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I know of a road,
That leads into the woods,
Deserted and wild,
It laid unused,
For a long while!

I chanced upon it,
On an unfortunate day,
When I was beaten and down,
Everyone fled,
But burdens stayed,

I walked along,
Slowly aye!
Curiously,
Taking the turns,
Holding my breath,
Treading the unbeaten path,
Wondering where it lead,

The skies grew darker,
And the trees began to sway,
The rhythmic wind,
Eerie i must say!
The stars popped up slowly,
Outshined by the graceful moon,
And i knew,
I was lost,
In this beautiful setting,
The path was all i had,
And I trudged,
On and on.

It finally opened up,
To a small clearing,
At the edge of the cliff,
I walked upto the end,
And looked down,
Vertigo gripping me,
As if the ground below,
Was pulling me,
For a deadly embrace,
But i looked away.

Instead I took away,
The weight off my shoulders,
And threw them away,
For I did not care!

I sat down,
On the patch of grass,
And weeped silently,
Overwhelmed by emotions,
And suddenly everything material,
Seemed immaterial!
I lied down there staring at the sky,
And smiled at last,
After a long while!

I know of a road,
That leads into the woods,
All you have to do,
Is let it find you,
And then let yourself find it.

Endless walk...

I've been walking,
Way too long,
Not stopping to see,
Where to,
Right or wrong.

I've been walking,
As fast as i can,
My legs hurt bad,
But i carry on,
Without a plan.

I've been walking,
And one fine day,
I see footprints,
Ahead,
On my way.

I call out loud,
And strain my ears,
For a whisper,
Reply,
But there's nothing here.

I look at the prints,
And,
My foot seems to fit,
Perfectly in them,
Scared out my wits.

I've been walking,
All this while,
In circles,
As fast I can.

Tryst with the Guitar

I've always wanted to learn to play a guitar ever since I watched Slash in one of the Guns N Roses video.The ease with which he does his magic onstage tricked me into believing that playing a guitar would be a cakewalk.
Anyway,after a month of deliberation and spending quite a significant amount for purchasing a new guitar,I finally landed up for my first ever guitar class.I was amused to find a motley crowd of people like me who did not even know how to hold a guitar properly.There was the clueless left handed guy trying to play with a right handed guitar to the girl who shifted from one fret to another the way you would in case you were playing a Sitar(apparently she had mastered Sitar and was trying her hand on western instruments).
Then there was me,who couldn't avoid the abominable twanging sound every time i played a chord.
After the class I came back home,and started practicing after everyone fell asleep.The night was silent and pleasant,I opened the balcony door and put a chair there.The soothing sight of silver moonlight greeted me there.The cool wind caressed my face,I took out my guitar and took a moment to take in the beauty of this nocturnal setting.
I placed my fingers on the fret board and strummed a C-Major slowly,then I shifted to a G-major and an E-minor.Then i heard a slight whimper which eventually turned into a long howl, which was then reinforced by a series of howls from distant localities.
The dogs just broke into a frenzy and the neighbours started switching on their lights.I hit the floor with my guitar and crawled my way back into the house,unseen.
I haven't given up yet.

Image: http://www.sito.org/id/ick/Guitar_Player.jpg

Mumbai:An Acco nightmare!

Well,I don't intend to bore you with the details of life in Mumbai.I am sure there are a lot of blogs in the blogosphere who can provide you with the details.
Bottom line is,life out here is hectic,tough and at the same time filled with masti.
All that said and done,one of my friends came over to Bombay(I keep switching between Bombay and Mumbai) so that he could attend a course and if possible,try to find out a good job here.I thought it was a good move,Mumbai is after all a city of opportunities.
Since he was planning to stay for a month or so,he wanted me to check if there was any good accommodation available out here.The thought of that made me a bit anxious.Being familiar with the intricacies of Bombay life,I knew that real estate and money were the two areas where the city can screw you really hard(pardon my language).
So I started off with an 'accommodation hunting' spree in the internet.I searched for a hotels,lodges,guest houses etc etc.
Him(my friend) being a newbie made things only worse as he came with a budget(which would have provided him a 5star accommodation in any other city) that wouldn't get him past ten days in a city like Bombay.And since he was keen about having an independent room,the only option available were budget hotels(since Paying Guest accommodation meant you had to share the room with total strangers).
Now,(here's my favorite part),there are two types of hotels in this world-
1)The illegitimate kind that charges you by the hour.(The kind you would want to avoid at all costs)
2)Then the ones that are comparatively safer.
We categorized these 'budget hotels' into three on the basis of daily rental-
(1000-1500)-The rundown kind, located in some narrow gully, where the cleaner is also the receptionist and the cook.
(1500-2500)-Pretty decent ones near the main road,where you are given a room that rivals a jail cell.
(2500-5000)-Not much different from the above,except that there is a doorman who opens the door for you at the entrance.
How would you justify a hotel that charges 5000 bucks a day,as a budget hotel?
Ans: The hotel's in Mumbai.

My point is,if you ever plan to come to Bombay for a long duration,it's highly recommended that you do some research and fix your budget accordingly.Some of the options that you can look into for accommodation are as a Paying Guest,Budget hotels or a serviced apartment.
But be ready to spend a wad of notes.
Or better still,call up that long lost distant cousin of yours from Mumbai and stay with him.


Image source: http://www.amren.com/ar/1999/08/broke.gif

My first Job!

Well,I finally landed up with a really nice job,whose profile sounds very exciting and challenging.I'm hoping to put in my best effort and live upto the required level of expectation in that organization.
I'm well aware that this is just the stepping stone and the journey towards charting a good career is just starting.
All that said and done,I'm glad to see a lot of happy faces around me,people who care and love me.They've always been my support and source of strength.And I owe them a lot.
Anyway,I'm a bit nervous about the first day at work.I'm sure it'll be like the first day at school all over again.Lots of new faces,an environment that you're not used to,and the usual anxiety about how to handle things generally.
Then again,my solace in lies in the fact that there will be others like me to give me company in the first day.
For now my plan is to get myself a haircut,polish my shoes,buy a brand new pair of formals and put on that winning smile and walk in through that door.
As they say,the first step is always the difficult one. :)

How (not)to deal with a Rhetorical question?

This happened when I was in the 6th standard.Well,I didn't know the concept of rhetorical questions(I still don't)back then..


Teacher:Do I look like a fool to you?
Me:*silent*
Teacher:Answer me!
Me:No
Teacher:What?!
Me:I mean,Yes
Teacher:WHAT?!!!
Me:I meant, Yes I will answer you but you don't look like a fool to me.
Me: *Uh oh,that came out wrong*

This was just the beginning..Rhetorical questions still continue to put me in a spot even today!

Keeping my fingers crossed!

I owe you all an explanation for the long period of absence and inactivity.Well,I'm at a different city now and closing towards the point of taking up my first job(the keyword being 'closing').Being a fresh graduate is a bit tough in the current job market,mainly because of the fact that you have to compete with experienced professionals for the same job.A whole lot of my friends tell me that we graduated into the worst possible conditions and are a bit paranoid about it. I don't blame them,being a fresher means you're new to everything which in turn induces an unintentional sense of anxiety and nervousness.The most dreadful feeling comes up when you think about the 'Countdown'.Basically,it's a fancy term I coined to describe the shrinking number of days until the next academic year.A lot of people are scared to even think about it.Because with the beginning of the next academic year,you tend to lose the 'fresher' tag which you have to admit is a way of shielding yourself from questions thrown by interviewers to curious relatives.

I'm lucky to get my offer letter and an exciting job profile,but as i said earlier there are a couple of formalities that have to be completed before I land on my dream job.People around me have started the permature celebrations and I would hate to disappoint them if this thing doesn't go through.It's kind of tough when people look upto you and think 'He got a job,so can I.'

So there's a whole lot of weight on my shoulders right now,and I hope I come through well.

Pray for me.

Oops!!

Sorry..Won't be here for sometime..Something important came up..Will be away for a couple of days!!!!Thanks for dropping by!!! :)

God's own Coundree!

Chances are that when you meet me for the first time,you would assume that I'm a north indian least of all a keralite.Coming from kerala does not mean I have to have the heavy malayalee accent that people uniquely associate us with.During my first year of college,a couple of my malayalee friends mistook me for a north indian and started conversing in hindi as best as they could.I cleared all their doubts with my version of weirdly accented malayalam which i have since then been uniquely associated with.The trouble is,I'm in no man's land.My hindi isn't perfect enough and my malayalam is an abomination.
Moving ahead,a good friend of mine gets a kick out of watching Lolakutty in Mtv decided to pick on me(i fondly refer to her as a mallu basher)by giving me a list of words and asking me to read it out loud for her.All these words were carefully chosen(i bet after weeks of research) so as to bring out my hidden malayalee accent which she firmly believed was in my blood.I'll list some of the words for you-

1. Cauliflower
2. Goal
3. Knowledge
4. College
5. Jumped
6. Loving
7. MBA (apparently she was expecting me to read it out as Yem Bee Yay)
8. Going
9. Boeing
10. Coming

Well,she was right.I did have an hidden malayalee accent afterall,somewhere deep inside me.In the process of reading out these words,i faltered.I never heard the end of it ever.I still get calls fom her,late in the night asking me to say 'Ford' out loud or making me hear the endless malayalee jokes that she came across.It doesn't quite annoy me,after all I am a malayalee and chances are that we are there at every nook and corner of the world.

Late night TV: Hijacked by infomercials

I'm more of a night person,and being so I find that most of my free time is after hours when everyone goes to sleep.With nothing productive to do during that time,I turn towards the idiot box for some quality entertainment.It was during one such exercise that I came across the world of infomercials.Almost all the major channels are hijacked by these infomercials during the late night slot.Although i never bothered to stay up and check till what time these never-ending commercials go on,It was on till 3am before I lost patience and fell asleep!
My tolerance level is quite high and i can usually gather the patience to withstand a lot of irritable stuff(having a younger sibling helps in this regard).But the kind of infomercials and their style of advertising is so full of utter nonsense that even I started to squirm in my seat.After a point,I decided to sit through it and rant about it in my blog(Reason:Recession,nothing better to do).
Almost all major TV channels had given their late night slots to these so called infomercials.Although it does make sense in a business point of view(in terms of revenue generated from ads),I wish they had the sense to realize that there are people tuning in even during the night time. The channels that air these commercials run disclaimers warning that 'the following program is a paid advertisement so as not to mislead the viewer.
But most importantly,this kind of unmoderated kamikaze style advertising tend to dilute the brand image of the channel telecasting it,I lost respect to a couple of so called 'educational' channels this way.
Coming back to the topic,Infomercials are long-format television commercials, typically five minutes or longer. Infomercials are also known as paid programming (or teleshopping in Europe). Originally, they were a phenomenon that started in the United States where they were typically shown overnight (usually 2:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m.) --- outside of peak hours. Some television stations chose to air such programming as an alternative to the former practice of sign-off. By 2009, most US infomercial spending is during early morning, daytime, and evening hours. Stations in most countries around the world have instituted similar media structures.(Source:Wikipedia)
Most of the ads that they are in India are the dubbed version of the US/UK ads in vernacular languages.The lip syncing and the translation can be hilarious.The locally produced ads aren't that better off either,they are equally funny with their presentation. The products that are sold through this channel includes shoe soles that claim to increase your height to slimming equipments to tone your bodies.Not to mention the 'discounts' and 'freebies' that they have to offer if you place the offer 'right now'.
Although I agree that I have no authority to judge the validity of their claims without trying them out,I am not in favour of such forms of aggressive advertising that encashes on people's shortcomings.Most of these ads,start off with underscoring people's shortcomings and making them sound as if one's life revolves around it and is responsible for all of their miseries.Then they introduce their product as the magic wand that drives all of these miseries away.The tall claims and effectiveness of the product is backed up against a number of 'real life' narrations.
Here is an interesting take on the pitch lines uses by these commercials (Source:Wikipedia)

• "Would you pay..." (lists large and outrageous amounts that quickly decline before the announcer rejects the past prices and hypes the lowest price possible)
• "This revolutionary product..."/"Introducing the revolutionary (product)"/"It's truly revolutionary!"
• "Are you tired of..." (announcer goes into list of faults of other similar products, which are avoided or solved by their product)
• "But wait!", "But wait there's more!", or "But that's not all!" (after pitching one deal and before pitching another, better deal. For example: "But Wait! Call in now and we'll knock off one payment/make first payment for you and add (product)"
• "Supplies are limited, and this deal is available for only (number of minutes before end of program)..." (Note that these supposedly time-sensitive deals are usually not time-sensitive, as these infomercials are almost always videotaped, and air at different times on many stations nationwide.)

Now imagine all this in Hindi and it gives you the content being churned out by the domestic players(with equally bad actors).
I'm not against infomercials,as it gives you an oppurtunity to get to know our product and make a decision from the comforts of your home.But I wish it was limited to that,instead of this 'your-world-is-going-to-end-without-this-product' approach thaat is widely telecasted.In addition to this,these ads must be monitored for false claims to prevent the gullible from getting cheated.

Image source:http://www.savagechickens.com/images/chickencouchbot2.jpg

Salman Con - Conman on the loose!

Before I get into the details,here's a little background about conmen.According to wikipedia, confidence trick or confidence game is an attempt to defraud a person or group by gaining their confidence.The term conman(or confidence man) was coined by the american press during the trial of one William Thomson,who won confidence of strangers and led them into parting with their valuables after gaining their trust.Although it seems quite impossible as to how victims fall for their schemes,an experienced conman has the confidence,skill and the charishma to win your confidence with his words and his act.Afterall,if someone comes upto you and confidently says that you have a patch of ink on your nose,you do tend to fall for it.Conning is just taking this to a whole new level for financial gain.
That's the background for my post.I've been observing reports in the newspapers, about a certain conman whose modus operandi is to con people using the name of popular bollywood actor Salman Khan.He has conned three victims till now,and is still going at it.
He approached them with either an offer to act in one of Salman Khan's movies or a chance to meet the bollywood actor face to face.He would then take the victim to a beauty salon and ask them to get a haircut or a face pack so that they are 'presentable' in front of the actor.The funny thing is,he managed to convince an Indian male(who still prefer to look raw) to step into a salon for a make over!
He would then ask them to remove their gold ornaments and watches for 'safe keeping' so that they don't get discoloured during the make-over!!The next thing you know,the victims are left with a huge salon bill with the conman not in sight and their money and gold all gone.
For the second victim,he pushed the act even further and took him shopping for new clothes and then disappeared with his belongings.Although it's still not clear whether both the acts were committed by the same man,but the unusual fetish for using the same actors name and repeating the trick despite the fact that the first act was well publicized has baffled the police.
So,the next time someone comes to you and mentions Salman Khan,you might want to have a good look at him.
Will keep you updated,this one seems to be quite slippery.

@ the railway station!

It was one of those really hot days where you wish you could just spend it indoors and have a fulfilling siesta.
Unfortunately,things have a way of taking shape and you find yourself at the railway station among the chaos of a swarm of people who believe in shoving you off their way even though they have reserved seats.Then again,this is India and paradoxes like this are quite normal and amusing too.
My purpose there was to pick up my mom and i wanted to get out of there ASAP.I had planned it down to the last minute detail,like a special forces operation.I was supposed to go in and come out within twenty minutes.I am a people person,except when there are a thousand of them swarming and walking into you and taking you with them.As they say,there is always that one unexpected variable that makes the whole equation go topsy-turvy.In this case,the train was delayed by five minutes and I was left waiting in the over crowded platform for it.I started hyper-ventilating and the over-whelming crowd seemed to be gathering around me like a bunch of blood-thirsty zombies.
After the initial feelings of annoyance,I sort of gave up and sat in one of the numerous benches lined along the platform. The scene around me was surreal,people from different walks of life,religion,positions and mannerisms all gathered under one roof(with/without a ticket)just so that they could meet their loved ones or rather escape from their daily lives to take some time off.
Maybe that's what make them like zombies,oblivious of the dirt and the sweat and the crowd.
The train started inching slowly towards the platform and I became one of them.