Thursday, December 29, 2005

Sirippu - 3


Lets finish off this year with a real life joke.

Anu visits Aarti's house after quite some years. The last time they met was in college and now its been few years and both of them got married, have kids etc.,. Aarti goes inside and gets some picture albums to show Anu.

Aarti explains each picture..."The one on the left is my b-i-l....oh here is my m-i-l......"
...between them was a picture of a 2yr old boy without clothes....Anu with all smiles, says " vow ! what a beautiful baby" and continues to pinch the picture a little below the hips, and kisses her fingers....."aama yaaru intha payyan...ivvalavu cute-a irukaan"....for which, Aarti replies...
..
.."Thats my husband when he was a kid"...

Happy New year !


Was published in some magalir magazine before 10yrs or so..

Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Yawn - is contagious

Not much work these days , as it is between christmas and new year...

Just remembered readin somewhere that seeing, or reading abt yawning, will make one yawn..Even blind people yawn, if they hear someone do it..

Nobody ever found out, if there is any good thing abt yawning, or why human/ animals yawn, but let me know, how many of you yawned, while reading this !!

aaaaaaawwww!!

Tuesday, December 27, 2005

Sirippu-2

...with various blond jokes floating around...here is the one I experienced myself..

Out of my ~18mile ride to work, I sometimes skip the toll road, as they are equally busy during the peak hours. I tried several small roads, and finally found one, which actually takes the same time as travelling thru the toll.

Most of these roads have 35-45 speed limit, as they are between residential areas. But these roads are not much known and there are few fellow drivers like me, who always drives at 60 or higher, as there are rarely cops in these places.

One fine evening, when I entered this particular road, I saw everyone driving slowly than usual. I thought for a second, but decided to merge with their tune.

A blond who also entered the road at the same time as me, was very impatient and ran zigzag between the two lanes and overtook cars ....and yes, .......she was caught for speeding....

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Junk mails

I am getting highly irritated by quite some e-mails for the past few years..
I am talking about e-mails which comes with false information....

..like the one which says...some indian lad proved Newton was wrong..he is so intelligent that the 'knowledge meter'(?!) broke ..
...the other one which carries a poem of a dying girl...
...Bill gates is sharing his fortunes !
..Progesterex..the date rape drug..
and much more.....

Most e-mails, if given a second thought, would ring a bell, that its a hoax. But just like a sheep crowd, ppl keep forwarding these e-mails to dozens of other friends, and everytime I see the forward list, I can count atleast 100 e-mail names it has been fwd-ed to....Out of those 100 people, I am sure 95 has atleast a bachelors degree who failed to use their little brain to give an extra second, if they should be fwding that e-mail to waste another chain of ppl's precious time.

Most e-mails I received from, are engineers, with 4-6 yrs prefessional work experience, who are possibly in the top few tiers for the company they are working for....who had possibly travelled few countries, few jobs, can speak few languages, reads/ watches few news sites....and on..

For a person who has such achievements, how much brain does it need to think that , there could be no 'knowledge meter' or ' that cancer society will not contribute 3 cents to every e-mails you fwd abt that dying girl'.
Urban Legends had one comment on this e-mail, 'how long do you suppose it would last if it begged us to write out a check?

And how much brain does it need, to not believe that 'Bill Gates is sharing his fortune'

Some e-mails like Progesterex looked very real. I didnt know that they are hoax until I did a google search.

When I replied those friends, not to fwd such e-mails particularly to all addresses in their weblist including the e-groups, they had a rude reply.." I cannot go search everytime, if such e-mails are fake and waste my time"....Listen up! If you had time to read it, enter all the address and fwd it to bunch of ppl, you better think you have a little more time to find if thats true or not. And if you dont want to waste time, better save all the time, by not fwding these junk mails.

The more irritating ones are those, which says..fwd it to 20 ppl and get fortune, if not you will lose your job, lose your g/b friend, lose money....and get cursed..

If I can meet the moron who created this e-mail originally, I will make him to live in places, where ppl are starving to death. Then he might understand a life, searching for food, clothes, water ............and a computer with Internet to send this hoax mails to..

I remember receiving post cards in mail,when I was a kid, which said, send another 10 post cards for god to bless you or you will be in bad luck. But I never thought, people will carry it to the level of e-mails ...and adding to my grief...is when I see whole bunch of educated professionals sincerely forwarding this to everyone in their address book.

... I receive sms from India to US with these contents...... forward for good, if not you will be cursed........and the person who sent me is a engg. college professor with 10yrs experience.

IF you are one of those brainless ppl, who sends hoax e-mails
or
If you are one of those ppl, who sends e-mails to bring me good luck..

I have a message for you....

Next time, you intend to bragg about your achievements, be your recent foreign trip, your promotion, or your recently published science journal, ....
...hold your tongue, tell yourself you are a dump ass.


Click here for Bill Gates comments on junk mails

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Useful stuffs from Trash

There had been different articles about Desi's in US, and how they effectively use things. Click here for more info.

I particularly liked the one, where we use grocery bags for small trash cans. Trash cans are just plastic covers and grocery bags can sure replace them. This might save some plastic going to the landfills which will add a little effort to preserve the nature.

However, there is something interesting I came across last year, when I met a north Indian woman. She was in dependent visa and trying to use the best of her spare time. She had cut out the Milk can just below the handle and used it as pots for plants.

Not that I recommend this, but just something interesting to mention.
Anyone had similar experience??

Tamil Words in English - I

There are many English words which have Tamil Origin. Click here to read Ideamani 's post on that. Here is some more interesting words, that I know of:

1. Hurricane - Arakkan **

"HURRICANE derived from 'Hurican', the Carib god of evil...
From the
AMS Glossary of Meteorology
It should be noted that the Carib god 'Hurican' was derived from the Mayan god 'Hurakan', one of their creator gods, who blew his breath across the Chaotic water and brought forth dry land and later destroyed the men of wood with a great storm and flood .
http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/tcfaq/B4.html check this for more info.
Does 'Hurakan' sound something like 'arakan' who also can blew away wind/water as they describe...


2. Anaconda- Anakolra - anachu kolra
Displayed in one of the crocodile farms in Miami

3. Cash* - kaasu
4. Cheroot* - suruttu
5. Mango* - Maangai
6. Teak* - thekku
7. Patchouli - pachu ilai
8. Coir - kayaru
9. Copra- kopparai (thengaai)
10. Annicut- anai kattu

* Wikipedia
**My discovery - First time in Internet

There are so many other words which we all knew like Bangalow, Verandah, Coolie, etc which has Indian Origin, but I am just trying to write the interesting ones.

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Sirippu - 1

My sister: Hey! aruna is coming in Dec for Holidays
My 6yr old niece: Did chithi call?
sis: No, she sent me a letter in Computer. Remember, amma showed you in browsing center last week
Niece: oh!

----------------------------------------

Sis to my Mom: ......she cut her hair really short..
Niece: Did you meet her?
Sis: No, but I can see her in the computer when we chat.

-------------------------------------------

Sis: Its getting late to school, What are you writing there?
Niece: I'm making a greeting card for chithi. Today is her b'day
Sis: ........but,............
Niece: ......shh...Wait...
...
Sis: Did you take everything, Shall we leave now?
Niece: Alright, Give this card to chithi, when you see her today in the computer

----------------------------------------------
I wish I can make cartoons for this...Lemme try next time
Incident happened during Aug 2002

Monday, December 12, 2005

Peppers: Green inside Yellow


I was surprised to see this green pepper inside a yellow pepper. Donno if this is a guiness record or just another vegetable. But, I havent come across one like this before, so.....the picture is here..

P.S: Pepper = capsicum

Incident happened during 10 Dec 2005

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

Staple Food

High school-a fill in the blanks-la 1 mark-kku kepaangaa.....

The staple food of North India is wheat and the staple food of South India is Rice.
chumma yosichu paarthaen........
Intha oorla atha ketta enna solluvaanga...............

The staple food of north america is Potato ?!!

Tuesday, December 06, 2005

Do we get fair complexion in cold weather??

Intha thadava India ponappo, I met my fathers very old friend. The last I met him was when I was 10years old. He asked me about my whereabouts and while we were talking, he asked my mom, " enna ellam US ponangaatti vandha complexion-a , illa muthalla irunthae ippadithaana".........??

Hmm. ..I am tired of hearing similar stuff from people for years......

En karuththu ithuthaan.......The climate will NEVER change your body color. The only changes that could happen is a possible clear face from less pollution. Another chance is that your new place has less sun and so you get tanned less. .......If somebody wants to still argue on this.........the maximum I can accept is this........May be he/ she is born a little fairer than h/she is now and they may regain their original color when living in a less sunny , and less polluted place ............but noway can I agree that people get fairer in cold weather.

In my case, I lived in coimbatore when I was in India and I now live in Orlando. So obviously Orlando is more hotter than coimbatore................

My dad was fair and my mom is a little dark. Instead of a mix up color, My sis was born with my mom's complexion and I was born with my Dad's complexion...........But I do not understand that instead of making these easy guesses........these days everyone thinks, I am fair 'coz I live in US and my sister is dark as she lives in cbe...

Any comments ??

Incident happened during summer 2005

Thursday, December 01, 2005

Yen kannadi kathai..

I started wearing glasses in my 3rd grade...I still remember that day..being a kid..it was like a dream come true........aha...I can have my own glasses to wear everyday....I dressed up very nice in my pink frock, and we left in my dad's yezdi to the store. The store is in rajaveethi, opp. to St. Michael's school. I remember the place I stood when I tried my glasses....and every single thing I did that day...I still peep into that building whenever I travel through that street. Right now, there is Tamilnadu merchantile bank in the next door of that kannadi kadai .........

I was in bliss, when I went to school, hey, I am wearing glasses....Everyone in my class looked at me different, obviously as I carried a big fat glass in my face and looked totally different than I looked the previous day...I thought my fellow classmates are jealous of me.....I felt very great of my glasses and carried them with pride.

.......and I think thats the last time I felt proud about it...

When I grew up......I hated my glasses

  1. Everyone addressed me as 'athanpa valathiya kannadi potrukumae athaan"........."spex potrukumae antha ponnu".....
  2. I unknowingly turned when anyone called 'kannadi'
  3. I compared each and everyone's glasses with mine to see which looks thinner.
  4. My kannadi covered up most of my face in all the school pictures
  5. The frame and glasses were so heavy that when I removed them, I feel some part is missing in my body
  6. I felt very good when talking to people with kannadi, and felt jealous over other girls who can show all their cheek
  7. My eyes went deeper and deeper
  8. All school dramas would get me a teacher role and nothing else...........( I played as a teacher in 9th grade and headmistress in 10th grade.......)
  9. ....intha maathiri aayiram kaaranam............I hate my kannadi.

Finally.............I managed to convince my dad and buy those contact lenses....Holy crap! 2000rs for that pair (1995)........however I was immensely happy...

aha....kannadi kathai mudinchuruchu............I throwed the glasses and started caring for my contact lenses, not knowing that my kannadi kathai wont stop there.....

  • I met this guy in a tuition center with my friend, who happened to be my friends friend.......we talked for such a long time........we even met after few times while we were wandering down the gandhipuram streets....(namma oorla athana downtown...:-)........And when I met him in my 11th grade in the new school.............he talked to me as if he is meeting me for the first time..........I am like....." hey! we met in that tuition center...u remember.......inga...anga....uhmm...nothing worked........theriyavae theriyaathunnu sollitaan..............ellarum ennai vinodhama paakaraanga.......I felt like crying...

Next day, he said, he sat down in the night to think why I behaved so different (?!...adacha! loosu-nnu nenachutaan pola).........then he realised that the girl he knows is me with glasses......Yes, I changed contacts in those holidays ..........and this caused all the confusions...

He even mentioned his apology in his autograph notebook.........but whomever thought that I behaved crazy the other day may still think I am ..............

  • I could not stop the habit of turning arond when someone calls kannadi. cha! naamathaa ippo kannadi podaliyae...ippavum yean kannadi-nnu kooparaanga.........slowly realised, that not everytime people called me........there had been occasions when people referred to the seeing mirror or similar stuff and I've been hurting myself thinking its all about me..
  • I still need glasses in the evenings, as those contacts wont stay in my eyes for more than 8hours...(these days they have breathing ones with tiny holes in it)
  • Travelling in bus or train is a tragedy, as it takes more than 8hours and there is no break to change to glasses...
  • Riding a scooter is not easy....and may need some extra glasses (Oh! glasses again)..
  • The deep eyes which was created and covered by the glasses now show me up like below poverty line
  • I cannot wear glasses only during lecture like my other friends do, as I had 3pts in power
  • Now, I've to pack both my contacts and glasses during travel...
  • ............and for much more reasons............kannadi stayed with me forever....and like a old friend...it denied to leave me..

Much to my relief, I did LASIK in 2001. Though the experience would be another story, it was worth all that............Cool ! I paid 30,000rs to get rid of my old friend, the manbumigu kannadi

The doctor said, I've to wear those black glasses for two days to escape the sunlight....and I weared those kuruttu kannadi for the first few days..........then had to wear glasses for atleast a month to stay away from dust....innum oru maasam en kannadikku goodbye!

When I got back to US, I had to travel to school morning and evening facing the sun .......and you guessed right !....I've to wear sunglasses.....

Then I got a job, which company located facing opp. to the sun, and so I dont have to wear sunglasses while driving back and forth to work..

Oh ! btw, Did I tell you that this company manufactures excimer lasers, which include that 193nm , which is used for Lasik.........and yes, I've to wear kannadi, for most part in my lab...or I will burn my tissue and may need another kannadi for the rest of my life......

Incident happened during 1986-present