Just a messy mess !!

Ever since my induction into bachelorhood (not that i was married ever :P) its been more of a necessity than a regualrity to eat at hotels. Initially one can get away with "decent" hotels that provide you s-class food, but as time progresses your purse begins to feel the pinch and quite automatically one begins to let loose his 'decent' funda. And when you get stuck to a place like Hyderabad, the decision come a bit sooner than expected. Believe me guys, it took me only a week to come to that!

Once that wisdom dawns, those hotels which never existed before magically seem to spring up before your eyes. Like fire-flies you move into one of these for 'trying' out the food there. Along the expected lines you tend to 'like' one of these options you have ventured so far. And there begins this blog, with my selection called as the 'KKTA' mess. Every time I think of this one, the more mysterious it becomes.


This mess is very similar to any mess that you would have in your imagination. A medium sixed hall with an amazing number of tables fitted into its small perimeter. It is like a black hole which can accomodate any number of people in it. Given its spatial orientation, you cannot expect it to be very comfortable. But hunger dominates over preferences and this epithet is used to its maxim in this mess. The profile of the mess is far from aesthetic. The entrance contains a rudimentary blackboard etched with the standard phrase 'Meals ready'.., as if people came there with purposes other than to satiate their hunger. The decoration is limited to the solitary portrait of the owner's dad who despite his overwhelming moustache tries to showcase his tobacco-stained tooth. The poor old man would have never smiled, had he lived long enough to see his photo lying in its dilapidated condition with a flower garland round its rusted frame which was to probably lie there until his next anniversary. The only article which looked gleaming was the 'galla' or the money box which captivates the utmost attention of its owner.


Despite its rustic ambience, the mess attracts quite a number of people inclusive of me. The operation of the mess is very unique with its visitors following a steady pattern. For crowd managability, a token system is followed where one has to stand in a queue that perfectly disobeys *all* queing theories known. But with expertise or patience you can manage to get a lunch coupon for yourself after paying a price rounded off to its nearest ten. And next comes the toughest part where you have to literally "catch" a place to sit down. Within a couple of visits you gradually learn the tricks of the trade. One can actually book a table by pinning down their coupons on the table and with a little more experience under your belt, you would want to stick your coupons with a drop of water beneath it so as not let it fly away. With a little more experience and speculative risk analysis you might even abandon your watch on the coupon and sit on a bench for the sake of a fan over-head.


Once your turns arrives, you get a prefilled platter(actually i would have ventured to call it a plate if it were a tad smaller :P) with a solitary banana bonanza and some fired rice (not a typo guys !!). Within an alarmingly short time, a server comes to you and fills your plate with a big lump of rice and another fills up the small pot-holes with a couple of curries and a fry(some inexpensive veggie fry). The refuelling (filling) of the plates happen with amazing response time and you are never with an empty plate. The waiters here are at the pinnacle of optimism. They prompt you for rice once your are at your upper limit as if your hunger can reappear within minitues. The profitability of the mess is ensured with it maximising its clientele within the epoch. A variety of pickles accompany your lunch with a small cup of curd. Customer service is enhanced at this point by proving you an optional extra spoon with which you can rustle up a mini lassi out of your curd cup.

Oh and you must be expecting a couple of probing hands which pin up coupons at quite alarming places. Alertness is the mandate !! Once you are done with your lunch, you are expected to extend the courtesy to your fellowbeing by vacating the chair at the earliest and any delay in doing so might be the causal action for a uncalled bickering. And whats more..., to top the food, you even have fennel seeds to nibble :D. Coming out of the mess, you are filled with contentious emotions, with all thoughts metling into the same trough, getting lost in the oblivion.......

BottomLine Recommendation : Enter at your own risk !!

Tidings of a Kingpin

Now I have least doubts on which of my posts are preferred by my readers.. No guesses .. its Movie reviews. Well, what canI do, but to sympathize our beloved movie patrons.(I cant/am not supposed to find mistakes with myself u see :P). Well after a golti flick it is time for Tamil Epoch to rule my pages. No, never think I would watch any tamil movies on a diwali day. Neither would I watch a tamil movie in Hyd. There happened certain miraculous comedies that made me go to chennai in the recent past. And so I decided to make the best out of the trip with back to back diwali flicks. After four months the first movie I watched in tamil was vattaram, so I deserve your outright sympathy !! "Annan paechu eppovume one way. Angarundu return paechu varapdadu."

Lets get down to business now. And if you thought this review is about vattaram, then perhaps you had ignored my request for sympathy. Grrrr.. The movie theatre was packed to brim with thala fans. Then came the Ultimate Star on the screen with an apparent style that brought a couple of loud cheers from his fans. By the way FYI it was only his shadow that was visible ! Then the priciple of Advaita is shown by the screen-player(huh !?) with the look-alike father-son topology of plot. The rich father pampers his only son(or is it not ??) with all the pleasures in the earth, and the good son refrains from becoming the vitiated tyke. The story moves ahead with the two signing a pact with the former giving up 'sutta' for the latter taking up social work. All this trouble only to launch the US's(acronym for Ultimate Star) would-be lady love. Guys, you cant help it, its the director who has the first,last and the only say in this regard.

The lady love acts as a concubine to teach the hero some lessons on civility or to chase his band-wagon back from their camp.(I am still not able to identify the exact reason, so thought I could add both the possible reasons. Precision is of Ultimate importance u see !!) But the US is magnanimous to ring the wedding bells despite the obvious and what more do you need to spark a romance ?? Well, they get engaged and then one can see a "marked-change" in the US's characteristics. he behaves as a vagabound and ruffian. He even tries to kill the elder US. Well, I should say at this point that if the triple role ad funda could have been avoided, it would have been a better suspense.

The scream-play(oops... a honest typo guys !!) proceeds to shows the other sibling of the younger US, who happens to develop a terrible abomination towards the elder US, thanks to his claim that the elder US was the factor behind his mother's mentally challenged stature. Oh !! and despite the obvious resemblance both the younger US and the elder US choose to consider the possibility of him being a sibling. Aw !! what a crunch.. The elder US, who so far was stuck to a wheel chair, stands up and fights to save his life. The acting looked good here fortunately, keeping us actively involved with the screenplay.

It's flash-back time guys !! the elder US goes on to say his past life of a dancer and his marriage becoming a failure due to his lady-like features. Dont probe more into it guys !! He did have his connubial night :D. Well, the act disrupted his ex-fiancee and she goes into the maddy-realm. We have to give 9/10 to US for this portion of the act. He is pretty good at the walk/stance of a feminine grace. Another round of cheer from his fans !! Well the story takes no more twists and goes along the expected lines. After a revelation they realise that there were two siblings(Thats why i asked you to shed ur doubts abt the elder US earlier :P). The elder US sacrifices his life to save his ruffian off-srping and also manages to marry of his good off-srping to his lady love. The End.

No, its not an abrupt end to the story, as u can see.. All's well that ends well.. Oh ! but the punch dialogue at the end could have been avoided. The tactic of spelling the movie title at the end has been adopted too many a times. Nevertheless, it was an efficient way of whiling away three hours of your life.

Movie Bottom-Line : Watchable if you choose to ignore the semantics !!

All 'bout Geometric proportion !!

Writing reviews about movies has been quite refreshing for me everytime I write it. It is like watching the movie once more without having to pay for it ! Nevertheless, it is the fact that the process gives me a lot of scope to narrate incidents associated with it, that gives me the real motive to write movie reviews. Well, now that I am in the Golti land, what more can you expect than a telgu movie. Now dont ask me whatever in the world prompted me to watch a telgu movie... The pathetic situation is that no tamil movie releases in this part of the world.

There is a big conspiracy behind that scenario. Well, I am gonna reveal that to you, the most dark secret that daunts the tamil-telgu movie industry in the modern times. Most, or rather invariably all Hit movies in Tamil is dubbed into Telgu and vice versa. Now that would reduce the profitability when running multi-lingual movies in the same place. But then, there are always people, samaritans, puritans like me who watch a movie even if they dont understand a bit of it ! The venture took off like this.. Me and my rommies (Note : ALL TAMILs without an iota knolwdge in Telgu ), didnt have much to bicker about the choice of the movie. All of us were in synchrony with the 'Thala' movie.



Getting tickets for a chiru movie is the toughest thing in the world. Thanks to our patience we mangaed to gather four tickets. This city has a strange way of crowd management within theatre. They make you wait on road until the movie is about to begin !! Well, make hay when the sun shines, and so we took this opportunity to treat ourselves to a Ginger Tea. When its 'thala' movie, you never need an announcement as to when the movie acutally began. The hooting begins precisement 2 seconds before the movie kicks off. You could expect a gusty entry for our 'thala', and you wont be disappointed.. A punch (verbal and action), preceeds our thala's face occupying the entire screen. By the way, the shoe that our thala wears dominates the screen for the first few minutes... Man !! that shoe manufacturer would have definitely paid some money to get that kind of advertisement !!



The entire movie revolves around our thala and his bravado. A number of footlooses accompany this three hour ride. Thala dance numbers are a must see, especially the 'collar dance' moves were zimbly awesome !! Our thala blends so well with his co-dancers (lots of ladies of course),that we often miss him during his footloose. Then comes the key concept of the film, the magical "mukkuru" (aka Three) where our 'thala' explains the concept of tree(as in Trie structures) coupled with Geometric proportion Series. I know you couldnt make head or tails out of it.. Obviously it aint such a simple concept !! :P Well, It goes as follows.. Thala says that all that a person need to do for the society is to help three persons. Those three will help another three and so on....The entire movie revolves around this eternal concept.Our thala also proves the fact that world is round when his mukkuru help saves him from the traumatic villain's henchmen.

And our thala has a history too... He is invariably the best Major that the Indian Army had in the recent past. After a putting a brave fight in a war, he gets mortally wounded with a bullet safely lodged mm away from his heart. A small push in his body would in turn push the bullet towards his heart. Such a critical scenario for out thala !! :( . But not to worry guys, for there are milliions to pray and push the bullet out for our dear Thala :)... And that's what happens in the end. The GP factor works out for thala and people come in torrents to pray for him.
Movie BottomLine : HENCE THE PROOF.

Soccer-o-mania

This is perhaps the first occassion where I take courage to write about my responsible days (when I worked !!). We at our firm believe in Mr.Jack who atrributed his stupidity to All work and no play. So at Mr.Jack's behest, we decided to infest ourselves with the soccer bug. Now, now before you start mis-contemplating, we guys practise soccer twice every week. So that implies that we are serious soccer fans/patrons. By now you all might have figured out what this blog's gonna tell you about.


Hmmm.. well, for the lesser contra-brawned ones, a full feldged soccer season is what you can expect.Ok.. you didnt believe that !! Well, if not a season, a soccer evening is what we had. It all starts with a mail sent to the serious soccer fans(entire staff !!), which forms a thread for the soccer forum with the soccer enthusiasts shooting all sorts of questions. The tournament eve is the most interesting of all events that happen. The various teams conduct clandestine conferences and conspire to draw up a strategm against their opponents. Then, there are the professional photographers who pick up snapshots of such pics and post them in the same thread(mail .. remember ??). Aftera brawl over such controversies (We are professional footballers for heavens' sake !!), the D-Day finally arrives.

Oh ! I forgot to tell you about another important aspect of soccer. Jerseys.. Deciding what jersey a team should wear is of extreme importance and is often a topic of great contemplation within and outside the team. After all, your dress is what makes half of your personality. ok.. so where were we ??.. oh yeah ! The D-Day .....

The entire fan club becomes vibrant since the start of the day, the soccer fever fast catches on, and soon the fans become obsessed with soccer-o-mania. The fans start giving suggestions/ advice/ opinions/ hints/ pointers/ tips/ expostulations/ instructions/ priming/ tutoring/ kibitzing/ coaching/ briefing/ sermons/ recommendations/ counsel/ assistance (the last one is paradoxical though !!) to the players. The games are scheduled in the evening, to be under the floodlights, which is yet another example of our professionalism :D. Of course, the minor motive being the fact that we also have a scumptuous dinner following the games :P.

The teams arrive at the Grounds quite early and start their warm up sessions. We do a number of exercises like stretching, snacking, bending, snacking, jogging, snacking and so on...By the time we are done with our warm ups, the soccer fans would arrive to watch the action. Then begins the limelight of the day... Nope.. If you thought it was the match, then you are pathetic !! The photograph session is what follows next. The forwards, bend it like Beckham, giving our official photographers some cracking pics. The goalkeepers dive around in all directions in a 'Sportstar centre page' fashion. After the clicks have abated, the captains go out to "fix" certain important issues, so that the games go peacefully without a glitch.

The lining up of the team is another important ritual that is considered to be the pride of the day for the players. The ref's call up the captains and brief them about the rules of the game. Then begins the game with the ref-blowing up the whistle. A huge roar comes up from the supporters who often rejuventate themselves with the aromatic nutriments served. The players keep themselves busy running, marking other players and chasing the ball. As the quarter time nears,energy sapped out of the players, we often find the frequency of substitutions increasing in geometric proportions(That's how Engineers are supposed to say things :D). Man, this is when one finds the utility of having cheer-leaders !!

Half time discussions are real fun to watch, with lots of discussions going on as to how one should proceed with the game. The second half witnesses more fans and players bustling around the corner.. Oh! And I am referring to the food corner... Well, the match goes on with the usual pace set by the players and by now the ref would have lost count of the number of substitutions made. Then there comes this hero, who somehow manages to put the ball into the net. Then begins the celebration, with all the players making sure that the scorer goes to the bench (That's coz there are no cards given during a goal celebration !! ). The match ends and the winners go around for another photo session and planning the strategy for the next game(as usual :-)). The losers arent yet out of the action. They begin discussing about the schedules for the next tournament (Thats professionalism !!) scheduled next year.

After such hectic activities it is but natural for one to get tired, and ravaged by the vagaries of the match, hunger gets into the top priority slot. Dinner time are strictly meant for small-talk and not serious issues like soccer.. especially after losing a game. Since the winners are always outnumbered by the losers, they naturally have to button up (that's why we say that Mother Nature's fair to one and all !!). Now i ain't gonna tell you about what follows next, thats classified information. Oh ! and by the way if you thought that i am on the winning side, then i would strongly suggest you to read my previous blogs !!

There's nothing official about it !!

It was in the evening that i decided to munch some snacks after sitting before the "Intelligent Box"(Copyright: Shankar - All rights reserved) for almost the entire day. Now for those who dont have a taste of corporate life let me tell what it likes to be in your cubicle. Well, the lessons begin with the word cubicle. The cubicle certainly lives upto its name, a structure that binds you for most of your time with the unseen tethers. It comprises of three major components,

1.The intelligent box
2.books,books and more books...(STRICTLY technical)
3.A telephone

Now that a cubicle is familiar to you, let me get along with what kind off stuff that we guys do with the intelligent box. The intelligent box is not so intelligent as we would like it to be. It throws up all kinds of wierd stuff when you least expect them. But hey, theres more to it than we can imagine, but i exclude it because it is out of scope of this blog. In short, it creates more trouble than it solves. Well, i am being a bit too cynical with my perception,coz ultimately the intelligent box does what we say. But to hell with it !!

As we move out of the cubicle, there is a cafetaria which is the centre of all our "pet pooja", the dispensers and the snacks counter are really inviting especially when we are new entrants. The cafetaria- therein lies the reacreative bundles. The cafetaria can be a real bother to just one sect of people, the ones who sit next to it. They have to exert maximum restraint on themselves to buckle the escape velocity. Ok, lets get on with it. As we move out, we reach the final destination. Now dont start speculating, it another cafetaria :D nevertheless its bigger and is high above all other things. Oh ! and i meant that literally !! It lies in the top floor and so has the top priority :). Now comes the purpose of my narrative. Where was I ?? Oh yes.. munchin snacks. To be very frank, munching snacks in the cafetaria is rewarding in itself. The best part is that we get to notice a lot of people and their vivid activites.

That portion again is beyond the scope of this blog(too many people u see!!). Today was an exceptional day since it was raining and it seldom rains the way that makes rain enjoyable. I was talking to my friends admist snacks that i noticed how pleasant the climate was. There were mild droplets of rain, just the right quantity that one sees in a spray painting. This was one moment where i enjoyed wearing glasses. The way these droplets arrange themselves on your spectacles is really awesome. I wonder at people who remove thier specs when it rains for this was one reare occassion when the spectacles live upto their name! It was kind of irresistable for me to abstian from going out under the open sky. Of course, i was wearing my specs too :P.. There was a mild breeze that was playing around slightly curving the path of the droplets to a pleasant acute.

Our canteen as i metnioned lies on the terrace which was characterized by many outgrowths that would form the strength for any futuristic spurs that might occur to the building. Despite the iron protrusions they seemed to attract many a people to sit on it, though uncomfortably. Strange as it seems, the very same people complain about a broken handle or a loosened strand of fibre of the cushion in thier cubicles. I sat on them thinking of many things that happened in the past few days. I could feel like i was living both the past and the present. I was extremely aware of what was happening around me, at the same time I was intensely in my past. As these thoughts were going on, another faction of myself was looking at these two factions, wondering how fast the mind races. Almost an entire week of the past went through in a flash of a time !

It might seem unbelievable for most of you, and you might tend to think these as a mere figment of my imagination. But there has been many a times when i had felt that i had already experienced what i was experiencing at that moment. Well, it could be my imagination at work..well, i sat watching the rain splutter against my face. The clouds above were pale dark in texture and moving at an amazingly fast pace. It made me reaslise the incapabilities of human senses. Our sense organs are extremely gullible and fragile without our ability to think and reason. Yes, the thinking potential, the raw rationale, is what that drives the human. The raw rationale is the one which made the human invent the wheel, it made him create spokes and hub instead of a solid disk. The rationale is what told him of his weakness and strengths !!

A song of high disruptive nature woke me from my stream of thoughts. Aw !! it was my own mobile ringing and for the first time in my life i hated Metallica. I lazily flopped open my panel only to see my appointment being made to the intelligent box. And i felt a tinge of sadness and awe when the time panel showed that the entire time i had spent was less than 5 minutes. I decided to blog this at the earliest opportunity.Of course there's nothing official about it.....