from talking to him at all. He decided he want to make some friends this time. He was distracted in his thoughts and didn't notice school passing by. He walked a little further when 2 students stopped him.

"Are you going to Vidhyashram central?" She said

"Yes!" How does she know? It must be the dress code.

"Are you a new student? Late entry?" He asked

"Yes! How did u know?" Are they psychic?

"Because you just crossed our school. Come with us. Which class?"

"3rd standard..."

"Oh our class? Okay come on i will show you the way."

He followed them without speaking anymore. Just when he is about to enter the classroom, he asked "where are the toilets?" She absent mindedly pointed to their right.. "At the end"..she said.

He turned and walked. She put her bag down and sat to take a breath and suddenly realized her mistake. Its the girl's bathroom! She ran towards him. The other student also ran seeing her. Karthik is almost there when a senior student stopped him and said..."Are you going to the toilet?" and started grinning. Why is that funny? Aren't students allowed to go? He started to ask when he felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see who it is. She said.."shut up! We are going to that water purifier to drink water" pointing to almost hidden water purifier. He gave a look and left. When he left she said "sorry! The gents bathroom is on the opposite side". Oh! So that's it! He said Thanks and smiled. She smiled too and said "what's your name friend?"

"Karthik.."

"Hi! I am vinisha and that's my brother venu". They don't resemble each other at all but he didn't point out like the old he would have done...instead he looked at them and said to himself...Yes!They are his chance!

        They did everything together. Time seemed to fly when he is with them. They laughed and cracked jokes at each other. They ganged and teased others. It was a lot of fun! An year passed by! Vinisha came first in class and venu second but he came in some tenth place. But he didn't care. After a month, suddenly its their parents death anniversary. He became sad but he told his parents about his friends. He wanted to share his feelings with his friends and quickly came to school. He waited but they didn't come. He felt his heart throb. But he said to himself... They will come tomorrow and i will tell them then!

      The next morning he woke up too early because he couldn't wait to see his friends. Its Saturday, so he wore civil dress. Even though he could wear chappals, he forgot and wore his normal black school shoes. He couldn't think straight! He came to school and waited. They didn't come for the first period. He felt like crying. Then he said to himself...maybe they are playing at our secret place. They used the old city museum which is beyond renovation to play hide and seek. That's right! This is just a game! He thought and ran with his bag to the old building. He called their names but no one responded. He ran and searched all the hiding places. They are not here..

Disappointed he started to come out of the building. Its been a year and nothing changed! Nothing at all! As he  walked out he felt sad, betrayed, helpless. He is about to break into tears. His classteacher saw him walking head downwards towards the classroom.

She is angry at him for going out of school without informing her but she just asked him "what happened?"

"They are not coming!" He said crying..."vinni and venu are not coming". She knew how close they were. She said..."Didn't you know? Vinisha and venu are orphans who are studying here courtesy to some social organization and since they topped they topped the class they were taken to an award function in another city. They will only come on Monday".

So they didn't leave him. He is happy and his eyes gave it away! He hugged her and rubbed his tears off against her saree. She seemed like an angel from heaven. She said..."silly boy! You shouldn't cry like that or i will tell your friends!" He smiled and went back to the classroom happy.

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The above post was written for write tribe prompt The boy!

Picture credit :  Morgue file ( http://mrg.bz/jnYWqY )

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At first i didn't know what to write. Since its my first story prompt and picture prompt i wanted to give it a good feel and this is what happened!Hope you like it! I also wanted to elevate the importance of non-profit social organizations that are making education possible for a lot of people. If possible please donate and support such organizations. I saw previously when KFC started donating 10 rupees for every order on customers behalf, some people didn't want to. I am not judging but please dont think twice when contributing to a good cause.

All good that you do will come back one way or another!

Ender wonder!

As you know from my previous posts about the reading challenge i have undertaken this, i completed the second book out of pledged 5. The book is Enders game. The book is totally awesome. I read the reprint. The author said she modified some scenes but i dont know which but i am sure it wouldn't have mattered. After a long gap ( of an year) i didn't feel like putting the book down till its over. I read it all the way during the journey but even though i was tired i completed the rest and slept halfway between 3 and 4 in the morning.

Considering that by now all the starship scenario is too familiar i still felt its brilliant. The battleroom concepts totally makes sense so sometime in the future it just might happen. You never know right? If it is in foreseeable future i might change my career to atleast work there or even better be an organizer there of the sorts ( not that i can't be creative enough to be a commander but it wouldn't be fair right? ;) ). Oh shoot!spoiler alert!! I recommend the book to everyone, to those with already amazing creativity and imagination, it is a treat. And too all the others it is an aid!

I just didn't like the last name of hero. His name is Ender wiggin! Ender is kinda cool...like he is the end of discussion...done deal! But wiggin? Freakin wiggin! And there are 3 of them! Spoilers again!!

Actually i started writing the review but it sort of became a post. Who would need a review when they see the 5 star rating i gave right? I want to read this again but i have 3 more books to read this year. So i will wait! Oh wait! Why not make this book the first to read next year? It would be a damn good start ;)

Fly High!

                 Ever wondered why a lot of people get drunk to an extent where reality becomes invisible, logic gets thrown in the dustbin, health gets flushed in the toilet and they are so wasted that they start boasting about how wasted they are. Not that i had any personal experience but i wondered why would they do it again after waking the next day with a splitting head. It must be the high they get right? How good that the high must have been in order for them to bear with the hangover every time and still do it again? 

                   Don't misunderstand me. I am not going into any drinking frenzy now but i like the idea of getting high. Don't you agree? There are all types of high. Would your opinion still be the same if i am talking about sugar-high? Everyday...well not everyday but every day that indulge your self in that blissful chocolate muffin or a cookie or your favorite coffee latte or masala or pizza, isn't that what you are doing? Next time when you are at coffee day and look at that mouth watering chocolate pastry, will you stop and think that you are getting addicted or will you just take it? I definitely would! I would find a reason to convince my conscience because i want to celebrate my life. Little high now and then keeps me alive. 

                What about adrenaline high? There are a lot of adventurers out there everyday risking their lives in doing something crazy just so they can enjoy the adrenaline. All of them are high addicts right? Would you still say being high is wrong?

              What about success high? A lot of people suffer from it. They do terrible things to win because they cant bear to see others win. But a lot of them also give their all - time, dedication, determination in a good way because of the same things. They really aren't that different right?

              Next time your father or brother or someone demands their regular 10 am and 4 pm tea, would you still say their addiction is dangerous?

             I am not judging all of these as wrongs nor am i supporting all of them, i am just saying to all of those high addicted people that there are different kinds of high to get addicted to. I know its sounds evil, so i will explain with an example. Say if a couple is in deep love and the girl is married away to someone else, the boy have a choice to replace his love-high with drinking-high and become devdas, wouldn't you recommend some other high? After all we are suckers for getting high one way or other. Even the so called saints have disciple-high! Wont you agree?

Picture Credits:

1) festivalchocolate.co.uk

2) Wikipedia

3) favhdwallpapers

A notable day

As i opened blogger.com to view any new articles from the people i follow, i found something interesting. Today is a day i should probably remember as a blogger as my blog reached its first milestone i.e, my blog....this blog crossed the 1k visitors milestone. Although this is a small achievement, as a blogger i wish this is a sign of many more welcome surprises. But part of me still doesn't believe it considering the number of comments i receive. So if you are visiting the blog, i would appreciate that you leave footprints to let me know and comment. 

Also i would like to take this opportunity to thank my best friend Ajay who made me start blogging. I do remember creating a blog long time ago and posting the welcome post only to delete the blog entirely later on. Considering how i ended the first one, i should say the main reason that i was able to continue this time is because of his subtle or not so subtle hints asking me blog continuously. He maintains a set of amazing blogs, one for photography, one for poetry, one for fiction and one for just ranting (my favorite). Do check it out. I wonder if i can keep some consistency in order to be able to reach further milestones.

Twist of fate

The book centuries old,
the first copy ever made,
passed down through his will,
as planned for the greater good,
to overcome the gravest circumstances.

To the fated students he entrusted,
to make the right choice,
the gravity of each overwhelming,
the way to destroy evil, and
the temptation to conquer death.

As she opened the old book,
rare, torn and broken,
its mystique made known,

The deathly Hallows

by the smell of old book,
captivating and enchanting.

There it laid bare,
the key to it all,
though scribbled in code,
for them to unfold,
the guiding light to their destiny!

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The above post was written for the Write tribe's the smell of old books prompt
Inspiration: "The Tales of Beedle the Bard" from Harry Potter series

Picture Credit :: neverxlight.deviantart.com

Had i looked back - 100 words on a saturday

         Had i looked back i would've seen my father regret his fury, 

                  the kind which prompted him to shoot himself.

         Had i looked back i would have seen my sister-in-law accidentally die from misfire, 

                  the consequences of which bought burning sadness on her son and the rest.

         Had i looked back i would have foreseen the unintended mental destruction my family underwent for 25 years, 

                  the kind which i would never have let them face alone for even a second.

         Had i looked back, I would never have left!

                  How i wish i could go back in time!

(The above post has been written for Write tribe's 100 words on a Saturday 's prompt " Had I looked back" which has been given by Nischala who blogs at Verve. )

P.S. This is my first time writing for Write tribe. The concept is from the telugu movie "Attharintiki daredi".

PULSEating first step!

            Finally after a long time, i came back to my reading spree. I just completed another book named "PULSE" although it took more time than i thought it would...2 days is not that bad na? 

              I want to be true to the reading challenge that i undertook 2 days ago and here goes my first book. That means i already completed 20% of the challenge. Now i have to select my next books. I have some e-books piled up for the same, so i will check some reviews and pick one soon. I am planning to read a book every week so there is no hurry. 

           I remember when asked about in class (graduation), a very small number of people read books. Well, not that its weird because everyone has their thing...for some its cricket, for some music, for some like me its manga and books. What i found weird was most of these book readers said they read it to get good vocabulary. I mean come onn...if all you want is vocabulary, why go to the trouble of reading an entire book. Books are not meant just for that right? you can buy an oxford dictionary and get started if that is the case. I am sure its more productive. The main thing about reading is to be able to enjoy it. The intense feelings like suspense, sadness, all that funny giggling flows into you as if you are there in the book with all the characters. That's what i love about reading.

cork wine stoppers

           So anyway in this book, the lead character has a weird hobby. He collects bottle caps...weird right? No matter how the author make it sound sexy or sentimental about it....i mean they are bottle caps?? and what he does with it?.....he plays cap in the pot with it! May be i missed something important because this book is a sequel to another book called "COLLIDE". But surely it should have been a little more interesting like collecting corks as in wine stoppers...now that's an interesting hobby. I mean wines aging from a decade to a century are often used considering all these bloody lead characters are billionaires to boot...i wish i could be a billionaire just to collect those caps :P . OK, I decided! I will collect corks of these lavish and respectable year's old wine's when i have a chance. It is cool right? Every one cares about the 100 year old champagne that the winner of lets say an F1 race celebrates with but nobody cares about the corks na? Although i wonder just how many will i be able to collect considering not many drink and those who do don't really care about quality...certainly no one i knew had atleast a 10 year old baby (i mean you know ..wine). 

         You talk too much! when was the last time you had wine? Oh wait! was there ever one??

Ok! I confess i never had wine. The kind of upbringing that i had certainly forbids me from even touching one but hey I consider myself broad minded you know. I mean they wouldn't mind if its given as a suplement for aneasthesia or something right? what about all those mexican dishes that always need some kind of wine as an ingredient? I even read its good for you, stops several types of cancers, even remove kidney stops. If you want you can check here , here and here for starters. Sure it should be taken moderately. But you know why people in India who drink act like asses? because the forbidden fruit is always too sweet and it effects badly if not taken moderately.

But what am i talking about again? oh yeah the book....there is another interesting thing in the book. The lead character - Blake always uses it. Its a simple game called "20 questions". Although the situations he used it in is weird but the concept is quite good. You know how a lot of people suggest us to count backwards from 100 when we divert our attention and it never works.....well, this works. But it requires two to do it. You ask the other one completely random two choice questions and the other answers with an explanation and now its his turn to ask. Like pop or hip-hop or something like that. I am looking forward to try it and see if it really works. 

Goodreads reading challenge

      Reading is a very good habit. I encourage everyone to read as much as they can in whatever form like blogs or books or even audio books. A book is like a new world ready for you to enter and that stays saved in your memory (not the particular content but the feel and imagination burst). Even though most don't quite get it its quite enjoyable.

      Recently i feel like i am loosing the touch. So when i stumbled across Goodreads reading challenge i felt like i should challenge myself into getting into the habit again. The challenge is basically you pledging yourself to read 'n' number of books for this year. The more the merrier ofcourse but considering the year is almost up i decided to pledge to read 5 books. So, here goes...

PS:: I will put up the challenge gadget on the blog soon so you can nag me to read more ;)

The forbidden dream?

         Ramappa is born in a hardworking potter family. The craft being in the family is the only thing that he knows. He is uneducated , unambitious, doesn't crave for the world to recognize him. The only thing that matters is that he can maintain a livelyhood through his job. He is known around the town for selling pots and nothing else. At the end the pottery didn't matter much. Its his means...and by  all means he only intends to use it for that and only that. He loved his family...he enjoyed teaching his son pottery...he never cared for the rest of the world...and he is happy. 

       Ofcourse, he is from another century. Is something like that really possible now-a-days? Can anyone be happy by doing something that is so small when compared to other things? No...i don't think so! Because ramappa never compared himself to anyone else not because he dont know about them but because he is satisfied with what he is doing and have no reason to compare...why should he? Can we tell the samething about us? Lets see....when i am a small kid who is refusing to eat, my mom would take me to the balcony or roof and show me cars on the road and say.....look at those shiny beautiful cars, you can go anywhere you want zooooooom...and now i sure want to but it costs real money that i might not be able to comeup with. Should i be sad and depressed because of that? 

      A feature show is running on TV about space exploration, so suddenly your parents would stop you from doing whatever it is that they are doing and tell you to watch it. After that they would tell you how there are so many beautiful stars in the sky which are nothing but solar systems from far beyond and how we can be an astronaut and step on the moon or a scientist and try and discover new things that will make us famous all over the world or make living on earth atleast a little better. Beautiful dreams...all of them. I liked all of them, some more than the other. But i am none of them now. Should i be unhappy about it? knowing that i am not what i dreamed to be and lament that i am another 9 to 5 fancy robots that are abundantly seen these days or should i be impressed by myself that i have grown my conscience 1000 fold and am able to realize realistic dreams and plans? But why do those unrealistic dreams still seem fab??

     While I dreamed of getting an Audi, get the damnest super computer rig for my gaming vice, get a bungalow that awes the greatest designers of the time, be known among my circles to be the most wisest and considerate and all of those good qualities, Ramappa only dreamed of being happy and his life has been a dream come true has it not? So is he more successful than i am? 

     While we are in a time where our parents gave us freedom of all the choices, the choices are still meager realistically available ones. Sure if i am to go back in time and make those choices again i would have choosen something else for obviously i am more aware and wiser. Knowing that should i leave my life in regret? may be i wouldn't have become this aware if i made those choices...so should i be contempt instead?

     But no matter what i become in the future there is still that version of me that i could have been and he is a tempting mistress. In the end is the freedom of dreaming just a forbidden dream?? The more aware i am, the more questions remain unanswered...i am jealous of you ramappa even though you are just a figment of my imagination!

Lost and Found!

         I recently felt like i am not doing justice to blogging, and for once i thought i should look for the inspiration myself. So, i visited Blogadda to checkout some top blogs. Here when i clicked on a blog, i liked the post so i wanted to follow the blog and am searching for Google connect app on the right side widget ribbon. Somehow while i scrolled down it is lost between all the blog awards that the writer got. I was overwhelmed considering I have heard of only a few of them.

         "....Of all the amazing things that i discover if only i could be one of them...."

        Its not that i don't like the blog, but that kind of display almost seems inhuman to me an amateur blogger. All blog awards naturally recognize a specializations like an fresh amateur blog or best clicks or awesome literature or storytelling but to have awards from so many categories just how many hours does she have in a day? I figured i should check the kind of topics that she touches, but Oh my God! there are posts belonging to almost all categories that i could possibly think of like cooking, travel, fashion, lifestyle, fiction, reviewing, shopping, celebrity talk, comics,...what not?

          Although i got no idea about any kind of inspiration for my next blog ... or did i?...i now have a great respect towards all bloggers and somehow i feel a little proud about being a blogger myself..not that my posts are in anyway comparable to theirs..but a man can try na? Anyways you can follow me and a million others that you like by clicking the above icon.

So i decided i am going to explore more blogs to discover many more awesome things and who knows i will share a few with you my visitors too! 

P.S.:I said visitors because the traffic i am seeing on my blog does not correspond to the comments i am receiving but i really want readers so if you take some of your time to read why comment and let me know about it? 

With and Without Internet!

          I have always wanted to do something with what i know from the internet. I mean seriously, i spent too much time on the internet and yet i cant seem to be able to figure out something that i can do that will clearly reveal its all because i had a internet connection and hopefully that will stop my mom from nagging at me. 

So i thought about what i could do, so here they are,

-> Book train tickets = 3 or 4 years ago may be that is something worth mentioning but now every tom, dick and harry with an internet connection and an e-banking enabled bank account can do that

-> Instant Mobile recharge = Well it is not a big thing but something. I mean with an app and balance i could be that knight in shining armour in times of need and it would certainly get appreciation but i cant count on it to happen all the time. I would be bummed if everyone starts asking me that and just that...what! am i a free recharge coupon?

  ->   Flipkart anything and everything = i know its too much to use flipkart as a verb but what can i do? I seem to end up choosing it whenever i want to buy anything. And it did wonders too. I almost got scolded when i bought my first smartphone from it...my mom said "you dont know what the limit is...just because you have an online bank account you shouldnt do such rash things"...my dad said "If you order online they will just get rid of defectiv pieces by sending you one and it will be damaged during transit"....Whew! It took a lot of me to convince them and finally thanks to Bluedarts contract with flipkart and Flipkarts damage proof packing things were smooth and i got to keep my face. They didnt say a thing when i ordered my next smartphone and couple of other things from it last month :)

      Well back to topic, it is a good thing but too much of it would give me a spoiled kid reputation na? Unlike some idiots i would hate to be recognised that way. I maintained too much of a decent guy style to be that now!

-> Home theatre = I am not talking about sound system ofcourse but downloading latest movies and stuff and put a show of it. yeah i know pirating is bad but admit it who doesn't do it now a days? But these days i cant seem to find good prints of any latest movies (only tollywood...bollywood is a different matter though). They only seem to make a public appearance after coming on tv and since unlike me a lot of people watch movies on tv the first time they come while i am busy doing something else (hey dont judge me now...i follow tollywood, bollywood and hollywood...too much work na? :P) so that is a bummer. Well i tried downloading some devotional songs and that seemed to work a bit

-> Make hotel reservations = Thanks to digitization of some ashrams among other hotels this is a huge blessing for me. Its about the only thing that makes me look good somewhat.

-> Tech guru = Hold on!I am not speaking about myself at all! There are too many tech guru's giving expert advice and reviews about products ranging from toothbrush to cars and heavy trucks and thanks to them i would be able to pull valuable info on any kind of product under discussion.Not to mention the price variation...very handy na? But sometimes....just sometimes it is also a bad thing. Since you get to know too many people's opinions you will see bad in everything!

-> GPS = A new city doesn't scare me as it should and thanks to GPS (well it uses net..so) i wont be lost in shady streets like in the movies and will still be able to know the right bus or train to take, the routes of them...inspite of being new. But its not always that good a benefit as the maps are still not that good in many areas and also elder people dont seem to trust it so even if i proposed the way they would want to confirm it anyway and this would be the last resort...so much for a benefit

-> Blogging = Oh please! Its not like i am famous or anything and the chances of me getting famous is like finding a needle in a haystack. Literally so...considering the number of blogs that are present on the web.

No-Shave November Victim

-> Career advice = Be it tutorials for new languages and stuff or interview experiences for visa's or prep material for all kinds of exams, the web is the holy bible! But people seem to take it for granted ... like since they went and bought us an electronic device the least we could do is that...so its not really a benefit to be mentioned in this context if you know what i mean

-> Knowing wierd things = Believe me! because of internet i came to know about so many wierd things that i cant possibly count. Like the too bored women who would goo to extremes to dress their cats or catch their cat doing wierd things or a fox-looking dog saying i love you or a buck naked drunk wierd guy painted all over or a No-Shave November challenge...what not?  These are all great conversation starters but there are always two kinds of people...so its always 50-50 chance but if they dont like stuff like that....well! Now you are done for.

The Internet Of Things

Besides all of these i can only see one good thing which is the Internet of things (IOT) which is an awesome concept and that fulfills all my prerequisites but the problem is unlike in US or UK i am not at the disposal of these things in the Internet of Things. I wish the "Things" be available in India soon but should also be affordable. Oh!What am i dreaming of? How many years would that take??