It's October!!

<Connected/Disconnected Thoughts about October and My Birthday!!>

I get reminded of Dudley Dursley of Harry Potter or rather I behave the way he does when it comes to my birthday!! unlike the number of presents that he counts, I keep track of the number of people who wish me, and who make my day more special! :)

I remember dates, names and faces for a life-time. I have an elephant's memory when it is about these and hence I would never miss wishing a closed one on their birthday. If at all I do miss it for some reason I compensate it by wishing them on their half-birthdays!

Its no kidding if I say that the entire nation has celebrated my birthday this year. With the festival of lights coinciding with my birthday it did happen!! Thanks for firing those crackers! You guys really made my day!! A special note of thanks to MSD for inflicting a humiliating defeat on the English and for providing a sweet victory right before my birthday!

And yeah, I always loved the month of October, it all started in the school when I used to get a three week long holiday right after the Mid-term exams. With Dasara, Diwali and my birthday falling in the same month, it was always the month I longed for!!

With the emergence of facebook there has been a dip in the number of wishes through phone calls this year. Though the wishes are reached to me through a different medium, I somehow feel that a wish made through a phone call would produce more warmth compared to a message left on the wall. However, taking it in a different view, I am contradicting my own opinion that I have made in one of my previous posts - 'words written lasts forever'. Excuse my multitude of opinions please.

Another point about October, there's been a birthday or two of my friends or acquaintances on almost every day of this month. Can anyone tell me why is it so?? I am little baffled here :D

P.S - As most of my female friends got engaged/married this year, it has further accounted for a dip in the number of wishes this year. Anyways I still have time for vengeance, let me get hooked!!! ;)

P.P.S - I know this post seemed a touch childish, I guess it happens when it is the day of your birthday!!

A year of blogging!!

The love towards blogging would usually start with a friend sharing his/her blog with us, and as we keep reading the blog we develop the feeling 'Why don't I give a try and write a blog too..'

My closest encounter to blogging happened when a friend shared his blog and the blog which he follows, after several hits to their blogs, the interest within me towards writing and blogging started taking shape and after few months I did start off my first blog with the title 'Will I complete it' and the first post was about the beast.

However, I later copied the content of the blog and discarded it citing a not-so-good title and created a new blog with a catchy title and a peppy design and this incarnation was titled 'The Lubberwort' ;)

The next thing I did was to send the blog link to few of my friends and compelled them to read and demanded a feedback!!! Yes, sometimes you need to that! The initial posts clearly portray that I was a beginner and they were marked with naivete and T9 mode of spellings. I still kept them the same just to gauge how my blog evolved over time.

Thus, I made a beginning and kept posting sporadically and also inculcated blogging etiquette by reading blogs of more established bloggers and by registering to blogger communities.
  
It was all good initially, no worries of what the content of the post be, whether it appeals to everyone or not, it didn't matter to me much.

But a little worry and a responsibility surged when a good number of readers were following my blog be it by force or by unsolicited interest, and when I started receiving good responses for the posts published.

So the next time when I sit to write a post, consciously or unconscioulsy, I used to think of the audience and at times that would limit the way I express something, unlike the free-style of writing employed in the earlier posts.

However, the initial discomfort turned out to be a good sign, as it helped me being more fastidious and more purisitc than earlier. It did help me to think about more creative ways to present a content however at the expense of a little more time and a little extra effort.

Also, with the blog getting a little popular, it helps me not to keep the blog dormant for a long while, and I could avoid procrastination. Thus, not letting my dynamic thoughts go down the drain.

'The Lubberwort' is one year old now, it turned one the last september! And I hope to continue and publish at a higher frequency than before and keep the blog alive and kicking!!

Happy Anniversary 'The Lubberwort'!!!

Serendipity

A few days ago, I texted you telling what Serendipity is? Yes, meeting you turned out to be a Serendipity! I thought I would fill this coveted space of mine, about the serendipitous journey a long time back, anyways, its never too late, and this is what the journey was and still is..

The rides from the office, the stops at the frankie shop, the sulking face, the messed up iphone, the punctured tyre, the lunches at the cafeteria, the movies watched, and the one watched on the first day of its release.

The one and only comment passed about your school :( , the greeting card, a day out at Aryan's home, the training given, the training taken.

The silk challenge, the lost bet, the unheard song, the muted response, the misunderstanding, the talks on phone, the pastries at cakes n bakes, the soya milk from the super market, the not given swiss chocolate.

The argument, and the ride to the post office and a non working hair drier, the meeting with the dentist and the surprise unfurled, the movie that wasn't watched, the movie that was watched.

The worst performance and the worst response, the good performance and the better response, the SSIS packages, the queries explained. the money lent.

The wiki-explanations about the most boring topics on earth, the uninterested faces, the unanswered calls, the Google search for the meanest of the problems.

The 'ruby' online, the dialogues repeated, the laughter, the lake, the big rock, the thoughts of dumping me beneath that, the balloons on your table, the mails, the contact blocked on your communicator, the agreement reached.

The dairy milk chocolate, the IM conversations, the boost at the CCD, the Telugu dubbed English movies, the passes exchanged, queuing up for the same, the songs listened, maleyali jotheyali, engeyum kadhal, love me tender love me sweet and the new one!! .

The songs that were forced to listen, obviously the songs where I brayed, the quiz not participated, the unaccompanied lunches, the dhandiya, the photos taken, the bluetooth exchange.

The days missed, the shopping, the black shirt, the top from splash, the parallel parking of the bikes, the happy moments.

The meet after a week, the meet after two weeks, the forced read of the blogs, Vignesh, the consultancy calls, the search for the driving license, the phone forgotten at the washroom.

The missed dj night, the new year resolutions, the muted lunches, the 1473-1453 conversations, the looking out of the cubicles, the emotional mails exchanged.

The days laughed, the days fought, the adventurous days, the boring days, the days missed, the days parted off, the unsaid good-bye, the days missed, the memories, the moments, the moments, and it goes on and on and on and this list is endless. And I wish this serendipitous journey be stacked with many such beautiful moments further on!!

As they say, words spoken are forgotten, but words written last forever!! and what better day it can be than the most joyous and most important day of your life to present this!! 

A vErY hApPy BiRtHdAy!!
TaKs!! 

Cop's Saga 2

Although the under cover cop's story of Pokiri is still etched in people's minds, and the 'thokkalo meeting lenti' and 'evvadu kodithe..' dialogues are still talked and used extensively in public conversations, Dhookudu as a new bottle did attract with a different taste of the old cop's saga. It proved once again at the box office that Mahesh as cop still sells!

Mahesh does it again with a clinical performance, and carries bulk of the movie with his style and his calm, yet powerful dialogues attributed with his cool disposition.

It isn't an exaggeration if I say that he occupied around 95% of the frames of the film. However, I dint get bored looking at him even for three hours. Seriously! (I know it sounds so gay, Admiration is gender-unbiased. Isn't it? huh!!)

The movie begins with the typical Tollywood way, a grand entry, a fight and a song. The main plot of the movie makes you travel to the less seen (atleast on the Telugu Cinema) picturesque locations of Istanbul.

Coming to the title song, it was a great composition considering Thaman's monotony in terms of songs lately. Except the title song, rest of them seemed like you heard it many a times before. I somehow feel that Thaman has a fixed repertoire of songs and it isn't that vast as DSP or any other leading music directors.

Samantha looked a little different, but yes her role was simply wasted, her name should have been listed in the 'Guest Appearances' instead of the 'lead cast'.

The first half sets a good plot, however, the same intensity wasn't carried in the next half, with a predictable story-line and one starts feeling nostalgic as the plot transforms into the 'Ready' style of new characters being created on the fly. This time with the theme of a 'Reality Show'. Sreenu Vaitla seems not to leave his comfort zone of running the plot around gags and practical tricks.

Though I said Mahesh carries the entire movie, however, I must be doing gross injustice if I ignore the performance delivered by this man, Brahmanandam. To be honest, I was so engrossed in his character, I was considering him as a real reality show character (the character he plays in the movie) instead of a great comedian what he is. MS Narayana also keeps the comedy track alive and tickles your funny bone with his multiple characters. You have to watch this!! words just can't explain this.

Sreenu Vaitla did pen some nice dialogues with humor ruling all the way. Overall your time and ticket's worth is justified.

P.S - The movie watching experience at a multiplex sucks. No whistles, no loud laughter, no comments passed. That's seriously pissing off. I wonder how a movie is enjoyed by the so called 'multiplex-class-viewers'! Come. Sit. Watch. Go home. Lock the doors. Remember the dialogues and laugh!! Is it??

Image Source : Google Images

120........

'Those who have come for the test, please drink more water. The more you drink, the better the result would be' shouted the receptionist.

I was sitting at the out-patient ward, waiting for my turn. The receptionist was having a look at the patients who were waiting for the ultrasound test, I was one among them, he stopped his glance at me and asked 'Sir, did  you drink water?' Making me feel a little embarrassed. I just signaled him that I already had four glasses of water with my fingers doing the talking. But in return he said loudly 'four is not enough, have two more, for a better result!' and added insult to injury.

I got up and walked to the water dispenser, had two more glasses of water and sat back watching the test match between India and England, with M.S.D in his avatar as a medium pacer and 'The Wall' taking guard behind the stumps.

Coming to this test at the hospital, the ultrasound test had to be performed only when your bla**er is full, so that the renal calculi, in general terms, the kidney stones would be easy to detect.

The six glasses of water that I consumed started gushing inside. However I had to wait till the test is done. I self-motivated telling 'Perseverance pays my boy!' When the situation was getting out of control, I walked to the receptionist with great difficulty and asked him when was my turn, he said there were four more people in the queue,and  I had to wait for some more time.

I returned to the seat and continued watching the match, M.S.D was carrying on with his spell of bowling, there came a beautiful inswinger, went past the edge of KP's bat, loud shouts from the keeper and the bowler, the finger went up, KP was not convinced, he asked for a review. The Indian team erupted in joy and everyone started congratulating M.S.D. The replays showed that there was no edge and KP survived.

However, my survival was under threat now. I was stilling holding ON it. I was actually feeling good that I was capable enough to hold ON for that long. I dint wanna give up. The receptionist looked at me and said I was next.

I quickly walked to the lab and was standing at the door, soon the in-patient walks out and I was called in. The Doctor looked amicable, the nurse too. There was a bed,with a computer monitor beside and other paraphernalia required for the test. I was asked to lie down on the bed and was asked to lower my pan*s.

The doctor came and put the image detector with a gel applied to it's head. He started moving the detector and looked at the monitor and chuckled saying 'you managed to hold on a lot Karthik!', I felt an immediate feather in the cap with that comment and I gave a little laugh.

He moved the detector all over my torso and lower the torso and found nothing and said  'No sign of stones'. He asked me to let THAT out and come back once again so that he could find something after that. I was relieved with what he said, not that there are no stones, I am talking about the latter statement. I went to the washroom and there passed my two hours of unprecedented efforts, I could proudly say, 'Mission Accomplished!', with that, that day I learnt a new meaning for the word 'Relief'.

I walked back to the lab and the doctor performed a second trial, but the result was unchanged. I took my reports, paid the bill and returned from the hospital with a definite sense of relief and a :) and for some reason or no reason these 120 minutes deserved a space on my blog!

This part of my life is called being stupid

Yes. The title of this post is actually a dialogue from the movie 'The Pursuit of Happiness'. A walk-through of this post would definitely make sense why I made it the title.

A few days back at my office, my child-like enthusiasm coupled with a good amount of stupidity contributed for my friend's phone to go dead!

As they say, closed things attract more attention, my friend's phone did drag my attention with it's keypad being locked with a pass-code.

The moment I tried my friend's usual pass-code, it didn't open. I thought that she has changed the pass-code and fancied different permutations. It was throwing the same error message for every attempt of mine.

With this, a new thought surged in my head - 'How many times would an i-phone allow to enter the wrong pass-code?'. So the further attempts were merely of statistical importance as I was sure that I cannot crack the code, I was only interested to know the limit of the number of wrong attempts.

I thought I would count the attempts, however I lost the count as the phone was not responding anything after some x number of attempts. The phone had reached the HUNG state.

Even then I was quite undeterred thinking that it will work based on my 'Joy-stick principle'.
A principle that I learnt back in school time - whenever the joy stick of the video game stops working, I used to just leave it for a while untouched and after few hours, bingo it would again start working.

I told my friend not to worry and it will be working after some time. My friend wasn't that worried as she was occupied with her work.

Few hours passed, my joy-stick principle didn't work, and I thought it was high time to sought goddess google help.

I fed the query and it gave some y number of solutions, I tried all but still the phone displayed the same static screen.

I started to feel few angry flares and stares from my friend. With a more intense search I found out some i-phone repair shops in the city. I called up to one number and explained the repairer the cause and the current state of it. He listened to it and said 'The phone can be repaired. But no guarantee that the data remains!', like a doctor who informs the family members of an ailing patient that the person survives but no guarantee that he remembers his past.

I conveyed the same to my friend, but she wasn't willing to lose the data. An obvious and expected reaction. She said she would try connecting it to i-tunes, if not then I could get it repaired.

Her attempt dint work anyways.

So the next day I took it to the trauma centre (Jagdish Market, Abids, Mobile & Electronics Repair market), after some hours of surgery(OS re-installation), medication (apps and required updates) with several experts having a good look at it (I was redirected to four repairers as the 'case' was not in their 'scope' and finally the fifth one took it as a challenge.) its heart started beating again!

However it was a new born baby now (the data was lost :( ). I returned the phone to my friend and she looked visibly happy with her phone breathing again which in turn left me breathing. :)

Message to my i-phone friends:
This particular incident must be an eye-opener for everyone of you, and I advise you all to take regular backups of the data on your phone. Because the world is full of idiots :)

Image Source : Google Images