Dhayavu seidhu :)

Its 11.07p.m. on a sunday night, I have to wake up at 6a.m. to get to work and I have a long week ahead. I told myself "so what, fuck it" and here I am to write about arguably the best news I've heard in a long, long time.

Sometimes I wonder how people conjure fairy tales that everybody can relate to. Think about it, everybody has their own fairy tale which they hope would become a reality; A fairy tale which can make masses relate to is a big deal, isnt it? Almost "titanic", in a way :) Well, two of my best friends, Karthik and Rachna have done themselves that honor. They announced their marriage last thursday and I'm still on a "high" from it. We're talking about two really cool people who've known each other from stone age as really good friends, who know each other inside out, whose lives are already weaved into one through their friendship. And now, they're tying the knot. How cool is that?? Isnt this what everybody wants? To devote their lifetime to a person that they love to be with? The perfect match? Well, Karthik and Rachna are that lucky and I hope to God that they realize how fortunate they are :) I'm not even sure how to express how happy I am to hear this; The only blemish is that since I've seen/known them as friends for too long, I can't imagine them making out =))))) That thought really weirds me out and I'll be happy to avoid it :P

Thanks to Karthik for throwing the craziest house party last night (Note that I'm calling him "Karthik" as opposed to his nickname "Military". This means that I'm talking serious stuff :P) and it was a hell of a blast. I should mention before I proceed that "this gang is the shit"..Its impossible to find such awesome, fun loving, cool, smart people in one group and I owe it to my roomie for the introduction :) Honestly, I'd be a "nobody" without these people; Not that I'm "somebody" right now but my life would have been a big fat void hadn't I known them. We all have our own lives, our work, our joys, our woes but when we gang up, be it partying or volleyball or dining out or what not, we have a spankin' good time! Its just really cool that all of us are able to celebrate this occasion together, before our personal lives drifted any of us into a different path. Going back to the party. Holy Mother of God! I have no clue where to start and what to say but anytime you have a bunch of grown ups dancing their asses off with a 2 year old kid doing somersaults (not sure what the right term is, for "kuttikarnam"), its as crazzy as it gets!

I wish the best to the couple; you guys rock. As I was telling Kabs the other day, "do what you enjoy and enjoy what you do". No free 2 cents here, I'm so happy for you guys and I hope you stay this way forever.

// Adios //

When Chennai and East of Indus-West Of India/Gujju/Hindi/Baroda Decided to say "I do"

Its a pretty convoluted title - a direct rip off of the super popular "When India and Vietnam said I do".

Here, I present the story of two of my very good friends who decided to get married. Its a bit weird to see two people who you think are in a strictly platonic relationship to suddenly plunge into matrimony. But the platonic part was the result of a "Dont ask Dont tell",aka US troops homosexuality policy,strictly followed by me and others. It wouldn't be a surprise to the closest of their friends for the signs were all over. Oh! for the power of hindsight. At the end of the day, one realises that this was indeed destined.

Back to the story. The guy is a Tamil Iyer (a claim strongly disputed by a now retired traffic constable from Mylapore,Chennai who swears on his integrity(gulp!) that the guy is not an Iyer). Hes a somewhat typical Mylaporean. Definitely a typical BITS-ian. Knows his shit, and gets shit done.When a Iyer boy sucessfully thwarts parental pressure for marriage so long, there is something amiss. It made sense last night.

The gal is mystery atleast to me. She, like the boy, has claims about her ethinicity. The whole world thinks she is Gujju,but she begs to differ. She is from East of Indus-West Of India/Gujju/Hindi/Baroda, also known as the Sindhi land. She is beautiful,extremely helpful and knows her shit.

After years of struggle, they made it at last. All romaticist rejoice. Nerds, geeks and wanna-bes, do whatever you do on a Friday night ;)

So, what to expect from the marriage? Chennai might become a little more hipper, and Baroda a little more saner. Chennai gets a dash of Guuju-Sindhi culture that will make Madisaru mamis dance and Baroda will be forced to stop partying and start introspecting (and also be forced to read The Hindu)! Its also ok to expect a progeny of super-smart ,super-hip, super-good-looking youngsters who are neither Tamil nor Gujju-Sindhi but who will thrive comfortably cloaked in the veneer of American cosmopolitism. And yeah, of course, family cherry pickings during spring!

What does the present hold? A promise of a life-long relationship built on years of trust, friendship and mutual-well being(I should have just said love here, duh!). Of all the couples I know, they might be the closest to ideal - they complement and supplement each other. The immediate world around them will not change, but it sure has made a lot of people real happy.

I raise my glass to toast them. Cheers.

Way too much spice!

I don't get to visit ET & Gil at their home that often. Good reasons abound:
* One guy is a party hound, his most favorite hangout the Sound Bar, a misnomer and an irony by itself, as I feel. I am the kind that tunes a cheap $80-100W-5.1 for the best fidelity possible. Sound Bar is too noisy for me.
* The other guy has varied interests that pretty much keep him on his toes round the clock.
* And simply because, good things are a rarity.

The good thing is what makes the visit special! It's the Gil's cooking that I feast on combined with ET's efforts in keeping the others distracted.

I like his cooking for the simplicity and sincerity. The choice of ingredients is minimal and the efforts are devoted in bringing the best off them. They may not be consistent, but hey, that's the biggest challenge for any chef.

I see how I have been squandering spice in all my cooking. I've kept my kitchen like the Sound Bar, while I should rather be tuning my 100W-5.1

-Ram
PS: I realized I made a molten mass of fiery-red-lava this weekend and named it Sambaar.

13 going on 27.

_/|\_ to Camera Kailasam.

This will be my official introduction to blogs henceforth on baguth :) Anyway, here I am, to pay my blogging respects to the baguthians :) for a nenjai-nakkifying surprise b'day party. A total surprise, made me feel like a 13 yr old on the day i turned 27 and hence the title.

21:00, CST, Wednesday (07/27).

My birthday eve. I never make a big deal out of my birthdays (am a guy, duh? :)) but I knew my roomie would call people over; I braced myself to get hammered and junta arrived. 15 people or so, 6 bottles of wine, whole lots of food, 18 bottles of beer?, couple o' birthday cakes and Camera Kailasam's Digital SLR. I got hammered and I was pretty happy that junta visited my place (only birthdays bring people home, sadly. baguth!) Anyway, junta came and junta left and I was done thanking for the wishes in person and on the phone. By friday morning, I had completely forgotten about my birthday and got sucked into monotony.

17:00 hours, CST, Friday (07/28).

I call Kaboor, finish up with work and get to his place for a night of craziness instead of taking the train back to the burbs. Usual drill. I called Milli mama and Ms. W and asked them to come downtown to party. They said they'd try, Ms. W said she was tired; usual drill. Sometimes they make it, sometimes they don't. I call Madhan (I used his name already, so what the hell? :)) and asked him not to venture out to Indiana (sniper shooting) and he said he wasn't gonna. So, I head out with Kaboor, we play pool for an hour or two, come back and kaboor said something about free alcohol at sound bar. I gladly agreed, we got to the place and they asked if we were there for a private party; Kaboor randomly said "raman" and "bharath" and they let us in. I was like "dude, I don't believe it worked; For once, somebody with the same names had RSVPed!" and he had a wicked grin on his face. Grrr. We walk in and he mentions my name again and the manager asked if i was "ET". And it hit me. I just let it out and screamed "oh you fucker, you didnt!". All hell froze for a second, everybody stopped talking and looked at us and we burst out laughing. I walk in and I see every single person that i had called earlier waiting for me. Kaboor, u doggg..!! Junta had good laughs going over my fone conversations and everything was a blur, after that. A whole lotta people turned up including "her"; Kaboor, my heart says thanks but my mind says 'oh u fucker!' :D. Anyhow, super blast. We danced like crazy all night and it was a "baguth" baguth hangout after ages :) Of course, we finished it off at Baba's and I was just filled with joy. This is gonna sound a bit gay, but being the typical guy who doesnt really care about his birthday, I totally enjoyed seeing everybody together and savored the attention. super stuff.

18:44 hours, CST, Today.

Thanks for showin up, boys n girls. Truly one hell of a party. Kaboor, I can't rave enough about the Wrigley Field brick. I swear to god, dude. You couldn't have gotten me anything better; I hope u didn't have to go through a lotta pain to get it, by the way! And kudos for pulling off a hell of a bash; As I had told u before, I was donald -toupe- trump, I'da said "you're hired" :P Kalakkita po!!

On a different note, Thotha, one of my birthday party attendees, had signed my birthday card with these two lovely words:

"die bitch".

Go figure!

// Adios //

Camera Kailasam!

Let me tell you the story of a little boy, who grew up dreaming that he would become a big photographer someday. He wanted to become world 'phamous', take amazing photos, experiment with lens, filters and that sort of thing. He always came first in his class, then 4th in the state, went to a reputed Institute in India. Then like all good honest God-fearing citizens, he came to America following all his friends. He completed his Masters, got a good job and settled down in life. You might think he was leading a fulfilling life. But for some reason, our hero was not happy. At the back of his mind, his love of photography kept troubling him. He was restless. How could he abandon his passion? He had to do something. Once in a while, he would borrow his friend's digital camera, put it on his tripod stand and take close-up photos of bees and such. Why would he have a tripod stand if he did not even own a camera yet, you ask? What a stupid question! Don't you guys carry condoms in your wallets?

Anyways, on his 16th birthday, opps I'm sorry, on his 27th birthday, his dear dear friend presented him with a digital SLR. This was a dream-come-true moment for our hero. He felt that all those hours of standing our "mokka-pottufy" friend was worth it. That whole night, and most following nights, he scanned through the camera manual pages over and over again, including the fineprint, warranty etc. Once he knew the contents by-heart, he started tinkering with his camera and learnt everything there was to know about it.

After that, began our heros' true journey through life. He finally discovered what he was put on Earth for. Have you heard of the rhyme "Mary had a little lamb... and everywhere that Mary went, the lamb was sure to go..." ? If our hero was Mary, the camera was tha lamb. They were like Karnan and his kavasam, like Rachna and her assorted hair clips, like Afsheen and his cleenex, like Jayanth and his 'Suprabhadam' CD...

You have a party at your place, and you'll realize everyone is there except for your hero. You call him, and there won't be a reply. Finally, you'll step out of the house and find our man takinjg close-up shots of your neighbors' daffodils. Or you might go to Busse woods for a run and call your friend along. He might forget his running shoes, but not his camera. Or it might be a rainy evening, and he'll be out there on your balcony, braving the rain and the wind, to capture timeless shots of your backyard. Or you might be taking a walk around a lake and notice a flash in the distance. And you'll realize its none other than our hero capturing berries and associated leaves for posterity. In between, there are shots of various beer bottles, fire hydrants, his cell phone and everything else in between. Once could go on and on, but suffice it to say that the camera has become an extension of our hero's arm and mind.

So let's all give a warm applause to our hero for finally discovering his passion and hope he becomes a renowned photographer very soon. And let's give him his new name from henceforth - 'Camera Kailasam'...