A test of Patience

I know(and you too will know after reading this post) that the above image has not much connection with the post. Still, couldn't resist posting it. Anyways, imagine the below situation:
You are late to the office by 10 minutes. Still, you go directly to some end-user to sort out the problem which he reported the previous day. You solve it and he gets a call from someone and then informs you that a top guy in the company had some problem and insist you to visit him too. You go there(still you didn't even switch-on your desktop) and he's typing some mail and asks you to wait. He didn't offer you a seat and you can't sit before he offers you the seat as he's the big boss. Every two minutes, he looks at you and says "I'm sorry" for which you have smile like Miss World and he gets back into typing his mail.
After 20 long minutes(when your legs start paining and when you get those imaginary itches in your pants and you are forbidden to scratch in front of him), he looks at you, just like Amitabh Bachchan used to look at the contestants in "Kaun Banega Crorepati" when they answered the final question correctly, and says you can go ahead. But what the hell can you do if you don't know what the problem is? So you ask him what's the issue and he tells something completely irrelevant to you. What will you think at that time?
I faced the same situation today morning. By the time I reached my cubicle, I was one whole hour late.

Image Courtesy: Cartoon Stock

Love Link Tag

Ceedy n Veena tagged me with this tag. But believe me, I couldn't understand a bit of the tag. All you have to do is add ur name to the last of the list and pass on the tag to others.

The love-link tag.The Love-link Tag is another of those Linky Love game where you only have to tag 10 person in one post but still there is no actual limit (you can tag more if you want!).

Once tagged, you have to copy paste the link in this post, and make them grow!Do not delete any of the links and be honest to yourself!copy paste the link in this post, and make them grow!

BennyLiew, RamblingMoo, Mum & Kids In Wonderland, Judelittle, Our mini blogsphere, Rooms in My Heart, http://janiceng.blogspot.com/, ChinNee, Jo-N, LadyJava's Lounge, Strange but True, Mariuca's Perfume Gallery,Meet Uncle J-Uncle J, Farah,aNgRiAniWoRLd,How’s Life Bout,The Three Heroes, Ceedy, Veena, Satish, You ARE NEXT

And now my turn to tag. I tag:
Keerthi, Solitaire, KK, Samby, Sush, Keshi n Srujana

Tashan - my take

Being a movie buff, I look forward every week for some movies to release. I even have a collection of movies (who cares if some of them are pirated) which reduced from a great collection to a good collection.
For the past few weeks, I was waiting for the release of this movie, Tashan. I was so mesmerized by the promos and some songs which added further to my interest in this movie. It released last Thursday but I couldn’t make it till Saturday. I read the reviews and was a li’l disappointed and thought of giving it a miss. But my Mumbai dost, Naseer, insisted that we go for it. So I had to watch it.
Believe me, it’s not that bad. Jus’ a different type of genre. Till date, we saw mindless comedies in Bollywood. Now, this is one is a mindless action flick with some rib-tickling(in bits n pieces) comedy. This movie boasts of a great cast: Anil Kapoor, Akshay Kumar and the coochie-coochie couple of Bollywood, Saif and Kareena. The story is chooo chimple.
A call center employee, Jimmy(Saif), who also teaches English to beautiful girls, is approached by Pooja(Kareena) to teach English for her boss, Bhaiyyaji(Anil Kapoor). Bhaiyyaji turns out to be a dreaded Don who gets monthly hafta(lots of it) by train and Pooja is entrusted with the job of bringing it to the den(a filmish one, which you might have seen in some age old movies). Jimmy falls for Pooja and Pooja too reciprocates her love to him. One day Pooja reveals to Jimmy that she’s working for Bhaiyyaji only because her father owes him a lot of money and now Bhiayyaji is harrising her to marry him. Jimmy, as usual, plans to rob the monthly hafta and pay it to Bhaiyyaji as Pooja’s debt. But they end up robbing more than what they require and Pooja gives a slip to Jimmy and vanishes.
Jimmy returns to Bhaiyyaji and confesses his crime, as he’s scared of him. Bhaiyyaji recruits Bachchan Pande(Akshay Kumar), who has to search for Pooja with the help of Jimmy. The only major problem is Bachchan is a stray dog while Jimmy is a cultured puppy. Can Bachchan get hold of Priya? Is Jimmy willing to help Bachchan? Is there any secret behind Pooja who manages to fool everyone? A series of twists unravel before good prevails over the bad.
The highlights of the movie are its Hinglish dialogues, Akshay Kumar and Kareena’s bikini. Take them out of the movie and you are left with a complete bull-shit. Coming to the performances, Akshay Kumar is at his best in this movie as a rugged Bachchan. Anil Kapoor does justice to his role as Bachchan but as the movie goes on, we feel bored of his Hinglish dialogues. Saif is totally wasted in the second half and he looks old too. Kareena sizzles with her skimpy clothing and I heard some whistles during her bikini scene.
Songs are OK with some funny moments. Don’t blame me if the action sequences remind you of Rajnikanth….. The direction is pretty poor and I doubt whether the debutante Vijay Krishna Acharya gets a good future ahead of him.
Overall, Tashan is a time-pass, lock-your-brains-at-home movie. My rating for this will be 2.75 out of 5.

Blogger buddies

As Bahrain is a not-so-happening country, I started my second life as a virtual one. First of all, I was very much dependent and a fan of Orkut, the popular social networking website. I met many long lost friends, some new friends through Orkut. Most importantly, I made some good friends in Bahrain, thanks to Orkut. But slowly things started to move otherwise. People started losing interest in Orkut. It's the same case with me too. It was then that I was attracted to Blogs through some Orkut friends like Keerthi, Usha, Sravan. I started my blog after being inspired by the above people. Believe me, I don't know anything about blog-hopping for many days. I confined to reading only the blogs of my friends for a long long time. It was then that Keerthi asked me whether I was going through other blogs or not for which I replied no. Then she told me that I should visit other blogs and leave my comments there so as to attract others to my blogs. I was not interested much to do this but slowly I started blog-hopping and was introduced to the wonderful world of many other bloggers.
Now, my day would start logging on to my gmail account so that I can the check the comments I've left on other's blogs and the comments they've left on my blog. It's some sort of addiction to me nowadays. I was interested in some blogs, I was in love with some others and I was addicted to some. It was not until last 10 days that I realized my addiction to the Bloggerville.
I was checking out Solitaire's blogs and one post gave me the shock of my life. Sneha(Solitaire) maintains 6 blogs at a time and everyone of them will have a new post every couple of days. I was so amazed by her writing abilities and her punctuality in replying others' comments on her blogs. Her recent post which gave a li'l shock read something like she'll be away from the Bloggerville for a few months as she had to concentrate on her studies. After reading this, I felt as if I'm not going to see some best friend for a few months. I was kinda sad for at least a couple of hours.
Then Samby gave another scare in just a couple of days after Sneha shocked me. Samby's blog is another one which shows how different and independent an individual can be. He also posted that he's going to leave the Bloggerville. While Sneha posted that she'll be leaving for a few months, Samby didn't mention anything about his return.
Both these incidents made me think twice about my dependence on blogs. Now, I wanted to keep myself under isolation from the Bloggerville for a few days and check out what sort of fascination I've on my virtual life. Wish me all the best, blogger buddies.

A feel-good memory

A couple of days back, I was blog-hopping and came across this post by Veens. This invoked in me, a feel-good memory of a not-so-long-back incident.
I was on vacation in India and I've been waiting for a friend at the RTC complex in Vizag when this incident took place. My friend called me and informed me that he's struck in traffic and it'll take him another 15 minutes to reach there. Having nothing to do apart from waiting for him, I looked around for a reasonably neat bench, found one and started playing games on my mobile.
After a few minutes, someone came and sat next to me. I was feeling uncomfortable as it seemed the person next to me is watching me closely. So I looked at him and found that he immediately shifted his gaze from me. He's an old man around 55-60 years and looked quite decent. He's holding a briefcase with a great caution. Soon, I got back to my game and again I got the same uncomfortable feeling.
I was about to ask him about his problem, when he suddenly started talking in fluent English(I'm writing what I can remember of our conversation. It went partly in English and partly, in Telugu):
Old man: Babu, please don't misunderstand me for a beggar.
Me(shocked): No uncle, I never felt so.
OM: Babu, I hail from a village in Srikakulam. I worked as a teacher and retired a year back. Yesterday, I went to Simhachalam to offer my prayers. I was waiting for a bus to return back to Vizag when someone stole my wallet. Some good person brought me from there to Vizag yesterday evening. Now, I don't have money to go back to my village. I'm feeling shy to ask you money but couldn't help it. Can you spare me Rs 5/-?
(He was hanging his head with shame when he asked me the money)
Me: Uncle, you said that you came here yesterday and what are you doing till today morning?
OM: I was ashamed to beg others for money. I was looking around in the bus-stand from last evening, to find someone whom I know. But I didn't find even a single person whom I know.
(It was then that I noticed that he seemed weak, probably because of lack of food from the previous evening.)
Me: Ok uncle, but how can you reach your village with Rs 5/- when it costs you around Rs 50/- for the bus fare itself?
OM: I have Rs 20/- left in my pocket and I asked some people for Rs 5/- in the morning. Two of them gave me Rs 5/- each. Now, I'll ask some other persons and somehow accumulate the required money.
Me: I'm sorry to ask so many questions but why don't you call your house and ask someone to come over.
(He have a dry smile)
OM: My wife died a couple of years back and my son left us long back for some girl. I've no one in my village except a few relatives and I don't want to embarrass myself before them by asking them the money.
Me: Oh, I'm sorry. How do you feel if I don't give you the money even after so many questions?
OM: I won't feel anything. I'll try my luck elsewhere. After all, what can you do for my bad time?
Me: Ok. How'll you repay me if I give you all your required money?
OM: I'll money-order it to your address after I get my pension. But I can repay you only in the first week of the next month.
Me: No uncle, I don't need the money. I'll give you your full fare but promise me that you'll call me after reaching your house that you reached safely.
OM: Babu, please don't over-burden yourself. I know the value of money. Give me only Rs 5/-. I'll ask some others for the deficit amount.
Me: Don't feel like that. Let me pay you the full fare. And now, can I ask you one final question? Will you come to the canteen with me for a light breakfast.
OM: Thanks for the money. But please excuse me for the breakfast. I don't like to make you spend much for me.
Me: You are like my grandpa. It's not a burden for me if I spend a small amount for you. That'll give me more satisfaction than anything
We both went to a small hotel in the bus-stand and I ordered some breakfast for him and tea for me. The satisfaction in his face when his breakfast arrived was enough for me to forget all my problems for sometime. Just then, my friend called me that he reached our scheduled place and was waiting for me. Then I gave this old man Rs 30/- for which he objected and asked for only Rs 20/-. I said that he may need them as a security and persuaded him to take it. Then I paid the bill and left.
When I met my friend, he started scolding me in a teasing manner that I was angry on him for being late and in the end, it was me who's late. Then I told him the story after hearing which he laughed and said "Satish, welcome to India". I know that these things happen in India but I believed the old man after seeing the innocence in his face and honesty in his ways. I just laughed at my friend and said Rs 50/- is not going to change my life.
The real surprise came late on that evening when I got a call from an unknown number. It was from the same old man. He said he was calling from a pay phone so that I can make sure that he's calling from Srikakulam by looking at the STD code and he reached safely and thanked me for my help. That night, I slept more peacefully than any other night.

Virginity

Sorry for posting about an untouched-terrain in my blog. I was reading this funny sms/mail for the past few years. It says:
"Virginity isn't dignity. Instead, it's lack of opportunity"
Well, I'm wondering if people agree with this or not?

Beowulf

Saw this movie a couple of nights back. Thought that this is some of those "He-Man" kinda movie but was terribly mistaken. The graphics were awesome and this one is worth a watch. Anyways, there's a dialog which the king tells to one of his followers:

"The Gods cannot do anything to us which we cannot do to ourselves".

How true?

Why am I sad?

I'm feeling very depressed today. Can't exactly tell you why. Is it because the skit we rehearsed yesterday got very bad reviews and we have to enact it right tomorrow morning with out any changes? Or is it because today's my sister's engagement and I'm only one in the entire khandaan who's missing it???

And now, a "F1"tastic weekend(Updated - see after the slide)

Though am not much into any sport, there are 3 of them which are very dear to me. They are Cricket(default fav sport for many Indians), Tennis and F1. One of my dreams was to watch a F1 GP live. As soon as I got this job offer in Bahrain, I was overjoyed because there’s an F1 circuit in Bahrain and from 2005, an Grand Prix(GP) is conducted there. But my dreams to watch the 2007 Bahrain GP were shattered as I was just back from a vacation and I had to be present at the office on that day.
So I made my mind not to miss the 2008 edition at any cost. I was planning for this event right from the month of March and started contacting my friends. Finally it was decided that me and Pavan will go to the race together. We waited for the discounted tickets till the last moment but couldn’t get any. So we bought the tickets from the counter itself a day before the first practice session (3rd April, 2008).
I was too exited to visit the F1 circuit as this was my first time (even though the circuit was very much accessible throughout the year, I kept it pending till the GP). As usual, we reached late enough to miss the first practice session and we compensated it by walking around the various F1 merchandise stalls and a Ferrari Classics exhibition. We made sure that we reach our grandstand before the second practice session in the afternoon. That session was awesome. There were few people in the stands but their response was fantastic whenever a Ferrari passed by our stands. I tried to take some pictures but it was a very tough task to capture images of these mean machines traveling over 300 KMPH. However, I managed to get some not-so-bad pictures. Everyone was elated when Ferraris were announced as the fastest cars of the session. The highlight of the day was when Lewis Hamilton couldn’t control his car at one of the bends and crashed into a heap of tyres(this was after the practice session). After the practice session, we were back to the merchandise but nor for the goods they are selling but for the girls who are selling those goods. I was courageous enough to ask them for some pictures. We returned back around 7PM and were very tired. But inspired by the practice session, I started playing my NFS from 11 PM to 3 AM.
The next day(5th April, 2008), we decided to leave early so as to reach in time for the 3rd practice session, which we did. Again, Ferrari’s emerged as the fastest of the lot. Even though there’s time between this practice session and the qualifying session(in the afternoon), we decided to stick to our seats just for the simple reason to not to miss even a single minute of the qualifying session. We gobbled up whatever we can lay our hands upon at the grandstand(the main food stalls were all at the main entrance) and eagerly waited for the qualifying session to start. Finally, it started and as usual, full of twists and turns. The Ferraris were the leaders in the first two sessions but surprisingly, BMW driver Robert Kubica won the final session and took the pole position. But this was largely because of the unusual slowdown of Felipe Massa in the final turn. The line-up was in this order: Robert Kubica, Felipe Massa, Lewis Hamilton, Kimi Raikkonen, Heikki Kovalainen…. But believe me, everyone is shell-shocked to see this performance by BMW.
On the very important day of April in my life(6th April, 2008), we reached the circuit(BIC for Bahrain International Circuit) way before the race time(2 30 PM). We had a couple of strolls covering the merchandise section, Ferrari Classics exhibition etc. I stood in 3 queues during these strolls but couldn’t get through even a single one. The first one was for the autograph session of the BMW drivers, which they left before I moved 5 paces!!! The second one is for karting, for which I was informed that all the convenient slots were full. The third one was for bungee-jumping, for which I stood in the queue for about 20 minutes but was sure that I’m gonna miss the race if I stood for more time there.
And the last and most important queue was for the food stuff. It was long n tiring but the gori next to me made sure that I stay in the queue until she left!!!! She’s hot… Somehow, we managed to reach our seats just before the race is about to begin. Our seats were just before the final turn. So most of the time, we had to rely on the big screen ahead of us for updates. We were all expecting a Ferrari win but only after a few laps into the race. But to our surprise, Felipe Massa overtook Kubica at the grid itself. Everyone is shell-shocked and gave a loud sigh of relief. Rest was all history. Ferrari clearly dominated the proceedings and never looked out-of-touch. Everyone was worried about Lewis Hamilton but he had a couple of bad moments in one of which he rode into his ex-mate Alanso’s car.
The special mention of the evening should go to Force India’s Giancarlo Fisichella, who some tough time to Lewis Hamilton without allowing him to pass through. Finally, the much needed Ferrari 1-2 was achieved and we were shouting all the way. The other teams didn’t get even half the support which Ferrari got. The whole circuit was painted red with Ferrari flags and tees.
Coming to the other programs at the BIC, there were many other races that coincided with the F1 dates. Those races were GP2 Asia, Speedcar, Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup etc. They are all as equally interesting as F1 but the only issue was we don’t know even a single driver of those races. Then there were many entertainment programs which entertained the people to the max extent possible. Those were free style dancers, break dancers, high divers, jugglers, football tricks etc. You can find some of them in the pictures attached.
Overall, this event was like a dream come true for me. I had great fun at the event. Looking forward for the next edition too…….

There was a music concert by the Hip-hop singer, Akon, after the race. We stood in the queue for about 45 minutes to get entry for that concert and luckily we got the best seats from where we can get a good view of the concert. But it disappointed us to the core. I think that the bass was set to the maximum in the speakers. We came out in the middle of the show itself.
And now, some small suggestions to anyone who's planning to watch a F1 race live.
1. Don't rely too much on your photography skills. We may be great photographers but imagine trying to capture something which's traveling around 300 KMPH. My sincere suggestion is to opt for video than photos. If you stills want to take pictures of those mean machines, use "Burst" mode on the camera.
2. The food at the venue will be costlier than outside. The difference might be more than double the price. Check it out before you go for the race.
3. Be sure to carry ear plugs. We thought "WTF, it won't be of much concern". But the sound is ear shattering.
That's all, folks. Enjoy your race.

Last weekend(not the one which came a couple of days back)

This stupid thing happened last weekend. Here, in Bahrain, we have weekends on Friday and Saturday as Friday is supposed to be a public holiday in this part of the world just like Sunday in the rest of the world. Most of the time, we don’t work on weekends but last weekend, I decided to work from office on Saturday as I’ve to meet a deadline. I decided to leave at 10 AM and return back by 1 PM or so.
On the previous day, I’ve informed the General Services section (who looks after the transport) to arrange me a car at my house by 10 AM on Saturday. Being a bit cautious, on Saturday, I’ve called up the drivers’ extension at 9 30 AM and informed them I’ll be standing at a hotel near my flat. But the driver asked me to come to the main road and wait at a bus-stop as the traffic will be a bit heavy in my street. I waited till 10 45 AM but still there’s no sign of the driver. Then I called up the drivers’ extension but no one’s answering the phone. After some time, someone answered and was, literally, shouting on me. I asked him to cool down and asked him what the matter was. It turned out that the person who answered my call in the morning was not the guy who came for me and this plan of change of pickup point is not informed to him. Somehow, I convinced the guy to come again for me.
By the time I reached office, it was already 11 45AM. Then I was stopped at the security gate saying that they didn’t receive any intimation about my visit on weekend. I was taken back by this. How can they send a car for me and fail to intimate the security gate? Somehow, I got into the office and it was at 12 30AM when I switched on my PC.
I had to work till 4 PM to finish off the issue and this was the way my last weekend was f@#$ed up.

Lots of pending things in blogger

Hi all, it's been quite a few days since I wrote something meaningful(did I ever write anything like this???) on my blog. Well, there are quite a few things pending like a dreadful memory, my weekend stint at office(last weekend) and the major one being the ongoing F1 race in Bahrain. I went for the practice session today. It was awesome. Will write more about that in a day or two.
Now, I've one bad news. One of my four fish died today. It was a gold fish. I came late to my flat and was looking at the F1 pics. Suddenly, I remembered that I forgot to feed my fish. I was late by a couple of hours. To my horror, I saw one of the two goldfish floating in water with a huge belly. I suspect the reason for its death to be the dirty water as I didn't change it for more than 48 hours. The other goldfish also had some wound sort-of-thing on its nose. I felt as if the earth was crashing beneath my feet. I killed a beautiful being with my negligence. For the first time, I felt that I did a wrong thing in deciding to maintain an aquarium. Tonight, no food and no sleep because of that. I'm writing this at 2 AM........ The one above, please forgive me.

Once more..........

Sorry, all ya fellow bloggers who spent a li'l bit of their time for commenting on the look of my new template. But owing to the valuable comments of my fellow bloggers(most of them said that it was girly), I've decided to change the template again and hooked into finalsense once more. But much to my disbelief, almost all the templates which I liked doesn't display the "telugu" font as it is. As some of my blog entries need to be in Telugu(my mother-tongue), I had to revert back to the good old blogger templates. And again, how's this new template?

P.S: I feel as if I've moved from a cool Archie to a gawdy Jughead.

Stupid Whisper : Even my profile pic doesn't show my face. How come everyone know that am not innocent?