Kartik's journal

2005-05-08T18:09:00.000-07:00

test

Outta heeerre....

2004-12-03T13:09:00.000-08:00

Aight I apologize for doing this to you guys again...but I think I'm all blogged out for tonight...
Still on the menu for the future:

Mysore zoo
Mysore Temple
My 20th Bday bash!!
My visit to Prashanthi, Puttaparthi
The last 2 weeks of my life which have caused these serious delays in blog updates

This is what I have been looking like for the past 2 weeks...including now. I think I'm off to bed.

Tomorrow night I head out of Chennai to Mysore, spend some more good times there...
12th December its off to Kolkata to visit my other uncle. Also Suraj decided he's gonna show up in Kolkata when I'm there! Looking forward to chillin with u bro.

In the midst of all this, I shall try my best to keep this blog up to date atleast till Today, Demember 3rd 2004.

Later guys.

Happy Diwali!!

2004-12-03T11:41:00.000-08:00

Well for those of you who've read Rohit's blog, well he does a good job at explaining the background of Diwali and its significance to Hindus and to modern Indian culture. Since it is 1:30am and I've been blogging for the past hour non-stop, I'll skip the lecture and get straight to the pics.

This year I was fortunate enough to spend Diwali with close family..in India!! (my first Diwali in India since 1991...) Well Diwali in India basically means Lots of fireworks! Check it.

Kartik, his beloved grandma, and some fire crackers

Time to light em up....

And to stand back and watch....

I wish I could talk more but I think I'm all blogged out for tonight...

So until next time...enjoy.

The Mighty Elephants - Part II

2004-12-03T11:22:00.000-08:00

Yes, the most awaited seqel of the term. It's elephant time again...

However unlike Part I elephants, these ones dont try to trample you to death and are in fact nice enough to let u ride them.

Eaaasy there big fella

And how did I get up there you ask? Well its quite the procedure. Here's the breakdown.

Kaancheepuram laws of elephant riding

Axioms:

No ladders or step stools
No saddle

Procedure:

Have the elephant lift up its frot right foot to form a stool
Place left foot on elephant's front right foot
Place right foot on body of elephant. Yea, you can dig in, it doesn't feel a damn thing.
Using right foot as leverage, move left leg to the other side of elephant's torso.
You better have a damn flexible groin to straddle that thing.

Of course, after riding it, it is customary to accept its 'blessings' (i.e, sweat, saliva, salt, snot, trunk hair)

Elephants rule.

I wish I could take one back to the loo and ride it around Ring Road.

And have it bless me during exam time.

November 7th - Kaancheepuram

2004-12-03T10:35:00.000-08:00

Well November 7th, yes a month ago, I had a chance to visit India's "temple city". And today, a month later I'm here to tell you all about it.

Well Kaancheepuram is what the name says it is...a temple city. i.e lots of temples (duuh). Ahmed wasn't feeling to well this day so I headed out to Kaanch with my trusted buddy Raja. (yes the cockroach hunting legend, thats right, remember him?)

The outside of the bus to Kaancheepuram.

The inside of the bus to Kaancheepuram.

The bus ride there was quite the experience. We had to stand jam packed for 2 hours straight. Yes, I survived. I think my left arm was dying for some good blood circulation though...

Raja (left) with random auto driver (right)

Upon reaching Kaancheepuram, Raja was great at bargaining down a random auto driver.

After passing some fruit stalls...

Lunch time

Most delicious lunch I've ever had

Why? Well Eastern mystics say the natural life force in the banana leaf energizes the food with praana essential for spiritual health and well being. Thus making the food tastier and more nutritious.

Or it might have just been the sweaty palms of the dude who served me the rice with his hands....

After lunch it was time for some temples...

Complete with the standard ritual of kids playing cricket on temple backyards...some things never change...

Kaancheepuram cricket club: Captain Kartik with his boyz

After cricket, it was time for more temples...

For the unawares, pretty much ever temple in India will have atleast 15-20 stalls on the outside selling flowers...

And some enjoy having their picture taken...

The flower lady's kids...

The girl holding the baby called me UNCLE!! I FEEL SOO OLD!! I BEGGED her to call me "anna" (big brother in tamil) but she insisted on uncle. As usual, she had no idea what Canada was, so I had to retort to my not-so-favourite backup plan of telling ppl I'm from America. And after that she started calling me "AMERICA UNCLE".

Kill me now.

After shaking off the scarring effects of being called "America Uncle" it was time to recuperate with Dosas...

Twin towers...

Enjoyable stuff.

After that it was back to Chennai, back to routine. But of course, I am forgetting one "tiny" detail, which shall be elaborated upon in the next post...stay tuned folks.

Hello all

2004-12-03T10:13:00.000-08:00

Hello dear FAITHFUL blog readers,

Yes, you are indeed faithful. You should be proud of yourselves. To all of you who still take time out of your busy lives to check out this poor blog, thank you for sticking with me through the thick and thin (literally). So here's giving ya'll the customary WHAT UP!
Oh dear lord its been ages since we caught up! Well there have been several reasons contributing to my hiatus, but fear not! To quote some song I cant remember the artist to now "i'm back and i'm better than ever!"

So sit back and enjoy the Life of Kartik during the month of November, 2004. It's unfortunate that I have to share a months worth of stories and pics in one night of massive blogging, but I hope you enjoy the brief albeit eventful entries coming up....

Enjoy November stories....

Off to Prashanthi...

2004-11-19T03:46:00.000-08:00

Friday evening.
In less than an hour I'll be off on my 4 day vacation/pilgrimage/break/exile to Prashanthi Nilayam (Abode of Highest Peace), Puttaparthi, Andhra Pradesh.
I know this blog is seriously behind, still trying to catch up with November 7th's visit to Kaancheepuram and my 5 day Diwali weekend. Hopefully will be able to fill in with some MASSIVE updates when I get back on Wednesday ;)

Until then, enjoy.

A thrilling trailer...

2004-11-17T13:10:00.000-08:00

Dear Lord, my blog is SOOOOOO behind.

Haha, I started this blog so I have somewhere to make a note of happening events, etc during this unique work term experience in India...just so I can keep my sporadic memories intact. Now it seems like I'll need to use the blog as a scratch pad so I won't forget what to talk about in future blog posts! haha, talk about bloggers karma. Anyways, this also helps ya'll salivate over whats coming round the corner...

So on the menu for future blog posts are:

Visit to Kancheepuram, India's oldest and largest Dravidian Temples
A visit to hand woven saree factory
A bareback elephant ride!
My 5 day Diwali weekend at Mysore
Mysore zoo
My 20th Bday bash!

You know I guess this kills a little bit of the surprise factor, but I had to say something...just to show that yea I'm still alive and kicking in this ghetto of T-Nad.

Until then,

Try to enjoy. haha

It's Diwali eve...

2004-11-10T03:35:00.000-08:00

It’s Diwali.

The festival of lights.

Somehow I’m not in the most festive of moods. Lately, I’ve been having quite the roller-coaster of moods. And no, it has nothing to do with India’s miserable series loss…hehe. On a side note, they actually managed to pull out a win in the last Test so we can give those boys some (albeit undeserving) credit.
On a personal level, I feel Chennai has really worn out its welcome on me. Every last remaining spark of that initial “I’M IN CHENNAI!!” excitement has fizzled to oblivion. A lot of things about this city have been frustrating, some which I have mentioned in previous posts, others which I’d rather not discuss.
Recent happenings have done nothing to cheer me up either. Honestly, as funny as it sounds, I’ve been extremely disappointed at the election results. So great, we can all enjoy 4 more years of a nazi cowboy ruling the world with the world’s most powerful military as his personal toy gun. Well tried Kerry, big props for standing up for all of us. But sometimes things just don’t go our way.
On a brighter note I did get a chance to go to Kaancheepuram this past weekend. That has been a sole shining bright spot in my otherwise dull recent past. It was a beautiful experience to say the least. And instead of this down and dull blog post, you guys would be enjoying pictures of India’s most famous temples (and their elephants) right now. If not for what happened last night.
I got home late from work (work pressures) at 11pm…after a bite to eat I grab my camera and walk off to the local inet café…well to share my pictures with all of you! And the regular inet café with the USB ports is closed. (It has a sign which says “24 hour internet” in bold letters and “closed” in fine print). No, that normally funny sign did not cheer me up. I went to the other internet café next door…which too had USB ports for my cam…but then the desk dude tells me I’m not allowed to connect my camera for ‘security reasons’. However, there are no security firewalls to regulate internet traffic. You South Indians amuse me yet again, this time for the wrong reasons.
Anyways, I’ll be sure to share Kaancheepuram stories and other recent POSITIVE happenings at a later date…when I can grab a hold of that elusive USB port by the throat.
My moods have been scaring me as of late. Today I snapped at a poor auto driver. Ahmed and myself missed the morning bus yet again for the umpteenth time. We caught an auto to work. Before getting into the auto, the driver and I had come up with a 150 rs deal. Which is still over paying for the distance we were traveling, but really, I was in no mood for diplomacy. Upon arriving in Ambattur at the office, I handed the auto driver a 100, so did Ahmed. The auto driver promptly returns 30 rupees in change. He gives me a sheepish smile and says ‘Sir, it was a long distance. That’s why’. I FLIPPED. I gave him more than a peace of my mind, in the least polite tamil I could muster. I think I scared the dude, who was half my size (despite me not having been to the gym in a month). He meekly hands me 10 rs more and drives off. I think I called him a thief as he drove off. I felt justified at the time…I mean if he did really want 170 rs in the first place, he shouldn’t be agreeing to 150! I absolutely HATE IT when auto drivers don’t tell you how much they want initially, and then bitch about wanting 50 rupees more after they drop you off. And this time, there was no whining on his part, just blatant robbery. Sorry auto dude, but you picked the wrong morning to mess with the wrong guy.
Upon reflection, I really felt scared and confused. Scared at how I could have lost so much control. And especially over a few rupees with a poor auto guy. I wish I see him again sometime, I’d be the first to apologize and treat him to a dosa and a cup of filter coffee.
All in all I don’t mean to sound like I’m complaining about India or me being here. India is beautiful. Chennai is not.

I need to start meditating again. Where have I lost myself?

Anyways I really don’t want to bore you with my sob stories. I am EAGERLY looking forward to my upcoming 5 day Diwali weekend. I leave tonight, Wednesday to beautiful Mysore and I’m back in this sorry excuse of a city Tuesday morning. Should be a great break from the Chennai woes.
So to all my family, friends, friends of friends, 40 cent fans and random readers who found me on a google search have a VERY HAPPY DIWALI.

Spread the peace and love to all. Smile always.

Enjoy.

Midweek thoughts...

2004-11-03T01:24:00.000-08:00

First off, my previous post, MOTIVATING the Indian team did jack squat. India lost miserably by some 10 billion runs…
So that's it boyz in blue, you guys don’t get any more well wishes from me! And to protest your atrocious form, I am NOT going to purchase any of the DVDs I’m holding in that pic (until my next stipend arrives…:P)
On brighter notes, I just spent the last weekend at Mysore. Visiting Bhaskar Mama, Vasanthi Mami, Vidya and Vivek after so long was simply AWESOME. And I got to ride Vidya’s scooter all over town all weekend! Yes, I was slightly rash, yes I did almost crash into a van in the train station parking lot, yes I did get pulled over by a cop who was highly impressed with my ALBERTA license (surprise surprise), but despite all that it was an absolute blast! Thanks a lot Vidya! Looking forward to some more Mysore road rash on Diwali weekend…
So Sunday night, I left Mysore on the “Chennai Express”. The ‘express’ lived up to its name with its ‘punctual’ arrival in Chennai on Monday morning. Btw, ‘punctual’ in India means 2 hours late. So I ended up getting into work at noon. O well, I did enjoy the extra sleep on the train…I’m really starting to love those sleeper trains.
By the way, Happy Belated Bday Ahmed! Yea, yesterday, Nov 2nd was his birthday…and he tells me at 8:30 pm last night. O well, we’ll be doing some celebrating this weekend…it seems like a visit to the amusement park (Chennai’s Wonderland?), buffet dinner at a 5 star and watching the latest NRI flick “Flavors” is on the card for Friday and Saturday. Sunday, it’s off to Kaancheepuram for some temple visitin, elephant watching and saree shopping.
And SPEAKING of Nov 2nd…how could I forget…HAPPY 25TH ANNA! Yes, it has been confirmed, The Great Galati is now officially a cougar (when was it ever ‘unofficial’?). Heh, no worries Anna, I’ll catch up soon. In fact, I shouldn’t be talking, it’s only a matter of a couple of weeks before Kartik enters his TWENTIES? Dear Lord, I feel so old even typing this…
Heh, I was gonna write something sentimental looking back at my glorious teenage memory lane and have ya’ll fantasize cheesy, inspirational music playing the background, but I guess I’ll save that for after my Birthday.

Still proudly a teenager,

40.

Later guys.

Aaj Jeetna Hai

2004-10-29T01:22:00.000-07:00

India is in trouble.
Well, the nation is too. But more specifically, the beloved and overhyped cricket team.
As I type this, India have conceeded a lead of over 500 runs and are teetering after dropping 5 quick wickets. Decorated names like Tendulkar, Laxman and Dravid are back indoors after proving that they are nothing more than just that. Decoration. Fluff. No substance.

Here's sending out some much needed well wishes and inspiration to India's cricket team. Remember, regardless of what the critics say, regardless of the fact that even if your entire nation of 1 billion turn their back on you...rest assured...That this one lonely Canadian tourist shown in the pic below always has your back.

Aaj jeetna hai. Aaj.

Best of luck guys. May the (rain) gods be with you.

Marina Beach

2004-10-27T21:34:00.000-07:00

So after a fairly lackluster Saturday night, there were great expectations for Sunday. If there's one place you can trust to throw a wild party 24/7, it's Marina beach. And we weren't too disappointed with the guest list either!

First off, welcoming the Party Guest of Honour, Rajni Anna himself

As Ahmed gets cosy with Shahrukh....sorry Nim, Ahmed beat you to it!

And then there's always time to spare for Ash...

This is the closest Ahmed has been to a girl since getting to Chennai...yea I know I know...look who's talking...:P

But eventually the Man of the Party award definetly went to Sachin Tendulkar

Inspired by meeting Sachin, I decided to fine tune my batting...

Stand and deliver

You know, I guess that wraps up the long weekend then!

Summary:

Beautiful 2 hr scenic bus ride down the coast
Speed boating accross a Pondicherry lake
Watched a man catch fish with his bare hands
Narrowly escaped being trampled to death by a raging elephant
Had authentic French food in India!
Pulled an allnighter
Went to an empty night club
Met Rajni, Ash, Kareena, SRK and Sachin on the beach

Yea I'd say it was a pretty successful weekend :)

Man's Eternal Quest: To find the party YAAR!

2004-10-27T05:27:00.000-07:00

Soo.....to continue my long weekend update...

Friday night:
After dinner at a nice French restaurant in Pondicherry, it was time to board the bus back to Chennai. Left Pondy around 10pm...arrived in Chennai at around 1am. After spending the remainder of the night and Saturday early morning at the local internet cafe (dont ask me why), finally got home at 7am. Right in time for the morning serving of Chennai tap water!
After a well deserved and thoroughly enjoyable shower, slept all day...woke up at 6pm, Saturday evening. Aaaah, fond memories of Waterloo all nighters, not to mention my 8 month work from home term in Calgary...

Saturday:
After spending all of Saturday in bed, there was one mission and one mission only on Saturday night. That was, to answer the following question:

The answer: Dublin club, Park Shereton.

Although in our quest for a party, we never forgot this one axiom of life.

That's right kids, Devdas never drove.

Side thought: I wonder what would have happened had Devdas owned an auto rickshaw. Speeding away to Paro's palace during his final moments in India's most trustworthy vehicle...would it have altered the ending? I'm sure the movie would have been instantly launched from superhit to classic.

Anyways, as ya'll ponder Devdas' alternate future...let me continue.

Unfortunately Saturday night turned out to be a repeat of our Bangalore disaster. 'Free entry' until 10pm...750rs cover charge after 10. You gotta be kidding me. No way I'm sacrificing my whole term's worth of lunch money on one lousy night. We ended up heading back home that night...hoping the eternal quest would be fulfilled on Sunday...

Sunday's update coming up soon...stay tuned!

THE MIGHTY ELEPHANT

2004-10-27T02:23:00.000-07:00

So while we're in Pondicherry, sometime during the middle of our eventful day, we heard of a good nearby Ganesh Temple. So we check it out. Fair enough. Although...as we approached thet temple....we heard a rhythmic thunder behind us...

THUMP.....THUMP.....THUMP.....THUMP.....THUMP.....

That don't faze me.

Listen buddy, you mind slowing down a little so I can run up in front of you and get a shot of that mug?

This was His reply:

Ima squash you like a bug and not even know it

THERE WAS NO ZOOM FOR THIS PICTURE.

I don't think He exactly understood the concept of posing for a picture. I had to run up in front of Him, take the picture (wait the customary 2 seconds for my flash to wind up) and LEAP out of the way before He could trample me on the streets of Pondicherry. You see Ahmed walking up behind Him to ready to pick up my remains.
Look at all the trouble I go through, putting my life on the line to grab a few entertaining snaps for you guys...(...sigh...)

Anyways, He didn't allow the fact that He had almost killed a young Canadian tourist to bother Him too much. He strolled away and took His routine post at the temple porch.

People quickly gathered around, to feed him bananas and waiting to have Him touch their foreheads with His trunk as a sign of blessing, gratitude, I like the smell of human hair, etc.

Now that He was busy feeding He didn't seem to bothered at this potrait snap.

Say Cheeeeese

He still fails to grasp the concept of 'looking at the camera' while getting his picture taken.

Finally He was kind enough to allow me a picture with Him. What a prima donna.

It was then time to bid farewell to our beloved elephant...

I'll end this post here, since I find it necessary to honour the elephant with His own Blog Post.

Lot more long weekend stories coming up soon!

The Pond

2004-10-26T01:24:00.000-07:00

Thursday night:

Kartik: Hey we're not doing much this long weekend...what a waste
Ahmed: Yea....Hey, let's go to Pondicherry...that French town!
Kartik: Freeal...good call man. Lemme ask Raja the details. Raja, how do we get to Pondicherry?
Raja: Pondicherry?? Did not good!
Ahmed: Umm...what's there to see there?
Raja: NOTHING! Pondicherry waste!
(exit Raja)
Ahmed: Ok we're going to Pondicherry
Kartik: Aight

And that's how it went down. Before we know it, we're up at 7 in the morning off to the bus depot.

Friday:

Nothing like a great sign at the bus depot to brighten your morning:

Yes I will take a seat.
It pleases me that your goal in life is my convenience and my convenience only.
Aaawwww....I care about you too...
And I am very happy and comfortable, thank you for your concern
Clearly I am very satisfied since I am here telling the world about it.

Anyways, after shaking off the effects of that mezmerizing sign, we boarded the bus to Pondicherry:

It was a beautiful ride. Called the "East Coast Road" (ECR). Entire 2 hours of highway along the beach. Sitting right next to the open door, we didn't miss our AC either.

Finally arrived in Pondicherry. Now Pondicherry is famous for a lot of things. It's spirituality, beaches, fine wine and French food. We decided to have our share of the former first.

Churches

Aurobindo's 'Auroville' Ashram.

After a relaxing morning at the Auroville Ashram, we decided to take a speed boat down one of the lakes...I forget what it was called. Lot's of scenery and greenery ofcourse, but the one thing that caught my eye was this:

Catching fish with his bare hands! MUCH respect. I'm sure the ladies love him for it ;)

After an exhilarating speed boat ride, there was always time to chiiiill by the beach and stare off into space...

Great way to wind down after a long day of bus rides, boat rides, auto rides and non-stop walking.

Oh I think there was one smaaaall tiny detail I might have missed here...but I think that deserves a post of its own...stay tuned? Yea that's what I thought.

Return of the Kartik

2004-10-25T22:44:00.000-07:00

BACK!

I know, I know, long time no update eh? I think I've been spending a lot of time telling takling about what we HAVEN'T been doing. For a while it seemed things weren't going too great....we missed the Chennai test 2 weeks ago, and then due to our poor planning were all set to be stuck in Chennai this past long weekend. Well now I can certainly trust things to work themeselves out beacuse the past weekend turned out to be a lot more exciting than we were expecting.
Well let's start off with an update on what HAS been happening...
Well first off, little flashback. After MUCH deliberation and after a 6 weeks, we finally received our first stipend!

Ahmed is delighted. He couldn't stop counting it over and over. We satisfied ourselves by pretending those were US dollar bills.

Raja too was excited about our stipends. In fact so much so, that his blade slipped and he ended up shaving his thick majestic moustache.

YOU SHAVE DID NOT GOOD!

Haha, for those of you who haven't heard, that's exactly what Raja told me when I shaved off my moustache. Look who's moustachless now!

Yea that's what I thought, I bet you had my moustache now don't you Raja.

Now that I was rich and handsome again with my cash my 'stache and Ahmed too was....well...rich (jk) we headed off on our adventures.

Stay tuned!

Chennai Test Match!

2004-10-20T03:23:00.000-07:00

Aright, something all of you have been dying to hear about...my experience at the India vs Australia Test match at Chennai!
Ok for the unawares, a test match is exactly what the name implies. It is the highest, purest and most challenging form of the great sport we call Cricket. It is the most physically, mentally and emotionally tasking 5 days in the life of a professional athlete. Add to that, 11 such athletes from Australia and 11...umm...."athletes" from India decided to compete nowhere else but in the 50 degrees Celcius humidity of everyone's favourite city, Chennai. This contest took place from Thursday October 14th to Monday October 18th. While these cricketers were sweating it out at the stadium, this writer was just a mere 30 min drive away, sitting in a gloomy TCS cubicle staring over screens and more screens...(yea ya'll get the idea...). Here's how it went down:

Thursday October 14th: I'm at work. Kumble bowls Australia out on the first day

Friday October 15th: I'm at work again. Sehwag scores a century. Warne gets his world record. Props to both. Ahmed and I promise ourselves to catch Day 3 or Day 4 at the stadium.

Saturday October 16th: We both sleep in. It's a Saturday...we needed a break from all those screen designs! So we decide to skip the match for that day and catch Day 4 the next day. I ask Raja if he wants to accompany us and he gives us a "OH YES SIR! KANDEEPA!" (yes sir, definetly!) Ok. That's cool. He also informed me of black ticks he can hook us up with. Great! We wasted all of Saturday doing random things (coming up in future posts...). Saturday night comes along... and we completely forget about the match and go to the late showing of 'Bride and Prejudice'. Good movie btw. Cheesy songs. Anyways.

Sunday October 17th: Being the religious cricket fan that I am (:P), I wake up at 7 am. On a Sunday. No alarm clock. Ha, I wish I could do that on a weekday...lol. Anyways...Ahmed's still asleep...due to last night's movie...So I walk accross the hall to ask Raja when we can leave for the stadium. Raja informs me that his cousin is in da house...and that's why he can't come to the match. He then introduces me to his cousin. No idea what buddy's name was. I decide to wait and see if Ahmed is going to get up any time soon so we can leave for the match. I ask Raja for the ticks and Raja said he forgot to get them from his friend. Suuuuuuuuuure Raja suuuuuuuuuuuuure u did.

9:00 am:
Chepauk Stadium: Damien Martyn and Jason Gillespie continue their battle.
Krishna Towers: Kartik intently switches on the 11 inch TV while Ahmed enjoys his sleep.

10:00 am:
Chepauk Stadium: Martyn and Gillespie are still fighting.
Krishna Towers: Kartik is pacing about restlessly as Ahmed continues to enjoy his sleep.

11:00 am:
Chepauk Stadium: Martyn scores a century.
Krishna Towers: Kartik finally walks over to wake Ahmed up.

At this time we decide it's already lunch time at the stadium...and a bit too late to get ticks...

Meh. Ya we missed it. I forget what we ended up doing on Sunday...again...that's for another post. O well, at least Sunday night, I could sleep with the peace that India would secure a win the following day. Monday it was back to work.

Monday October 18th: Chennai is flooded. I had no umbrella. I get into work looking like I just took a shower in my dress shirt. The rain gods decided to splurge all their savings from the last 5 years of drought. Thanks rain gods...but you could have waited one more day!! Thanks for ruining the match! (not to mention my crisp cotton shirt...)

So that was it. I hope you enjoyed the commentary of my life as the classic unfolded less than 10 km away from place.

Summary: No test match for us. And it was a draw anyways.

haha.

Some 'back to Chennai' thoughts

2004-10-19T03:29:00.000-07:00

I really need to fix up the beauty of this beast. Ha, I like the sound of that...
But seriously, this blog really isn't at its asthetic best. It's ironic...cuz all I've been doing at work is designing and re-designing and watching Ahmed re-design my designs of screens, screens and oh yea, more screens. And occasionally for a change, they ask us to do some screen designing. It's quite tiring really. I think it's blunted all of my rich disposal of artistic talent. To the point that...even if I need to get my damn profile to show up where it should....aaah! I can't do it!
Haha, not that I "can't", just that I can't stand 're-designing' another screen...anyway, ya'll get the idea.
So yea, forgive the very unsexy appearance of this blog. And if anyone wants to volunteer to give this shit a makeover, please be my guest.
On that note,
hmmmmmmm....ya so another long weekend coming up...It's Dassera!! YEAH!! lol. Anyway, I personally am not the type to jump up and down for joy on Dassera eve, but I am the type to enjoy a good long weekend. Now where to...that's the question.
There's several options...trying to work out some plans with them Hyderabad boys...we'll see how it goes. Haha, it's already Tuesday and still no plans...yup, well..that pretty much sums up the general attitude of this India trip...atleast for myself and Ahmed.
I guess that's why, instead of getting great pics of forts, palaces and historic monuments, ya'll get an overdose of fast food places and bus rides.
No worries, we promise you some good reading material next week.

Bangalore Part 4

2004-10-14T11:23:00.000-07:00

Bangalore by night:

This was it. Our great night out into the Bangalore nightlife! Now Bangalore is a city known for its nightlife...So you might even say..this was the purpose of our trip?
But before that we decided to catch some dinner.

real ass gangstas

wannabe hindi movie stars

After dinner, we headed out to da cluubs? I don't think so! Apparently all clubs in Bangalore either close at 11pm or if they are open late, it's couple entry only. Well I guess we were too tired to find 4 girls...since after some brief club hunting we called it a night.
O well boys, no worries...next time!

And then Sunday I got to check out this mall, Forum:

Very impressive. Better than anything Chennai has to offer...even the GREAT SPENCER PLAZA. The prices were impressive too haha...:P. I decided to save my shopping for Chennai...the malls may not be as great...but the prices sure beat Bangalores!

Anyways, then Sunday night it was time to head back to Chennai....

Good bye Bangalore....you'll be missed :(

So overall, great weekend, great memories and great to be out of Chennai! (and take a shower whenever I feel like it! haha)
O well, its back to reality. Back to Tamilstan. Back to TCS.

Later guys.

Bangalore Part 3

2004-10-14T11:08:00.000-07:00

Places:

Our first stop was at a Shiva temple. Oh my god, let me just let the pics do the talking here.

OMG I just have one word to say. BEAUTIFUL. I honestly cannot describe how it is to behold that Ganesh and Shiva in person. It was really something out of the ordinary.
I'd put this on par with the Taj Mahal...in terms of must see places of India. Simply magnificent!

Then ofcourse, where there's a temple, there's a store selling idols:

Amma, this time I picked up something for you! :)

After the temple we decided to check out a local mall...Kempe Fort (is that the name? I forget...) o well. It was cool. And we met Laurel and Hardy!

We then dropped by a local coffee shop. Why u ask? Well, to catch our breath, cool down, grab some ice cream and watch Rahul Dravid and Irfan Pathan go down fighting (which was happening just down the street from us btw...).

Finally, The Rock has come back to Bangalooore! And Rohit and Louis seem very confused at the whole situation...
I think Louis was trying to figure out the rules of cricket...perhaps wondering why that blonde guy was screaming everytime he threw the ball. Well that's Shane Warne trying to get his world record back dammit!

Anyways, as we were chilling at the coffee shop, friendly Steve Bucknor down the street decided to call it a night. So we waltzed down...down to Chinnaswamy stadium...and watched all 20,000 poor Indian fans stream out with long faces. Well that should teach you to root Aussie next time!

Call me a fanatic but I didn't miss this opportunity!

We then checked out the local ISKCON/Hare Krishna ashram. Too bad they didn't allow cameras inside....but my goodness, it almost matched the Shiva temple in beauty! Rohit and myself took a tour around, as Ahmed and Louis kept watch on our stuff outside.
It was then getting pretty dark...as we headed back home to get ready for our NIGHT OUT IN BANGALORE!

Stay tuned...

Bangalore Part 2

2004-10-14T10:55:00.000-07:00

The abode:

Ahmed and myself were frantically searching for a hotel/inn/lodge/cow shed to spend one night in Bangalore. Just one night. And guess what Rohit and Louis do...they hook us up with a FREE TCS GUEST HOUSE. And what a guest house it was!

Big pimpin indeed. Sincere thanks to the Hyderabad TCS admin secratary.

The ride:

But enough admiring our free 5 star accomodation...its time to explore the city! Let's get an auto! Hmmm....but there's 4 of us...how did we manage? Don't ask me that.

But we're having a great time in the auto!

Until Louis decides to sit on my lap...

Louis, that shit wasn't cool. I don't swing that way bro...;)

Anyways, Louis finally decided he'd had enough of my lap and life was good again...

We then checked out some amazing places. Stay tuned for more...

Bangalore Part 1

2004-10-14T10:12:00.000-07:00

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Aight, finally. The big BANGAALOOORE update all ya'll been waiting for. Didn't you just love the anticipation?
Anyways....Honestly, sooo much went down...that I'm having trouble recollecting myself! I hope I don't miss out some details. Well, assuming that I can recollect everything...I think throwing all of that in one post will be a little 'bloring' (sorry for the REALLY BAD PUN).

While you poor readers recover from the effects of the killer pun, lemme get started here.

The journey:

So myself and Ahmed (actually from now on in this blog ahmed = mohd = mohammed, in case u get confused) head out to Bangalore for the weekend to meet up with Rohit and Louis who got there from Hyderabad. The plan: To chill, explore and basically get out of our cities for a change! So we go to catch the Friday overnight sleeper train to Bangalore (thanks B.S Uncle for the ticket hookup!).

I remember I used to love those as a kid! The whole deal, climbing up the ladder, squeezing into that upper berth, playing UNO accross the cabin, dropping idly's to monkeys, everything.

Unfortunately none of that happened. We carried no UNO cards. We had no idly's. And we went AC, so the windows were shut down and there were no monkeys :( And I realized.....I'm too tall for that damn thing! It's like outgrowing childhood...I can't even properly enjoy the simple joys of a sleeper train....

Well, I did finally end up falling asleep (and draining my lower limbs of all blood) and finally reached bangalore...cramped, sore, yet satisfied.

Bangalore Central station...the wee hours of dawn.

Anyways...after that we meet up with Rohit and Louis at the train station. And we head off on our adventures! Stay tuned...

puttin' the BANG back in BANGALORE!

2004-10-10T03:33:00.000-07:00

whooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

aight

Had such a crazy busy week at work...forgot the mention one teeeny weeeny detail....

I'm in Bangalore this weekend!

Aight, I'll hit back with TONS of pics and stories....when I get back to Chennai.....

Bangalore is beautiful. In ALL ways.

I guess one has to go back to Chennai sometime.....:(

Where's my profile?

2004-10-05T22:19:00.000-07:00

hmmm
wonder why my profile shows up at the bottom right, instead of at the top of this page...

Any suggestions?

Kartik?? What an Indian name for a Canadian!

2004-10-05T03:36:00.000-07:00

While I’m on my phase of completely random blog updates, let me share something which has been quite puzzling, amusing and annoying to me over my stay here. The locals here seem completely out of it when it comes to understanding the concept of people of Indian origin, settling in Canada and other western nations. Here’s my opening introductory sentence to many and the various responses I have garnered, and some of my counter responses

Me: “Hi, my name is Kartik Venkateswaran. I’m a student from Canada”

Responses:
(This is not a conversation, just a random collection of responses):

Were you on deportation in Canada?
No, I am a Canadian citizen. I am here in India on an internship

So are you came to visit your parents in India?
No, parents are also settled in Canada

Kartik? You are Canadian, yet you have a very Indian name!
(me, thinking) Yes dude, not everyone there is named Joe or Mark

You are Canadian? You don’t look Caucasian at all!!
(again, me thinking) Yea cuz everyone in Canada is Caucasian.
(My response) Um...my parents were born in India
(Thick Indian accent almost expressing utter shock) So ya’ll are settled abroad???
(‘ya’ll’ in the fobby way, not the hip hop way)

You are a Canadian and you speak tamil? I didn’t know Tamil was a language in Canada!
(me thinking) no comments here. Just give this dude a polite smile.

This is however is the greatest response I’ve heard…it actually broke into this conversation. It was with a security guard outside a temple:

Me: Can I take photos here? (in tamil)
Guard: Where are you from? (in tamil…he seemed like a very grumpy, anti-social kinda guy)
Me: From Canada.
Guard: (starts speaking in Kannada to me….no idea wtf he said)
Me: Excuse me? (in English)
Guard: You said you are Kannada (in English)
Me: No, no, CANADA
Guard: Appadi na? (English: what does that mean?)
Me: Canada, near America
Guard: YOU ARE FROM AMERICA??!!??!! (eyes brightened, huge grin floods his face as he feels privileged to have the honor of meeting an American in person)
Me: (rolling my eyes)…yes yes, I am American…
Guard: Yes sir, please take as many pictures as you want! (continues holding a big grin as he watches a real life American take pictures of his native land)

Oh and here's one more:

What College are you from?
University of Waterloo...in Canada
Waterloo...where is that?
It's a small town near Toronto
Toronto...that is in Canada?
Yes it is
Where?
In the Eastern side...
Hmmmmmmmmmmm (still looking confused as hell, yet smiling and pretending to know where Toronto is)
(I thought I'd help the guy out with this:) Toronto is near New York
OH! YOU ARE FROM NEAR NEW YORK! WOW!

That's when I decided that the conversation was over and politely excused myself.

You Indians amuse me with your thirst for the U.S of A. Please, continue wearing those I LOVE NY shirts…now whether you’ve been to NY or not is irrelevant…but I can see that you truly do love it.
Ya'll gotta learn to keep it raw. Love your homeland and spread the peace.

haha

slim arms, bulky waist....hmmm perhaps vice versa ideally?

2004-10-05T02:07:00.000-07:00

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

I really should be working.......I'm still a little feverish....and I'm just flat out am TIRED of programming. No, I don't want to see another line of ASP for the rest of my life :)

So I've spent pretty much the whole day here, pretending to be busy as usual and randomly contemplating several aspects of my life. I feel I'm more conscious of the direction my life is taking me in now...I mean, usually, I'm the type to lay back and enjoy the roller coaster. Now I find myself 'observing the route' so to speak.
Somehow in the middle of all this, I've realized frustrated I am with my day in day out South Indian diet. I've been consuming nothing but truckloads of idly, vadai, dosai, upma, ven pongal, lemon rice, tamarind rice (100% carbs for all meals of the day) and sambhar, rasam and other 'dishes' which are nothing more than flavoured salted hot water. Which was GREAT!! (the first 2 days). You know, for most of South India being 'vegetarian', I don't see a whole lot of vitamins and minerals in this traditional diet. Forgive me if I'm expecting too much, but all I ask for are regular servings of vareity fresh fruit and vegetable, lots of yoghurt (yea...gotta substitute that whey somehow) and some healthy carbs. Considering my current diet, I'd be better off with raw bread and a bottle of Aquafina. Atleast that way I'dbe maintaining my 100% carb diet while skipping out on the excessive fried dishes, oils, spices and salts. LOL.
I often hear vegetarians across the globe preaching the benifits of such a diet. For the most part I agree. However, please inform me as to how a 60% carbohydrate, 40% salt diet consists of a healthy balanced diet. Not to mention the vast amounts of complex carbs consumed even during dinner...the magic behind the classic "South Indian physique".
Anyways, my point is.
I found a really entertaining article, discussing this issue. It's an enjoyable read, and it reminds me how grateful I should be for my blender and my endless supply of fruit, milk and whey protein back home.

Check it out

2004-10-04T23:05:00.000-07:00

You have to go through every barrier

You have to battle every obstacle

You have to push every limit

To achieve that perfect rhythm, that consistency, that extra...that puts a 100% into every moment.

For then, you can see....

There is no barrier

There is no obstacle

And there is no limit.

Peace to all

Down and out

2004-10-04T02:30:00.001-07:00

Fever.

Stomach aches.

Sinus head aches.

Yea that describes the last 24 hours of my life.

It all began yesterday....I had such a good time with all things Indian, temples, cows, etc....that I decided to go all out. At an authentic South Indian restaurant...Saravana Bhavan.

Yea, that's it. Don't ask me what that is above...just remind me never to eat it again. Also, remind me to stick to my familiar Chinese and fast food joints.

So yea, that brings me to the here and now. And while I should be at the office now pretending to be busy, I'm here in this lonely internet cafe...down and out.

O btw. Forgot to mention....I had apparently brought my CD binder here!!! MOVIES AND MUSIC!!! YES YES YES YES YES.
Now why would I have brought those only and not my laptop is beyond me...But no worries! With my CD's and Mohammed's laptop, we're unstoppable! Thank you dear back up CD's I made while reformatting my laptop 4 months ago.

So I've spent pretty much the whole day lying around in bed...catching up with my long lost homeboys 50, Slim, Obie and Dre. Fine fine, I missed you too Jay-Z.

Aight I'm out. Gotta get back to my rap. OOOH how much I've missed thee.

Yeh mera India....I love my India...Watan mera India...ok I'll stop singing now

2004-10-04T02:02:00.000-07:00

hehe, some of you have informed me that this blog isnt "Indian enough". With all the fast food joints, nice restaurants, luxury buses, etc.
Well fear not, for today I got a truckload of all the great things that make my India beautiful. Complete with ancient temples, cows eating garbage, kids playing cricket in the middle of a main road and much much more.
Anyways, pictures do speak louder than words, so this is when I stop and let the pics do the talking. Enjoy!

Of course, when the adults are inside the temples performing their rituals....the kids are outside practicing their own rituals:

Complete with "wicketkeepers", "slip fielders" and ofcourse the rear tyre of a bicycle for the wickets. That batsman was really good btw. And he was also fascinated with my camera. Well son, I was fascinated with your cover drive. We're even.

Anna this is where you'll be staying when you get here. See they already named it after you! LOL

Some random endorsements/movie posters:

For the unawares, thats Saurav Ganguly and Kamal Hassan respectively. AND SPEAKING OF KAMAL HASAN. OMG!! OMG!! OMG!!

K I went to this bookstore yesterday with my buddy Veenu (loong time family friend). So I'm skimming around the books, checking out them Amar Chitra Kathas...Veenu goes off and does his own thing....When we're leaving the bookstore Veenu looks at me and goes "hey u know who Kamal Hassan is?". and I'm like "of course!! why?". Veenu casually goes "Yea cuz he's in the store right now...".

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why didn't you get me?? We coulda got our picture with him!
Apparently Veenu was too busy cellphoning his friends and telling them he's standing next to Kamal Hassan himself. and APPARENTLY he was with a lady...(he just got divorced btw so go figure). That's great tabloid material right there. Veenu, you and I could be millionaires now exposing Kamal's personal life....
Hehe no worries Veenu, we'll catch him some other time...I'm sure of that.

But o well, if not Kamal, I certainly did get my picture with the true superstars of Chennai. The legendary cows:

I think this one pic encompasses everything that represents South India. It's got the complete package, cow eating trash, an autorickshaw, Sachin Tendulkar getting his endorsement on (I dont know if its really visible in this pic...try to find it) and man with lungi tied as miniskirt with a dirty towel slung over his shoulder.
Good times indeed!

Big Mac?

2004-10-02T08:20:00.000-07:00

Recently we got the chance to check out a local fast food joint Marry Brown. For those of you haven't heard of it, its basically just another Burger King/Macdonalds/Harveys. But we were pretty excited to see such a joint in Chennai so we got some pics.

That's right, representin'

They have this thing at the exit. You're supposed to "HONK IF YOU'RE SATISFIED" as you can see from the pic.

Apparently Mohammed is fairly satisfied:

I, too, am pretty satisfied

In fact, I was soo satisfied that I thought the man behind the magic must be brought into the picture. The great man to the right is the force behind the run of the mill burgers and fries here. As usual after the picture, he gave me a customary "Thank you sir". Come on, stop calling me sir! haha. I guess I just look like a sir to them.

7:30 'bus' ride and bikini fans

2004-10-02T07:28:00.000-07:00

hmmmmm
yea we usually are able to catch the 6:15pm charter bus from work...It's the same "luxury coach" you see in that previous pic from way back.
But 2 days ago, when mohd and myself were all set to leave work at 6:10, our boss holds a meeting. At 6:10. Don't ask me why. So then, we were forced to catch the 7:30 pm bus.
This one is not nearly as comfortable as the bigger 6:15 one. In fact, it's nothing more than a 8 seater minivan which manages to squeeze in 15 sweaty TCS employees for a 90 minute ride. One good thing was that we got to take a sneak pic of cricket superstar Virender Sehwag. Guy is pretty hardworking he always stays back till 7:30.

But anyways, after Sehwag, we decided to make superstars of ourselves.

This is Chennai's 2 most eligible bachelors looking better than ever.

Then we decided to get the number 3, 4 and 5 most eligible bachelors in Chennai. Come on, give these guys a break, they got their own charm going. LOL.

Haha while we're on the topic of random pics I got a little story. For those of you who've read Mohammed's blog ya'll know this already. It's not really my story. But basically, the gist of what I've heard from Mohammed is that he walked into Raja's apartment one day and saw him and his 2 lackeys watching bikini models on tv. and as soon as they saw Mohd they JUMPED UP and pretended to be busy. haha.

Here are the 2 bikini loving lackeys.

Sir, we weren't watching those bad girls in small dress.

Haha, anyways....Damn a LOT has happened last few days...I got some more pics coming up. But perhaps at a later time...

Hope you've enjoyed this latest set though!

TCS cricket superstars

2004-10-02T07:16:00.000-07:00

No jokes, but Indian opening batsman Virender Sehwag works at my office. I managed to get a picture of him on the bus. Check it out.

hmmmmmmm actually in person he looks a LOT like sehwag....from this angle he's got a little bitta Shoaib Akhtar in him too...

All you cricket fanatics let me know. Shoaib or Sehwag? I'll be tallying up the votes...:P

Muscles, fruits and other random thoughts

2004-10-02T06:31:00.000-07:00

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

What up. Guys, looong time no update. By long time of course I mean 3 days....but what a 3 days its been...

First of, let's start you guys off on some good news...I got my gym membership!! (3 cheers for my yet-to-bulge muscles!)
Maaaaaaaaan, I cannot even begin to describe how sexy this gym is. Like I had mentioned in an earlier post, its got it all. Foam padded dumbells, brand new equipment, spotless benches, clean showers (24 hr water not to mention...)...Aah i can keep talking all day about it. Unfortunately no cameras allowed in the gym...:( so I guess I can never share with the world this bodybuilders paradise which puts every Gold's accross the world to shame.
Anyway....dont expect me to come back looking like Arnold...I still need to get my nutrition in order...(wherefore art thou whey protein!!!)
With all due respect to all the idlies, vadas and dosas accross Chennai, that stuff aint growing me any muscle soon.

Speaking of nutrition, most of you know there's nothing I love more than a mixed fruit milkshake....with a little bit of whey as bonus, but let's not get too ambitious here in Chennai. However even mixed milk shakes seem to be a very foreign concept here...
I was recently at a local restaurant (dont ask me Indian or Chinese...all of the above) and asked what milkshakes they have...

Me: What milkshakes do you have?
Waiter: Sir, we have apple, chikku, pineapple and banana
Me: Mango?
Waiter: No sir, sorry no mango
Me: But it says so on the menu
(thinking) And stop calling me sir
Waiter: No sir, we don't have it
Me: Well then don't place it on your menu
Waiter: (slightly embarrassed) Well sorry sir, I'll let the manager know about that...
Me: Aight are the milkshakes with fresh fruits?
Waiter: Yes
Me: Could I have a mixed shake then?
Waiter: No sir we dont mix fruits
Me: Why not? Can't you throw a little bit of apple, little bitta pineapple, little bitta chikku and blend that shit up?
Waiter: No sir
Me: (thinking) that's my staple diet dammit! What's wrong with you south indians!
hmmmm well could you put a little bit of every fruit and blend it up?
Waiter: Ok let me ask the manager if that is allowed
Me: (thinking) allowed?? ALLOWED?
hmmm ok
Waiter goes and asks the manager....5 mins later comes back and goes 'sir, we dont have any milk'.

Well thank you for wasting my time.

Finally I managed to convinced him to give me a mixed fruit juice.

Here's a shot of Mohammed with the waiter:

haha, actually right after all this, he probably guessed I wasn't from India. I mean, what kind of idiot would actually want a MIXED fruit juice right?

So then he finally asked and found out that Mohammed and myself were from Canada (dammit Mohammed fob it up! your Canadian accent blows our cover!...haha jk)
Immediately he asked me to get a job for him there! He said he wants 'any small job in any small restaurant anywhere in the world'. He seemed very genuine...and then proceeded to talk about his family history, etc...it was really touching. no jokes. I really wish I could do something to help buddy out. I know there's nothing I can do...hehe, go to a MacDonalds and ask them to provide airfare and a visa for their new burger flipper from Chennai? I don't think so.
But you know, this really put things in perspective for me...We talk about service and charity, its not merely about a few rupees there to the beggars and a few sandwiches to shelters. We as Canadians are vested with sooo much opportunity and ability, it's almost our responsibility to see that the less fortunate can stand on their own feet become productive members of society. I take back that 'almost'. I mean, it IS our responsibilty.
Anyway enough cheesy inspirational talk. If I can get buddy to come work at the UW plaza subway, it'll be for all the free subs he'll hook me up with. lol. jk.

Aight guys, I got a lot more stories and random thoughts, but I'll save them for the next post...

Enjoy!

haha

2004-09-29T05:00:00.000-07:00

lol, earlier I had the title of my previous posting as "girls in salwar kameez"...
And then I found that the comments page for that posting was blocked by TCS Admin. The other comments pages worked fine...
I thought it was some run of the mill technical problem...but it still puzzled me as to why the comments for the other postings were fine.
I then changed the posting title to "food" and the comments page loaded fine...

oooo k....

Then I tried changing the title to just "girls". And this time the comments page was once again blocked by TCS Admin.

Aight I get it...I can't say "girls" in my posting heading.

TCS, you guys never cease to amuse me.

Thoughts, events and some chutney on the side

2004-09-28T21:42:00.000-07:00

I think girls look taller in salwar kameez...
Yea its like...on Fridays, casual day, they change into jeans and T's and I'm like 'whoa, where did all the shorties come from?'

Anyways.

On that random note.

I got up late today...so skipped Raja's breakfast. Had breakfast in office canteen. This time I decided to go all out! No more jam and butter toast and omlette...
Yea, bring on the idly, vada, rava dosa, ven pongal, upma and chutney baby!!

It was ennnnn-joyable. You know I've been in Chennai for almost a month now and today was the first day I had an Idly here...(yea i know its pathetic :))

Lookin forward to that unlimited helping of sambhar and rasam at lunch....mmmmmmmmmm.....just think of AAALLL the muscle building protein I'm consuming in these meals...:P

Aah o well...protein or no protein...I think I'm developing more and more love and respect for South Indian food now.

I do miss my whey shakes though...:(

Some more pics...

2004-09-27T02:22:00.000-07:00

I got some more random pics...This is in no particular order or anything...I just thought I'd slap them here...

First of all some pics of my first weekend here in Chennai. This is an ancient temple site Mahabhalipuram. About an hour drive south of Chennai city.

Thats me on the bus ride to work...thinking...dear lord, why is this bus so slow?

And this is why:

Random shot of me enjoying my noodles...at one of them Indian/Chinese places (i.e any restaurant here)

Last but CERTAINLY not least:

Raja the Caretaker - Legend of the Cockroach Hunter

Damn that'll make a great title and poster for a horror tamil movie.

Anyways,

Hope you've enjoyed this latest set of pics!

IIT adventures

2004-09-27T01:56:00.000-07:00

Soooo....
end of my 4th weekend here....beginning of my 4th week! Time has really flown by.
And what a weekend it was.
Well Friday night, mohammed and myself did something we've been promising ourselves for a long long time. That's right, gym hunting! And we found a BEAUTIFUL one just 15 min walk from our place. It's called "Maverick fitness" (I'm loving these names btw). But the gym itself....OH it was amazing.
It had the full suite going, central AC, foam padded dumbells, state of the art shiny, smooth machinery (unlike those 100 year old rusty ones at the PAC)...it had everything. Simply stunning.
But MOST importantly....it had showers. With 24 hours of water! Damn, I think I'll get a membership just for that reason alone.

But then we didn't get a membership just yet. We wanted to check out the IIT gym facilities....see how that goes, and then get our comparison on.

So then we headed out...on our adventure to the great Indian Institute of Technology.

You know I've heard ppl call UW the 'IIT of Canada'. But this right here is the real deal. The Real IIT. And it was going to be amazing. Or so we thought....

Well first of all we had no freaking clue how huge the campus was! It's 5 km length and width!
Upon entering it feels like some sort of national park. We saw no faculty buildings, no libraries, nothing. All we found initially at the "Institute of Technology" was plenty of:

monkeys

and

deer

and

temples.

But after almost 2 hours of walking in the middle of this wilderness, we finally found some faculty buildings.

This is their equivalent of our SLC. Nice building.

So the actual 'campus' part of the campus wasnt bad at all. It was really impressive. I'm still puzzled about the 3 km of national park area at the entrance of the campus though....

So then 4 hours later we FINALLY get to what we started out searching for. The IIT gym. Now where do all those mad engineers work out?
Anyways, the gym itself wasn't too impressive. So now we decided to head home. had no intention of walking back to the main gate in the heat of the afternoon at 45 deg C. Heck it took us 4 hours just to get from the Main gate to the gym...

So we look frantically for autos to get us out of this jungle. And we finally found one.

I'm pretty excited to finally find an autorickshaw!

Mohammed too is pretty excited to finally find an autorickshaw!

So that was our day. Our adventures at the Indian Institute of Technology. We found a lot of things today at this institute....and techonlogy was not one of them...:P.

jk, IIT still rocks.

Free Anonymous Comments!

2004-09-24T10:25:00.000-07:00

K really should explore the features of this blog more! I just realized I switch the commenting to anonymous....

So free comments from now all ppl! no registration!

More blogs!

2004-09-24T03:27:00.000-07:00

As most of you well know already, Mohammed and myself are the 2 Waterloo coops in TCS Chennai this term. Our buddies and fellow Waterloo coops, Louis and Rohit, are in TCS Hyderabad. If you're ever left wondering what the other waterloo coops think of their India experience (or if you're simply bored) ya'll can check out their blogs here:

Mohammed
Rohit
Louis

On a side note, I'll try to post more pics up more often. I know u enjoy them :)

The Unexplained: TCS Canteen prices

2004-09-24T01:55:00.000-07:00

Let's see...
long time no update..

You know there is one thing. It's been puzzling me for a long time. It is a very paranormal phenomenon. It boggles the vast horizons of the human mind. Yes, it's the TCS canteen prices. Here, check it out:

Option 1: 'Special Chappatti'
- 2 very normal unspecial chapattis
- 2 servings of curry
Price: 12 rupees

Option 2: 'Thali'
- 2 very normal unspecial chapattis (in fact, served from the same tray as the one used for the 'Special Chappatti' meal)
- 2 servings of curry (yes, the same curries used for the 'Special Chappatti' meal)
- 1 bowl of rice
- 1 cup of yoghurt
- 1 papad/aplaam
- Unlimited helpings of sambhar and rasam
Price: 10 rupees.

Yea, you read correct. That's 12 rupees and 10 rupees respectively.

If anyone out there has an explanation for this phenomenon please enlighten me.

Top 5 list of recent events...

2004-09-22T01:05:00.000-07:00

5. Well we actually started doing some work at work today! (yea took them 2 weeks to set up Visual Studio.NET...oh well, we're back in business!)

4. Our A/C in the room is busted. So we have to sleep in 35 degrees Celcius. It's not too pleasant to be polite.

3. We had a fat 2 inch cockroach in our bathroom recently. Thankfully Raja, the caretaker....well....did what he does best. He took care of it. By took care I mean

chased it until it hid in the flush tank
opened the flush tank and poured insecticide on it from an old Sprite bottle.
Picked it up and tossed it out the 7th floor balcony.

Ooooh I shudder to think what poor soul that thing landed on.

2. AUSTRALIA ELIMINATED!!

1. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm I still got a whole lot more pics that I'll upload this weekend when I got time.

cricket thoughts

2004-09-19T22:23:00.000-07:00

oh and India lost and got eliminated from the Chammpions Trophy, did i forget to mention. The rain gods were clearly not on India's side....or they were just taking a well deserved nap after all the rain they were generously donating for earlier matches.

Well for now as long as Australia loses I'll be satisfied.

Hmmmmmmmmmm sooooooooo

back to work?

ya i think so too.

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

2004-09-19T22:10:00.000-07:00

u know i should seriously think about putting up these pics on my own site somewhere....
i'm just too lazy to write my own html...
this is sad. after all my talk of .NET i am unable to make a simple html website for my pictures.

oh and i can't seem to find a good host who'll give me unlimited free space.

until then enjoy the sony imagestation...

aaargh.

k i should start doing some work now....

makeshift solution to pics problem

2004-09-19T22:02:00.000-07:00

k its not the greatest solution. but here:

PICTURES

still thinking of better ways though...this is not a good sign for a computer engineer...:P

i really wish upload speeds were better here. and i wish i had more space on my uwaterloo account.

heck i really wish a lot of things so lets leave it at that.

try and enjoy the pics...

there'll be more coming soon....and probably in a slightly better fashion

2004-09-19T01:54:00.000-07:00

Aight let's seeeeee.....
well i'm waiting for pics to upload...I've got a ton so far but I'm only putting up a few...upload speeds are really slow....So 17 out of my infinite collection is taking almost an hour...k we'll wait, no worries.
Meanwhile let's see...oh, caught a movie yesterday! Phir Milenge. It was not bad...Salman Khan didn't have much of a role in it though (for ALL you Bollywood buffs out there....i.e Srijeet lol jk). On a funny note, Mohammed likes to say the movie name with a french accent (like 'fur milaaaaanggge'). Enjoyable.
Before that though we caught lunch at this place near the theater (you know I would be specifying what kind of food....but heck...it seems like all upper middle class places here have the same 3 subsets to their entree section "Tandoori", "South Indian" and "Chinese". So it's anyones guess as to what kind of place. By 'upper middle class' I mean any place with A/C. We aren't exactly on the prowl for 5 star restaurants. I had this biryani....and it was dissapointingly very blaaand. Like boiled rice with some cashews thrown in for fun. So after the movie, went to catch dinner later on at another place. Now I was pretty dissapointed with the tasteless lunch...so I decided to get a little daring....

Note to self: Never ASK for SPICY at an INDIAN RESTAURANT especially when IN INDIA.

Yup. That was me. And yes, I suffered the consequences. Suicide curry noodles it was.

Yea that was pretty much my Saturday. Aight, Now Ima wait for these pics (or 'snaps' as they are called here) to upload and then gear up for some Sourav vs Inzy.

May the better team win (i.e please let it rain so India doesn't embarrass itself again)

Aight I'm out. Enjoy!

no pics..........................aaaargh

2004-09-19T01:44:00.000-07:00

Aight I uploaded all the pics onto Sony Imagestation and now I find out you gotta be a member.....I hate this.

So ya, on the prowl for a better pics server.

I'm too lazy to do it here on the blog or create my own page perhaps on the uwaterloo accout....but I might have to resort to that.

So ya, this may take a while. maybe not today guys....

power outtage and other updates

2004-09-17T01:59:00.000-07:00

Aight guys, I think this has gotta start being less freestyle battles and more India news and events. lol. Damn, I'm really really really missing my gangsta rap. Actually you know what, I'm really really missing my Hindi love songs too. And I'm IN India dammit. Hey, I got all love and respect for tamil music...but please...let me hear something I can actually understand. I think it's growing on me though...yesterday in the bus I caught myself bobbing my head to some hot RajniKanth tunes.
About pictures and videos...guys please be patient...I've really been trying hard to upload some pics, it's just that I can't seem to find a decent internet cafe with USB ports. Last night, my buddy Mohammed (the other student from Waterloo) told me he located one close to our place...so pics should be coming up this weekend...Yes...you can all hold your breath till then.
I haven't really updated this with meaningful news in a while (no, battling mcjb doesn't count...) and a lot has been going down (as usual)
We got home 2 days ago from work to find the power out in our building. So myself and Mohammed decide to take a walk around the area...I mean, who wants to climb to the 7th floor by stairs to sit in a non air conditioned room at 35 degrees C. So we're waltzing along, checking out store by store, and the power starts going out there too. So we keep walking (it was almost like walking by something, and the power goes out...and like there's darkness everywhere behind us and lights ahead). It was a pretty cool experience actually.
So we finally made it to this kinda upper middle class restaurant. Now, nicer restaurants and shops here got back up generators, so atleast we could sit indoors in the cool a/c. Then, courtesy demands, so we ordered some food too. The place was supposed to be a Kerela place, specializing in Kerela seafood. But one thing I notice about upper class restaurants here is that, regardless of what they specialize in, they all serve chinese food! Even the Punjabi place from a couple days ago had a 'Chinese' section in the menu. It's quite amusing. Well I wasn't really feeling the seafood (waiter described the fish curry as a whole fish, dipped in a spicy sauce. Mohammed asked whether you can see the eyes of the fish and dude said "Yes sir, of course you can". Yeeeaa....since we really wanna look our food in the eye). So I settled for something more Waterloo....good old Noodles.
You know, after all this sweat and tears spicy Sambhar and Rasam and Avial and whatnot at office canteen I really miss Nimita's instant bowl noodles. That shit was bland and tasteless, yet soo good, especially during finals. Looking forward to more of those next term.

Hmmmmmmmmm

Btw, my road crossing skills are really getting sharper by the day! And on that note, I'm really getting quite used to life here on all fronts. Nothing seems to faze me no more. Almost getting killed everyday....whatever. No running water to use? No problem. Exotic insects? Oh there's a rhinoceros beetle and a vampire wasp right here on my keyboard. And I think that's a black widow sitting on my monitor, although it could just be a baby tarantula. I think I saw the mommy earlier on....Meh. It's like my initial excitement is slowly fading....it's still a lot of fun don't get me wrong, it's just not electrifying as the first few days were. That's probably why my updates are getting slower....but fear not dear readers, this weekend will be an eventful one!

Saturday: (deep breath....) Pictures are coming up!
Sunday: Well Ima lock myself indoors while Shoaib Akhtar blazes through those kids dressed in blue. It's INDIA VS PAKISTAN BABAYY!!

Aight, that's all I got to say about that. Hit me back with some posts ppl!
(I know......... you gotta register..........and it takes soooooooo long to do that.......lol, jk. )

So until next time, enjoy!

Reply to 'mcjb'

2004-09-17T01:56:00.000-07:00

Well I would sincerely like to thank my fellow hip hop artist mcjb for his comments and feedback. Ya’ll can check it out below. But:

Jb, don’t think I wont hit you cuz I’m popular,
You never know the rhymes that I got for ya,
I can load up ma nine and can pop at ya,
My clips loaded with 16 shots for ya,
This kid is raw, the name's 40
Always surrounded by the flyest a shorties
Now I got my space at the top and got this rap shit locked,
And I never heard of you,
I’ll murder you till you turn absurd to view,
Then I’ll hurl this whole earth at you
So mcjb, thanks for the info,
But youzza phony mofo.

haha

-40

Bumper rickshaws and indoor jungles!

2004-09-13T10:07:00.000-07:00

Holy...there's been some noteworthy events the last 24 hours.
First of all, last night, I was coming back from my friend's place...took a good old trustworthy auto rickshaw...While we were waiting at an intersection, I looked to my right and i saw another auto rickshaw SPEEEEDING down straight at us! Now those of you who've been in one, ya'll know its them no doors kinda vehicle...it's hard do describe unless you've seen one.
So anyways, this auto is speeding down at us....and all of a sudden, he takes a sudden left turn...
The entire auto rickshaw flipped over on its side and skidded on the road! Like 4 feet in front of me! It was insane to watch! The rickshaw driver just popped his head out from the side (which was now facing up) and looked around puzzled...he seemed like this sort of thing happens everyday....(probably does...) 4 guys from the side of the street JUMPED the auto and pulled it back straight. Those things really are light for a motor vehicle...and the auto driver, who 5 seconds ago had been in what I'd consider a pretty major road accident, simply started up his rickshaw and drove off!! Highly impressive! Props auto-wala!
You know, this sort of thing really shouldn't faze me no more. Seriously. I've been here for a week and I'm already used to it....near death experience crossing the road? No problem! I've actually developed a strategy to crossing these jungle roads. Just follow a local. The locals here are frikkin champions. They find the smallest gaps in traffic and ZIP accross....like they're froggy or something. So my strategy is, just follow them...closely....hold their hand if you want....cuz here's the kicker...if you get killed, so will they. So atleast you got someone to chat with on your plane ride to the afterlife.
Anyways...being outdoors is a jungle...but surely I must be safe and sound inside my office building right? WRONG. Ok, today at work....I was talking to my boss...and I saw a HUGE DRAGON FLY zipping accross....checking out cubicle by cubicle. It freaked the shit out me! It started flying at me...and I started running away....literally running....inside the office building. I looked around the room and no one else even seemed to notice it. Some ppl looked at it nonchalantly and seemed bored by it and continued coding. One mothef***er glanced up when it landed on his cubicle, and casually swatted at it as if he were VVS Laxman dropping another catch. Damn, I was thinking whats wrong with these ppl?? It's a frikkin dragon fly! My boss noticed all this and simply chuckled...and waited for me to return to his desk so we could carry on with business.
Well, then came home from work, and went out to dinner to this Punjabi place. Good food, good music, good atmosphere, good ppl, it was fun. Relaxing. One small funny note, when we got in, I noticed our table only had pepper. No salt. Then we noticed every table only had one shaker...I assumed everyone had pepper, and they don't have salt shakers...k fine. Then the table next to us called the waiter and asked for pepper...the waiter proceeded to grab the pepper from our table (while we were in the midst of eating) and place it on the next table. Hehe, so i get it, the tables on this side only get pepper, and that side only gets salt! K, I dig it. Must be something superstitious...lol.
Yea...thats pretty much it for the stories for today....
You know, I've been here for a week now...and today I found out that I'll be here at the place I'm at for the next three months (They'd promised we'll be moving in a week or so).
So great. No running water for 3 months. 40's down with that.
So now that I sorta have a permanent place, I've really gotten into a good routine...like i wake up at 6:30 am with no alarm clock, things like that.
Now I just need to locate a frikkin gym here. I need to re-invoke that 180 lb monster hiding somewhere within my feeble 150 lb frame....This time maybe we'll give the monster some abs. Let's see how that goes.

Aight guys, until next time, enjoy!

2004-09-13T03:57:00.000-07:00

lol, it posted 2wice...o well

Random freestyle (due to boredom at work)

2004-09-13T03:54:00.001-07:00

You say that I’m foolish and only talk about jewels
Do you foos read my views or do u just skim through?
I’m that kid 40, from the ghetto you ruined,
Same dude who made it through and through
Getting screwed by a tight noose in Waterloo
Shove a shoe in their tight boots, and it might still be loose
So thats the word, from Tamil Nadu
What up

-40

Random freestyle (due to boredom at work)

2004-09-13T03:54:00.000-07:00

2004-09-12T06:23:00.000-07:00

Thanks Nimita for the comment down below. Rest of you, check it out. This is what I have to say about it. First of all, sure India isn’t covered in snow like Canada…but it always prides itself on being frikkin peninsula…India has ocean water on 3 sides (unlike nations like Pakistan and Bangladesh who have very little access to the ocean). Besides, more than half of the southern part of the nation has 6 months of monsoon. With all their strong textbook civil and mechanical engineering knowledge, they can EASILY (trust me) build proper distillation and irrigation systems. It’s not that hard. I mean, you talk of Canada being covered in snow as an excuse, let me remind you of desert nations like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait who don’t even see a drop of rain. I don’t see water shortages in those countries. I know, they have oil money…but then again, Indians are enjoying quite a high standard of living these days. And yes, the tech industry is flourishing well. I would consider myself in a position of knowledge since, well, I am working for the largest IT company in India. And yes I do agree that technical textbook knowledge wise Indians are far superior to us North Americans (making a general statement of course).
But speaking of booming IT industry and being a ‘tech leader’, I don’t see any point in advancing those industries when the basic infrastructure is in dire straights.
Dear Manmohan Singh, first provide everyone with 24 hr water supply, 24 hr electricity supply, a decent education for ALL Indian children regardless of caste/religion, eliminate corruption from your government, then we can talk about your Tech Industry…LOL.
And ya, on a personal note, even if I did bring my laptop here and install wireless, I don’t think the building I’m living in currently is wireless enabled…I’d have to go to a wireless enabled inet café…So why bother bringing the laptop in the first place?

Shopping in India

2004-09-11T19:59:00.000-07:00

Hmmm
One thing I forgot to describe before is how hilarious the clothes shopping experience is in India. It’s like they're soo desparate to make a sale. First of all, clothing stores in India are quite different. They only have a few samples hanging outside, and the rest of the real goods are folded up in a back room. You need to ask for something, and they go back and get it for you. But that’s not the good part. The good part is that the second you walk into a store and ask for one thing, they pull out EVERYTHING from the back and lay it on the table. Then they proceed to advertise each shirt individually as if you’re going to buy all of them. Then when you walk out without buying anything, they beg and plead u to stop and buy something...and then they slash the prices hardcore. This is the best bargain tactic…just walk out of the store, guaranteed atleast 25% reduction. Then when u still walk out they need to fold up EVERYTHING and put it back inside. It’s hilarious. Poor guys. Sometimes its fun to just walk into a store, let them lay everything out then walk out casually and watch them try and fold up their entire inventory and put it back inside. Yea I know, its mean…but hell, I don’t know when I’ll be in India next…might as well enjoy these little moments, u know what I mean.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm k, that’s about all I got for now.

Until next time, enjoy!

More random news and thoughts

2004-09-11T09:04:00.000-07:00

I think I was felt up by a dude today.
Seriously.
I was in the local convenience store…innocently going about my business…and when I was paying for my Frooti Mango juice, I felt a hand on my back…ok I don’t wanna get too graphic…but seriously, guy was a foot shorter than me! With a fat ass moustache though…
I’ve heard of freaky brown men in Toronto hotels, but I really didn’t see this coming (umm…..no pun intended?)
I turned around and looked at him like WTF dude? And he looked back and smiled!
Anyways.
On that disturbing note…
Other random news…
I finally got to catch some cricket today! Door Darshan started showing the ICC champions trophy matches…caught the India/Kenya bout today…it was quite enjoyable…Ganguly made 90…Anyway, enough cricket news…
Then I caught an auto rickshaw to head over to a family friends place. You know one thing I notice now in India is the serious lack of beggars…It’s really impressive…even the really ghetto ppl are out there, doing some sort of business (fixing shoes, selling pani puri, whatever) and earning an honest living. I don’t know if this is just Chennai or all of India, but it’s a great sign for the future of MY NATION (LOL). Good job India!
Anyway, I got some good video footage while riding the rickshaw so you guys can enjoy an exciting POV rickshaw simulator ride! (That is once I find a way to upload these pics and vids…I still need to find a good internet café with a USB port I can use for my camera…)
Speaking of internet…to answer Edmond’s question as to why I don’t have internet at home…well, I only get running tap water for 2 hours a day…so my lack of internet should be self explanotary.
That makes me contemplate you know, as Canadians, we really take our stuff for granted…in huge ways…I feel like I’ve realized a lot about how I need to be more thankful for the lifestyle that I do lead…it’s amazing…it’s really such an eye opening experience to come and live in a totally diffferent environment, and to learn and adapt, it’s good times really. I know I’ll be looking back fondly on these ghetto days.
I really feel so lucky in my life you know, firstly that I get the opportunity to travel far away from Calgary to Waterloo…on a regular basis…and now that I’m getting the opportunity to travel around so much at my age…It’s really wonderful. It’s like everything in my life is falling into place…aah, life is beautiful. Enjoyable stuff.
ANYWAYS.
Before I turn this journal into a diary, lemme jet.

So until next time, enjoy!

random thoughts on Chennai life....

2004-09-10T21:55:00.000-07:00

Aight lets see…post 2 from Chennai…
It’s been a whole week already since I got here and what a week its been! Seriously, I always figured coming to India would be exciting but its been quite an adventure already…
First of all just getting up in the morning and showering seems to be quite a task…as I mentioned before we only get running water from 6 am to 8 am in the mornings…and some time in the evening too...tips to live by in Chennai….don’t sleep in past 8 am….or u wont be taking a shower (and trust me that’s a BAD thing in these tropical parts)
But u know what I discovered today? Apparently the laundry and the kitchen on my floor gets 24 hour water supply! However, the bathrooms don’t. I asked the caretaker about it and he just laughed at me…what a dude.... I don’t understand these South Indians….so they enjoy clean clothes, they enjoy clean cooking utensils, but they don’t enjoy being clean themselves…
So after getting up and successfully showering before 8 am…treading outside the ‘guest house’ is quite the experience. Merely walking on the sidewalk (if u can call it that) is like some sort of jungle expedition. Seriously, I knew India was bad on traffic rules, but I never anticipated such utter disdain for all forms of traffic laws…It’s so funny, every intersection actually has a traffic ‘cop’ standing, and he spends 90% of his time trying to save himself from being run over…let alone administrating and directing traffic...
Perhaps I shoulda brought my 40 hat here and try and cross the street like I do in Waterloo…naa I’d be road kill even before I can raise my 4 finger hand signal. Seriously, I think everyday in this week I’ve almost been killed like 3 times, each day…I’m getting quite used to it now.
In the midst of all this, I got to check out a mall here…it wasn’t too bad at all! In fact, it looked like your average Canadian mall…which is quite a compliment to the conditions everywhere else…Saw this store selling only Eminem merchandize…It had like big T shirts of Slim hanging outside…I got excited and walked in and asked if they had any G-unit merchandize…I don’t think the guy seemed to know what G-Unit was…But he did show me a T shirt with Eminem and a certain “Mr.Dre”…LOLLL…I love this pirated shit here…with all the typos, etc…Now if only I can find me a pirated G-Unit shirt, perhaps with a typo so the 50 is actually a……hmm…….lets see…..40! How cool would that be…
You know one thing I do notice here in Chennai is the SERIOUS lack of Bollywood…On TV there’s like 90 channels…here’s the breakdown…2 Hindi channels, 2 English channels (playing 90’s pop), ZERO Sports channels and 86 Tami channels! What the hell do ppl do with 86 channels showing 86 different Tamil movies at the same time?
I mean come on, I’m in India and I’m suffering serious starvation of the 2 things that define India, Bollywood and Cricket…Not enjoying Chennai culture that’s for sure…
Speaking of Chennai culture, shits still pretty conservative here…like a guy would rather stand the whole of a bus ride than sit on that empty seat next a girl…there’s not much flirtation going on in the office that’s for sure…things like that…I don’t know, culturally, it hasn’t changed much at all since the last time I was here, at least here in Chennai…
Hmmmm……that’s about it for my random shpeel of the day…there’s some more stories…perhaps I’ll describe in the next posting…

So until next time, enjoy!

First update in Chennai!

2004-09-09T06:21:00.000-07:00

What up,

Well I’ve been in Chennai for almost a week now…yet this is only my first journal entry…and it’s been quite the adventure so far I must say!
Got here Saturday early morning…and got to my “Tata Consultancy Services Guest House”. Yea I must say I wasn’t too impressed…Here’s a little bit about my place here.
We only get running water for 2 hrs in the morning and for an hour in the evening! It’s quite ghetto actually, even for someone from the hood like 40 cent…but heck, 40’s not gonna sit here and complain…I’m enjoying this experience while it lasts!
I was pretty excited to see that we have a TV in the guest house…and then was VERY UNIMPRESSED to find out we don’t get any sports channels! You know what that means….yea NO CRICKET! What’s the point of being in India??

Anyways, apart from all that the work at TCS has been alright. The office is actually really nice. You know, since I’ve been here for a week there’s so much that’s been going down…I can’t really organize my thoughts right now… but I’ll post random updates here and there and fill in more details!
I know, I’m not really good at the journal thing…and I’m sure I can’t match Rahul’s already legendary diary…but I’ll try my best to keep you guys entertained!
Aight, until next time, enjoy!