Surprisingly surprising surprises

                     Last night i went to receive my brother-in-law from Airport and was window-shopping while waiting for him when i came across an interesting shop with a tag line "Surprisingly surprising surprises" and called "Oyehappy". You see, sometimes when a person comes from abroad after a long time, not just their immediate family but a lot of relatives also come to receive them. And there, out of boring formality, they spend an awful lot of money in the floral shop. Instead, this shop help's make the receiving-part a little more exiting by adding a little drama to it. They have various plans. The basic one was to buy a surprise-gift with some interesting miss-u quotes on it and the inside of the box is a surprise ( even to you! if you are buying it ). Another one is if there is a big family waiting, they will print custom message on a banner of about 15 meters length which is nice, interesting and formal way to show affection. There is one other plan that i like the most. A person wearing teddy bear coat will be beside you and when you recognize the person, the bear will hold a message board, go give it to him and give him a bear hug and embarrass the hell out of him :P After a long flight, don't you think getting hugged by a teddy bear lifts the spirits a little?

                 Besides the fact that not many people here in India show affection publicly, i like the idea of adding fun to receiving someone. Because if you waited for an hour for someone you would only be thinking about how to greet first and all and this is better than any of those. I hope there are more of these innovative initiatives!

When in a pressure cooker....

      A fellow blogger asked a question on her blog here. What she asked was..

What do you do during tough times to stay positive?

           To tell you frankly i don't always stay positive in such situations. And i don't believe anyone who says otherwise. It just means it wasn't shi**y enough for you to reach that stage. I had experience of that stage too. From what i understand, every one freaks out before they reach that stage, and hence have the toughest times of their life in terms of psychological pressure building up in you. But one has to understand that, the tough times are gonna be very stressful and a pain in the ass to deal with. But the tough times are those that you just can't deal with fairly. So the first step would be to ignore that stress. That will help a lot. You should listen to baba Ranchodd das..remember him?

           I usually deal with stress by sharing my situation with like minded people that i know. Surely, when i can't think straight i would listen to someone who i think thinks like me ( when i am outside the stress zone ). If there comes a situation where i can't do anything to make it better i will become crazy, do stupid things go have those yummy deserts and finally admit to myself that i can't do anything else and start think about what all the things i should now give up hopes for and be prepared mentally. Surely one or two among the list will not happen and then it won't look that bad! But ofcourse, it's easier to talk about stuff like this!

           And if your friend or some one you know is in a stressful condition, stop preaching and listen first. Seriously, one has to know their cue!

M loveeee!

            When compared to my pals, i have caught up on the Internet very early. And memes are one of the first addictions that i had. Sure watching videos would've been more fun but because of the bandwidth limitation, i had to limit that and you know how fast net-centres were and still are. But of course i am one to talk because any bandwidth would have been insufficient at the time or even now for that case. Now everyone knows about memes due to the popularity of rage comics but i am talking about pre-rage comics era of comic strips. The main difference between the two used to be situational comedy in comic strips and intense expressions in rage comics. Although that too seem to have merged. But who can forget Garfield, Calvin and Hobbes, xkcd, cyanide and happiness or the legendary Dilbert? When i bought my first smart phone, one of first few apps i downloaded were for Xkcd and Cyanide and Happiness and some others. Now i rarely follow them because i am caught up in too many things. So today i was flipping my news feed on facebook and came across this strip!

       I never thought it would come to this. I mean that's one sadistic piece of s**t. That in Cyanide and Happiness?? What is the world coming to? But out of curiosity i checked the comments and one comment blew my mind! This one..

        I broke into laughter after that. Its hell of a lot better than an offensive comment, don't you think? I just love these comic strips or rage comics or whatever you call it. So from now on i will try and put a meme at the end of future blogs. Look forward to them :D

Sleep blogging!

              Today as usual i woke up not wanting to get up. There is a reason for that. You see, in my dreams i remember things, have a photographic memory and always, i mean always, i am in the middle of something crazy and amazing. That and i always keep my cool and know exactly what to do next. Ain't dreaming a bliss. I mean i get that in life that is probably what i want most, well who doesn't? Sometimes i feel like may be there is a hidden meaning in all of that. You know like stuff that we come across everyday comes together and blows your mind - sort of thing. Like a bike number or a password, i mean today after i woke up the dream faded in seconds but there's this string 'Ti 12 aL' that i didn't forget. I am sure it's something important but have no idea what so ever what it is. Stuff like this is one of the reason why i understood Inception when i watched it for the first time itself! And stuff like this is what makes me wish i could blog while asleep. Don't you see how amazing that would be? It's like saying all the stuff you want to write but just not out loud. I wish sleep blogging is a thing and i am guessing in about 10 years it might be a reality. Mark my words. Heavy research is going on the brain's activity. Once it's demustified, this kind of thing is super easy. Oh!Wait! That world is super scary too.

           Talking about movies, i was quite surprised this morning to find that a Tollywood movie reached heights that i would never have imagined possible. '1 Nenokkadine' movie got a rating of 9.2 over  some 10k votes! And people are saying that it even beat 'The Dark knight' rating. Couldn't believe it so i went to IMDB to check it and..

          I am literally speechless but also dumb struck. Don't get me wrong because i loved this movie. It has elements of creativity that i wished Tollywood movies to have for a very long time. So it is sensational and all but we are talking about THE DARK KNIGHT here. Well it's just 10K votes but the fact is i don't want to down vote it either. Because this movie is going to be an inspiration of a lot more creative movies to come.

My preciouss (brain) !

            The other day i read a haiku ( you know...it's past 12 and all X) :P ) which i didn't quite understand but part of it was about this disease named Alzheimer. I have come across that name quite a few times, mostly on TV on this show "Boston Legal" if you have seen it. So it piqued my interest and i looked it up on wikipedia and boy was i frightened. Of course i am, i mean the early symptom for it is bad memory so of course i am scared. Actually that was an understatement. I am not joking around okay? go google "Alzheimer" and see for yourself. The disease basically eats your brain up and you know what i thought when i read that? I thought, "It's okay. so what? I only use a small portion of my brain after all, right? I use less even when compared to other normal guys. I mean they say Einstein used only 5% of his brain, so what am i worrying about anyway?". But then it said by eating the brain it means decrease in neural activity and not the quantity of the actual brain. Damn it! I wasn't kidding when i said i use my brain even less than the average after all. But the thing is, i am somewhat lightened by what i read next in the prevention section. Well, it does say there was nothing proven but this AD is usually delayed in people who have good brain activities like doing a su-do-ku's or puzzle's or playing games, or writing blogs even. All the creative stuff that we actually do in our day to day life actually contributes to preventing something that scary. So if you don't want to be a living dead body or can't think about leaving your care takers in such an awful situation, start doing something crazy. Have those new experiences. Enjoy that life of yours to the fullest for happiness increases neural activity and depression decreases it. Be a little more crazy and most importantly STOP BEING DUMB! It ain't cute! or as you see good for your health either!

Protect your PRECIOUS brain!

My first story in Hyderabad

            Did i tell you what happened the other day? No? Wait i did. But i forgot this. On my first day here in Hyderabad, from the reporting details i got, i just had to ask for Tcs in Madhapur. Since the cities are kind of known by auto wala's, i didn't think twice. But, as luck would have it, while i was waiting for auto a cab stopped and asked me if i had to go somewhere. He was going to have lunch and trying to earn the meal by me and some others on the way with out the knowledge of the owners. So, i thought why wait when god sent me the boat and got in. Which boat you ask? Let me tell you a short version of that story too.

           A small town gets flooded and a man who is a great believer asks god to get rid of the flood or come get him or he won't move from the terrace. Soon the flood got worse and in the mean time several rescue boats passes by asking him to get him. But he rejected them saying God will come to rescue him. Aaaand he died. When he asked god why he didn't come god replied that he came in the form of rescue boats and all but he just didn't recognize god. This story! Ring any bells?

        OK so i got in and said the same. Tcs in Madhapur. He nodded and off we went. And he stopped at some place saying this is the last stop of Madhapur. I was dumb struck here. If he didn't know the address why didn't he say anything? So there i am standing and feeling like an idiot that i am for not waiting for auto when i saw somebody and explained that i was new here and asked if he knew any TCS ofc nearby. He told me about one in Hi tech city which i know is not the one and told him so. But then he looked around and saw an it guy ( you know with a tag and all ) in this awesome Harley Davidson bike and stopped him. Told him about the situation and asked him if he knew. But he said he had no idea and 'but' again but this 'but' is nice, he said he will enquire about this and take me where ever the office is.

           We stopped at a few Tea shops and enquired some It guys and voila its on his way too. Beautiful gesture don't you think? On my first day here! It can't be coincidence.. I did the right thing coming here after all.

New office - New Job ( kind of ..)

         Today (...yesterday when i started writing but felt too sleepy to continue..) has been a day of surprises. The transfer process is still not complete but i reported to the project anyway. The Deccan park office isn't half bad but definitely better than my old office. Its actually shaped like a butterfly in that the top view of the building resembles the front view of a butterfly. May be i shouldn't call it a butterfly. How about a crow? you know, how we used to draw it when we were children. Three crows by the sun....always :D

       Buy! This brings back memories. My sister is always the expert at drawing but i think i am ok too. We both went to a nearby private institute for learning how to draw or rather I tagged along with my sister. Actually i didn't draw much. I mean he used to give some what complex assignments to my sister and i get to draw rectangles and circles. I don't have to tell you how petty children can be but i wasn't complaining actually. And i drew what my sister draws in a competition and got second prize. My sister couldn't enter the same group because of age restriction ;)

       What am i talking about again? Oh! The building...The wings are called petals and the view from my floor is awesome. Finally I get to have a coffee machine at my workplace! For 3 months in Trivandrum, i got addicted to it and having to break the habit really took a toll on me. It's not like i can't have coffee but if you have tasted them you would know kerala's coffee beans are in a different league altogether. CCD is good but i can't go spending all the money i earn on coffee's now can i? But now, i have a Coffee machine! How can i be so exited about a coffee machine and not the project? Yeahhh! Thatttt.....you are wierd! So What?Big deal!!

        There is another reason why i am not that exited about project too. Firstly my job is not permanent for about 3 months or so and you see my new job involves quality assurance and stuff like that. While testing is one part, i have to follow up on every issue towards closure and in a developer point of view - Be a nutcase! Considering i was a developer till now, i have to play a different ball of catching up with mails which is boring. Wait! Who am i kidding? I am always to new experiences and its time i tick off some one else XD (wicked grin ). 

Hum ban gaye Hyderabadi!

         I might have mentioned this in my previous posts. I got transferred to Hyderabad, finally, after trying for about 2 months. Not that i am complaining because, lets face it, who doesn't want to be on bench from time to time? Or is it only me? I hope not. Please god let there be some lazy people like me or i will die in an ocean of discipline-ness. You get what i mean. Wait! Do you? Because a friend of mine posted an experience of his with people understanding his tone of sarcasm. When you watch a lot of movies, that kind of thing comes naturally to us right? But i understood sarcasm even before 'watching a lot of movies'. So i too take it for granted. Am i wrong? But then again, where is the fun in writing if sarcasm is not allowed. If you ask me, the thrill of understanding sarcasm makes writing all the more enjoyable. 

         As i was saying or more like 'about to say', this is my first post in Hyderabad and today is my first day here and I am already late for reasons i still can't come to an agreement. I mean i got project mail approval and all other approvals needed but my resource manager still didn't confirm my request officially and i am supposed to print the transfer letter that i would get after it to my new project. It's been pending with him for about 6 days and when i reminded him today he said he wont be available on phone. Now what am i to do? It already noon. I will be damned if 'I' get scolded for this. 

         Some of the people i read are challenging themselves to blog a day for the whole year. I really appreciate you guys. I wanted to do it myself but i am really bad with commitments that although i prepared seven posts for a full week, i didn't publish the last two posts. That is exactly why i took the No-Resolutions-this-year resolution and hence i will try to stay away from challenges but i will definitely post more frequently this year. Hey! I did complete the Goodread's 2013 Reading Challenge. Oh, Well!

You can read the people i mentioned here and encourage them through comments. The Shaded Shadows, R's Mom, A Rose is a Rose is a Rose, The Giggling trucker's wife writes, Someday Somewhere and Scribblings . 

Massive Alphabet meme - Part 2

After answering half the Massive Alphabet meme, i came to know that it was originally a post in July last year. Even though that's hilarious, since i put that much time in to it i continued and here's the part two.

Massive Alphabet Meme, part two

The Letter N

What is your favorite number?
2

Do you prefer night or day?
Night

The Letter O

What is your one wish?
I wish to have 3 more wishes ;)

Are you an only child?
Nope

Do you wish this year was over?
Not really! I did have a good start this year.

The Letter P

What is one fear that you are most paranoid about?
I fear that someday i would let fear alone drive me into doing things and would regret it in times to comes.

What personality trait would you look for in someone you wanted to date?
Calm and cool

The Letter Q

Are you quick to judge people?
Not in a million years

The Letter R

Do you think you are always right?
I do what i think is right and i always leave doubt for it to be wrong

Do you watch reality T.V.?
Yukk!

What is a good reason to cry?
Can't tell

The Letter S

Do you prefer sun or rain?
Definitely rain

Do you like snow?
Yes

What is your favorite season?
Winter

The Letter T

What time is it?
10:10 pm

What time did you wake up?
07:30

When was the last time you slept in a tent?
Never did that

The Letter U

Are you wearing underwear?
It's already night so....

Do you open your eyes when under water? 
I always try but never managed to do it besides i only swam in salt water

The Letter V

What is the worst veggie?
Can't think of any

Where do you want to go on vacation?
Dream vacation? In dream land ...in reality, i always wanted to go to venice

What was your last family vacation together?
Some temple i dont remember

The Letter W

What is your worst habit?
Staying up at odd times

Where do you live?
Tenali - Andhra Paris

The Letter X

Have you ever had an X-ray?
Plenty of times

Have you ever seen the X-Games?
Nope

Do you own or have you ever played a xylophone?
Nope

The Letter Y

Do you like the color yellow?
Moderately

What year were you born in?
91

What do you yearn for most?
Happiness... What else?

The Letter Z

What is your Zodiac Sign?
Scorpion

Do you believe in the Zodiac?
Nah

What is your favorite zoo animal?
Monkey

This is nice. I should probably not do more of these. And i am tagging kalyan for part 2 also.

Massive Alphabet meme - Part 1

I came across an interesting concept called 'meme' in blogging context which is different from the troll meme's going viral on social networking sites. Its basically simplified stolen themes from across the blogging world. It is taken from this blog.

Massive Alphabet Meme, part one

The Letter A

Are you agnostic?
I am not an atheist in that i believe in the concept of higher power just not 'pray if u want to be in his good graces' kind!

What is your age?
Gosh! This already sounds like seniors asking my bio. But its ok since i am in my twenties!

What annoys you?
Hard to describe so i will just go with all the annoying stuff :p

The Letter B

Do you like bacon?
Never had one although i doubt if i would like it at all. Its burgers for me!

When is your birthday?
21st November, every year! :D

Who is your best friend?
I have a number of best friends. Now that i think about it i had one in every phase of my life and each of them are so different from one another too!

The Letter C

What is your favorite candy?
I like all candies but the favorite must be ferror roucher

Who is your crush?
Currently, the mysterious women on the train! ( you should read my previous post )

When was the last time you cried?
Seriously can't remember and its got nothing to do with my attitude! Just my memory.

The Letter D

Do you daydream?
That is a major part of my day! Lol. I have a lot of triggers for day dreaming. May be i could write about them :)

What is your favorite kind of dog?
Labradog retriever may be.

What day of the week is it?
Tuesday.

The Letter E

How do you like your eggs?
Half boiled or scrambled.

Have you ever been in the emergency room?
Yeah i have! Very recently in that too

What’s the easiest thing to ever do?
Assume undoubtedly.

The Letter F

Have you ever flown in a plane?
Noy yet!

Do you use fly swatters?
Where i live, you can't risk not to.

Have you ever used a foghorn?
Nope. Can civilians even use it?

The Letter G

Do you chew gum?
A lot.

Ever tried gazpacho?
What the hell is that again?

Are you a giver or taker?
I consider myself neutral.

The Letter H

How are you?
Is this a trick question? Okay so i am quite saddened that i didn't get to eat halwa today but quite ok other wise:)

What’s your height?
6 feet

What color is your hair?
Black

The Letter I

What is your favorite ice-cream?
In pure flavors butterscoth!

Have you ever ice-skated?
No, but it's on my to-do list.

Do you play an instrument?
I can if u want me to but you will be sorry i did once i start ;)

The Letter J

What is your favorite jelly bean?
I like all of them!

Do you wear jewelry?
Only occasionally and i mean the ring and gold watch!

Have you heard a really hilarious joke?
Yeah! It's really hilarious that me and my buddy are laughing our asses off but when someone like u asked what it was about we couldn't recall and had another laugh about it! Remember Ajay and Ramana?

The Letter K

Whom do you want to kill?
Aaah...Intense! Let's see..the guy who came up with ideas for Telugu serial's seriously.. Watch Korean! And a lot many but can't remember because i already kill them ( in my mind)

Do you want kids?
Someday...yeah

Where did you go to kindergarten?
Vidyashram central...sounds very devotional na?

The Letter L

Are you laid-back?
In life? Yeah! Right now? Nope!

Do you lie?
In real life i am pretty honest and humble person. People come to me for support too . so yeah, every chance i get! But not while blogging!

Do you love anyone?
I am trying to love this person. It's a he and its me before you think of something weird.

The Letter M

What is your favorite movie?
Hahaha...like you are going to get an answer for that?

Do you still watch Disney movies?
Nope. Now i prefer Japanese manga

Do you like mangoes?
Hell yeah! Who doesn't?

I almost forgot. A friend of mine, kalyan, started blogging this week. You should check his blog here. And Kalyan, i am tagging you for the Massive Alphabet Meme.

Puppy love!

As i sat down near them I was amazed by the beauty and in a real dilemma at the same time.

He sensed me and got up to look at me.

A minute there i thought he would go back to ignoring me but that didn't happen

I froze as he came closer and put his hand on me.

I can't believe this is happening to me, is this what they call love at first sight?

This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.

Sweet revenge!

I came from across this huge town,

although its late..

I bought all the ingredients too,

even if its crowded..

To teach how to make fish soup,

since you begged..

But as you went ahead,

and slept..

I will play poker with your cats,

and let them win..

I will see what you will cook 

to impress her..

I pray she lives,

to tell the tale :P

Go Fish!

Picture credit: Bairu

Tiger and the koi fish

              It's just like another day in the streak all except for the hunter. By the time everyone noticed he was too close and the tigers ran in random directions. Ever since that day he tried to find the streak again but in no vain. There are too many dangers in the forest for him to face alone. Scared and soul less he walked to the pond where he found a koi fish roaming here and there in the clear water not at all concerned by him. This made him burst with irrational anger and he roared and tried to frighten the fish by clawing it. The koi fish noticed him and became still. 

            He watched it watching him and decided to wait to see what it is going to do. The fish just jumped out of the water high enough to make his surprised and anxious face look up and hit him in the face. He was taken aback! Just what does it think it is trying to do? This is its foolishness and means sure death. But as he watched he noticed it didn't quiver at all even though it knew it's life is being sucked out. Is it trying to tell me something? An aggressive statement perhaps, to be strong no matter what the circumstance. He pushed the fish back to the pond thanking it for the valuable lesson. As the fish swam back his confidence returned and fear vanished! He drank water and searched for his streak to find it later that evening.

Picture credit: Daeisy