The day when MRTS became MTC bus

Nov 17, 2009. 18:55.30.. 31..32

I climbed the stairs of Taramani Station with a constant Northward glance. I did not want to miss my train. I was already late, and tired.

Catching my breath, I took out my MP3 player. Ah, music heal the heart and a great refresher too.

19:03

The train should have come by now and it did. However, on the opposite platform. It usually takes about 2 more minutes for the train on the opposite direction to arrive.

19:09

I nervously looked at my watch. Sukhwinder Singh was trying his "Rab da jogi" from Taal to soothe my nerves. Tough luck pal. You ain't doing such a great job. Train still has not come at my side.

Just then, a train arrived - on the opposite direction!!

19:13

Now I had gotten used to the routine. Colloquially they say counting the bars for guys going to jail. I was counting trains today!! Train No.3, that is.

19:18

Yet another train!! A 9-car this time as opposed to the 6-cars so far.

19:25

Can you believe this? Five trains!! within a span of ten minutes!! What in the world...?

19:30

I wondered whether this was some annual conference of MRTS train drivers!!

Oh my God!! Where does one park 6 trains within a span of 3 kms? (there are only two stations from Taramani to Velachery which is the last station and the distance would hardly be 3 kms).

That would have been quite a sight!!

19:32

My train finally came. 40 minutes late, 9 songs had been heard, 12 others had been rejected.

I lived my MTC bus life again in that one hour.

When you wait for one bus, every bus other than the one we need will come; You will find similar bus routes plying on the opposite side!!

And when our bus did come, it came crowded, packed with people. heads, arms and handbags everywhere. Smelly underarms, sweaty palms groping for support to grab at the handle.


Hooray for MP3 players!! And no thanks to MRTS train conferences!!

The best of the GIs - Indian roads...

(Karthik Narayan)

People are going gaga around the world over Geographical Indications. If you haven't really heard of those... they are things that a particular place is famous for, hence to safeguard it to make it more popular or whatever reason we want to call it, we try to put it in the column Geographical Indications.

According to wiki: A geographical indication (GI) is a name or sign used on certain products which corresponds to a specific geographical location or origin (eg. a town, region, or country). The use of a GI may act as a certification that the product possesses certain qualities, or enjoys a certain reputation, due to its geographical origin.

A famous example is Tirupathi Laddoo.

But I think people are missing one very important GI that even the Multi National Companies have started adopting - Indian roads!!

NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo, OLL’s flagship event, is a free annual program which challenges people from all over the world to write a 50,000‐word novel in a month. In 2008, more than 120,000 writers from over 90 countries took part in this high‐velocity adventure in fiction. Participants exchange advice and writing tips on the NaNoWriMo website and in their own communities, where group write‐ins are held in coffee shops, libraries, and living rooms. Over 150,000 aspiring writers are expected to participate in this
November’s marathon writing event, marking NaNoWriMo’s 10th anniversary.

The NaNoWriMo Young Writers Program also takes place in November and offers a similar prose adventure for 12‐and‐under authors and the K‐12 classroom set. Resources and curriculum materials are provided to teachers, youth librarians, and homeschooling parents to help get kids and teens excited about writing. Over 600 K‐12 classrooms participated in YWP last year. “With donations like this one from Amazon.com, the Office of Letters and Light can do so much more for the kids, teens, and adults who participate in our events,” said NaNoWriMo Founder and OLL Executive Director Chris Baty. “We can launch a pilot program to bring NaNoWrimo into libraries this fall, increase our Young Writers Program outreach to hundreds of new classrooms, and improve the accessibility and efficiency of the NaNoWriMo site.”
“NaNoWriMo and YWP give people the opportunity to discover their inner writer, and to do so in a supportive and collaborative atmosphere, both online and in local communities” said Jon Fine, director of Author and Publisher Relations at Amazon.com. “We are excited to support OLL and its programs, and the many future authors who will get their start this November.”

The Office of Letters and Light is a California 501(c)(3) nonprofit. If you would like more information about OLL, National Novel Writing Month, or the Young Writers Program please visit our website at www.nanowrimo.org or contact press@nanowrimo.org.

Fortune at the bottom of the dosa

(Karthik Narayan)

This morning as I sat at my breakfast table, my mom served me her delicious dosas, the aroma of which is said to awake even a sleeping Kumbakarnan.

I was eating my dosas, with sambhar when I understood the true meaning of CK Prahlad's book title - Fortune at the bottom of the pyramid.

The dosa at the bottom of my plate was quietly drinking all the sambhar, drawing very less attention to itself.

Hurriedly, I managed to shift the bottom dosa to allocate more space and thus save some sambhar for the other dosas :)

Yummy though!

Daily one question

Hi

This has been going on for nearly a week now, but better late than never. I will be hosting a question daily on my gmail status msg that you can answer either thru an instant reply or thru email as is convenient for you.

check it out - these are one liners at the most supplemented with pics wherever possible...

KN

Katisms - aggregator

Usually I manage to get some one-liners or witty ones (Or I like to think so). Like Bushisms these I call Katisms.

In due course of time, I plan to use them in some literary work that I hope to complete!!

Here's one that I made up today...

When i ask people an almost negligible favour they react as though i want them to swallow a live mouse!!

Back to blogging

(Karthik Narayan)

Its good to get back to blogging, my Number two activity after quizzing of course.

This time, I hope to be more regular, after a hiatus there should be some justification to get back to something you consider yourself good at - in this case blogging.

I am yet to finish the book I started writing a long time ago - mainly because of personal commitments and the toll of quizzing. Now with a short break, will provide more updates on how that is shaping up.

Basically got a perspective of the book from a few angles and have ideas to re-invent the whole thing. Not sure how motivated I am towards that...