The Surprise gift which I purchased for "Myself"...

Time: 7:30AM.
Date: One month before my 18th Birthday.

It was friday morning and I was having my breakfast. I was in a hurry coz I was getting late for college. At that time, my father was working in Middle east (Dubai). He used to call us every friday morning, as it was leave for them. So he called up and I picked the phone. As I was in a hurry, I said "Hi" and told that I will give it to My Mom. He asked me to wait and said that he had a surprise for me... He said he was planning to give a surprise gift for my 18th B'day. But the problem was that he was not in India and the only person which he can assign the job of purchasing the gift was me!!! Poor papa. (Other members in my family is my little sis and Mom) So, if I'm purchasing the gift, it ruins the surprise part, from the "Surprise gift".

After hearing the idea "Surprise gift", I was not able to control my curiosity. Suddenly I cameup with an idea. I told him "It's okay Papa, tell me what you want to gift me and I will get surprised now itself. Later, I will purchase it and add the gift part also. So the surprise gift idea will be a success". As he don't have any other options, he revealed his plan.

He was planning to gift me a car, on my 18th b'day. Now, don't think that we are so rich and we have a lots of cars lying in the garage, like the unused gifts which we get for B'day parties and other functions (Normally, flower vase, statues, etc) which will eventually end up in the store room. It's not because we don't care for the gifts, but if we invite 100 people, we will end up with 10 or 15 clocks, 20 to 25 flower vases, another 10 or 15 designer Table lamps/ lights etc. Even if we decided to fix a wall clock on every walls, including bathrooms, still we will have four or five clocks left (Our house is a normal three bedrooms house). So it will end up in the store room. Oops!!! I went off track...
Lets get back to the topic.
Were was I???
Okay. I was telling that We are not that rich, but we are so smart that we will join one or two occasions together, so that it becomes more Splendid. In Malayalam, there is a saying "Oru Vedi-kku randu pakshi" In English, it means "Hitting two birds with one bullet".
That's our policy.

In this case, It was our long time dream to own a car, and when my Papa earned enough money to buy a car (a Used one, Of course) he noticed that my 18th B'day is nearing. So he postponed it till that day so that he can give a great gift to his son and the family will get a car... Two birds with a single bullet. That's our style...

After hearing this, I expressed my surprise and ran out to reach my college. Now don't think that I was hurrying to attend the class. It is to reach Babu chettan's Teashop, were our gang will hangout. Everyday, I will start by 8AM and will reach college by 8:30. Today, we had a hot topic to discuss. I had to decide which one to buy. After a day long discussion about the various cars, advantages, style factors etc, I came home with a list of cars which will fall in our Budget.

My final list was:
1) Jeep (So that I can make it a convertible open jeep).
2) Maruthi Omni (So that I can drive around, with all my friends).

My Sis came up with Maruthi 800 and Omni. Mom came up with Ambassador. Papa has left it to me, as he was not that much aware of Indian cars.

Jeep was discarded due to the dislike of Mom and sis. Ambassador was voted out by me and my sis. So the only car which got enough vote was Maruthi Omni (Two out of three). So we finalized and purchased the omni...

That is how, I purchased a "Surprise gift", for "myself".

The Omni was an important part of my life, during my college days...
If I started telling the stories related to that Omni, this post will break the records as the lengthiest post ever posted in a blog... So I will put it later, as a separate post.

Here, I must tell you that My Papa was really great... Whenever I used to start dreaming about something, he used to gift it to me. When I was in 7th, I started dreaming about a Bicycle. He bought me the best and rare one available at that time. It was a BSA streetcat (The first Indian cycle to come out with a straight handle bar). It was not available locally. He bought it from the Military canteen in Cochin (My Grandpa was in military and had Military quota). The normal cycle available at that time was the Normal BSA SLR, Red colored one, which was the common one for teens). I used to ride it royally, as if it was a Harley Davidson and other cycles were just Mopeds. My friends used to treat me with Lime juice and other eatables, just to allow them to go for a round in that cycle.

When I finished Tenth and entered college, I wanted to ask for a Bike. But felt a little scared about making such a big demand. One day, I gained my courage and informed it to my Papa. He laughed and told that he already discussed it with Mom and she was not ready, telling that I was not ready for a BIKE. After hearing this, I attacked my mom and I got my first bike. (I was 17 and did not had a license.) Things were the same, regarding other things like the computer, Mobile etc. I got these even before I started thinking about owning one. Even though he was not with me, (Only one month in an year) I think he was able to read my mind really well.

Pops... You were great...

A wonderfull but dangerous dress, without any stitches...

Last day, we celebrated Ethnic day in our company.

We were supposed to come in traditional wear... That means being a Mallu, I was supposed to wear a Mundu (Dhothi). Normally I wear Jeans with shirts or T-shirts. This was the first time I was going to wear Dhothi to office. Unlike other mallus, I'm not used to this piece of clothing... From my childhood, I preferred something more reliable and safe than a simple piece of cloth wrapped around the body without the help of any buckles, buttons or hooks!!! I'm not telling that I don't like Mundu. I love the prestigious looks which a "kasavu mundu" (A cream colored dhothi with a one or two inch Border made with Golden thread) and a matching shirt can provide. The only thing that I hate is the insecurity that you will feel due to the Simple method of wrap-around-and-tuck-it-in technology fixing it on your waist. It's too simple that a wrong move can cause a wardrobe malfunction and give you a sudden popularity boost Like Janet Jackson, carol Gracious, Britney Spears etc. After writing this, I noticed that only Females get a boost due to wardrobe malfunctions. I remember one incident which happened few years back. A famous actor came to our town for the inauguration of a Famous Textiles showroom. He was wearing a dhothi and in the rush caused by his fans, he lost it in the way to the shop. As it was a textiles showroom, they were able to give him another one. But the next day, none of the newspapers displayed the digitally blurred image of that incident. The world is full of sexual discrimination. if it was anyone from the opposite sex then the incident would have got a lot more importance in the media world...

Coming back to topic...
After thinking about the risk factors, I decided to go ahead with the plan to wear it. Then the next problem was to obtain a Mundu. I don't have a dhothi. So early in the morning, I Started my bike and went in search of Dhothi. I was not sure about the place to get a Kerala style Kasavu mundu in Bangalore. So I decided to raid my friends. I reached their room by 7:30 and they were still sleeping.. (Lazy guys). I woke them up and told the reason for my visit. They cursed me for waking them up so early... One of them told that he have one but he's not sure where it was. He pointed to the cupboard and told it is somewhere inside that. After telling that, he turned to the other side and dived back into deep sleep...

It was really dark inside the room because of the power failure, which is a common thing in Madiwala. I opened the cupboard and was shocked by a sudden attack from the top rack of the cupboard!!!

No, it ws not a burglar hiding inside it or any ghost sleeping in the cupboard due to scarcity of space in that room. It was a huge pile of cloth which they had squeezed in to make the room look clean (If you have visited or you are living in a bachelors den, then you will understand what I was referring). When I opened the door, it sprang out and I jumped back. After regaining the sense, I jumped into the pile in search of the Dhothi. After picking up a lot of while cloths like Towels, bedsheets, white shirts etc for 10 minutes, I got the dhothi packed nicely in a polythene bag. Thank god, otherwise it would have got the smell of the dirty clothes stuffed along with that and I would have been forced to discard it.

I came back to my room with the dhothi and called my team mates to inform that I was successful. Three out of five friends, who agreed to wear a dhothi, backed out. Even though the others backed out, we two decided to go ahead with the plan.

To avoid the risk of Malfunctioning, I decided to wear a belt above the Mundu, after fixing it in place using the wrap-around-and-tuck-it-in technology. So, with the reinforced Mundu, I headed to my Office. The first response I got was from my driver. He was shocked and his response was like "yean Saar, You going to office in a "Lungi"??? I tried to explain that it was not a lungi. That was the first reaction. Before reaching office, I went to a shop to drink a tea. The guy in the shop was a mallu, but born and brought up in B'lore itself. He also asked me the same thing...!!! This time I was not amused. I was angry because he was a malayalee and he is not supposed to call it a Lungi. By my reaction, he understood something was wrong and he corrected himself. This time, he told "Vella Lungi" (Vella means White). Again Lungi??? I shouted, it is not a Lungi, It is a "Kasavu mundu". He exclaimed...Both are same!!! By his expresion, I understood that he don't know anything about it. So I stopped explaining and went inside the office.

I entered the office in royal style.

First attack came from my friend who is from North India... He was in a Sherwani and was confident about his dress. I was holding the one end of Mundu in hand, in typical mallu style. He was excited to see the new attire and he pulled that end... For one moment, I thought I was going to be half-naked in-front of my entire team. Thanks to the Belt... It did not fell of. Somehow, I convinced him that this is a peculiar type of clothing and it must be handled carefully.

The second attack happened in the cafeteria, in-front of hundreds of people. One of my friends was so curious about the design and technology of the dress. She thought that it is like a skirt and pulled at the free end to check why there was an un-stitched end!!! This time the belt was unsuccessful against the pull. It almost came out but I managed to keep it from falling down, by sitting down on a chair. Thank god... Otherwise, I would have been prosecuted for Public nudity ... I went to the rest room and arranged the dress back to normal and reinforced it with the belt.

After these attacks from other people and various faults from my side (like stepping on it, getting stuck on the wheel of the chair etc), I successfully managed to keep it on the place it was supposed to be, for the entire day.

When I reached back to my place, I understood one more thing... Even the dogs in our street were seeing it for the first time!!! They waited till the car left and then starting barking loudly and tried to attack me. Somehow I managed to reach my room, in one piece. I was relieved very much, when I changed back to my favorite and comfortable shorts and t-shirt.

The one thing that surprised me is that even though Malayalees are spread all around the world, we still have these many people who are not aware of this dress. In B'lore, if you throw a stone to any direction, it will hit a Software engineer or a Mallu. Also remember that our neighbors (Tamilians) also use the same type of traditional dress. Even then, it is a strange dress here.

I dedicate this post to all the mallu's who wear a mundu 365 days.... U people work a lot, to maintain the traditional values...

New Blog Game- Backlink to me...

Here is a new blog game that we all can play. It is called BackLink To Me. This is a new and fun blog game that we all can play, which will help us increase our backlinks. Backlinks, as we all know, is the foundation to a successful or increased Google PageRank. If you want to increase your Google PageRank, you have to increase the number of backlinks to your site and almost as importantly, your secondary or (deep linked) pages. Backlinks are a collection of other pages on the Net that link back to your site or page within your site. Playing the new blog game, BackLink To Me will help you increase the number of sites that link to your site.

Hello! My Name Is Abru. My website is at http://www.lijosblog.blogspot.com . I have a BackLink to Sharique. Here is how the game works:

1. Create a new post and title it, “New Blog Game - BackLink To Me“.
2. Copy my entire post and paste it into your new post.
3. Change my name to your name.
4. Change my website address to your website address
5. Change the name of the person I have a backlink to my name!
6. Link my name back to the url of this post!

By participating in this blog game your site and one deep link page within your site will be a link in a huge chain of blogs that are all connected together. Google bots visit our sites daily (not sure if you knew that). By keeping our chain of links all together in a continuously growing circuit, we gain and increase a united linking strength. I want those Google Bots to visit all of our pages so that we all can have an improved Google PageRank.

If you decide to play the new blog game, please remember to link directly to this post, not my home page. I already have a link to that here on this post.

Please write a quick comment here on this post to let me know you are playing! That way I can keep track.

Have Fun!

I'm back...

Hi........

I'm back to my blog after a looooooooooooooooooong time....

I realized that, If you stayed out of your blog for some time, it's too hard to start blogging again...
I've seen this happening to many blogs which I read regularly.

I was not able to blog for a few months... however, for the last one or two months I was trying hard to start blogging once again...

I've started so many topics which were scrapped later, coz I was not getting a flow or satisfaction...
Now, I'll try to post something or the other, periodically...

I want to be back in to blogging....

Hope that I'll stay active for a longer time.... :)

Side effect of "Adrenaline" rush...

Few nights back,
I was coming back from my work. It was 1:30 in the night. I was riding my Pulsar. Driving is my passion and I love Bikes more than any other vehicles...
The Road was clear and I enjoyed the 10 km ride... When I reached my flat, I saw that the gate to the parking lot was opened slightly. The "Adrenaline rush" in my vains was not over and I wanted to check whether I could slide my bike through that narrow opening...
I could have stopped the bike and opened the gate (as I do everyday). But somedays, I can't stop myself from doing these type of crazy things. Most of the times I will succeed, but sometimes it endsup in a tragedy.

So, I positioned the bike, vroomed towards the gate and took a sudden turn toward the gate to slide in through the gap. (The gate is on a 90 degree angle to the Road and is 2 feet high from the road. That was the thrilling factor which ignited the whole event). Due to the evening rain, the cement floor was slippery and the bike slipped towards the right. I managed to regain the balance and accelerated again. The bike entered the parking lot, without any scratch but my right knee hit the gate and the gate vibrated like a Tuning fork... (If you dont know what is a tuning fork, understand that it is a 'Y' shaped tool which makes high frequency sound waves when it is striked with something). The sound is like "MMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm............. The Iron Gate vibrated and created the exact sound as a tuning fork. But it was not audible to others because of the AAAAAWWWW... which came from my mouth. Two stray dogs were standing there, watching this action scene and even they repeated, Aaaawwww....

Hearing the sound, the guy who stays in the ground floor came out to check what happened there. I managed to bring a smile to my face as if nothing happened. he murmured something and went back.
It was not a serious injury but it pained like hell. I stay in the first floor and till that day, I did'nt knew the exact number of steps to my room. But after that night, I remember each one of the steps. I thought that atleast one week of bedrest will be required. Luckily, it was not that serious. I applied some balm and slept. In the morning, small pain was there but I was okay. Now, for atleast one month, I will not do any such foolish things. But there are some things that we can't control....

Me, Myself...

Yesterday, one of my friend and collegue: Laura, wrote a post in her blog about a Guy!!!

You will be worndering "what is so special in it?"

Its special because the name of that blog is

Women 150.

A blog named "women 150" having an article about a guy... Special, isn't it???

I'm excited about it because, that guy is...................

"Me!!!!!!!"

(Claps...)

Okay. Okay. Now, let me come to the point... She "accused" that the only topic that I like to write is

"me & Myself".

I think She's right and that explains my silence for one month... coz the last month was not that good for me and I was not in a mood to write anything about me...

Now, that I have to prove that She's wrong (even if it is the truth)...I sat down to write some thing about any complex topic...

First I thought of writing about the most complex thing on earth..."Women".
Then I realized that it is like jumping from Petronas tower, after eating cynide. If I made any mistake due to the lack of experience, my girl-friends (Not what you think... I meant my Friends, who are girls) will kill me... (Did I told you that the lady in the first paragraph is a strong feminist and also visits the Gym everyday???). So I dropped that idea.

Then I thought of writing about world economy...

As my current economy is shaken due to some unexpected events, I dropped that also...

Then I thought..... Hey!!!!! I think the topic came back to the square one... Me, Myself...!!!

Now I realized that I have to try real hard to write on other topics...

May be the next time... I will be successfull.

When my Creativity eloped with Commonsense...

I've not posted anything in the last week...
It is because my creativity got really pissed off, when I disturbed him from his lazy life style and started using it frequently. He was so irritated by it and one day he eloped!!! When I sat down to write a post and called him, there was no response. I knocked at his door but no reply... I pushed the door gently and it was open. The room was empty and I got a letter from the table. With trembling hands, I took the letter and read it. Here's the content of the letter...

Mr Abru,
I am fed up with the recent changes in your attitude towards me. I was living happily till now. Once you started posting your blog, you are exploiting my services... Previously I used to get lot of free time and I was living happily inside your mind. You already know that I am not so strong and energetic like my neighbour stupidity or his cousin foolishness. But let me remind you one thing. They are also really annoyed by the continuous work. I can't stand your continuous torture and work like a dog every day. So I'm leaving for a long leave. I hope that you will learn a lesson from this and will change back to the older lifestyle. I will comeback only if you agree my following terms and conditions.
1) Will not torture me with heavy workload.
2) Will allow to take leaves whenever I want.

One more thing...
As I'll be bored if I went alone, I'm taking my girlfriend Commonsense, along with me... She told me that she has told her friend Stupidity to work for her. So you have to adjust with him.
May or may not be back. Don't search for me...
yours,
Creativity.

That is the reason why I'm not posting anything. One can adjust without creativity. But without commonsense? I understood that it is a real risk for life...
No, I'm not interested in revealing the effects of living one entire week, with stupidity in place of Commonsense. Just understand that it is like Bungee jumping without the rope!!!. I've done many blunders which I've never done in my last 24 years. The most simple one is stopping the treadmill by pulling out the key, while I’m running on it at 8 km/hr. I don't know why I did it!!! But after that I realized why I should not do it again!!! Now you can guess the severity of the rest.

Dear creativity and Commonsense,
if you are reading this post, please come back. I'm ready to accept all your conditions. Be aware that you will not get so much free time, anywhere else in the world... Remember those old days... Come back...
Yours obediently,
Abru.