So the alternative? Make them produce a multi million movie, which is a guaranteed flop! Draw a lame story, add an aged and over priced super star with a history of flops, a bunch of heroines which you cant count with a single hand, a premium location preferably in an I-have-seen-that region like Middle east so that people wont rush in for the visual beauty, a helicopter sequence and a few retakes for that, exotic cars, filler artists, boring punch dialogues and above all create a hype at least for an year!

Now that he have done that with Casanova, I have a feeling that the producer – Confident group will struggle atleast for a while for it’s new ventures. Now he have to come up with similar plots for other Real Estate kings!

Hearty congrats to Roshan Andrews for such a bold and fresh initiative!

I know, I haven’t watched the movie and this post is based on the comments about the movie from my friends. After watching Notebook, Udayanaane Thaaram, Ividam Swargam aane, I am not convinced enough that Roshan did this film with his full creative heart!

Note: I am a Mohanlal fan and I don’t like Mammooty’s acting.

Image Credit: http://www.cinespot.net/

I lost my camera in the early quarter of 2011, and the photos from then wouldn’t have possible without the help of my loving friends who dared to lend their camera to me. Thank you all!

Here is a collage of my 2011 through the camera! Dedicating it to all my friends.

(click on the image to view it in full size)

2011 Through My Camera

“Which one? The Sajna one?” – I asked annoyingly, for breaking my yawning saga.

“Yea! That’s it. Do you know the lyrics?” – He grinned.

That was quite an unusual approach from him to ask *me* the lyrics for he being superior than me in remembering lyrics. I raised my brows in reply.

“Dude! This is a prank! I need the lyrics. Let’s have a trick on Anoop” – He grinned wider

This Anoop and Anish are my cousins, and this Botony tution  is the only place where we three happened to attend together. Anish explained me the prank. The class seating layout is such that the master brain behind it wanted only botony, not zoology to be learned from class. Girls sit in front rows and guys behind that. We three being extremely studious chose the first possible row for guys to get the words from the master in the best possible way without loosing it’s charm and freshness. Unfortunately, I stress, Unfortunately it came just behind the last row for girls. So the prank goes like this,

Sajna is the unlucky girl who happened to be always late to the class in her Dad’s loud kinetic honda, and get the last row for girls. The smarter ones comes before dawn and grab the front rows, just like us to get the master’s word fresh and live. No, not because they wanted to keep a safe distance from us. Anish’s master mind worked out a plan to connect Anoop and Sajna for reasons known only to him till date. And like every other teenage romance, he needed a Love Letter to start things work out. K3G was recently released and the song “Sajna..” seemed to be a perfect fit for the letter. So now, he is writing a letter to Sajna on behalf of Anoop, without his knowledge of-course! What he need from me is the lyrics.

“Brilliant!! Awesome idea man! I’m in team!” – I was in for whatever pranks to whomever! “But I don’t know the full lyrics“.

Those where the days without a GPRS enabled mobile for instant googling. I tried, tried and got tired. “This won’t work. Let’s go home and fix everything for next week. The song have to be there in letter” – I accepted my defeat.

“No! Just try man! You know the first line.. try humming it.. You will get the lyrics” – Anish was in no mood to retrieve.

“Sajnaa… ha yeh mera pehla pehla pyaaar hai..” – I kept repeating the same line till I gave up. Anoop was busy chatting with some one else, and the teacher was out to his room.

“Anish, that’s it. I don’t know the rest.”

“It’s ok.. Let’s give it today itself with just this line. Let me fill out the rest of the letter.” – He got buried into his notebook scribbling something *personal*.  I checked Anoop, and he was not even in this side of the world. So things are fine so far!

“Done!” – Anish gave a shoulder bump and flashed me the letter.

“So, how we are gonna proceed? How can we make Anoop to give it to her?” – I was confused.

“Never worry! I can manage that. Just watch me!” – He smirked and asked Anoop to give that paper to Sajna. With a smile, and without any doubts he passed that paper to her. Simple Logic! Sajna was sitting in front row to the left of Anoop and we both were to the right of him. Why it’s not striking in time for me? Anish and me giggled each other for Anoop!

Thirty minutes! I was looking at that paper under Sajna’s book to check when she is going to open it and check. It was perfectly wrapped and at first sight itself, gave an impression of “Classified” content. I totally forgot it after that during the rush on leaving class room. On the stairs, Sajna was waiting with the letter. We three were coming down. Anish and me smiled at each other and he signaled to speed up to make Anoop face her alone.  Smiling at her for her fate, I accelerated my walk down the stairs. Just when I was about to cross her, I looked at her again and gave a casual smile and crossed her down the stairs sharpening my ears to hear what she will tell Anoop.

“I am fine, if you are not over possessive” – I heard she telling to Anoop.

I looked back to see his what-when-why-who reaction.

“I don’t want to be tied up in a possessive relation. So if it’s okay with you, I am saying yes!” – She said.

I felt like the world is revolving around me and grabbed the stair rail to keep me from falling down.

“What? Me? Why? No!” – I was perplexed. She was talking to ME, not to Anoop.

I looked at my evil cousins. The two were standing up the stairs watching the drama and laughing. Prank it was! But on me! The letter was in fact written on my behalf with my name!  The song I sang was the icing on the prank cake!

She had no reason not to believe that I wrote that! I stood there stunned. She walked past me, with a cute smile at me, to her Dad waiting for her in his kinetic honda which used to make the loudest noise in the city.

There goes my first ever romantic proposal! And got accepted in the first chance itself!

Sometimes, all you need is some good friends with you to get accepted by any girl!

[Epilogue:

Though it was my first proposal in an indirect way, and even after it was a success, I was mad at every one that day.  She got my landline number somehow, either from pranksters or it was there in the letter itself and called me that evening to my home. My Dad was the first one to answer it. Suspicious he was on the tone I talked with her. I was in deep anger and frustration on being the prank target. I should've told her the real story. But I just yelled at her and said not to call me again. Wondered and worried, she kept calling me again the same night. Dad popped the ultimate question of who she was to me. I got her mobile number (her elder sister's actally, who was giving her full support), ran to the nearest booth and cursed her like anything. In between I guess I would've told about the prank too.  I talked to her sister too, who tried to calm me down understanding the confusions happened.  I hung up and came back home. A few unanswered questions were waiting for me at home. The prime one for being rude to a girl in phone.

Next sunday. The last few before the entrance exams arrive and the classes are over. I was waiting for her. I am now calm and understood my mistake.  I am going to apologize her, for being rude, for playing pranks. But she never came to that class, nor for any class after that. Till date, I've never seen her,  never got that chance to apologize. I guess, this is one story that all of my friends know by now, except the real one who need to know it. Let this post be here, with a hope that, once she will come across it.

]

I was distracted by the strong head lights of a car, which was trying to park infront of the shop. The parking maneuver itself proved that the driver is just out from a pretty good night out party with enough alcohol in his head. It almost hit my bike.   Two guys and two girls came out of the car, giggling at the driver guy. It was past midnight and the loud girly sounds suppressed the rest of the talks going around,  for a few moments only. The world swung back into its momentum in a minute. I pulled myself from the newbies back to the call center talks. For sure, these call center guys hate their managers!

I was about to leave the shop when someone squeezed into the tiny space between me and the tip of parapet. It was one of those girl from the party gang. She gave a sleepy smile at me, pulled my wrist and checked the time. “2.30!” she screamed. Well, if the same is done by a guy to a random girl, you know what the result will be. I was taken aback by her approach and stared at her in numb. Was that she or the alcohol? Oh my! I know her. She sure seemed to be a familiar face to me, but I was struggling to recollect. As always and with everything, I am bad in keeping memories.

“I have seen you. Do we know?” – She asked

“Err.. I guess we know. I mean, we have seen each other.” – I mumbled, switching to parallel processing mode digging my histories to get a trace while answering her.

“Have been to Trivandrum? I think I have a pic in my home with you and Mr.XXXX from a party in Trivandrum”  - She said.

“Yes, there we go!” – I guess I went over exited.

A tiny clue! This Mr.XXXX she was referring to is actually a friend of a friend of a friend of mine who I had talked with only once in a party. So, she might have been there also with him and we might have been in a single frame.

“Actually Mr.XXXX is my ex BF. I dumped him and moved to this city now last month.”

Now,  I made sure that it’s the alcohol is speaking, not her. No stranger girl have ever revealed her past relations in the second line of a conversation to another stranger! I made a quick search through the corner of my eyes for the guys who were with her. I have to make sure that I leave that place in a single piece!

I made that face which you make when you have nothing to tell in a conversation. She continued blabbering something about her and at times raising questions about me. I still have no clue about her name, neither did she I guess!

“Do you have a place for us to stay?” – THIS question brought me back to the reality from the history hunting process.

“What?” – I really wanted to make sure that the question I heard was the question she asked. And to increase my heart beat, she didn’t seem half as drunk she looked before.

“It’s too late for us, and can we stay at your place.” – She asked again counting the other girl with her.

“I wish I could help you, but I have my apartment overcrowded with friends tonight” – That was an instant lie I brought up.

“Oh. I prefer less people” – She winked and replied in a husky tone.

Oh yea! NOW, it’s time to scoot. It didn’t take even a second for me to process the intention behind her answer.  I smelled danger and stood up leaving her no chance to talk any more. Walked straight to the counter, paid the bill. Pulling the phone out of my pocket, and pretending to be on a call, again to avoid a chance of conversation, I walked to the bike. I am not sure why I was frightened, I can always reject the *offer* if it comes, but something made me do it all in a hurry. Just when I was about to put my helmet, she reached near me.

“I got that you got me. But it ain’t free okay? So if you feel fine, or if your friends are looking for one, give it” – She said after writing her number over raindrops in my bikes seat and walked away.

Yes, she was for sale.

Dumping the baggage into the boot, I got absorbed into the plush seats of Figo. My first long ride in my first four wheeler. The red lighted dashboard was reflecting the sky before sunrise. With a proud grin , I started the engine..

Trrrr..Trrr.. Trrrrrrrrr   Trrr.. Trrr.. Trrrrrrr

The red dashboard blurred into yellow. Oh yea, that’s my bed spread. Rubbing my eyes,  I reached for the vibrating phone.. A weekend morning dream got spoiled!

*Unknown*: Hello Sir!

Me: Hello.   *With a bit more of bass.*

*Unknown*: Am I speaking to Mr. Srijith?

Me: Yea. It’s Srijith here. May I know who is this?

*Unknown*: Sir, I called to talk about an important matter.. You can now..

Me: <interrupting> Ok, but who is this?

*Unkown*: Sir,  I am Raghu from Bajaj Auto Finance.I called to let you know that you have received special..

Me: <interrupting> What’s wrong with you guys to call at early morning? Ain’t you from Indian Time?
Raghu: But.. Sir.. But it’s 9.30 AM already. We start our calls from 8.30 AM

Me: Err.. Sorry.. I was ..leave it. Ok. I am not interested.

Raghu: But.. sir I haven’t even told about what you are not interested in.

Me: I know! I have been regular in paying back your loan. So I am now eligible for another loan. Isn’t it?

Raghu: Exactly sir! You are genius!

Me: Nope, I already got the same call last week and rejected the offer.

Raghu: Then to surprise you sir, we called you now to let you know that you have received a special pampering from Bajaj Auto Finance.

Me:  Special what???

Raghu: Special.. Special offer sir!

Me: So if I reject this again, will you come up with an even better *pampering*?

Raghu: No Sir. This is exclusively for selected people.  You are now eligible for a personal loan of upto 63454 Rupees and a lot of other packages along with it.

Me:  63454!

Raghu: We will be providing this at a flat interest rate of 22.23 % per annum. That means you will have to pay only around 2200 Rs per month for 36 months.

Me: Thanks for the *Good* offer! But I am not interested. Thank you!

Raghu: Sir.. No! Wait. The list is not yet over.

Me: What?

Raghu: Along with this we provide you free accident insurance worth 5 lakh and the premium we pay for you is tax deductable.

Me: Fine again. But I ain’t looking for a personal loan now in the first place!

Raghu: Sir, but once you hear the full list of offers you WILL take the loan!

Me: I WILL take the loan when I WANT it. Why should I take a  loan and pay EMI when I am not in need of it

Raghu: Sir, you will get tax exemption by insurance premium along with it.

Me: Don’t make me fool! I pay 2200 per month to get tax exemption of 5000 year? Listen, I am done with this. I am not looking for a personal loan now. Thanks and bye

*CLING*

I hung up the phone then when I realized that’s the only option to withdraw from the conversation. Right when I was to crawl under the sheet to press the play button on my dream, the phone started ringing again.

Me: Hello

*Unknown*: Sir, I am calling from Bajaj Auto Finance..

Me: Didn’t you get it? I DONT want your loan now!

*Unknown*: Sir sorry. I am the lead of the one who called you before.

Me: huh!

Lead: I called you to apologize for the previous call.  Sorry for disturbing you sir.

Me: Oh! No problem. Sorry for hunging up too. I was sleepy.

Lead:  That’s okay sir.  Sir, so you are not interested with the offers Raghu said.

Me: Not about the offers, I am not interested in another loan at this time.

Lead: Sir, I can give you some extra offers and some reduction in interest rates. If you take a personal loan now from us,

Me: What the fuck!

*CLING*

Switched it off and I started dreaming my yet to be bought gadgets and car..

Doors closed again and curtains were moved inside the room to get the machine in. I couldnt see anything other than a few doctors with tensed eyes and a few more equipments.  My view was shut immediately with the green curtain.  Blinded from the scene, I gripped the door panel hard, concentrating harder to guide the leaking sound from the room to my ears. I stood there for time I believe the longest ever I waited. The wait for a life.

A couple of hours before, I was dressing up to bring her home from Hospital. Today was the discharge date. And last night, doctors claimed her fit enough to be discharged. Even when I was confused with the urgency in Dad’s phone call this morning, I never guessed something to this extend was awaiting me. Everything was calm, and clear until I reached Hospital. Until I was asked to come to the ICU..

The oldest memory I have with her is some 25 years old. I must be an infant graduating to a toddler then. She is with me at the kitchen door, trying to feed me , playing hide and seek. She will close one pane of the door and hides her face from me. I have to open the pane and see her face. She may have done that for a day may be. Or that might have been a routine to feed me. Some how, my memories with her starts with that scene. Her face behind a door, trying to feed me.

The door was pushed open, another machine was dragged in. And I saw her for a second and I shut my eyes. That was one moment I wish I could undo in my life. I didn’t want to see her suffering for life. And everytime I think of her now, this image fills my eyes. The pain, the suffering, the involuntary attempts to grab a breath. I wish I closed my eyes a second earlier. Some one pulled me off from there. I sensed the outcome. The door was opened again and this time, I was asked to go in. It was the main doctor, and she stood there silent. I was too weak to look towards the direction of the bed, as I failed to hear the rush in air that was there before. I looked into the doctor’s eyes. She tried to say something, but stopped in middle. Those moments where we prefer silence against words. The world was getting blurred for me, but I walked out of that room towards my Dad. Clueless, he stood there watching me. Waiting for a word from me. A word of hope, reassurance – which I couldn’t.

I walked away from the crowd, into a corner of the ward. I cried, I was numb. Memories flew before me. The love, the fights, the sorries.. And my last memory with her, which I never want to have – She behind a door, trying to grab a breath.

Running out of options, we stood there confused and needled. Jose, in mean time have started making funny faces and even funnier noises out of irritation. I suggested to break open the glass door with the lighter in my hand and take off the lock. But Jose ruled out that option as he was not ready for taking another chance of getting injured by the broken glass pieces! “You did it because you want me to send you back to Trivandrum!” – He kept uttering this sentence in between the long and loud hauling to grab attention of very few people  walking along the lane 10 floors down.

I was sure that if we wait for an hour, the workers in the adjacent building might come in our sight and we can get their attention. We just need to wait till their working hours. [if (reader == 'jose') skipThis(); ]Jose was nearly into a mentally broken stage and his voice started to sound more like a girl.

In between, an old man walking through the back street heard Jose’s howling and noticed two young chaps in a balcony waving their hands. Wondering what would be the reason, he replied to our hand gestures. That traffic cop play went on for a minute and with a more confused mind, the man walked away. There went a slight hope! Jose returned to his panic mode again. I sat on the floor and started to ‘relax’ again.

After a few minutes, the same old man to whom we played action games, appeared on the front side of our flat and he was with our security guy. So the message got down! Now we got the hope back for getting out of the balcony and the worries were more about how to minimize the damage to the apartment in rescuing us.

Option 1: Security man have to break open the front door. Front door have to be replaced after that, adding close to 20000 for a teak wood door. Glass balcony doors can be opened from inside, so the lose will be 20000 Rs.

Option 2: The security man have to some how get us a tool by which the glass balcony doors can be broken. Glass doors can be replaced within 2000 Rs,

Obviously the preferred option for us was number 2. But things are not as easy as it seems initially. The tough part in option 2 will be in handing over the tool to us. They can either throw it to us from the opposite building or hang it down or push it up from floors above or below us. These were the ideas in our mind. The toughest part is to pass it on to the security man. Jose belong to that minority who can understand hindi very well, but talking hindi is alien. For sample, a face to face talk with the security man during the car parking session everynight goes like this.

Jose: “Car .. park.. yeha?”

Security: “Nahi, yeha jagah nahi hei. Aap tho zara aage jaake park karo”

Jose: “Park? waha?? Yeha nahi? Okay”

My voice have less treble to get it carried all the way down 10 floors making my *superior* knowledge in hindi useless.  So you now can guess our toughest job. Yes, conveying the problem and our super duper rescue tactic (option 2) to the security man down there.

Few fruitless attempts to talk with the security on ground were made by Jose by then. May be because of the thundering voice of Jose or by our luck (whatever that’s left) a sleepy face peeped out from the same floor in opposite building. He seemed to be disturbed from a calm sleep.

The first voice from him calmed both of us down like a QA missing the most anticipated bug in the code[Forgive me for the lame comparison, but I am a developer and so that is excusable  ]. It was “Entha chettanmaare kaaryam” [[ What's the matter? ]]. Yes a Mallu!! You now may be wondering whether we were not in Kerala. Yes we were, but in Kakkanad in Kochi and Kazhakootam in Trivandrum, seeing a North Indian construction worker have more probability than seeing a mallu.

Without the language or the height barrier, we quickly conveyed the issue and our solutions to him. He ruled out our option 2 just on hearing it. He said he got better plans. His idea was to break open the front door with no damage to the door. Slam the door near the top latch ((Refresh!! refresh!! That’s the only lock in door at that moment as I said in previous post!!)) so that only the top latch holder will be pulled out from the screws. He was a carpenter and have better system knowledge (!!) than us. Finally he added these words..

“Njan onne palle theche kulichittokke varam. Avide rest cheyyuu!” [[I'll come after brushing and a bath! Take rest!]]

Yes, he have every right to be fresh and clean before rescuing two innocent souls! He took exactly 18 minutes to complete his daily chores and we saw him walking towards our building. No power in our apartment means, he have to climb all the steps to the 8th floor.

[[Switching to mallu film mode>> fast forward climax]]

He came, he slammed, he rescued! Minimal damage to our apartment and a happy ending minus the heroine!

Last night was a terror, with horrified truths getting unveiled about the electricity problems in the flat (No KSEB connection, and it’s running on a diesel generator 24/7!). And it was the first day in the history of  its inmates without electricity for more than 4 hours. Since I reached there around 5 in the evening till I woke up in the morning, we had power for merely 2 hours. It was heard from the security that the flat maker – Apple A Day,  have decided to stop supplying fuel for the generator. The free electricity days for the inmates are about to end.We were in fact happy to hear that news, as it was a strong excuse for us to claim our advance back and seek for a better accommodation.

Still with a heavy head from last day’s headache, I crawled out of the bed and started to get ready for the first day in new office. Need to be there by 8.30 which seems to be a fairly easy task considering the short distance to the office. Time was just 7 Am. Just after I finished brushing, Jose – my apartment mate, called to join for a fag. His room is opposite to mine, after a wide hall. The hall had a small balcony which is accessible through a sliding glass door. We have already decided to follow a strict no smoking policy inside the house. The balcony was selected as our smoking spot, which seemed reasonable, till then.

I grabbed a fag from my bag and joined Jose in the balcony, who was waiting for me, or to be precise, the lighter with me. “We need to get ready by 8 to be in office in time” – said Jose while pulling the first smoke of the day. I nodded, and noted  a curl of smoke entering the hall through the open sliding door. Without a second thought, I closed the sliding door to keep the smoke outside of the main room.

*Klick*

The sound made a shiver run through my spine. The door got locked! The only two poor residents got locked out in the 2×8 balcony and the main door is latched from inside. I checked my pockets for my mobile, as that was my instinct reaction. None! Same was for Jose who was now standing still, shocked and with an i-am-crying-without-tears face. So the two of us are in balcony, with a pack of cigarettes, a cheap plastic lighter and  drained hearts. “I knew it has auto locks!” – Jose said in trembling voice, half with the anger towards me and half with the fear of dieing there without food or water  (He revealed the second half later! )!

We tried shouting to the people 10 floors down us on the road.. Our voice were not enough to reach them. Break the glass?

- To be continued-

PS: This *story* is not a *story*.

Funny Question in Yahoo Answers

Screenshot from Yahoo Answers!

Test Date: Nov 9, 2010 1:44:44 pm
Connection Type: Cell

Download: 1455 kbps
Upload: 130 kbps
Ping: 196 ms

The test was done from Kesavadasapuram with full signal (inside 3rd floor on Leela towers)

Later tests from the same location gave much lower speeds.