They spun a web for me

"They spun a web for me" is a line from the Coldplay song - "Trouble", one of my all time favorites. Ironically, literally, and metaphorically, this line is true in my case.

You see, I walk with my head in the clouds. The weather is different up here......

All right, I am tall!. When I talk about sports, the first thing people ask me is if I play basketball, which I don't. I would see this sad look on their faces, which obviously means "you are wasting your height". I just don't play basketball (I watch it, though). I like other sports like cricket and football (off late). But that is not even the point!.

There are times when I really like being tall - say when I don't have to measure up against the minimum height requirements in the roller-coaster lines, or when I only have to reach up a wee bit to get things from the top shelf, and so on. But there are other instances when this could pose a problem:

1. I cannot even attempt to sit in the back seat of a car, unless the driver or the front passenger is extremely small.

2. Only aisle seats in the plane, please!. Atleast one leg needs to get some respite. But hey, I can help put the gorgeous female's carry on luggage in the overhead bin!.

3. Train berths in India?. Forget it. Unless passengers need my blessings.

4. Buses?. Good luck with that!.

5. Never in the front row of a group photo, unless it is one with NBA stars!.

In India, I was definitely the tallest in my family and friends circle. Understandably so, since the average height of the Indian male is around 5'6'' or so. Funny thing is, it seems like I am still considered tall here in the US. I mean, what is the problem in creating some way so that I can have more leg room?. A stupid beach chair can withstand upto 250 pounds. Why only in the weight sense of things?. Why not in the Y-axis?.

Looks like if I need more space and comfort, I need to pay more - business class, or more expensive luxury cars. :-((

So, my take is that, there is some conspiracy theory going on against tall people. Or may be God himself has spun a web for me, so even though my head is up in the clouds, my feet HAS to be firmly on the ground.

Literally speaking, even the spiders seem to have something against tall people!. I had been to a forest hike today with 2 other colleagues (no prizes for guessing who was the tallest among us). The trails have a lot of spider webs criss-crossing, since its a forest and not a lot of people walk there. Irrespective of who was leading the group or trailing, I successfully cleaned up all the webs with my head!. These webs are not like the ones found at home. They are pretty strong (like string) and are huge, but almost invisible. For god's sake, how can one be expected to watch out for spider webs while walking?. I was filling the forest with expletives every time I took out another web, while my colleagues were happily marching in the clear space in front of them.

"Innum ennai enna seiya pogirai" nu paada vendiyadhu dhaan!!

Make sentences with:

Remember your old english question papers at school?. Before the short answers, ERC (Annotation) and essay questions, there were these little ones - Fill up, match the following and make sentences with.

Now, "Make sentences with" was wicked. You have to think of sentences on your own on the spot using the words in the questions. Also, the sentences you make up should not be too obvious (which sadly became the case most of the time), else the teacher would think you copied!. I think that was the only situation in a language paper where one stops and thinks.

This post tries to bring back that experience, in a blogger's sense of things!.

Make sentences with the following words:

1. Glory: He was living in the glory of the past (posts), which was still bearing him fruits (comments).

2. Mercy: An extremely long and verbose post deserves atleast a mercy comment.

3. Amuse: He was amused to see one of his long-forgotten archived posts had got an extra comment.

4. Anger: He shook his fist (mouse) in anger when his frequently visited blogs had no new updates,

5. Shame: He was filled with shame when he saw no "Updated!" sign next to his blogrolled page in a fellow blog.

6. Overkill: The 140th review of Anniyan officially marked the overkill of the blogger's freedom of speech.

7. Ignorance: Pity his ignorance!. He did not care to check if this kind of a post had been published elsewhere.

8. Excuse: .. and this is an excuse of a post!!.

Sorry guys!. It's not that I was busy or anything (I am not a workaholic, remember?!). Just that almost a week had already passed since I posted!. And oh, by the way, he (9. assumed) that he has an obligation to post something every 4-5 days!.

Amarikka Podalanga

I still can't believe it.

1a. Processing a roll of film (24 stills) costs around 7 dollars + taxes.
1b. On the other hand, taking JUST 2 passport-sized photos costs 8 dollars + taxes.

2a. I am given the ENTIRE negatives for the roll of film I gave.
2b. NO negatives are given for the passport-sized photos. So, how do I get more copies?. Simple. Order more copies RIGHT NOW, else take your picture again.

3a. There is an option to get the pictures (from the film roll) in a CD (for an additional cost). The same holds good if memory stick is used to print the photos.
3b. No sir!. Although the passport-sized photos were taken using a DIGITAL CAMERA, a soft-copy of the picture is not available!!!!!.

I had to pay 26 dollars for 6 passport-sized photos, and I don't have any way to replicate. Oh wait!. She said their system holds the picture for 5 days and I can come back to get more copies!.

Yea right. Thanks a lot!.

In India, I can go to New Silver Labs in Usman Road, T.Nagar and finish the entire thing for under 75 Rs, and get negatives too!.

Amarikka podalanga!.

Se7ven*

* shamelessly copied the classic movie's title for this post.

This is new to me. I have been tagged by Vatsan and Keerthi. Tagging is something like a chain-mail thing, but in a good way.

Here goes:

Seven things I plan to do before I die:

1. Buy a time machine (when one becomes available) and relive some of the moments in the past.
2. Go to Ibiza, Spain.
3. Get Scuba diving certification and swim with the sharks.
4. Do hot-air balooning and shoot the rapids.
5. Learn to fly a plane.
6. Help to find/fund a cure to make ignorance disappear.
7. Know what really happens after death without dying.

Seven things that I can do:

1. Remain without being controlled/addicted to/by anything.
2. Identify great music from good music.
3. Convert lyrical/instrumental music to sapthaswaras on the fly.
4. Seeing through people when they fib/brag, and act un-affected, thereby giving them false hope and eventually make them lose their energy.
5. Influence people.
6. Take decisions reasonably quick.
7. Play any kind of sport solely by endurance.

Seven things that I can't do:

1. Talk in an affected accent.
2. Write poems.
3. Tolerate stupidity.
4. Mention the second person's name in a conversation.
5. Getting influenced by peer pressure.
6. Cook well.
7. Not losing temper with people I care.

Seven things that attracts me to the opposite sex:

1. Honesty.
2. Beauty to an extent (hey, atleast I am honest).
3. Not expecting special treatment.
4. Reciprocation and respect.
5. Not always, but it would be nice if the wavelengths match sometimes.
6. Dressing intelligently.
7. (Mutual) Occasional dependence.

Seven things I say the most:

1. What up?
2. Adhaan thalaivar!.
3. Periya m*** everu; serupaala adi; poda naaye.
4. bye bye.
5. danke!
6. adhaavadhu..
7. hi da

Seven celebrities I want to meet:

1. Thalaivar.
2. SRT.
3. 'Ice cool' Waugh.
4. Maestro raasa.
5. 2pac - (thats not possible. Yet)
6. My late grandfather (never seen him. Not possible. Yet. Well, maybe if I buy the time machine!).
7. Tom and Jerry (or) Bart and Homer Simpson.

Seven people who have to take this quiz:

1. Slashaalvaar - done
2. Boldtaurean
3. Maverick - done
4. Aparna - done
5. Srini
6. Mitr - done
7. GP - done

That's all folks!.

Trees

Me: Today I went hiking. It was awesome.

Friend: enna animals paatha?

Me: animals kammi thaan. they run away if they hear us coming. But i saw various trees, vegeta....

Friend: animals ey paakaliya.. free ya udu..

Trees are the biggest underdogs the earth has had. Most of us are more concerned about preserving the existence and preventing the extinction of animals, while we ignore that trees are part of this eco-system too - in fact a MAJOR part. Now I don't want to sound like a tree-hugger, but it should have become painfully obvious by now that the so-called "natural" phenomenons like global warming (and hence hurricanes), earthquakes (and hence tsunamis) are caused due to deforestation and other reasons.

Why is that we don't pay much attention to trees?. Maybe they do not possess the kineticism of animals. Maybe it is our presumptousness that they don't possess defense mechanisms. Perhaps for these reasons and more, we take trees for granted.

Sahara was once a forest.

Florida is fortunate enough to have some well preserved vegetation of various habitats. This post is dedicated to some of the great personalities I have met in some of my travels/hikes.



Clarity in nature. I have tried to capture the ridges and the spines of the branch. It's not every day I see a clear (almost) blue sky during "summer" in Florida. But, he he.. this scene has been immortalized now!.

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Tree of life - Disney's Animal Kingdom (Orlando, FL). This is a man-made tree and is the center-piece in the theme park. It is truly spectacular to look at from a distance. But wait!. As you approach, you can start discerning various animals (what an irony!) carved out in the tree. Check out this site for more on the tree of life.

Oh, by the way, this tree featured in the movie "The Lion King", and incidentally also on my profile photo.

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Open competition. This image is very much like what the world is like. Open competition, fighting for space, rat race, dog-eat-dog world.

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Dignity in defeat. Don't let the angle fool you. This guy is seriously big. And he still holds his fort. Like a trophy monarch in a democrazy.

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Yaanaikum adi sarukkum. Irony again!. Ravages of a previous hurricane.

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Farewell my friend!

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