Goanese experience

Balaji won the star award this year and we got an all expenses paid trip to Goa for 2 days at Ramada inn, Caravela resort. Kids were not allowed, so it was kind of a second honeymoon for the star awardees and their spouses.

Some highlights
All the men had good eye candy what with gorgeous goanese girls in skimpy costumes welcomed by garlanding us with shell necklaces at the airport.

Great welcome by Syntel at the resort. The whole thing was done in style with chilled wine, cashews, t-shirts and caps in the room, which was a great surprise.(Unfortunately,Ganesh from Chennai didn’t have the goodies in his room because of some confusion which he found out only when we had to board for our return trip.)

There was a carnival with some guy dressed as king momo and some skimpily clad girls (again!)and some belly dancing on the first day.

Ritesh Gautam was adjudged as having the sexiest pair of legs and given a prize.

The awards function was amazing with performance from Leslie Lewis (Colonial Cousins) and a mini fashion show with the four top guys of Syntel, Keshav, Murli , Nitin and Shrikanth.(All of whom so did not look like models, but it was great fun.)

Now for Revathi’s Star Awards:

Most Romantic husband: Senthil Kanakaraj invited his wife onstage and let her get the award. Also, he got a prize for the gentleman who carried his wife first near the compeer.
My husband gets the second prize as the most romantic as he gave me a rose which a dancer threw at him.

Most Unromantic husband: Rajesh Chandran, who didn’t get his wife food at the airport when she was hungry.

Most clueless: Ganesh, even though he saw lots of people wearing syntel star t-shirts assumed that it was for the bombaywalas and not for Chennai people.

Most grace under pressure: Again Ganesh and his wife, though they missed the goodies were sportive enough to joke about it.

Most unforgettable person: Rajesh Chandran’s wife, for the reason she shares the same name with my daughter, Maya.

Most Lovely sarees: Mr. Saravanan’s wife.

Most horrible airhostesses: Indian Airlines, some even looked senile. Balaji quipped that he could tolerate aunties, but these were paatties.

Most pathetic lost-her-husband at the airport wife: Myself, because Balaji put the wine in our cabin baggage and was forced to go check it in, while I looked like ‘Roja’ Madhubala searching for her husband.

Most insulting remark: At the airport when I asked where my husband was, the security said in a loud voice for the whole world to hear that he was carrying alcohol. I felt like I was arrack dealer Muniyandi’s wife.

Most uncomfortable ride: When myself, Balaji and Saravanan all on the wrong side of the weighing scale squeezed in one auto and let the three thin people Rajesh, his wife and Saravanan’s wife ride in another auto comfortably.

Good Samaritan got into trouble award: Rajesh Chandran, who ran to give Balaji his boarding pass outside the airport, but since he had forgotten his own in his enthusiasm was asked by the security to go out of the airport.


Disclaimer: This is all written in fun, so hopefully no one will take offense.

A great trip

I don’t think I had such fun for a really long time. I feel 10 years younger (considering Iam always 16 that would make me a child but never mind).
First, the drive was amazing. Great roads. We could maintain 100 kmhr easily. (though Aashish said Balaji drove pretty slow) . I always feel relaxed in a car on a long drive. Reminded me of our great road trips in the 6 years we were in US. We have been traveling like this since Maya was a baby and lucky for us she was never cranky and enjoyed the trips as much as we did. Sound accompanied us in the car and seemed to be a multifaceted personality. He answered Maya’s questions on geography very well. I would give him 100 on 100 if not for a tiny flaw that he likes Mumbai better than Chennai. (Aaashish, you also lose marks on this score).

Second, the bungalow we stayed in. I was a little apprehensive about our accommodation but I really liked this place. It had a cozy atmosphere instead of being impersonal like most hotels. The weather was just right. I was very glad of the fact that Yelagiri didn’t offer too many tourist attractions (or distractions) to spoil the ambience. You could just chill out without having to rush from place to place.

Third, the trekking (or non-trekking as Aashish feels that it is not politically correct to call it that). I wore the most unsuitable outfit, thanks to the fact that I have recently gained a lot of weight that I couldn’t fit into my jean. Me and Balaji used to be the Laurel and Hardy pair, but slowly Iam catching up with him. I had a lot of bruises on my arms from the thorn bushes. As one team member said Balaji maybe the driving force of the Statestreet project, but it was Santa who was the driving force in making most of the ladies reach the summit, by saying that we will be there in 5 minutes during the whole climb, dragging some of the girls,
providing water, lemon, glucose and encouraging words.

Last but not the least, the guys and gals who made this trip a success. It is always fun to see the reality as compared to Balaji’s description because they are so different.(like the time when Balaji said his friend Somayajulu is a short and stout country bumpkin, I was totally unprepared for this guy who would talk nothing but stylish English and who wore designer clothes. Later I learnt that he hails from Tirupati so Balaji called him a ‘grammathan’).Somu’s sweet smiling son Ganesh Kumar and of course my very own daughter, Maya were the icing in the cake.

Big brother show Shilpa Shetty Row

I was about to comment on the alleged racial comments on actress shilpa shetty by the inmates(note: not participants) in the Big brother show, which made headline news and went up to British parliament, but my net was down. 24 hours later, we find that the actress has backed out of her statement that she had spoken in a fit of anger.I knew that media blows things out of proportion,but this is too much. As far as my limited knowledge about the show goes, it is a bunch of people together cut off from the outside world and whoever is able leave last is the winner and gets millions.Shilpa shetty was paid a lot of money to be part of this show, knowing fully well it could be a humiliating experience. The show's success obviously depends on the inmates' bitchiness towards each other. Who would want to watch a show where everyone was saccharine sweet towards each other? My question is when you allow someone to call you a dog, does the adjective matter?A brown dog or black dog is all the same. We are human beings first and when we are degrade ourselves for money,we have to face the consequences. Secondly,a racial allegation matters where innocent citizens are targetted as it happens everyday.Not where it helps to boost its ratings in a celebrity show.I am reminded of America's stand up comedian Chris Rock' s quote about the "assassination" of rap stars Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls: "Malcolm X was assassinated. John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Them two niggas got shot." Exactly.

my blog title justified

I had the misfortune of reading 2 horrible books this month. The infamous Opal Mehta (a pirated version I got for 45 bucks in pondy bazaar) and one night @ call center by Chetan Bhagat. . I was reminded of the "Two lines (Iru kodugal philosophy in K. Balachander's movie)”. When I finished Opal and thought I cannot suffer any longer, comes Chetan Bhagat with his "contemporary classic”. I cannot even begin to comment on the clumsy storyline of 6 people in a call center, their stupid mundane lives, filmy ending, and lines taken from 'Fight club". I could even forgive the inane conversation with God who seems to be distinctly biased against Americans, the sudden brainwave that seizes the hero and his co worker in the last chapter to save the call center from layoff apocalypse (though I thought the problem with call centers was attrition and not downsizing) and the American bashing which associates all the problems of our country and youth to those morons with dollar. What I couldn't bear was the way the writer underestimated the intelligence of the reader in the final quest to save the call center's jobs. For people who haven't read the book, here's what they do.
1. Call every employee in the public address system to call American clients and tell them some evil forces are going to take over their country.
2. Every American’s computer is infected with the above virus.
3. The Americans have to call their call center every few hours in order to avoid this thereby building call traffic by which the hero can convince their employers not to lay them off.
4. All these instructions are sent in a mass email to the whole office by the hero and his friend.
This is the basic gist, but excuse me, aren't you incriminating yourself by sending a mass email?
Would the 3000 odd employees blindly follow someone (given the Indian mentality three Indians will agree on any issue only if two are dead) will who may not only jeopardize their job but put them in jail as well?
Wouldn't at least one of the American morons call any law enforcement agency to say their country is being threatened?
A schoolboy making a hoax call from a public booth can be found out and these guys have made the job easy for CIA by happily disclosing their location.
I am sorry; this is not artistic license but plain stupidity. My only satisfaction is the book got what it deserved- it is being made into a bollywood movie.

Baby geniuses

Aspirekids has come up with the novel idea of training babies to be geniuses. It seems that they impart wisdom to newborns who are yet to crawl by means of showing flash cards to the babies, so that they can recognise patterns, flags etc. I saw this demonstrated on TV recently,where a new mother showed two cards (7 and 8 dots respectively) and asked her 6 month old baby, "chuchukutty, Sollu edhu 7?". Chuchukutty promptly kicked the 7 card with its tiny foot,and the mom was ecstatic.It seems that this kid would be able to complete Harry Potter in one day by the time it is 6 years old.I am sorry, but I think this is bordering on child abuse.Maybe they will get the kids married by 8 and retire by 10?
Reminds me of the nursery rhyme 'Solomon Grundy'.

A Ghostly question

My daughter and I were watching the movie "Ghost".I was trying to explain to her the phenomenon of Patrick Swayze in his astral body going through any solid object, like walls, doors, human beings etc. She asked me then why doesn't he go through the floor also and how is it possible that he is able to sit in the chair without passing through that.I was flummoxed. It had never occurred to me that if he could pass through solid objects horizontally, he should do it vertically too.Technically, he cannot sit in a sofa or stand on the floor as they show in the movie.Comments, anyone?

An Intro

Hi,
I am Revathi Balaji, advocate, wife of Balaji N and mom to 11 year old Maya Balaji.Cool, I didn't know it was this easy to get a blog. Two very enthusistic thumbs up.