Tears of Rain

I was riding my thunderbird down College Road and had to stop at the signal. It was raining hard and bikers know how difficult things could get in chennai monsoons. Unexpected huge potholes, heavy traffic, smoke and dirt that one can't stand, and hard Rain. YES :) didn't we ask for water? here it is.. pouring and pouring. I was quite excited like a kid riding a bike when it poured all over.. : )

Since a gear bike is new to my life, I was relaxed at the traffic signal for I don't have to clutch the bird for a while. Next to me in a scooter were two school kids with their father. They didn't want to goto school today. It was raining and what would they do sitting in a tedious maths class on wet uneasy uniforms. All they would love to do now is drench n play in rain.

But their father wouldn't listen to them. They were forced to listen to him. He gave them one rough talk, and the elder one started crying. I felt like telling that man,

"Why don't you let them play? They would love to play when it rains!
just for today.."

I had no say here. It was the fathers' descretion.

When the green was on, I just wanted to glance what these kids were upto.. I could feel that little kid in me, who was afraid of his dad, but couldn't stop sobbing. To my surprise i found, He could control his tears. Never showed any disappointment in his face. He could foresee his dad's reaction.

I found little tears of rain rolling down that little one's cheek.
He wiped it and wiped it, but the rain wouldn't stop...

Madurai Malli

Murugan & Malli. Episode 1.
a short story

Murugan was very tired that day. He wanted to have a look at rural Madurai. So he decided to go on a long ride to meet his grand parents in KK Nagar. He hired a tvs50 moped from the mechanic nextdoor and took on the rural highway...

At 15kms pe hour, he could hardly miss anything on the road. The speeding highway trucks put that little moped onto the stony mud tracks, but murugan was holding the handle-bar firm and cool, enjoying every rural scene around.

First there were load of buffalos inside the tiny ponds and underneath the bridge. Wow, so many of them with just their big heads out the dirty water, it was really hot out there, and the buffs must be having a ball in the water, thought murugan.

He was sweating hard, but woudn't mind the 45 degree highways. Next he noticed an old Ghandian follower waving a Khadi Flag to all the passers-by... wow what a patriot he must be, . 'Do I have any sort of strong belief or followism?, not really. Or should I have one, I don't know yet' said Murugan.

Right in front of the bike were little school kids walking their way home for lunch in the scorching heat, but what makes him smile is a Kid carrying his little brother like a sack to avoid that hot sand and rug from those little feet. This really is Rural India! That was picture perfect scene. Click. Murugan never had a camera but all this went into his hard drive that would never crash or fail to read. Thats when he felt he could be the legendary Bresson someday...

(to be continued...)

Kaveri Express - Irish Delight

This is a short-essay-sequel from Raju's Diary. Kaveri Express - Starts here

Raju's mobile was buzzing.. "Raju, you would love to check our Class XI Yahoo Group now, lol. Early Morning boy! Madhu".

It was 6.45am.. Raju was wondering 'Why does Madhu wake up everyone so early in the morning? She must better work for a DayLight BPO.. and mind you, an Indian Daylight BPO..' sighs Raju.

Raju was puzzled. With foaming Colgate Herbal, he plunged in to the notebook. Thanks to the wireless revolution, he has been able to work from Client offices, Hotels and even trains at times. There were the listless-yahoo-server pages that bother a question every now and then. Loads of forwards and forwards.. a new member in group? ..... Raju scrolled down and tripped on a very familiar name... Kiran.

He was smiling. Clicked on the post, and gazed as if it was a personal mail to him..

"Hi friends. Sorry for the long hide-out, I am back after my post graduation in Physcology. Now, I work for a french translation agency, on special translations for disabled people. Thanks to my professor back in mysore. Loving the job already, and friends, I am here to stay and meet you all, in good old Chennai, the best ever :)

Raju, Hope you are doing well, if you get time, buzz my mobile listed in the group.
Cheers to All, Kiran"

Raju was surprised, that his coolie-tipped-note had reached Kiran. Thanked him again, virtually though.

"How about Barista, 4pm today?", a "thanks Madhu, love you as ever".
-"Will be there", "what on earth are you planning to do romeo?" were prompt replies from Kiran and Madhu.

Raju is dressed in Red, for both were red lovers in School. He is still one... Puts on his favourite red shirt, and the faded blue Levis. He is not dressed to impress Kiran, atleast not now. He took the corner table with good sunlight. Looks at his Rado, 3.30pm. "Strange, am quite early and seemingly excited" giggles Raju.

Owing to his excessive coffee drinking syndrome, Raju rushed for an Irish Delight. Starts sipping and browsing through the endless fashion mag ads.

There was a bright, smiling and confident girl approaching the corner table. The red kurtha was Raju's best guess. It was Kiran. Both were surprised at how beautifully things have grown. A wonderful exchange of smile and yes, an old-school hand shake that Raju couldn't depart, and one that kiran couldn't endure anymore. She kissed him on the cheek.

A silent minute followed, helping each realise the years that have gone. Kiran was prompt "Raju, tell me how has it been with you all these years? And how are you doing now?"

Before Raju could think of a reply, Kiran picked Raju's cup.. "Isn't this Irish coffee! will you mind raju...?" With a firm nod, Raju is back in School, offering Kiran mom sent buttermilk..

"Ofcourse not" was his delayed reply...

another Law to Murphys'

here is a photo-story, almost a year back, while doing first studio shoot on Film..!

Subject: table tops, health care products
Costs: Air Conditioned Studio, Lights, Studio Assistant
Purpose: Photos to be incorporated into a presentation
Time left: under 24hrs. to Click, Process, Print and Scan
Risk Level: Very High. If this didn't work, can lose the presentation as well
+ve Factor: Good opportunity to learn studio setup

Story... Setup the props. n products (about 20 of them) with combinations, individual shots, with looots of help and support from friends, who were excited just like me working on a professional setup. Click. Clik. Click.

Completed the shoot in 5 hrs. Paid the rental, electricity bill, batta et all, gave the -ves for developing and back home, dreaming how the shots would turn out... and get me good name from the client... hehe.. just dreaming.

10 AM next morning: Was about to leave for the lab... Call from the Lab guy. "Karthik, did something go wrong with the shutter" "will be there in 10mins." hanged-up.

Am at the lab, looking at Half shot Bottles... Every shot had only upto the neck of the bottles, no caps or HEADs!! There was a shutter sync problem, meaning... the studio lights did not sync with the shutter speed of 250 on the camera. So the film got exposed only upto 2/3rd of 35mm....!

was so disappointed looking at the -ves, was back home thinking it was all over... even the presentation. Mom calls me, "never mind, reshoot, immediately. Never mind the money. you got very little time"

fixed up the studio again. fixed the Shutter sync. Clicked. Developed, Printed, Scanned, presentation was perfect. Client had that Biiiiiiig Smile looking at the snaps! Thinks I am Pro!

so here is another rule to Murphy's Photography Laws...
Shutter won't sync at the critical moment, but never mind. Your Mom is Around. You learn it anyway. Client never looks into the original -ves

Kaveri Express

This is a short-essay-story from Raju's Diary.

The train halted at Chennai Central arriving an hour late to the scheduled time. Raju pulled his leather carry bag and rushed out of the coupe, thinking about plans to get back to his project in Bangalore.

He walked a few compartments and stumbled upon an aged couple. This old uncle was bargaining with a cooliewala for he would pay only Rs.25 for carrying his luggage through the platform. Next to him was Kiran, Raju's first love...

Raju used to hate the terms used by his friends at school. Puppy love or infatuation. He still thinks it is a small, tiny, miniscule or a little form of love. 'Wouldn't it be cute to call it just Love?' Raju used to ask his friends. But there is no one to answer his question now. Just the crowd of busy passengers unboarding Kaveri Express.

Kiran and Raju studied Class 11 & 12 together - the sections were identified 11C and 12C, C being either the 3rd section or the CompSci students. Raju used to call it the CompSciWizards Section. He was proud that he was studying Computer Science and that Kiran was also in his section. Kiran used to sit in the last and Raju sometimes in the front bench, simply because he was short or the teachers would ask him to.

He followed carefully to his favourite teachers in English and Physics. Otherwise he was no bookworm or mr.studious junior. He just loved some subjects and enjoyed learning them until exams would doom his scores... and hopes.

'Is that really her? I must be suffering from a memory loss if I don't recognise her glasses! Yes, It is Kiran indeed' assures Raju. Kiran was tensed over something. Probably over the Cooliewala's bargain. 'But that needn't trouble her so much' Raju says to himself.

Raju wished he could say some thing to Kiran,
-'hi Kiran, how are you'
-'hi, do you recognize me?'
-'Hi, should I help you carry the bags?'

Nothing came out of his mouth. It wouldn't open. Just wouldn't. He smiled at her, just in case she was looking at him. Even if she gazed over the crowd and spotted him, he wondered if she would recognise him, for Raju is having a different outlook from his school days. Those days when his proposal to Kiran failed, rather miserably he admits.

Leaning on a parcel van at the platform, Raju writes a quick note. 'If you happen to read this note, I am sorry Kiran, for the embaressment I had brought you back in school. May be we should meet again and share our thoughts and take time out from work. Now I am tall. I am a grown-up just like you. I manage a business. I can understand situations and correct my mistakes. I wish you will forgive me. Your old new friend, chota Raju.'

He soon dropped this note into Kirans' bag by tipping the Cooliewala. He took an autoric and rushed back home to work on the project. Kaveri Express would soon leave the platform, and knit old new friends on her next journey...

have you seen the light?

Spell bound with strong throat chocking emotions, imagery that blows out imagination, a story of a young blind-deaf girl who is taught to See the Light, who is taught to re-write her otherwise BLACK fate, the best of Indian Cinema in recent times is here... BLACK.

BLACK portrays how a teacher makes a blind-deaf girl understand the concept of 'seeing light' or roshini. The movie has been extremely well-handled by Sanjay Leela Bansali, and he is at his best ever. With no doubt, 2005's great offering to Indian Cinema.

Amitabh's best
- showing signs for Bull-Shit
- first meeting withMichelle and his reaction to the broken plate 'interesting'
- pouring water on her face 'that will cool you down'
- 'what do you see in my eyes Ms.Nair, you must have yours checked, and this one'
- the slow old-aged dance in the climax to show celebration
..he has blown out the audiences' mind with his performace in BLACK, a true comeback by Amitabh.

Rani's best
- The 'sign-dance' night
- the completely white painted building, where Rani hold's AB's hand out of the window to 'feel water', note her expression in this scene, truly amazing
- teaching friends at college the signs for Butterfly, Bee...

Ravi K Chandran's best
- The snowing shot used in the promos
- Climax window shot in complete white
- The sign-dance night shots

Ayesha Kapoor as young Michelle depicts excellently close to a real blind-deaf girl. Apart from her angered reactions, the cake scene is one of her bests. Scenes of Shernaz Patel as Mrs.Paul McNelly are when the whole theatre would sob. I found that the audience did not react to the intermission. Everyone is spell bound and seated tight untill their reflexes need to show-people-around that he or she was okay and there was no water-logging in the eyes. Really? yes, watch the movie for the experience.

I have watched it twice in theatre and will go again
... to see Michelle's light go brighter than the shining sun.

Tsunami hit Marina Beach of Chennai

pictures of the Tsunami hit marina beach of chennai
http://www.kayyak.com/photos/index.php?album=Tsunami-Chennai

Waking up to an Earthquake

The glass windows in my room were rattling for quite some time. I woke up to check if something was wrong.. oops, I could feel the room shaking, Mom was in the kitchen preparing Coffee and she didn't feel it, maybe because she was standing. I told her "Amma, Earthquake ma" .. "Ennada Solrea???" (what do you mean?) "Ama, It is an Earthquake" I could feel the shock thru' her eyes that went wide. We woke up Dad and Abi.. we witnessed it for another half a minute.. This was around 6h30 in the morning. A mild one that lasted for more than a minute.. I woke up to an EarthQuake.

This was the 2nd time in recent times, Chennaiites have witnessed an earthquake.. we agreed that things was fine. I started to sip my cup of cholocalte drink. Mom was seriously thinking about an Emergency Plan if it would strike again.. "Shall we goto Madurai?" I started teasing her for some time until we agreed upon that "There is no escape from Nature's fury, but to just take it.." And things will be normal.

At around 8h30, we saw people running through our streets, heading west. A lot of them.. the
streets were filled with them, most of them from the Slum settlements near the beach. We were confused and rushed to the streets to find out... They told that the sea was rushing towards the city.. shocked with anxiety we went to the terrace to find out if it really was.. but things were calm from the open, I was sure It was not the kinds that we see in Hollywood movies.. was a bit relaxed, but I need to find out. Mano who stays closer to the beach told me he didn't know about the quake.. nor the water rushing phenomenon. I called up another Friend Sai, Even he didn't feel the quake. But the mad rush in our street was fishy. I thought, It might be a rumour and that the people from the shore settlements would blindly follow 'some ones' saying'. We called up friends who stay near Triplicane and Santhome... They confirmed that sea water had rushed to the Main Road on the beach and receded back in short time... okay.. don't we see that in monsoon's too? But this was different.

Abi and I were very curious and rushed to the beach to find out.. There was a terrible traffic jam, and vehicles were not allowed, we parked the bike about 1 km away and walked to the beach on RK Salai. There were police controlling the crowd, but my the camera strapped round my neck was the ticket to the beach, they thought Abi was a reporter and I was a press photographer and let us in.

We were there... the waves were kinda harsh and very strong... We could see no sand but water everywhere. Water had crossed the road and had rushed till the Inspector General's office on the other side of the Road. A huge wave hit around 8:30 am gushing water all over the settlemensts around the shores, and the 'ayodhya kuppam' on the other sides of the road. Very shocking indeed.. That was not the end..

I took a couple of snaps.. I was seeing thru' my viewfinder seaching for an interesting composition... told abi, "see there.. there is one more big one coming", and in no time, we could see a huge wave against the buildings and settlements behind the Santhome Cathedral. That was about 1.5 kms from where were standing. I clicked..

Abi was a bit afraid and the police was clearing the onlookers.. 2-3 secs after, that was in NO-TIME the water rushed to where we were standing... and I ran back with Abi.. but this was not a huge one though, but a solid one to make one run for their life. I took more snaps.. and went around the beach to check the damage. There were cars.. atleast 6 of them dragged to the pavements and fences. One was a parked on the Seats where i used sit and enjoy the breeze in the nights. A lot of fish, fishing nets, debris of small boats (kattumaram) were on the inner beach road that was flooded with water... Fishermen were the most affected, they were either searching for their loved ones or their missing property.

It was very scary in the beginning, but the situation was familiar in sometime and we could take it. Lot of rescue work were on, and the police did not want more onlookers. So after some more snaps, we decided to go back home... only to find in the news that it was a devastating Tsunami. (huge tidal waves that are caused due to sliding ocean plates) More earthquakes were trigerred in the Andaman and Nicobar Island as an aftermath of the huge on in Sumatra.

We have never witnessed sometime like this before.. a very uniqe thing that happened to Chennai and the rest of the seashore countries. Death toll is pretty high in TN, 3000 confirmed deaths and the Tsunami took with it over 25000 lives...

The number was on the rise as the sun set for the day.. I ended the sad day watching news on the Furious Tsunami that brushed away a huge deal of human lives.

An un-forgettable Sunday indeed...

TAKE CARE!

past life diagnosis

from http://www.thebigview.com/pastlife/

I don't know how you feel about it, but you were female in your last earthly incarnation.You were born somewhere in the territory of modern South Australia around the year 1600.Your profession was that of a builder of roads, bridges and docks.

Your brief psychological profile in your past life:Person with huge energy, good in planning and supervising. If you were just garbage-man, you were chief garbage-man.

The lesson that your last past life brought to your present incarnation:Your lesson is to learn humility and faith in spiritual principles. You should believe in higher reasons.

Do you remember now?


lol, a chief garbage-man, why did i visit this website .. :p

I am here

woooo.. its been 77 days since my last blog...! I was pretty busy and .... lazy over things.

Here i go.

1. Started clicking with my F80 machine - lots of rolls, prints, enlargements and framings. Got my assumed best one - the Golden Buddha - on a 6x10 inches print, framed on a A4 mount and put on my Office wall. Looks gr8! Two of Arjun's Nephew Sarvesh a.k.a 2T a.k.a Servo 's pictures framed, arjun's family was damn happy looking at them. I am happy looking at them :)

2. Met up with Ramesh Kumar of RK Pro Lab - Very nice guy to chat with - His photo processing is perfect, speaks casually, suggests how I could improve & experiment, charges me 4 times a normal computer print or development.

That reminds me of shalin saying last night at Dinner - 'I will not go to another lab, he is doing an excellent job, but I am going to save for another fortnight, its getting very expensive'. Ramesh does amazing Black and White Prints. I agreed.

3. Saw 4 French Movies organised by Alliance Francaise de Madras at the French Film Festical at Satyam Cineplex.

- Le Bossu / On Guard - I enjoyed this action movie all alone... some dudes & dudettes busy and few refused to come along for they might not understand it - I was like .. "so do I, come along da".

- Kirikou et la sorciere / Kirikou and the witch - With Sister - who appreciates animated movies a lot. Infact She wanted to pursue her career in animation and special effects. I hope the idea is still there in some corner of her mind after really long hours of hectic BPO work.

- Un Air de Famille / A Family Affair - With Maran my College and Schoolmate - Well this movie was totally confusing to us. It was of Comedy Genre and I could hardy see any comedy..!! Strange, somethings gone wrong with that rating.

- French Cancan / French Cancan - again alone .. nobody was free this Sunday! - Its about the Cabaret Dancers of France and how it all began - A Classic very well taken, i must see Moulin Rouge too. If I had told my friends about the subject, i guess there would have been a crowded 'friendtele' at the Theatre ;)

'Kirikou and the witch' was the best of the lot. It is an animated film about a Kid (rather a brave baby boy) who fights a witch 'Karabba la Sorciere' to bring back life to an African Village. If you could get a print, DONT MISS IT!

4. Couple of Hollywood busters - Shrek 2, Day After Tomorrow, Van Helsing, 50 First Dates

- Shrek 2 gets 5 *****s, amazing is not the word. I read somewhere that the 4 Lighting Directors of the movie are Indians one from Trichy (Tamil Nadu) :] That gives me lots of hope ;)

- Day After Tomorrow was dissapointing.

- Van Helsing was interesting. probably because it was my first 'dracula' type movie. The 2nd half of the movie is a torture if one does not appreciate 'omen' stories.

- 50 First Dates ... oow. Cute movie. See it for yourself.

5. Sister's Birthday - 25 June - Friends, 10 of us at Movenpick Ice Creams from Switzerland. We had a great time, spend over 2hrs chatting, cracking jokes and pulling legs.

6. Received my Level 1 Certificate and enrolled for Level 2 at Alliance Francaise. This level is going to be more of spoken and written french. That means less of reading and gazing. Learning French is fun out here!

7. Couple of Tamil Movies, notably 'Ayitha Ezhuthu' for the 3rd time last sunday, adoring Ravi K Chandran's Cinematography. He is absolutely my inspiration and role model.

8. Will update this list. Am suffering from Short Term Memory Loss after watching '50 First Dates'

Cheers!
Karthik

I am going to stop using 'kayyak' for sometime - Narmatha replied to one of my mails with this note "Thanx a lot da kay-yuck!!"

YUCK YUCK!

long awaited Nikon F80...

Hi dudes!

I bought a Nikon F80 with Sigma 28-105mm aspherical lens. Chose this cam, after hours and days on google, reading reviews and feature comparisons. But for Good Photography Camera does NOT really matter, its in the composition and colors.

The camera has awesome controls, and the lens seems to be good, a bit heavy though.





just started to click, come 36!

4 movies, a gr8 weekend!

Hi Dudes and Dudettes, just dropped in to say how good this weekend was, I saw 4 movies this weekend... Finding Nemo, Hidalgo, Seabiscuit and Autograph (Tamil).

I was off to Find(ing) Nemo on Satuday. When I told my friends that I went alone, they were like 'All Alone.. ?!', 'Yes', 'O' Really?' 'Yep, alone'. Does it really matter? Just think about this, if you go with your friend(s) do you hardly speak until the interval? or sometimes ask 'what did he say' or 'what did she do?' or 'to exchange some laughter'.. Or in a case like me asking for line by line traslation in a Hindi movie. I guess people really hate coming out to hindi movies with me.. lol.

Going out to ENJOY the movie, ALONE, sounds quite normal to me, unless you are out with your girl / boy friend for the regular weekend SPEND. If you find a friend who is free and interested, take him / her along. I did not hunt for a movie-mate! I wanted to enjoy the movies... and I did that. Really.

The movies..... Finding Nemo was awesome (read prev. post).

Hidalgo had some extremely welldone Cinematography. I entire team has spent a lot, a lot of time in the deserts. The story is about an American 'CowBoy' who wins a 3000 mile Horse Race across the scorching deserts of the middle east.

SeaBiscuit is about 3 Americans who fought their ways out of the greatest american economic slowdown of the 1930s. An yougster who becomes the best Jockey in the US, an investor who lost millions in his business and revivies to his greatest acheivement of owning the best horse in America and a Horse Trainer who found a great life with them. The story has a lot of references in Black and White. A good movie!

Autograph is Tamil movie directed by Cheran. It is based on a guy who turns back to remember his past. The movie captures 4 stages of his life, as a school guy who has an infatuation on his 10 standard classmate. A college goer who falls in love and that ending up in a tragedy where the girl is forced and married to another guy. Then how his life takes a deep fall and revives back to start an Ad Agency in Chennai with a help of another girl. There are 4 girls who inspired his life....and guess what? it has 4 cinematographers. yes, FOUR! One for each stage of his life, the visual treatment for each stage has comeout well and very different. A must see if you are in Chenna!

Okay guys, now am getting back to work. Catch yu all with the next week's busters ;)

haven't you been to the EAC..?

Saw Finding Nemo this morning at Studio 5 (Satyam Cineplex, Chennai) wooow man - 'breathtaking CG work' and the entire voice talent team has done a gr8 job!

The colorful coral of the Marlins, the forgetful Dory, the 'Fish are our friends, not Food' Sharks, the mighty Whale, 150 yrs old. Crush - the Turtle and its kiddies in the EAC (East Australian Current), the tank and Nemos' Mates at the Dentist's place, they are all too good!!

Toy Story, Bugs Life, Shrek ...and Finding Nemo!

lol... the little Darla at the Dentists' place.. Guess the CG supervisor visualised his worst girl friend ever at School.. haha..



More info from Pixar .. http://www.pixar.com/featurefilms/nemo

all the webs a play

W3C.. CSS.. XHTML.. DHTML.. XML.. RSS.. JS.. the ASPs and .NETs PHPs Servlets CFMs and there is mySQL and MSSQL .. oops, fast growing technologies and standards that need to integrate to deliver a wholesome web experience.

a-list-apart refined my mind a bit today. It offers extremely well researched articles with possible work arounds, check it out -> http://www.alistapart.com/

the yellow taxi enthusiasts

a starter on travel and fun @gangtok darjeeling this march 04 - the yellow taxi enthusiasts.. visit Shalin Jain's Think Pad

Pics from @gangtok darjeeling this march 04

Mani, Ravi, Aayitha Ezhuthu - expect an awesome cinema XP..!

Oo yuva yuva Oo yuvaahahah

heard this track from Maniratnam's latest venture? the songs are pretty good, lots of techno stuff and no live instruments, Mano was telling me that they might have used synths purposefully to match the concept. This movie seems to rock ... shot in two languages, whole lot of starcast, rahman on the keys, sreekar prasad on the edit and importantly Ravi K Chandran on the lens!!

from what i read and heard, Mani Sir is casting Surya, Madhavan and Sidharth in Tamil to pair with Isha Deol, Meera Jasmin and Trisha. Of the 3 babes I like Meera Jasmin. Isha Deol, no idea. Trisha is okay. In Hindi, Ajay Devgan :) Abishek Bachan and Vivek Oberoi, not sure of how the combinations work out here, they pair with Isha Deol, Rani Mukerjee and Kareena Kapoor. I like Rani MKJ, and started liking Kareena recently. She was looking damn good in 'Chameli' I missed watching this movie :(

So thats a whole lots of work for Maniratnam. His outcome has been awesome, everytime. A gr8 director indeed.

a 0.01% possibility - or call it a dream.. an angel gifts me a Preview Show ticket for Aayitha Ezhuthu, when I get there, I see Ravi KC upclose, ask him for an apprentice.. That would a new beginning.. just a thought .. a 0.01% possibility - or call it a dream!

reviews, pics on Rediff
http://specials.rediff.com/movies/2004/mar/17sld1.htm

this March @ Gangtok

Hi guys!!

its been 15 days since I updated the blog. Feb and March have been quite busy at work end.. So Shal & I planned to take the heat off and headed to Darjeeling and Gangtok. This trip was truly amazing! I have scanned the prints and squeezed them in my Y! photos 30 MB space, now I hv'got very little space to add more pics :( Will find a solution soon to upload all my pics :)

http://www.kayyak.com/photos

I would be glad to have your comments on them ..

~over to work~

Duur, yet so close to the heart

Strings' Duur has enthrawled me so much, just could not stop listening to the title song and the Reprise!! The guitar strumming, techo mix & the melody.. it has simply blown my mind. In the past 3 days (from when I got the CD from Shalin) i must have atleast (over) heard it 50 times.. The songs are so fresh and lively, there aren't any sad love songs, lyrics are amazing (friends say so, I don't understand hindi or urdu all that much) I read a review about the unusual video filmed in the Pakistan-Iran border. Duur, yet so close to the heart. Is it nice to see such pakistani talent welcomed so well in India? (Two) Thumbs up to Strings...!

Safe and Sound

This is the 3rd part of '@Kodai this Feb'. Read part 2 here.

Since kk did not call or return for quite some time, Sai and Arjun planned to visit the hospital. There were local busses that ply quite often in this route. People inside our bus were uneasy and got off it. The policewala was still writing down the First Information Report (FIR) But he was taking rests in between. Most of them were just starring at us and the crowd dissolved once their bus had arrived. Less crowd, less tension. Okay, the situation seemed to be cooling down a bit. But we were getting worried about poor kk, who went all alone with the villagers.

Now we couldn't wait anymore, Sai and Arjun took a bus and left for the hospital and the rest of us started to relax a bit. The bus was not to be moved unless the case has been booked against the driver. After having his royal cupa tea, the constable completed the formalities. He started enquring about who we are, where we were heading, where we work, and whats was our 'sondha oor' (homeland). It is a general custom here to ask 'Thambikku Enda Ooru?' (brother, whats your hometown?). No mistakes, this guy was whiling away time. May be these kind of accidents were so common to him. His reaction was not filled with anxiety or excited but just factual or bland. He told us that there was a similiar accident where the guy died on the spot. This was so scary!! We never minded these words, because we saw the guy speak to his wife when he left for the hospital. Xx Fingers Crossed xX

It was already 9, more than 2 hours! When we asked the constable what was is to be done next.. he told us that we can continue the tour after seeing the guy, and the Bus would be taken to the Police Station for filing the case papers. So we had to arrange for an alternate bus to continue our tour. Ravi is from Trichy about 15 kms from this place. He spoke to his friend and arranged for an alternate bus.

KK returned!! And again there was crowd. Where did these guys go all this time?! They appeared all of a sudden when there was some news. The guy came out of the Jeep and was walking!! wah, what a relief :] The constable examined him and noted down something. KK told us that he was out of any danger and that the guy was recommended to goto the govt. hospital in Trichy. o-k-a-y. no issues. The situation seemed to calm down :)

oow what will happen to Sai and Arjun who went to the hospital. They actually saw KK in the Jeep mid-way and returned back soon. Thank god, they were alert looking on the road, unlike our driver. We really couldn't blame our driver coz, we needed to solve the situation at the moment. Though others said there was no problem with our vehicle, I still feel that the driver should have been more alert...

the bell rang at 6:15 AM

This is the 2nd part of '@Kodai this Feb'. Read part 1 here.

All of us were asleep. There were heavy headlight glares from opposite vehicles. But managed to escape them somehow and tried to concentrate on my sleep.

A Horrifying Thud.. a Crash.. and a Loud cry! Oh Shit... what was that. Everyone woke up with great despair. The driver did not get off the bus for almost a minute and was not sure of what went wrong. There was a big crowd outside. No one had the guts to get down and look at the scene. After a few minutes the crowd started to pour over the bus, and the driver had to get down. I could see people beat him. The villagers were tough guys and am sure wouldn't have spared the driver.

What happened? what happened man?! We hit another bus or lorry? But no one is hurt inside. Did we hit a tree or something? The windshield was okay. Did we hit a cyclist or bike on the road? Probably yes. We hit a guy who was walking on the road! Goddamn. Really? Yes. We hit a guy from behind who was en route to a Pilgrimage by walk. oh-my-god.

The sound was loud and the bumper wouldn't have spared his hip. After 2 more mins. Sai got down with Ravi, Arjun and kk to check the scene. The guy was hit in the back and was not able to walk. The guy's wife started crying loud. I guessed something has gone wrong for sure. There were deals of injuries on his back, from the hip to the head. Head?! Yes, the head. Though the injury was not big, the guy was bleeding from the head. There was some talk of 'What happened to the baby?’.. Ohh God, did he have a baby in his hand. I could see alarming red faces and wide opened eyes. Believe me, The scene was Dreadful!

The headlight actually blew and that created a loud crashing noise. Thank god! It was not his bones. I could hear loud villagers explaining the scene to others. The Police was called. When I got down, I saw the guy lying almost on the median and our bus was on the right side of the median. This gave us some hint that the guy had either crossed the road or was walking much onside the road.

KK, the victim and loads of guys, of about 10 or more, started to the nearest hospital (16 kms away) in a jeep that was organised by the local party leader who seemed to have crossed this way. So what next, the villagers started cursing the bus (and us?) for the accident. We couldn't react now. We were actually afraid to react, it could turn out to be a clash. -- The baby was safe, a gr8 relief!

We tried reaching kk's mobile to check on the guy's status. 'The number you have dialed is not reachable, Please try again later'. Oops. We were in void, but to listen to the villagers and passers-by who explained the accident in their own terms. There were some obvious exaggerations to the scene. But we wouldn’t react until we got some news from kk.

Kk, whats up with your mobile man.. We need some update!! The Police constable was here and started to do his formalities. It was more than an hour and we were still waiting for news...

Read part 3 - Safe & Sound