Been a wee bit busy with this. Never been challenged like this before. Will blog when I come back to senses...Btw, the legions of frustrated, young incorporates seem to be growing by the day..check out Ice-cold-coffee...again colleague,good f(r)iend,drinking partner... heck my only achievement here so far has been making bloggers out of innocent young engineers...we also have Katherine for company...

Oh and ppl be good...use GoodSearch for getting all those shakeela pics...all for a good cause...

Amazing how low people can stoop for 15mins of glory. Was reading How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life. Young author. Tamilian. NRI. Harvard. Female. Things that almost always cause an antenna to go up in my head(with deleterious consequences most of the time). Was going to post a full-fledged review of how supremely dis-appointed I was of these 'Chethan Bhagat types' who cant really think beyond IIT or Harvard. Or how I thought she wasnt worth the Millions publishers were willing to pay.

Then Woosh-Kabolie...I see this link from Sambhar Mafia!! Man I am supremely dis-appointed. Writing a bad novel is one thing. Plagiarising it completely another!! Did she think that ppl wouldnt find out?? And its not even a Dan-Brown type 'Concept Borrowing', its line-by-line robbery. Kinda reminds me of DSP lab. But we had enough common-sense to atleast have a pretense of originality.

All this begs a lotta questions...How the heck did she get into Harvard?? How did she con Time-Warner, the publisher?? Is this the end of Female Indian Writing talent?? Nooooooooooooo. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Katherine!!! F(r)iend, colleague,drinking-partner...my only hope in a company which beleives in hiring morons and giving them incentives!!! The great white hope of Indian female writing. Ok ok she paid me to write all that...and i got a lil emotional...but this is one crazy-ass mallu we are dealing with...so expect some good writing...

Back to Work. Nice Vacation. Though Ive never looked forward to salary-day as much I am doing now. But it was nice, bonding with all the cousins and friends. Saw two of the crappiest Tamil movies Ive ever seen-Mercury Pookal and Thirutu Payalae. Do us all a favour-dont watch these movies. This way, hopefully, the Producers would back-off from making movies like this.

Went to the newly-opened Citi-centre in Chennai. Reminded me of Ibn-Batuta in Dubai. Good start-they only have Lifestyle and Landmark in place-but has a long way to go before it catches up with Forum or even Hyderabad Central. But it was refreshingly different from Spencers ,which is nothing more than an air-conditioned Moore market. Hopefully this is just a start to the mall-scene in Chennai. I had a more pop-sociology based post in mind, comparing the malls in Hyd and Chennai...damn too lazy...

In chennai. Home sweet home. A series of bad days culminating in one really bad day. Buried a grand-parent. Grief. And all the hypocricy that comes with it. Feel pig-tired. A man should'nt feel this tired.Ever. Only upside is that I'll be here till monday. Have some time for contemplation. Not grief...was never THAT close to him....but quiet contemplation/rumination...In a perverse way, this was proabably "good" for me?? How sick am I??

Made my TV Debut. A program called 'Naveena'. On a channel named TV9(stop laughing, its pretty famous in Hyderabad...well almost famous). Now I know why ppl say shit on television. The journo came to me, said she had "some questions on 2 or 3 topics" and asked me whether I am ok with being on TV.Am I ok? Ofcourse am ok!!! Only when she asked,"Do men gossip more than women?" I was speechless !! Mind just blanked out!!! I still dont know what I said. It airs at 2.30 two days from now!! Go and catch me on TV ppl!!! This may just be the beginning of a brilliant show-biz career!!!

Frustating day @ work. Dont you just love it when ppl who were sleeping for months wake up suddenly...am counting the minutes to weekend...waiting for "Mr. Aravind Rajendran, Test Engineer, Tessolve India" to come. Dont you just love ppl's signature in mails...someone you called "Bumulu"in college has suddenly become "Avinash Rajan, Programmer Analyst, Satyam"...hmmmm....

Last time the 3 of us were together outside Chennai was in Bangalore. Have some nice memories of that trip. That was prob. my last trip to Bangy. Arvind is quitting and leaving to good old chennai. Was actually hoping to go there once before he left...you have to admit, the city has a charm!! Started this post wanting to post a comparison of Chennai vs. Bangalore vs. Hyderabad....too lazy. That post has to wait till tomorrow...

Saw 'V for Vendetta'. Good watch. Nothing great. Only one question:Why do they hate Dick Cheney so much? So much that there always has to be a redundant 'Deputy Villain' whose only job is to be more villainous than the Villain. Biggest joke of the movie: Britain is the sole surviving super-power after the Iraq war. In your dreams, bitch...In your dreams!

That is the only notable English Release this season in Hyderabad!! No Broke-Back mountain, no Crash,no Jarhead...competing with Bangalore my ass!! Chennai has a better scene for gods sake. They've started Salsa classes here though. Just that there is a slight clash of schedules. Those who know me would proabably be laughing at this. To you I say one thing:People change. People reduce weight. Now I am 2 kgs BELOW recommended weight, bitches!!!!! Salsa is definitely a long-term target...though I dont see how I'll make it in the near-future.

There is a serious problem with Hyderabad in this regard. If you are not a pub-hopping-disco-going-punk(which I am not) then there is an amazing lack of things to do. Ive been here for 9 months and I can safely say that I have been to all the places that this city has to offer. Even a pub or two. That was funny. You can easily find a bunch of Tamilians in a pub...we are usually the most happiest guys there. We are so happy we made it inside, we make the place inhabitable for the rest of the crowd.

Hmmm, three paragraphs to describe my entire social life....what a sorry ass I am!!