Cost Cutting Techniques

The famous corporate term "Cost-Cutting" can be implemented in everyone's lives. A few techniques I recently employed are below:

Fun cutting
"Hey! We just went for a team-outing last week. Why don't we postpone our Pondicherry trip to September?"
(Never thought everyone around me are so broke. They accepted it wholeheartedly)

Inflation
"You wanted to buy a pair of shoes right? Why don't we hit the Adidas showroom in Spencers?", a friend asked.
"Hey! I checked it out last week. Nothing attractive. Why don't we go to Big Bazaar next week? Came across a sale on converse shoes!"
(Adidas Fans don't kill me!)

Fuel Conservation
"The doc advised me not to wear helmets. As it turns out to be, it is the root-cause for my hair fall. Planning to take the electric train to office soon."
(Yet to implement)

Health Conscientious
"A long time since we had Dominoes Pizza", my friend said.
"Hey buddy! On a strict diet. Sorry!"
(You guessed my reply as soon as you read the title, din you?)

Planned travel
"How come you got tickets to Cbe by train?"
"It seems ABT travels don't have an option for season tickets."
(For the frequency I use ABT, he ought to have given me concession)

Power Saving
The fact that I'm cutting short this post and switching off my monitor right away.

The Coimbatore Era - Part I

Coimbatore (Cbe), the place I was born, brought up, where I built a small empire of my own and ruled it and will keep ruling it forever. When I talk about Cbe, first thing that comes to my mind is Saibaba Colony (famously known as "Colony" there). Except for a cursed 12 months, I've lived there completely.

Vinayagar Temple (a good start always)
This one is situated round the corner of my house (the first house for me in Cbe). This place used to be a daily visit place, because I (rather my family) cross His hide-out wherever we used to go. For my first B'day (they call it "andinaar") I was taken to this temple for the pooja formalities. Since then, He is my Best Friend. A couple of years back, I had a small fight with Him and let's say I've not visited there since. Way too many memories left behind.

Annapoorna
Anybody associated with Cbe would know the speciality of this place. Available in every area, Annapoorna Coffee is the best of all the coffees i've had outside home. At least 75% of my diet, I owe it to this place. Colony Annapoorna has fed me like any mom would feed her children. I don't think the waiters there (excpept for 2) know me by name, but for sure they know me.

N.S.R Road

This is the Diagon Alley/Mount Road/Brigade Road or whatever of Saibaba Colony. It connects at least 3-4 major areas in the city. We owned a Sunny (bicycle with a motor attached to it). I'm a proud owner of that vehicle just because it has been able withstand me until 4 years back. Lets just say that our Sunny has its tyre marks imprinted on each and every pixel of N.S.R road. For grocery shopping, music CDs/Cassettes, video stores, tailor, typewriting classes, cycle repair/puncuture shops, stationery, bakers/confectioners, gift shop, college bus stop and the list goes on, the only solution was N.S.R road.

A.R.C Pani Poori stall
If Annapoorna was 75%, a major portion of the rest was contributed by A.R.C Pani Poori stall. The bhel puri (south indian style), Cauliflower (similar to Gobi Manchurian) and Paneer soda used to be my routine here. Long time since I've gone there also. Have to give a visit sometime. Sasi anna and Raj anna would definitely miss one of their favourite and well paying customer.

Padma Miss Tuition Class

I took Hindi tuitions with her. In simple words, she ROCKS! I never called her maam. Somehow, the first time I met her I called her Aunty (the other students always wondered why) and I stick to it till date. Unable to bear my trouble at home (for studies) I've been tested with a good lot of tuition teachers from time-to-time. The only successful person (or sane person after trying to control me) was Padma Miss. If she had not fallen sick during my public exams (10th), I'd have bagged the school first (in Hindi). I had to settle for the second highest score. I missed it by 4 marks. One full year, I took lessons with her and she is one of the most respectable teachers in my life.

Kerala Club

This is another awesome place. My dad is a member there. He used to take us (cousins, my sister and me) at times during vacation. We used to spend entire evenings watching people play Tennis, Badminton (coaching classes). The coaches used to lend us a couple of used tennis-balls in the end and we played in the lawn. My cousin Srinath and me used to wait for the bar to open. The bar looked like the ones that come in movies and all, with elevated, rotating chairs in front of the bar-tender counter, where one can sit and enjoy his drink. We used to order Thums-Up and imitate movie dialogues and scenes, say two detectives meeting at a bar and plotting to catch Veerappan and stuff. As kids, it used to be so much fun. I've been there with my college friends (Vivek, Vibu and JP) and as far as I know, they love the food there. Chilli Gobi, Paneer Tikka and Special Parotta are their favourites I guess.

To be continued..

PS: This is the 50th post Chiju has spoken (A blog that was supposed to be shut down has 50 posts now, which is something). Got to thank a few people whether or not I write sense.

1) Vibushan, first of all, to have introduced the word Blog to me.
2) Vivek, who used to encourage me whenever my blog slept and made me write come back posts. Though he is not a fan (which I recently learnt from him), he has even given me a blog award.
3) Aneesh, who never hesitated to tell me the truth when he felt what I've written is crap.
4) VJ, who comments everytime whether or not she understands it.
5) All my silent readers who read and give me offline comments (includes Bhuvana, Karthikeyan from school, Robin, my cousin Srinath, Sheetal, Ananth, Swetha, and Hari from Amrita).
6) Divya, who spent a lot of dedicated hours and gave my blog the appearance it carries now.
7) All the bloggers, whose writing inspired me a lot. Check out the Good Reads section in my blog.
8) Any well-wisher I missed out.

Goodie Foodie

Food has never been a problem. My mom used to make everything from Kozha Puttu to Dhokalas, a mix-and-match of everything. My dad is another great cook! His Pav Bhaaji, Palak Panner and Lagada-Paatis taste awesome.

Once my mom told me, "When I was carrying you, I used to pray that at least, unlike your sister you shouldn't give problems to eat food". And later she also told that, "She repented praying for that".

There is a saying that "Food is the best medicine". It is really true. Choosing the proper place and proper food at the proper time is important. Touch-wood (touching my head now), I'm immune to all kinds of what you call EATABLE. Be it royal food, annapoorna (a famous chain in Cbe like saravana bhavan in Chennai), small mess food, road-side Thattu Kadais (my sister is gonna get all squeaky by now) and the list goes on, I can just eat and my stomach never makes a big fuss about it except that it gets a bit bigger everytime :(.

Especially during the good (not yet) old college days, Vibushan, Vivek, Vijay and me have hit quite a lot of places. Just say, there isn't a single foodlet in Cbe where we have not paid. The waiters at Peking, Rich Food, Akka Kadai (the one in colony), Food Joint(or Point I forgot), Village etc must be wondering the sudden disappaerance (since last September) of their favourite customers (when it comes to the bill :D).

Two days back (Friday), I hit the bessy (Besant Nagar Beach) with my dad, sister and my cousin/roommate. After that, we decided to eat at the all famous "Muguran Idli Shop". Though the origin of this one is from Madurai (I've been there and it is great), the one is Chennai is too well known. We just wanted to see what's the big deal.

As soon as we got a table to sit (we had to wait for sometime), they had already laid Plaintain leaves to eat. Before we even thought about what to eat, they had served four chutneys (Coconut, Onion & Tomato, Coriander Leaves and No-idea-which-one). For cliche sake, we ordered a couple of idlis each. I enquired if they served "Kushboo Idli" and they did not know what it was. This annoyed me a bit, but the idlis they served were so soft and with the Idli Chilly Powder they served (later) it was WOW!

They served big fat South Indian Doughnuts (Vada) along with the Idlis. The vadas were excatly like the one they are seen on the posters put up at hotels. It deserved some clicking and I did click it. As we were tasting the Idlis, came Morrappam or Kuzhi Paniyaram, which was again great! We ordered for one more of those in the end. We also ordered a couple of roast items and my sister chose Onion Uthapam (if Vivek is reading, there are other kinds of uthappams also; hope you realized that at least now).

One of the best Idlis i've ever had

The bottom-line is : "Everything was great". I'd call it "Tastier than the Tastiest".

Abhiyum Naanum - A must watch

NB: This is not a review. It is just an experience shared.

Eight months after this movie released, finally I got a chance to see this movie. I had once seen it back in Madurai. In a Rs. 20/= DVD with a lot of "Clip-Clop" sounds in between. Also, I was dealing with a stupid problem that day, I had to walk away from the computer at least 6 times in between.

"Abhiyum Naanum", from Duet Movies. Right from the time I heard about this movie, I was longing for it. I kept on checking the websites for news about its release. Especially after Mozhi, who would not want to see another one from the same team.


Talking about the acting, needless to say Prakashraj has taken the burden of the entire movie with the support of Radhamohan's screenplay. Basically, "Abhi.." is a movie about a father who finds it hard to let go off his daughter, the situations he is put through and how he handles the same. I believe there is an English movie starring Steve Marting in the same lines, not sure about the name though.

This movie is a must-watch for everyone who is in some relationship or other. The primary reason being, everyone will find something or the other to relate to. A dad, a mom, a daughter, a wife, a lover, a servant, a friend and the list goes on. The mind blowing aspect that attracted me so much is that the movie is so real in what it is conveying.

Everybody mess up big time in their relationships (no matter what the relationship is). A dad says the most unexpected things to his children. A daughter cuts you out with harsh words. A wife behaves as if it is not a big deal when you feel the world is falling down. One day, we'll realize that it was perhaps the words they used and not the meaning they wanted to convey.

Though I couldn't direclty relate to the character on screen, I could grab instances of my past, present and future (expected) then and there.

Those who have seen this movie, I'm sure you'd appreciate the movie in one way or the other. Those who have not seen the movie, don't miss it. The best time to see it is now. Who knows? You may find the answers to a lot of questions running in your mind.

I certainly did. When Prakashraj says, "Life is Beautiful", in the end, one does feel that, the exact same words were what they kept looking for all the way through the movie. Some find them. Some keep looking until he says it himself.

Hats off Radhamohan. Hats off Prakashraj! Can't wait to see the next marvel.

PS: Guys and gals who can't understand why your parents behave a bit different from what you expect them to, please watch this movie and you'll get to know what you wanted to. The tagline says it all.

I got closure

Getting over something is never a piece of cake. It gets worse to realize that something that you should have (or have had) is now with someone who does not deserve it at all. This has happened to me in the recent past.

Closure is the state where you finally accept the fact that you don't have it and you move on. Getting closure is not that easy either. First of all, you are going to miss it (badly). Next, you've got to put up with the fact that a worthless bastard has it, is enjoying with it or boasting to his friends about what he has got.

What generally people do?

1) Easily accept the fact that it is not there and move on soon. (I'm not even close to the easily part of this one)
2) You cry over it, then cry over it and then again cry over it. (Sounds like something I'd do, but I hate being like that, so not an option)
3) You try (your best) to be Mr. Happy & in the course you get over it smoothly. (Getting closer)
4) You talk to somebody else about it, they either scold you (has happened to me) and you say, "Ya, you're right" (I don't do that) or they talk and install some sense into the stupid head of yours (am just next door now).

Though the above pointers seem to give the big picture, the most probable action is:

5) Do something crazy like getting along with something else just to show that you're over it. (you've just reached my place).

However in the last case, when you realize that the one that replaced what you lost is not what you want, you feel so stupid that you want to do Ctrl+z. Is that possible?

As I was telling, in my case, it was possible. Ctrl+z worked. And the best part was, it gave me closure. :)

I still realize that I don't have it. I still do care that an unworthy, bloody ****** (any censored curse) is having fun with what should have been with me. But, I'm happy.

I proudly own a brand new Sony Ericsson c510 cybershot. And I sold away the stupid dobile (dappa mobile) that I bought to get over my K810i. :)

PS: Refer to Mobile-Tech-No-Logic. Getting over the mobile phones you love can be tough. Many would agree with me.

Seven years later

Seven years later.
Millions of seconds ticked away,
Should have been any other day.
But, my world had a great sway.

Seven years later.
Never did a thought ring,
You never told a thing.
This sad song - I'll forever sing.

Seven years later.
Many of the zillion things you told,
"Too early", I wondered.
Time is what you never had -
Much later, I understood

Seven years later.
Always, made you feel bad,
Yet, beside me you stood.
Once I made you proud -
Were you too satisfied?

Seven years later.
However lost I was,
Never had to look for the way.
You had me find your hand - end of the day.

Seven years later.
Made me look at the Gods everyday.
I carry the habit even today,
Pains though, to look at you and pray!

Seven years later.
Never did you let anyone serve.
Would have only been fair,
Had we a chance to fight.

Seven years later.
The many times I've walked the streets,
Unhappy and in despair.
Someone known to you, I meet,
Believe, you sent them to repair.

Seven years later.
I thought you were selfish.
Never realized I was foolish,
Until I saw what you had left behind.

Dedicated to my Mom who left to some other world, seven years back, the same day! (July 2nd 2002). Today is my Mother's day! Miss you Ma!

PS:
1) I'm attempting poetry for the first time. Poets and poetry lovers, forgive me for bull-shitting the style. More than anything, the content mattered to me.
2) Its good to be emotional once in a while, shows you are still alive inside.