Cab vs Taxi

Conversation with the Cab driver (CD) who dropped me at the airport from the Hotel
CD : Hey buddy, how are you doin today ?
ME : Am good, and how about you ?
CD : Am doin jus wonderful, thank you very much. Had a good time in Las Vegas?
ME : Of course. This place really rocks.
CD : Believe me, this is the fastest growing economy in the United States.
CD : 7000 people migrate from other states every month.
Me : Really?
CD : $1 billion a month is what they make on just the casinos. You can imagine.

And this went on for a while till the airport. We were talking about the places I saw and could have seen.

CD : You have to come back to Las Vegas and if you do here’s my number.
CD : You have a safe journey back to your country.
ME : Thank you very much.

Conversation with the Taxi driver (TD) who dropped me at home from the airport
TD : * Silence *
ME : * Silence *
TD : * Silence *
ME : * More silence *
TD : * Still Silence*

After some agonizing moments of silence, I opened up. Of course not to recreate my earlier conversation.

ME : Intha signala left (left in this signal)
ME : Inga Right (right here)
ME : Inga U-Turn yedhuthu nirithikonga (Take a U-Turn and stop)
ME : Ainoorukku change irruka? (Do you have change for 500?)

Fascinated I was by the cab drivers who knew everything about the city to be tourist guides themselves. And they always kept the conversation lively. And did not squirm if there was no tip. The concept of a yapping yapping cab driver sure was a new experience. A sea of difference for what I have been used to in Chennai.

Is that why we have oceans between countries ?

I knew…

 

When I realized,
I say sidewalk instead of platform,
wallet instead of purse and,
cab instead of Taxi,
I knew I have arrived in the US of A.

When I realized,
I roll up my tongue to pronounce,
rigor, rare, rumor, razor, restore,
recur, refer and many more “r” words,
I knew I have arrived in the US of A.

When I realized,
I have beer before lunch,
and coke after that,
‘coz water is a preserved natural resource,
I knew I have arrived in the US of A.

When I realized,
the one who just whisked past,
with a big smile and a “hey buddy how are you doing today?”,
is a total stranger,
I knew I have arrived in the US of A.

When I realized,
I was shedding in the restroom,
and resting in the bedroom,
I knew I have arrived in the US of A.

When I realized,
there are two major money-making machines,
one that went by the name of slots,
and the other by the name sluts,
I knew I have arrived in the US of A.

When I realized,
in the kinda dress that women wear,
the top went as low as it could,
and the bottom went as high as possible,
I knew I have arrived in the US of A.

When I realized,
the one staring at me just inches away,
as I get ready to enter the alien country,
is a big beautiful belly button,
I knew I have arrived in the US of A.

P.S. Picture courtesy : Circuit-technology

Auto Blogography

Hi, am a scribbling pad and I have been surviving here for a month now. Somu, my official scribbler is going on vacation for a week. He claims he will be busy and would not find time for any sort of kirukkal.

Apparently, while he was scrawling today, I did manage to have a word with him and he assures he would be back with loads and loads of stuffs to doodle on me.

I wanted to tell everyone that this is just a temporary respite. My experience with Somu tells me that he would live up to his promise.

So, until he is back, I would be an empty space of junk. Upon his return, he would fill me with words and turn me to garbage. Gleefully when I told him all of you would give me company during his absence, he turned a little sad. I asked him why and he said,

HE WOULD MISS YOU ALL!

I have been booked…

 

…or should I say I have been tagged. What you see above is a section of my table. Apart from the books in the corner, there are few other carelessly strewn ones all across the room. That’s just to tell you I am not a big book buff, but I definitely like reading.

So here it is Aarthy tagger…
Anjali tagger, your questions have been answered too.

Total Number of Books I own
About 5. Naalum therinjuka naalu booku podhaadha ?

Total number of books given to others and never came back
Call me stingy, selfish or cheap, the answer is still NONE. I guess not giving knowing it would never come back, has more to do with my smartness than selfishness.

Total number of books flicked from others
I am more used to flicking pens. Currently using Yusuf’s pen. As for books, I ain’t a kleptomaniac.

Last Book I bought
Vairamuthu kavidhaigal
When I came back home, I realized the first 70 pages has only reviews and there are lot of poems am not able to understand :o(

Last Book I was gifted
Leave alone gifting, I don’t even rent. Is it not quite natural for others to reciprocate? The answer again is NONE.

Last Book I read
Da Vinci Code
Was a one night love affair. I held her in my hands all night and enjoyed her from page to page.

I am currently reading
GODFATHER
Am reading, reading and reading for a long time now. Godfather would have become Godgrandfather by now.

Five Books that mean a lot to me
1. Da vinci Code
2. Godfather
3. Angels and Daemons
4. The rule of four – Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason
5. Vairamuthu Kavidhaigal

Did I not tell you I own just 5? And so they mean a lot to me.

Just thought would add one more question to the list…

3 books I started reading, but never completed
1. The rule of four – Review paathu yemaandhutein
2. Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice – Hmmm never could go beyond few pages. The language just went over my head.
3. Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged – Simply loved the book. But somehow never went beyond 100 pages

This is for Anjali who has also booked me.. err tagged me.

Book that made zero sense to me
Hmmm… ahem… urghhh An Introduction to management Science, Quantitative approaches to decision making … heh heh !

The most treasured book
The one minute manager. Pretty neat stuff if you can follow what is preached in the book.

Who am I gonna tag ?
Smyta – Tit for tat
Sangeetha – Eye for an eye
Akshay – Dude, I know you would have lots to write
Sonal – Whispering solitude, I know you have books for company.
Gangadhar – Sorry dude, I took the liberty to put you through this.
Anand – I know you hate it

There is no compulsion for the tagged to feel they have been tagged or for the untagged to feel not tagged. Please use your discretion to put these details in your blogspot.

Me ? Eveteasing ?

I was waiting in an auto for the signal to turn green, when I saw her in the car next to me. I kept staring at her. She was beauty personified. A PYT in flesh and blood. But this is not what that caught my attention.

I continued staring at her. Longing for her Kadai Kan Paarvi (glance), I somehow wanted our eyes to meet. I tried waving at her, I tried screaming, all in vain.

I was still staring at her. “Just once, look at me please!”, I would have pleaded had she been within earshot. From red to amber the lights turned, and just when we were to move ahead, she turned towards me. The moment I was waiting for arrived.

When she realized I have been gaping at her audaciously, she turned red in her eyes, mumbled something in rage and went back to looking the other side. I had no time to react.

Shamelessly, I kept staring at her. I somehow wanted to warn her of her dress that was trapped in the car door.

Sigh!! Good intentions are never appreciated.

P.S. Aarthy, the book tag is on it’s way. I promise that it would be up by tomorrow.

Tough Stuff

I have always felt that it is lot easier to appreciate someone at work. But when it comes to throwing a brickbat, it’s a different ball game altogether.

I should not be hurting the other guy’s feelings. I should put it in such a way that it would make him realize his shortcomings. I have to enthuse him to get going and work towards improvisation. I should not be pointing fingers or blaming him. I should make it look more like a pep talk than a complaining session. And I should lend a helping hand.

Every time I take someone into the conference room for a little chat, I have to keep all the above in mind. Since I cannot predict his reaction, I can never be prepared for such sessions too. Today was yet another day when I had to enlighten a colleague of mine on where he is falling short and why he should start putting in more effort.

Another day! Another colleague! Another session! And I only hope I don’t say things that end up making them feel sore.

Suruk Naruk Kadhaigal

Who was the first individual to land on moon ?
Neil Armstrong.
Who was the umpteenth individual to do that?
God knows.

Who was the first to popularize quick tales?
Ammani.
Who was the umpteenth to follow suit.
Maybe that’s good ol me.

Love Affair
He likes holding onto her while talking.
Once in a while he unintentionally smacks her.
He realized its time he got a hands free for his mobile phone.

Job Shift
After his 17 year stint in this organization, he was contemplating a change of job.
After all, he was given a pink slip today.

The naked truth
He was running around stark naked.
All the college going girls were watching him without a blink.
They simply adore this 2-year-old kid.

True Love
He always went to bed after she slept.
He did not want his snore to disturb her.

Tagging Bragging

Needless to say, she t(oer)agz me and so this post. I call it bragging more so because this is about myself. I would also call it tagging ragging ;o)

Three Names I Go By :
Soms (Very few call me that)
Somu (Almost everyone calls me that)
Soma (people have stopped calling me that)

Three Screen Names :
Supersoma (My first ever screen name)
Netsup_somu (Official one. Netsup stands for network support)
Hi_there_howdy (Well, hi there, howdy?)

Three Physical Things You Like About Yourself:
Eyes (Illey na sight adikka mudiyaathey)
Legs (Not for any xxx appeal. Just that I hate being static)
Nails (well, why do you think I bite them so much)

Three Physical Things You Don’t Like About Yourself:
My Hair (So rough and never listens to my comb)
My tongue (It never knows when to keep quiet)
My Nose (My feet and nose have swapped their roles. While the former stinks, the latter runs)

Three Things That Scare Me :
Scary stuffs
Scary things and
Scary items

Three Things I Want To Do Badly Right Now:
Finish off my unfinished Godfather
Watch Friends (Borrwed some DVDs today)
Have my dinner (If I could upload audio, I would have posted a wav file of my stomach’s growl)

Three Careers I have considered/Am Considering Right Now:
Start a music band (I am learning Guitar just for this)
Teaching (I love the kind of audience that would pay me undivided attention)
Become a lyricist (Vairamuthu and Bryan Adams kalandhu seidha oru kalavai)

Three Places I Want To Go On A Vacation
Just three? Read my earlier post and you would realize I have seen just over three places in my life. Awww I wanna have more options here.

Three Kiddy Names I Like :
Shreya (niece)
Ajay (nephew)
Vikram (nephew)

Three Things To Do Before I Die :
Take one deep breath
Tell all my secret crushes that I loved them once
Bungee jumping

Total Number Of Films I Own On Dvd/Video:
Less than 10. I prefer borrowing and renting.

The last film I bought:
Look whose talking. Lol. Awesome movie. If only kids can talk, they would turn out to be more adorable, right ?

The last film I watched:
Thenali. Saw it yesterday.

Three Of Your Everyday Essentials:
Internet (Always need to be connected)
My Mobile (Always need to be networked)
AC (Can’t survive without it in Chennai)

Three Things You Are Wearing Right Now:
A wrist watch. Ooops. Just a watch. Lol !

Three People Who Have To Take This Quiz :
Just three again? Everyone is welcome to the world of bragging.

5 stupid things you did as a kid
I grew up physically. Wish I was still a kid.
I failed to grow up emotionally. People still ask me to grow up
Stole 50 paise for buying big fun

If you were granted 3 wishes..what would you ask for?
The most beautiful woman
A cruise in the Carribean with her
Three more wishes

Your most embarrassing moments…
My first proposal to a woman. It is embarrassing to go through a sense of rejection
When I went to college with a clean shaven, Salman khan look
When I was booed out of stage when I sang “Minnaley” during my 1st year in college

Name a celeb you have a crush on
Asin

On a deserted island, you would take Asin along?

Monday Morning News

 

End of a travel does not necessitate the beginning of another. But then, when I came back to work today, I had news waiting for me. I was born and brought up in Chennai and that’s where I have spent most of my 27 years of existence. Tirunelveli being my native place, I have been there couple of times.

Since I started working I managed to visit Delhi and Mumbai. And there you have, my travelogue. And that’s as elaborate as I can get. Today, for a frog in the well, news about an overseas travel came as a very very pleasant surprise. That meant my Visa which had been shelved for the last 6 months finds itself in limelight all of a sudden.

Sure am excited. I am going for a Cisco conference, and that means some ground work. I need to cover a Casino and the Grand Canyon in the 5 days I have. I need to make a shopping list for myself. My friends have already given me their’s and Vodka tops the list.

I have seen Sleepless in Seattle,
I have seen Philadelphia,
Now it’s time for Destination LAS VEGAS.
Only this time, it ain’t gonna be some Hollywood movie.

Phew ! Does leaving the country energize everyone like this?

A game of Cricket

 

Never knew a cricket match between us (MIITS – A team I am not part of) and Enterprise Solutions would force me into writing a post. Hmmmmm.

They were definitely the underdogs.
We were the favorites.

They started playing in the nets a week back.
We were prepared to play with no preparation.

They were saying, “It’s ok to lose”.
We were like, “Ha ha ha”

Defeat was written all over their body language.
We were all set to taste victory.

They were trouncing our bowlers.
We were happy to chase a big score.

And today,
They hit a massive 175 in 20 overs.
We were all out for 167.

We had good bowlers and batsmen.
They had the spirit, enthusiasm and fire in them.

My Contribution:
7 runs and a wicket.
My learnings:
Never underestimate your enemy.
Never be complacent.
Never brim with over confidence.

There is nothing that can inspire me more than my own words. I wrote this poem (Never say die) more than a year back, and I thought it fits today’s situation to a tee.

The first carving is never the sculpture in display.
The first draft is never the Novel published.
The first sketch is never the Painting that sold.
The first scribble is never the Poem in print.
The first brawl is never the battle won.
The first step is never the Everest conquered.
The first stride is never the Journey traveled.
The first effort is never the Mission accomplished.
The first attempt is never Triumph in hand.
Victory does not come at the very first go,
As someone said,
You have to fail your way to success.

P.S. Photo Courtesy : www.phys.unsw.edu.au