At The Altar

Words… It’s only Words

Words make a big difference in this life. Afterall “It’s only words and words are all I have to take your heart away” a real mushy number from Boyzone who have disappeared into some word less place. I know this girl who studied French with me and she sang that song at the Summer fete at Alliance Francaise of Madras. But she is in no way related to this post.

Words have changed history, geography, science etc. You name it and it has been changed by words. Be it the written word or the spoken one. What is the most powerful thing on earth “WORDS” it can change anything anyone anyplace overnight. Madras became Chennai, Jayalalitha became J. Jayalalithaa a.k.a Amma, Hitlers words changed the fate of a race.

Just imagine a life without words, just sign language. I am reminded of old Charlie Chaplin movies which he directed before the Talkies happened so funny but yet again he had to use the written word between scenes.

I wrote about my buddy in crime “Now XXXXXXXXXXX was stopped by the girls when he was trying to take a general picture of the crowd. Reason being he looks like a School Boy Youth” Yeah he threatened me with death if I did not change school boy to something else.

I know this girl who I met through some friends. We met last night and I saw that her nose is all red and me get all concerned when somone is not feeling well

Me : Are you feeling well?

Girl : Yes!!I am perfectly fine!!!

Me : No just that your nose looks like Santa Claus’ nose.

Girl : @##$$ @!@#%$ %#$%$!!!!

I am pretty sure it was something nasty.

Last night was not a great night because I came back and I was chatting with my Buddy Crime and lemme reproduce it here.

Excuse me Boss!!!

 

 Excuse me Boss: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Well, let me assure you this has nothing to do with my boss. Well to tell you the truth my team in FindNearYou.com is probably the coolest team. We get to meet celebrities and do a lot of cool stuff and the best part is FindNearYou.com is one big happy family kinds. Lots of fun. But as I said this is not about work so…

I was invited by Alexandra for a beach get-together one Friday evening. (This was happening in the same beach where they have a memorial upon which people piss all the time. Infact one friend of a friend of a friend even found a couple making out. If someone would come too close their secret code was tch…tch…) So Alexandra her boyfriend Arnaud, Laury and me got some sandwiches and then went in search of the picnikers. We found them sitting right at the beach front drinking beer.(Is that not illegal?) Anyways there were men and women, young and old, chatty and quiet, students and office goers and the best, French and German. They were in separate groups and I could catch some words in French. Though the German skidded away to glory over my bald head. I realized I have a prejudice that the German and French are like sworn enemies. (Well if you are wondering why, you really need to bruch your history!!!) But they were nothing of that sort, though they sat in separate circles they were all mingling and jingling.

After a while people started getting up and I was like “Finally picnic over”. But while that thought was running I realized these people were walking towards the sea. They were going for a swim. They were changing right over there with the local boys who were watching all this passing nasty comments.

But before too many people realized what was happening they were having a ball in the dirty salty water. There were some who had stayed back, like my friends Arnaud, Alexandra, Laury and Camille. Slowly a crowd was gathering around us and I was like ” These guys have gone crazy” But a group of guys walked up to me and started talking to me.

Boy1 : Excuse me Boss!! Hello Boss!!!

Boy 2 : Are you from foreign?

I was really in no mood to talk.

Boy 1 Excuse me Boss. Are you working or Studying?

Boy 3 : Dai Avarukku English Theriyadhunnu Ninnaikiren( I think he does not understand english)

Boy 1 : Excuse me Boss. Just talk something.Let us have friendship.

I was wondering “Is he Gay and hitting on me?” I just ignored him and after a while they left having realized no one was talking with them.

I keep wondering why he kept saying “Excuse me Boss” he should have called me MOTTAI BOSS!!!!. Bleddy Fella!!!

For an Audio Version excusemeboss

It is not Yelagiri…It is Athanavoor.

As it dawned on Sunday in Yelagiri I realized a lot of things. My Paragliding dreams had crashed. Yes Yelagiri has a Adventure Sports Club which has quite some interesting things to do. But Paragliding was not happening yesterday. But to make yourself useful, the best things to do would be to meet people talk to them and see what you can gather out of the sleepy town with a lot of stray dogs and awesomely tasty fruits. (The Jackfruits from this town is great.)

Nothing much was done on Saturday either. Though I learnt to play Blackjack, Poker, 3 Cards and other card games sometime during the night.

Earlier on Saturday Sharan and I had taken the bus to the hill station before which we had waited for the bus at Jolarpettai while listening to a girl talk on one of those wayside Tea Stall’s Pay Phone. It was one of the most interesting speech I had heard in a while. Though I would have loved to hear the other side of that conversation too.

She was getting guys and girls ready for some programme. She was asking “Are the Girls Good Looking?” “Are they thin? because people either ask for thin girls or they ask for plump girls.” The guys were never discussed. She was loud and called herself Sindhu. Though I did assume what programme she was conducting I can assure you that it was not a Doordarshan Programme.

Back to my Sunday’s dashed paragliding dreams. though I did miss my adventure for the weekend I was very happy when I boarded the Banglore Express back to Chennai. I did something that I normally don’t, I crossed 4 railway tracks 2 railway platforms and got into the train from the wrong side of the platform. (What Platform actually there was no platform?)

Bleddy Adventure…

Ctrl + D - Bookmark yourself to Glory

Bookmarks have been around for a long time. Even before the web decided to happen. But it is strange that today we have so many kinds of bookmarks in this era of web 2.0 that we have forgotten teeny weeny Mr. Bookmark. When I was in school bookmarks was one of the most cool things to have. It had a fan following of students teachers and parents alike.

Some students had the unfair advantage of having stay at home moms. Moms who would cover their notebooks neatly. Label the Notebooks and then stick a bookmark to a thin ribbon and paste it in the top inner spine of the book. Some of the mother even got the initials of their children drawn on the bookmark. I always found it ridiculous that parents would go through such trouble so that the children can show off their unique bookmarks to their classmates. I thought that bookmarks were too sissy and that they did not have the intended cool factor. So I never had one. (I Could effectively turn pages.)

So the parents loved bookmarks, my friends had so many bookmarks all stuck to their notebooks and the best part was they came with all kind of designs and I remember Tom and Jerry, Popeye, Asterix, TinTin and so many more and the lady teachers simply loved bookmarks. Because they said that it made life easy for them when they corrected the students Home Work(HW). Most teachers would be pissed off at me for not having placed a bookmark at the appropriate pages. Anyways there are too many bookmark stories. Basically I hated bookmarks when I was a primary school student at Don Bosco, Egmore.

Something happened at work which reminded me of bookmarks. We were in a meeting and  we had a discussion about bookmarks and how we could use them and Amousia man who is a SEO Specialist( He is brilliant at his job) says “We are already bookmarking all that needs to be bookmarked. Amousia man is too focussed to even understand what is happening in a world outside his SEO world. Wake up Amousia Man and smell the roses. there is more to life than just Ctrl + D .

Sex, Drugs and Rock’n'Roll

Life is short so let’s rock it all the way to the end. But mind what you are rocking because if you rock the boat too hard you may end up in a sharks stomach.

It is sad to know that Music (Rock’nRoll) is associated with a certain lifestyle. There are supposed to be the rock stars themselves, then there are supposed to be the groupies(apparently the rock stars rock them) then there is the Drugs (which supposedly rock the rock stars)  So to put a better perspective

Drugs rock ROCK STARS

ROCK STARS rock the Groupies

No!!! The Groupies don’t rock ROCK MUSIC no way they can!!!

so

Rock Music which is just amazing does not fit into the Drugs and or the Sex Culture. It is Drugs and Sex which got themselves fitted into Rock Music.

I have been to a few rock shows thanks to FindNearYou.com, RockandRaga.in and Unwind Center and the best part is I have been on stage with the rockers (I was not playing music, of course not) taking photographs and shooting Videos. It is incredible to see the kind of energy and talent that is required for the rock stars to play their music. They need all the energy which cannot be given by Sex or Drugs.

Narain and me are going to be at Underground 2008. Look out for the bald guy and the thin tall guy with their respective cameras.