Archie

WORLD ISLANDS..

2009-07-02T22:22:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, we were discussing something about the Sharjah Cricket ground and this came up. Ashok explained to me that there is this place called the WORLD ISLANDS in Dubai and indirectly proved once again about my ignorance towards whats happening in the outside world. I never knew anything about it though I vaguely remember seeing it on a news channel(not very sure about it). I think it looks really cool and it would be awesome to own a country but ultimately, its all about money and fame, both of which go hand in hand. All this put aside, WORLD ISLANDS in DUBAI look stunningly good and the google images uploaded on the web add to its glory.

Cut the crap!

2009-04-10T11:53:00.001-07:00

People are opportunistic and selfish. By saying that, I dont include the few exceptions out there. Back to the majority of the people who think only about themselves. I know that we are all human and we have our own flaws to live with. But most people pretend to be nice and sweet to someone only to get their work done. Once their job is done, they would have disappeared off the face of the earth. The next time they make an appearance would be when they are in need of something. Unmindful of the fact that they are no longer looked upon with respect or love, they continue the sugary sweet talks once again to assure that their necessity is taken care of by the person who offers help. My point is- "Its ok to talk to someone only when there is a reason/help is needed but there is no need for those generous shameless words of love and care if those aren't coming from the bottom of the heart."
P.S. I surprised myself by writing this because it has been a long time since any of the above mentioned incidents or incidents similar to that happened in my life. But just felt like blogging about it.[:D]

Finally watched SM

2009-02-24T10:37:00.000-08:00

Fear Factor!!

2009-01-11T00:48:00.000-08:00

I was reading the newspaper in the morning which was titled "Whats your fear factor?". It actually dealt with the common fears of most people in their day-to-day lives and some suggestions to overcome them. Though whatever was mentioned in that article is true to the core about overcoming one's fear, those things are easier said than done. My worst fears are for lizards and dogs. The above mentioned article posed questions like " are you scared of bungee jumping?, are you scared of heights? and so on..". To my surprise, none of the things on my list were mentioned there. I was kind of happy about it. I read it fully and tried to implement the same in my case. But as I was about to put back the newspaper in its shelf, i saw a lizard on the wall near the tubelight and the my reflexes forced me to run to the other room. I then realised that some fear factors die hard!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!!!

2008-12-31T08:35:00.000-08:00

Was just checking my friend's blog and i got into a flashback about how this year started and ended for me.
I had met my better half on new year's eve :) .Got married this year and my life took a biggg enjoyable turn from being single ,happy and irresponsible to married ,very happy and slightly responsible (to mention a few). I also quit my first ever job n my life and though there are no emotional strings attached to it, I do miss the independent feeling it gave me. But after seeing the situation now, I'm more than happy about quitting that job cos I wouldn't have liked it there anyways from what i heard from my ex-colleagues. This year brought out the culinary skills hidden deep inside me.[:D] Looking back, I had never thot of myself as a short tempered person but looks like I'm really that way and I get angry more often than not from the feedback I got from my loved ones[:(]. Trying to do something about it. Keeping in touch with people is what I'm going to work on this year for sure. Unless I take some initiative to respond to my friends, I will have no one but myself to blame if all my frnds turn their back to me.
2008 has been the most happening here for me though things started happening from mid of 2007 itself[:)]. Looking forward to 2009 ;hoping it would bring happiness and prosperity to all of you and make all your fruitful dreams come true.WISH YOU ALL A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Vatha Kozhambu..

2008-11-06T21:40:00.000-08:00

I'm a big fan of the spicy vatha kozhumbu dish and my mom is really good at cooking tasty food ,especially vatha kozhambu. After I came here, I was never able to do it the same way my mother prepares it inspite of getting a step-by-step instruction recipe from her over fone.All I ended up doing was losing the little confidence I had previously for preparing that dish.But today, I had vatha kozhambu mixed with rice and aloo fry for dinner. It was super duper tasty..but the only difference this time was- this was prepared by my better half or mayb I shud say the best half[:D]..Nevertheless, mom's preparation is second best to none and so is Ashok's.This week has been a great one..Ashok is done with his Ph.D. defense;I got to eat my fav dish and ya, Saurav scored a 50 in his last but one test innings:)(as of now). I stayed awake till now(1:00am on Friday) to watch him play and he dint spoil my hopes.Long live Dada:)

Attacked by the bees

2008-10-31T05:01:00.001-07:00

Stumbled across this pic when I was catching up with the ongoing India-Australia test scores.Looks funny,doesn't it?

The Prince resigns..

2008-10-30T06:39:00.001-07:00

Yet another cricketeer is calling it quits to his international career not because he wanted to;he has just been forced to make an exit indirectly.Though he has shown some character in sustaining till now, it is more than obvious that he had been fighting a losing battle and he has announced his resignation. Yes, of course, I'm talking about Saurav(who else). Although I'm really sure that statistics would help me prove my point that Sourav has been one of the very few successful captains India has had,I 'm not gonna fill this page with his batting averages, strike rates and all that. When the all-time great Sachin succumbed under the pressure of captaincy which clearly reflected on his batting performances, it showed how big the burden of captaincy was. Sourav has done a splendid job in raising the spirits of youngsters in the team and motivated the team to realise their capabilities. There is no refusal to the fact that he is a poor runner in-between wickets and he is not the most-sought-after fielder in the team ,but that doesn't take away the credit from him for scoring some great match winning opening partnerships and leading the team towards victory with his able mind.He might have been involved in the maximum number of controversies till date but the aggressiveness and the confidence(at times, he tends to be over confident too) he has in himself has been responsible for keeping the match alive when droopy heads and lack of enthusiasm used to mark the face of Indian cricket.All said and done, now that he is quitting the team, people will be forced to sing his laurels and bid him farewell so that he can embark on a new journey to start his next phase of life.
To me, he would be one of my all time favourite cricketeers and I would love to watch him play- be it those lazy singles(which could have been converted into two's) or those mammoth sixers over the bowler's head.He is the most entertaining cricketeer- on and off the field:).I really like him for his guts and his dont-care/come-what-may attitude ,of course. I really wish he could have made a more graceful exit from his cricketing venture because he truly deserves it!!Sourav dude rocks...(atleast i think so even if u dont[:D])

Being complex..

2008-10-22T09:57:00.000-07:00

We would have all studied in maths that a complex number has a real and an imaginary part.If it had not been for the imaginary part, it wud not have been so complex.I was just thinking about how exactly this describes the behaviour of some people who excel in confusing themselves apart from confusing the other souls around them with their imaginary skills.I have been (un)lucky enuf to know such people who always imagine that they are capable of solving the problem at hand even when they are light years away from a solution. I have come across this particular character who imagined that he was suffereing from some illness and went to the doc;on diagnosis, the doc clearly told him that he is hale and healthy and stressed on the fact that he should stop his imaginations going wild.When this incident was narrated to me, I was wondering how imaginative can one get to actually be in a situation like this????Life still goes on for the doc and the other guy until the doc starts imagining things [:P].

Really pathetic..

2008-10-06T06:44:00.001-07:00

We had a problem with our Dell laptop at home a couple of days back. So we decided to call up the 24 hr Dell customer service centre to find out what can be done to resolve our issue. When we were trying to find the helpline toll free number from their home page, we realised that we also have the option of chatting with a Dell customer representative before calling them up. So after waiting for about 2 min, a session with a dell representative on the other end started. The third question posed to us by the representative was "Are you using a dell laptop?".I could not stand the absurdity and the foolishness of this question because that site was meant for dell troubleshooting and if i had not owned a dell laptop ,why would I even bother going to their website for resolving the issues with the laptop. After 15 min of inconsequential chatting, we realised that there were better ways in which we could have spent those 15 min. The rep finally decided to end the chat session and signed off by saying "we apologized for the inconvenience". Anyways, its a shame to have such guys on the online support team which adds to the agony of the already troubled laptop user who starts such chat sessions with lots of hope that their issues will be taken care of by smart people!!

Nicknames :P

2008-10-03T10:00:00.000-07:00

1.A descriptive name added to or replacing the actual name of a person, place, or thing.
2.A name given in contempt, derision, or sportive familiarity ; a familiar or an opprobrious appellation.

Googled for the meaning of nickname and stumbled upon the above meanings.
Meaning 1 is a common one and it sounds positive.But the intent of this post was in reference to the second meaning.I have had some great times with a couple of my close buddies in my workplace,thanks to nicknames. Its a way in which you can actually get back at people who aren't all that nice to you without their knowledge.You might wonder how this can possibly be a way of getting back at people and some might think its very childish or silly.But believe me, it does help to vent out your anger and at the end of the day,it would have provided you with the best medicine possible.i.e.LAUGHTER!

Saurav is back:)

2008-10-02T08:10:00.000-07:00

Came to know that Saurav Ganguly is back in the Indian Test team.Felt happy about it cos he is one guy who is really famous among the media people and makes his presence felt all the time:).
I had always liked those spoofs of the kollywood movies and I happened to watch one yesterday.I'm sure most of you will be aware of lollu-sabha programme on vijay tv.Had fun watching one of its episodes - juttison which is a spoof of "CITIZEN" a tamil movie starring ajith.Watch it if u find time from lollu-sabha.blogspot.com and let me know if u like it too!

WhAts in A naMe?!!

2008-09-15T11:39:00.000-07:00

wats in a name ?!!..I dont quite agree with it cos the concept of human beings being called by their names evolved mainly to distinguish between the different characters existing in this world. I understand that its foolish to expect each one of us to hav different non-repeating names but it wil only end up in a funny situation if there ends up 4 ppl with the same name in the same place at a given point of time.I happened to be one of the above mentioned 4 ppl when I was in my secondary school(i dont remember which grade exactly).The attendance roll call wil have my name called 4 times(cos the remaining three needs to be answered by the other Archanas).Whenever mark sheets were being distributed, i should make sure that I go to collect mine and not the others sheets(on days their scores are better than mine, I would surely not mind doing this).There was this english teacher who thought that differentiating us with the help of initials was a big deal and she resorted to calling us by suffixing a no: to our common names.It goes like this - Archana1,Archana2 and so on. Thinking back about it, I started wondering about all such instances in which I met someone with the same name as mine and I oculd actually say that there has been never a time in which I was the only Archana out there.Yup.College and my work place were no different with atleast one more Archana sharing the space with me.Although sharing my name with any1 is the last thing I would want to do inspite of knowing that its not practical to think this way![:D].My cousin's wife was telling me that my niece made the foll. stmt -"My mom's name s Archana.So is my teacher's and aunt's name".Ya,She happens to be my relative Archana[:)].It just struck me that most of the Archanas I have met till date are fun to be with and easy-going.I guess thats a common trait observed among all Archanas..Are u lucky enuf to know 1 of them?[:)]

Aunty??!!!?

2008-09-04T11:47:00.000-07:00

Most of my friends are getting married; remaining are waiting for horoscopes to be matched and some of them are busy taking care of their kids or awaiting their arrival . Does all this mean that we are all growing old or are we stepping into the next phase of life?It has been 3 months since I got married and there has been a change in my perspective towards various things in life(a good change, i must say). But this change is accompanied with the thought that I'm actually growing old though thats not the truth :). Some kids have started calling me aunty and there is always this twinge of uneasiness when I'm being referred to that way. Aunty , according to me are for women who have crossed their 40's.Looks like I'm totally wrong about this because almost all the kids call me that way.:( I know that this is not gonna add years to my current age but it has made me realise that I am not as young as I had been 2 or 3 yrs back(an obvious statement to make). Life just goes on and we all mature both in age and mind; the latter is the one which is more difficult cos the former happens by default [:P].

Celebration time!!!

2008-08-30T03:05:00.000-07:00

The Indians once again proved that they are still capable of bouncing back after a test series loss to the host nation. I'm sure that you would have understood that the recently concluded Idea Cup is what I'm talking about . Though they did not make it a complete sweep and allowed the Srilankans a consolation win, it really doesn't matter as the outcome of the series was decided a couple of days back :). I happened to watch the penultimate match in which the indians messed up in the slog overs while setting the target as they always do. That didn't deter me from watching the second of the innings cos I was pinning my hopes on the Srilankans to commit some errors during their run chase towards a reachable target.Miracles happen and let me not take away the credit from the Indians who played well as a team to win that match . Ever since Mr.Cool head Dhoni started playing, I have always wanted to watch him hit those powerful shots and I would wait for the end of the match for him to step on the podium to say a few words about the team's performance in the match . He is calm, composed , spirited and he is one among those few guys who can spread positive energy in the team. I'm not saying that he is invincible but he really has it in him to bring the best out of his team more often than not. When I got to know that he got the 'Man of the Series' award , I was obviously overjoyed though I missed out on watching the Indians celebrating their victory along with their talented captain M.S.Dhoni . He really rocks! He is second in the list of my all time favourite captains of the Indian team.Dada is first, of course [:D]

Friends.....

2008-08-22T11:18:00.000-07:00

I have always wanted to keep in touch wit my friends but till date, I have not been very successful in doing that. Those long mails from people who are near and dear to me are like energy boosters and I wonder how many times I have returned the favour.I know that friendhsip is not like "you do this and I do that" ,but it demands a certain amount of effort to give those weekend calls or "wats up " msgs or casual mails. At the end of most conversations with my friends, I always ask my friend to keep in touch wit me not fully realising that I'm the one who is not doing that. From my childhood days till this instant, I have always been gifted with a good set of friends wherever I go(be it school,college or my workplace) and if they are not by my side today, I have only myself to blame.There have been many instances in which their incoming calls were missed and their mails left unanswered. But the minute I call them up to find out whats happening in their lives or write a simple mail , they always feel happy and respond immediately which makes me feel on top of the world. I have lost a couple of great friends because of my laziness to be in touch with them inspite of their repeated mails and phone calls to contact me. I'm sure that if I call them up at this particular instant, they would put the past behind them and continue to make me feel special as they always do. Friends are an integral part of us without which life would have been incomplete!Do stay in touch with your friends:)

Some Do's & Dont's at the work place

2008-08-20T07:56:00.000-07:00

1. Dont sleep with your eyes closed.
2. Stay glued to your seat when your lead is in the vicinity.
3. Mentally prepare yourself to do lots of excel sheet work though it doesn't even form a part of your official assignment.
4. There is no point in working really hard. Hard work and hikes are inversely proportional.
5. Choose the correct time to go for coffee breaks to avoid meeting unwanted specimens.
6. Always plan to leave on time; this will make sure that you atleast manage to catch the last shuttle leaving from the office.
7. Deadlines are not to be met and escalations are not to be taken seriously.
8. Dont be nice to everyone. Try to differentiate between nasty pigs and the good people and act accordingly.
9. Pretend to work even if u dont/cant.
10. Try not to add your lead/boss in your chat list; Incase you've added them,make sure that you stay invisible so that you can have an uninterrupted chat session with your frnds until the boss decides to call you up or come to your seat.
I hope its not your boss behind you when you are reading this post!!:p

Worthless GaMe...

2008-08-19T07:55:00.000-07:00

I got too lazy to write and decided to take a couple of days off..[:)]I was watching some of the olympic events and time just flew by. Its amazing to see how fast the atheletes can run, those quick dives, double somersaults and the list goes on. I had never wanted to do any of these mainly because I could not imagine myself doing this. But when I started to watch the women beach volleyball event, I wished I had played volleyball during my school days. I did play a game called throwball and was a part of the school team for about a couple of years. We had won a handful of tournaments and our school team always managed to reach the final stages of any tournament. Me and my friends took this game so seriously that we used to stay back after school everyday for the elaborate practise sessions so that we could be part of the team which plays the intra/inter-school tournaments.Little did I realise that this was the most insignificant game and its not worth mentioning a word about this to anyone from the sports arena. If this sport was not worth playing for, I wonder why they had encouraged this sport in school level.Though I was really proud to play for the school during those days, I kind of feel embarassed to say that I played this sport when I was in school.My colleagues even laughed at me when I told them about this.
All said and done, school days do bring back nice memories of this long-forgotten game which I really enjoyed playing along with my friends:) These memories are more to do with the fun times Ihad with my close friends and not the game, for sure!Let me stop thinking about this game and watch out for the next olympic event.I had watched Phelps swim his way to glory ..He is too good and spirited at what he does.Hats off to him!!Waiting to watch him perform in the next olympics[:D]

My Favourite AcTor......

2008-08-16T09:06:00.000-07:00

I have been a true fan of Maddy's; meaning I have never failed to watch any of his movies be it good or bad!Everytime I see Alaipaayudhe, Kannathil Muthamittal , Anbe Sivam or Ayudhu Ezhuthu, I get a feeling that he is at his best as an actor,thanks to the director. Though Anbe Sivam from the above list did not make it big at the box office, it earned him a good name. There is no dearth of talent in him but he has not made a huge impact in the tamil film industry. Leave alone his cute smile and looks, I'm sure he would be a great actor who can do justice to his role . What I dont understand is, inspite of his talents, he chooses movies with very weak storylines and mediocre roles which only shows him in poor light. I remember watching most of his movies in the theatre with my mom,bcos she was the only one who was patient enough to come for some of his movies even after knowing that its gonna be a waste of her time. She was proved wrong only in very rare circumstances. I had to drag my mom to the theatre for his movies because I did not have the guts to ask my friends to accompany me ,knowing for sure that the movie is not anything great and they would surely prefer a better movie to watch in the weekends. All said and done,at the end of the day,I would love to watch Maddy on the big screen and drool over him endlessly [:d]. I'm sure he is not one of those actors who can bring the crowd on its feet by his dancing prowess but he is surely capable of acting sensibly and do what the director expects from him . He is a director's actor and I really wish he commits himself to movies which offer him meaty roles and more scope to act instead of signing off movies just for the sake of it. When actors who do repititive roles and masala movies can survive in the film industry, I'm sure Maddy will surely make it big here cos thats what he deserves. And, I will be his true fan no matter what. Eagerly waiting for his next movie.[:)].

BaCk to SePteMber 2005

2008-08-15T06:15:00.000-07:00

I had worked for almost 3 years before landing in the US of A.It was a great experience which gave me an opportunity to understand how complicated human beings are and how simple is to handle them.This has been written keeping the majority in mind. The minority is always an exception and though they are rare to find, they made my work place memorable.
Training days were fun and I enjoyed every bit of it. All we had to do offficially was: (i)attend some theory sessions (ii) go for lab classes (iii)write a couple of tests. That was the period in which I got to know lots of people and it was just like good old college days. Like how all good things come to an end, it did and they were starting to divide us into groups based on our posting locations.We also had a farewell party for the people who were transferred to other locations and some of us got emotional towards the end of the party bcos we knew we were going to part ways and the funtime had actually timed out.
I was proved wrong in a couple of days because I became part of the free pool. There was this bunch of us who really did not have anything to do other than loitering around the campus and make sure there were no unidentified places in which coffee breaks can be had.This lasted for about 3 weeks after which most people got into projects which actually meant they have a place and a system tagged to them. I was still in free pool with a couple of my batchmates giving me company.Finally, all my batchmates got into projects (or something similar to that). They had a place to go in the morning and a PC to do what they want unlike me who had to share the PC with generous souls who let me check my mails when they thought they need to take a break.Free pool was no more fun and I was hoping that I would be put into a project soon. My prayers were answered immediately and I was put into a project before an eventful interview session. That was when I realised I was not the only one who lived a nomad's life bcos there were about 8 ppl being interviewed for the same project and those were a part of the same nomadic clan. We kept discussing about all possible questions that can come up in the interview and that did not help one bit as the interviewer was in badly in need of resources. So he interviewed us with the sole aim of taking us into the project.( Who cares, as long as i get a cubicle with a LCD monitor was my attitude that time).All of us got into the project that fateful day without realising(atleast I din't) what we had in store for the years to come.
The day ended with the interviewer assuring us that separate cubicles would be tagged to us and they would be providing us with systems in a couple of days.Looking back, I wish I had enjoyed more of those free pool days bcos they were hard to comeby once I got into the project! :D

Pets??!!??!

2008-08-14T10:01:00.000-07:00

This being my first post, I wanna start off with my latest hobby- watching fishes.
yup. We have got two fish tanks in our house with 2 gold fishes in one and the other tank has two angel fishes sharing their space with 4 zebra danios.My better half played an important role in triggering whatever little interest I had in these fishes ; now its really amazing to me as to how much I love watching these fishes explore their home.Infact, I even went to the extent of telling him that these fishes are like our babies and they need to be given proper care and attention. A typical day in my life starts off mostly with a quick peep at them to make sure that everything is fine with the angels and the zebras. The gold fishes are very obedient and they are easy to maintain as long as you feed them on time; they get really agitated if u don't. We were actually wondering about this huge appetite of the gold fishes when Ashok read somewhere that these do not have a stomach(a proper digestive system);rather I think its better put in this way - They just have a tube-like-thing through which the food particles go and come out because of which they are left feeling hungry all the time.I have never come across anything like this in my life till now!!Not sure whether my understanding is right.:)

Talking about pets, fishes are great coz they stay in the tank:) I cant imagine having a dog as a pet!!The mere thought of it freaks me out.I'm really shit scared of the entire dog breed and who knows,I mite even win a running race for sure if i know that a dog is behind/chasing/barking at/looking at me.This is an achievement in itself cos I start panting immediately after a 30 min walk.My point is, I dont like to run or jog to say the least.Not a good sign, I know. I'm trying to improve my fitness level.Coming back to pet dogs, I was a little too brave when I was in my primary school (not sure whether it was a good/bad sign).My cousin had a dog named "Tiger" which was considered to be a good pet dog. I used to visit their house frequently and got acquainted with the dog to the level of patting it( yup!patting a dog requires a great deal of courage according to me). I didn't realise the fact that it was sleeping after a tired day and I started to pat it vigorously not realising the fact that it really didn't wanna b disturbed. There was a growl from him of very low decibel and I chose to ignore it. I had continued to pat him and he just jumped on me and bit the edge of my frock. That was all "Tiger" did and he went back to his deep sleep.He didn't realise the effect of that incident on me till date.Alas!! what an experience it was!!!