Beggar-Gud One

Once a man was waiting for a taxi.

A beggar came along and asked him for some money. The man ignored him. But being a professional, the beggar kept on pestering him. The man became irritated when he realized that the beggar would not leave him alone unless he parts with some money.

Suddenly an idea struck him.He told the beggar, "I do not have money, but if you tell me what you want to do with the money, I will certainly help you." "I would have bought a cup of tea", replied the beggar.

The man said, "Sorry man. I can offer you a cigarette instead of tea". He then took a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and offered one to the beggar.

The beggar told, "I don't smoke as it is injurious to health."

The man smiled and took a bottle of whisky from his pocket and told the beggar, "Here, take this bottle and enjoy the stuff. It is really good".

The beggar refused by saying, "Alcohol muddles the brain and damages the liver".

The man smiled again. He told the beggar, "I am going to the race course.Come with me and I will arrange for some tickets and we will place bets. If we win, you take the whole amount and leave me alone".

As before, the beggar politely refused the latest offer by saying, "Sorry sir, I can't come with you as betting on horses is a bad habit."

Suddenly the man felt relieved and asked the beggar to come to his home with him. Finally, the beggar's face lit up in anticipation of receiving at least something from the man. But he still had his doubts and asked the man, "Why do you want me to go to your house with you".

The man replied, "My wife always wanted to see how a man with no bad habits looks like ...

Source:"http://timepass-mails.blogspot.com"

Away I Go

“Detailed, Over-Told: Sorry, I am Helpless; Irresistible” 

As an egg in my head, the idea of pursuing Masters in the USA took birth; like a caterpillar, it took shape embracing metamorphous people & surroundings; the urge for moving away grew stronger & stronger crossing many hurdles that life has put on my way, reached the Pupa stage and now it`s high time I fly away like a Butterfly (which I call it ‘The Butterfly effect’) into the sky away from home, away from motherland, crossing oceans & into entirely a new place, new people, new colors, new customs; Nothing known, everything unknown, here I am in the United States of America. Ever, since I had this brainchild of doing my Masters, things really changed a lot or maybe I was overthinking anonymously. Any which ways it is, let me tell you what passed my way and show you how it was. Take my view;

After considerable struggle and surpassing many twists, everything was set & I scheduled my flight on to August 12^th 2010. I was the first one from my family to be going abroad for studies, this distinct thing made my parents proud & happy, which in-turn made me feel better. Following the Indian customs that my father asked me to do, I have learned a lot many new things when I went to take customary blessings of all the family members of my huge family tree. I went to meet many and a few really dearest ones of my Father came to me to bless me & wish me wholeheartedly. I was very much delighted by the former ones who came to me rather than I go for them. I found a huge difference between the both and at the same time was very much happy, on seeing the respect & valuable relations my father truly earned in his Journey. Love you Dad.

Above all, coming to what I earned was very less yet considerable to my level. My loving friends presented me many gifts (unexpected). It is a worthy thing to take their names here which include Mammu, manu, goutham , umi, swetha, gouthami, vinay, rohith, appu, sindhu, sowmya, ramya, arun & lot others with their hearty wishes and rakhis from my loving sisters for Rakshabandhan in Advance made me very happy . As my blog status say, I re-iterate, though little sounds huge to me. It is the simple things in life that are the most extraordinary :). I do value them a lot. 


It is the possibility of a dream come true,makes life interesting :). Some how,i have started my expedition on August 12th to find this possibility. Many turned up at the airport to bid me a good farewell. Bidding farewell to family & friends is like,leaving ourselves with them & puzzling what have we lost now & what are we left with? :( Oh my goddess!! Give us the best :)  My life has never been a cake walk, how ever small a thing is, i must struggle hard to fetch it, never an easy deal. Now, coming a larger scale thing, not a small one, pursuing Masters would definitely subject me to much tough struggle i thought and as expected, twists/punches or what ever people call them are already posted enroute by God, just that I am yet to near them he he.

Kisi maha purush ne kaha-"Shreyaamshi bahu vignathaam!!" The first twist smiled at me immediately before the start of journey, taking the shape of Delay. Yeah, the first flight i ought to take was delayed by 45 minutes. Tension started. This delay i couldn`t categorize to boon/bane. Any how, for that i moment, it fetched me some more time to be with my family, final precious moments. Every thing in life has a price,as such delay showed its price later. Where ever we go friends are always there to help us,make things easier for us, Goutham Reddy and his uncle Bhaskar Reddy (Some top sos official at the airport) was there to help me. Bhaskar uncle, was phenomenal in getting me catch up the delayed flight, he took care of all the formalities ( I was then no wonder oozing tension) and again I was allowed to go out after check in to meet my family. This gave my family and i, a lot more relief. Wow, Thank You Uncle. Priorly, I expected a lot of emotional out bursts from my side, but i should thank that Delay, i was thinking all the time about, will i catch the second flight or not, giving no thought to the emotional outburst. Funny the way people`s minds work, isn`t it? By all means,delay helped me here, hardly I cried.


As the flight was a little fuller than anytime, i was asked to check in my cabin baggage* too, keeping credentials on me.Believed it or not, as I told, delay has its price, emirates people gave me a Business class seat as a remedy for the delay. Wow. I waited & waited , emirates flight showed up. As i boarded into it, I was unable to believe what  my senses showed me.. Wow, literally what a way to begin, I have no words to delineate my experience. My first flight, that too in a Business class, wow thank God. The flight took off and on the top of it, as i understand it, I am no more on my mother land.


A few minutes from then; Edges, Borders, Boundaries, Brinks & Limits appear to seize. Even this time, i was not able to give any thought to the outburst, i was enjoying the luxuries of Business class. Chose my dinner from the menu they gave, watched Veer movie a little, I used all the time in gazing at its richness and other passengers. 3 and half hours passed away as easy as winking. I was then in Dubai airport.


Knowingly or unknowingly,I always keep rotten luck in my back pocket. I struggled a lot to catch my second flight Lufthansa to Frankfurt, ran all through like a little rabbit in  Dubai airport to gate 116 and there i was just in time. Huff. relieved by then. Boarded into that flight a few minutes later. In the back ground what happened was, some how i boarded into my next flight,but my poor cabin baggage couldn`t make its way to the Lufthansa flight and was put to hold in Dubai Airport only. Unaware of this fact, I took my seat, business class to economy class was a bit tough to adjust. It was late midnight then, had a sandwich and slept a tired rakhi :).
Got up with the sun rise, following hours i was in Frankfurt(Germany).


Hoooo!! Frankfurt airport was so huge & large, i thought  it would fit in 10 Hyderabad airports comfortably. There was a 4 hours gap for next Lufthansa flight to Houston. Luckily, until this moment i was alone & met an Indian Telugu guy, krishnakanth who was heading to university of houston, main campus.

"Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: "What! You too? I thought I was the only one." This was our situation he he.We both took turns to talk and discuss things covering the massive airport. Later then, we boarded into the flight to Houston!!

Everything was cool, I took my novel "motor cycle diaries" & started reading it. Finding no more interest, I quit reading and was served lunch. Oh my god! that lunch reminded me , my days in kerala. I couldnt take in its smell, yukk, gave it a damn & adjusted myself with a soft drink.Hope fully my head was little fuller than it was.Understandably it created quite a stir in me. Nothing appeared serious or nothing could register at an emotional level until that moment, then i started sensing weird thoughts,every thought of mine was evoking nostalgia, ounces of tension started gripping hold of my nerves. It sounded like, Oh my god! what am i doing, what the hell had brought me into this flight. Felt a pang in my heart! Curse the moment that started this thing, curse the idea of pursuing Masters. Literally i cried this time,Couldnt hold on things. Felt like, i would go back, catch the next flight to India, immediately as i get down or on the second thought, i thought of bringing in a fake health constraint  n go back or stay till one semester & jump back for christmas..Hu Hu. Like Santiago in the Alchemist says-"Men dream more about coming home than leaving". I was doing the same.
Nothing was appealing to me,I tried to welcome every silly thought that gave me strength & feel me better, was trying to reassure myself a million times, everything is ok,Be Brave, Be Brave ( pranav told me only one thing, earlier before my departure, rey konda, what ever happens, be brave.!!) As simple as it appears, as strong it was, be brave gave power of tons for moments.Some times it is better to leave things as they are & go on. Followed it & started watching Alice in wonder land followed by shrek tales & then some stupid film one after the other. Great deeds come at great cost.


Huff, those 10 hours moved at snails pace and gave  me the best of  tortures possible. It ended at Houston airport. Done with the customs checking, moved to the Luggage claim. Ha ha, the background punch or the price of delay showed another shade now, my cabin baggage was missing. Ori dhevudo, ye nakshathram lo puttanu ra. Ran to the Lufthansa counter & fought with the rep for missing baggage claim. Taking the receipt i moved to domestic terminal in a train (yeah in the airport itself) There were trains connecting terminals.


 A few hours later, took my final flight. This was yet another different ball game.The first flight was a business class,followed by Economy & now purely a domestic flight with just 3 rows & 15 columns as little a flight can be it was. wow, tasting all different blends of air journey, i put my foot in the city Lubbock. Hey hey before that, do you think, it would end with out any further twist or with out even bringing in some thing to pull out my tension. Yeah, there was something  again here, the person who has to come for my  pick up, didn`t show up. Huff, waited for sometime & tried to call through Coin box, but as expected my fate worked & coin box dint work. Some how i managed to borrow a passerby`s mobile & called the responsible.That dint work & again i repeated the same, tried to call my friend harish, he responded but by that time, the actual person came    .Huff relieved I was, left to college pointe, my new residence :)

P.S:  As I told, my life is never a cake walk, i do agree, but after much struggle i do succeed. Struggle/hardwork & success go hand in hand :)

Raam Ya Raavan

Well, of the obvious, you all know, I always wish to write something for my rabid readers; but, a lazy-bone like me hardly comes up with something interesting. However, I have got something to share with you from long time. I make it now. Here it goes.

10 months before:

Whilst I was running my eye through a local news paper, my eyes were struck to a report that unfolded the launch of a tri-lingual movie casting so & so by the Stalwart Maniratnam. No wonder, A.R Rahman`s music a must norm to maniratnam`s movie. There could be nothing much bigger than this to a fan like me that day J ; This was touted to be the most anticipated bollywood flick.

The name Maniratnam itself was enough for people to throng before theatres, adding decorum to this was the big names Abhishek Bachan,Aishwary Rai Bachan & Vikram. What else do people want more than this to go Gung-Ho.

3 Months before from now:   

The sizzling music launch of Raavan. As expected, extra ordinary music it was, I felt or may be my predilection to Rahman`s previous tracks, made me  like Raavan`s music too; any which ways you take it, I don`t mind. There were many expected stories for the movie that media took wind off. Ha Ha. Dunno, which speculation went right in the end.

A month before from now:

I exactly remember how much struggle it took us (Goutham Reddy & I) to reach the theatre, a few miles from our stay, as it was raining cats & dogs that evening. Heavy rain, wet & soggy evening dint stop us from the screening, we are such freaky friends you see he he.

We were very much anxious to watch the screening, our wet clothes dint bother us to the least, even if something was really grief giving, we just gave a damn to that.

Story line borrowed from the myth Raamayan was very well conceived, many would disagree with this statement, I know; anyway I take the liberty of saying.    


      I say, had sita succumb to the goodness in Raavan despite of her emotional bonding with raam, what would happen or on the second thoughtt would that happen at all, was the under lying thought that gave rise to this plot “Raavan” . Such a typical thought was neatly woven into the fabric of daily life movie story & screenplay where character Ram is portrayed as Dev(vikram), a dedicatedly sincere police officer, Raavan as Beera(Abhishek) (a local robinhood or to be more closer, veerappan). Sita as raagini(Aish).

Beera  abducts Ragini  to dense forest, and her husband who is a cop Dev Pratap Sharma is determined to catch Beera anyhow and rescue his wife. Beera had abducted cop’s wife Ragini just to revenge on his personal grudge. 

The opening scene of Mr. Bachann junior jumping from a top cliff (shot in karnataka, I suppose) into the low lying river was one of the finely carved introductions, I fancy. Following were the scenes that reminded me of the beginning shots of the movie “Roja”. The similarity is both were shot in dense forest with police chases but with a little difference, the police were chased to death in the later (Raavan) he he. It is hard to leave our basic instincts aside, right. Top notch back ground music made it more appealing. There was a scene, where Aish tries to take her own life by jumping down a huge waterfall, there could be a complete jump shot, but she gets struck to tree midway & the stem of tree breaks meanwhile & then she falls into the river. This end part was ultimately picturized.  Spell bound I was, What a spectacular sight it was to witness, splendiferous cinematography.

 The most interesting part of the story, which is also the part of climax is, when Ragini seems to have sensitive and silent build up bond with Beera, where she found her self in dilemma whether she should be a loyal dogmatic Indian wife or if she should pursue her suppressed fantasy? Whereas Beera is amused by Ragini beauty and find himself in love with her, beera spells “Dhikaavo chidiyaa ko, kaun hai raam aur kaun hai raavan” & Dev kills Beera, we feel like, aahhh, dev shouldn`t have shot him, he is good. But it is a justified act, our ram/dev here is a police officer performing his duty, killing here is not a sinful act.

We just leave the theatre carrying forward a thought that says, who is ram & who is raavan in the play, though it is so crystal clear, climax I suppose gives us this feeling. He he

In words from Maniratnam:

Sinister, the way people’s minds work, isn`t it? When the mere thought of Ram in Raavan & sita liking the ram in raavan, itself is very hard to digest, no wonder manifestation of such thought would lead to a complete devastation. The same is the end result with Raavan.

Omnifarious behaviors’ we see in our regular day to day life. Impeccable back ground score, entrancing cinematography by santhosh shivan & manikandhan, Appealing Aish, Veracious Vikram,  superlatively good acting from Bachann Jr, on a whole unparalleled achievement by Maniratnam couldn`t stop “Raavan/Villain” from being a box-office debacle.

  P.S- I myself, loved the movie for its logical congruousness with the epic, outstanding background score & magnum-opus cinematography. Here I must mention, though we hardly find good progress in the story side of our Indian movies, there is a huge progress in the technical aspects like cinematography. Raavan is one solid proof.