{mosimage}One of my best friend in Chennai asked me to give a parcel to her sister in UAE, when I went to India on vacation. I met "Chechi" one Thursday evening and gave the parcel. We (I, Chechi, her husband) chatted for long and I was playing with their kids for sometime. I felt at home in this part of the world after a long time. Chechi asked me to drop often whenever possible. I was touched. After a month when Chechi called, I said that since she said that it was boring just being locked at home,I had collected some VCDs for her and would like to give it and I need a home made food as I hadn't got any of friends with family here. That Thursday also came, I forgot this and went with my friends for some electronic goods purchase. When I came back and saw the mobile phone, I saw around 7-8 missed calls from the Chechi's number. I was scared and called her back to enquire had something bad happened.

{mosimage}At last Surya has finally opened his mouth to accept the love between him and actress Jyothika. Infact this is one of the hot topics of discussion among all the layers of people - tea shop to software companies in Tamilnadu. Will they or not? They make a beautiful pair and no wonder every movie goer wanted them to settle together in a marriage bliss. Their growth in career was almost parallel. They both made their debut in "Poovellam Kettu Paar" (Ask the flowers...), both managed to steal the audience's heart with their innocent smile. Both have clean history and a proven track record. To be honest when Surya came open about their affair putting end to all speculations, I really felt happy as if two of my friends are getting married. Infact most of the Tamil families treat Surya's love with Jyothika as their family affair. Actor Sivakumar's, Surya's father, resistance to this affair, kept every fan's heartbeat go faster. Surya replicated his first movie in real life too. i.e not to elope but wait and marry with the parent's consent only. That's how he managed to win the family audience's wishes and blessings. My heartiest wishes to Surya & Jyothika for a succesful marriage life.

Sometimes back there was this discussion about an incident in my workplace. My friend said that I am getting emotionally attached and taking things personally in the office, which I am not supposed to do. He said that it is a thumb rule that you must not get personally attached during the working hours and with the colleagues. But my arguement was that only if you get personally bonded you will be able to give your best in the workplace. After all you spend your prime time of a day when your level of energy is at its high, with these people in the workplace, so obviously you tend to get personal.

{mosimage}Last week there was a gala ceremony at Dubai named IIFA Awards - Intrernational Indian Film Academy Awards function. Even though this is the seventh year of IIFA awards, this is the first time South Indian movies have been added to the section, that too in the non competitive section. Which means the South Indian movies weren't taken into consideration for competition category but mere exhibition category. On the awards function Mamooty, the malayalam superstar, in his speech came strongly on those awards. He had said that it should have been right named as "International Hindi Film Awards" as Indian movies are beyond the Bollywood with exceptionally good movies being made it South.

{mosimage}Few days back I came across a "finding" by American researchers that disturbed me very much. It had put forward its findings that "People who always say good things about others suffer from low self esteem". What a shit observation! It is absolutely ridiculous and a piece of trash that never deserved such exposure. What they mean to say? This means people who are picky and have no good opinion about others are supposed to have higher self esteem? Else people who always see the good point in others are supposed to be goofy asses? I seriously don't dignify these kind of "findings" but I fear this might spoil the young minds who come across these findings in their formative years.

It was an intresting concept I came across accidentally while reading someone's blogs on line. This article is my take on that rather than adapting it. We might have come across many people sticking in a wrong relationship undergoing verbal and physical abuse. We wonder why the hell they are suffering like this rather than walking out of the relationship. Sometimes such things might have happened to us also. We might have liked somebody immensely that we stick to thim even though there used to be lot of problems. Some of us might have come out such situations and look back why we tolerated those things at that time. This piece of article is a part of self realisation and evaluation exercises I normally do. What is "Intermittent Reinforcement"? See it later part of the article.

{mosimage}Haiyyada! This is not a movie pitted against Goutham menon's "Chennaiyil Oru Mazhaikalam" nor a take off from a novel. This is all about my experiences in Summer 2006. By God's grace past three summers have been memorable and I am glad that this summer started and ended in a productive note than just being funny or in lighter vein. This summer made a considerable shift in my perspective about Chennai. This summer proved that certain traits are inborn. On the whole this summer went beyond the lighter elements and presented life in a serious fashion.

{mosimage}I should have felt happy when I heard about Rajesh's marriage. Infact I have been telling him for an year that it is a high time that he should get married. But by the time I heard about the news of his marriage, even though I was excited when he called me to say the news, a sense of gloom overloomed it. I admit I like Rajesh immensly, whom I fondly nicknamed as Kutty (not Malayali Kutty, "tamil" Kutty as he is very short and boyish) very much and have lot of sweet memories with him in my room in Abu Dhabi. Now it is unsaid but understood that he will be moving out of the room to some flat. He might even forget me soon in the bliss of a marriage. Abu Dhabi is too small and if destined, sometimes we might bump into each other at some malls, thats all.

{mosimage}You might have come across many people in your life but on retrospect you realise that one particular name might be coming again and again in the form of many individuals for longer part of your life. In my case it was "B..A..L..A..", not directly as Bala, but as the shorter name. Recently when I went to the SAP classes, the guy sitting next to me was Bala @ Balasubramanium. On the evening of the second day of the class, I had a problem with my mobile recharging, I called BSNL Call center, the Customer Support Assistant who answered my queries was... again some "Bala". I was zapped

{mosimage}A news that disturbed me a lot was the rape of a spastic 21 yr old girl, who is also deaf & dumb, in Tutucorin. She was dwelling on the road side and feeding on the alms from the devotees. She had been raped and is pregnant but the irony is that she is not in a position to realise what had happened to her. Someone had filed a case in court for her abortion. The court had approved it and asked to put her in a orphanage. I lost 3-4 days sleep over this matter. I asked my mother whether we can adopt that girl. My mother said that she is not ready because of the legal complications involved and told me to take it easy because she had seen many such cases earlier. What kind of people we are? Why we turned so brutal that we are indifferent towards the injustice of underpriviliged? Will we react the same way if it happens to our family member?