Aham Vyaktam

Many of my friends on seeing the title of the post would think "What does the word cook has to do in Anu's blog?" I remember my ex-teammate saying once "I doubt if she knows to boil water". I have never even peeped into the kitchen before I came to the US and I wore an astounded look when my roomie here told me that toor dhal and channa dhal are different. My knowledge in cooking was literally that void. Luckily, all my roomies during my first 6 months here were great cooks and the responsibility of cooking wasn't shouldered by me. I wasn't hitherto paying a damn about cooking. Cooking posed itself as a real scalawag when I happened to move into an apartment 2 months back with another girl who too was sailing on the same boat as mine, being a novice in cooking. Google was the Deity for us, providing the recipes of dishes. We can cook without oil, not without google. :)

We try out different dishes. The feel that we are starters in cooking doesn't intimidate us and confine us to make simpler dishes. There had not been a single day wherein the dishes were made without the patching up here and there. But I tell you everything turns out really well eventually and there had not been even a ruined one. I often get reminded of the days wherein I found umpteen faults in whatever my mom made. She used to curse me telling I'll know when I start cooking. Now on hearing my adventurous, yet successful cooking, she feels very happy and says it's a comeuppance.

You would be highly entertained when you see us cooking I promise. The things that petrify us the most are the curry leaves and ginger paste when added to heated oil. I would stand a yard away from the pan, throw the curry leaves and ginger paste into it and run to the other end of the kitchen to see them spurt oil all over. And we are too artistic in making rotis. We bring the shapes of all the continents in the world so perfectly in our rotis you know!!! Once we get the feel that the dish is cooked, we take a pinch of it to assess the salt and spice level and try fixing the faults [you should see us exchanging ominous looks before tasting]. We keep repeating this till we arrive at the taste we want. It's embarrassing to tell you that if you sum up the pinches we consume to assess the taste, it would be more than a person's actual intake of it. Oops!!!

For this new year, we made aaloo bonda and gulab jamun [by telling aaloo, I get reminded of you Sachi. The days when you used to share my aaloo fry are still green. You better miss them :)]. Aaloo bonda was awesome and so were the jamuns, softie-soft. But the sweet syrup got hardened time and then, how much ever we microwaved it. We will blame it on the weather. Here's the photo of jamuns to your envy [The aaloo bondas were so nice to be spared for a click]. Aint they mouth watering?


The first dish which we made was vaangi bath (rice bath with brinjals) and we have tried almost all the dishes ranging from simple rasam to malai kofta and cutlet. We are having great fun. To those who made fun about me – your desires to comment on me are ramshackled. I should admit I haven't gained confidence to cook solitarily. Want the dish to be great? – I want Nitisha beside me. I actually would be seething if someone pries in when I cook, directing me to do things. As this sweet lady is also a starter in cooking, she never does that. Nitisha: you are a great companion. Thanks a lot!

Am sure I’ll become a good cook. Beware Nala - Nalabaagam might get replaced with Anubaagam!!!!
Okay guys, I know that was too much!!!

There are oodles of disparities between the work environment I have now and the one I had before.

I had seen only micromanagement before [I hold meager years of experience in the industry and had been only under a few managers though. Sachi, and Abhi-if you read this, you know what I mean J]. Now I am being given the tasks and schedules and will be reporting about it only on the day of deadline. I see a complete sense of entrustment and am emancipated from frequent jabbing.

I had always sensed a huge distance between the manager and the subordinates before. My manager now cries if some times the team quotes him as manager. He reiterates considering him as yet another team mate.

I have never seen
Work load / (engineers + Manager)
But now for the first time I see it happening.

Of late we have taken up the practice of solving a riddle a day. There is this team mate of mine who always wants to put forth questions and hates answering. This notion of solving a puzzle a day was incorporated into work by him. He started throwing a riddle a day, leaving the rest 3 of us in the team to scratch our brains. We used to solve the puzzles together brandishing the zealots inside us, creating a huge hullabaloo around. My manager was more than a zealot I should say. The moment we receive the riddle, he would yell "everybody, drop your work off. The next few minutes for the riddle". Then this he-who-questions conjured up an idea that the puzzles are to be solved individually for which each person would be allotted points. This created a healthy competition between us and we were racing with each other to score. Am at present at par with my manager, my teammate lagging behind us by 2 points.

I actually would have been in the second place. One day, after solving a riddle while at home, my manager had called my organizer teammate and had told the answer and gained a point. The next day I went to him and told the answer, not knowing that my manager had already solved it. So my finding was considered to be disqualified. Will I be passive? No. I fought that mine was valid and such over-phone cracking of the puzzle shouldn't be encouraged. I didn't have to chew much over it as my thought was immediately accepted [becoz I was pretty younger than everyone, I would rather say I am a kid besides them and deary to everyone that they don't want to see the kid crying J] and I was also given a point for that riddle. That's how I became at par with manager and secured the first position. Brand me crooked, I don't mind.

We are having lots of fun at work, these puzzles not being the only ones contributing to it. I at times feel am at school, when my team tries to scare me when I come out from in between the dark racks in lab. We hang out atleast twice a month for lunch. We go for bowling or gaming every month. Its absolute fun. This week seems to be snailing as everyone is on PTO and am missing the fun, awaiting them to come back with a bang.

The entire credit goes to my manager, who encourages such things and wants his team to be cheerful. He not only encourages the team to learn new but also sits with us and explores and learns things. I haven't seen any manager like him till now. Keith – you are a marvel !!!!
[For those who conclude this post is to boot-lick my manager, I swear he doesnt read this :) ]

And for zealots like me (?), here are the few puzzles which went around us:

• One of your employees insists on being paid daily in gold. You have a gold bar whose value is that of seven days salary for this employee. The bar is already segmented into seven equal pieces. If you are allowed to make just two cuts in the bar, and must settle with the employee at the end of each day, how do you do it?
• There are three on/off switches in one room, each controlling a different one of the three out-of-sight light bulbs in another room. You may manipulate the switches (only to the extent of turning them on and off), then you must go into the room with the light bulbs and stay there until you have determined the mapping from switches to light bulbs. How do you do it?
• An explorer wishes to cross a barren desert that requires 6 days to cross, but one man can only carry enough food for 4 days. What is the fewest number of other men required to help carry enough food for him to cross?
• There are 3 baskets. one of them have apples only, one has oranges only and the other has mixture of apples and oranges. The labels on their baskets always lie. ( i.e. if the label says oranges, you are sure that it doesn't have oranges only,it could be a mixture) The task is to pick one basket and pick only one fruit from it and then correctly label all the three baskets.

I had lots of expectations before going to the movie, obviously because it’s a remake of the super star’s. The movie was for 2 and a half hours and I don’t mind you Ajith fans, to tell that the movie sucked. A slow motion walk with regal suit and goggle was what Ajith was introduced with. This slow motion walk and putting on the goggle is shown through out the movie every now and then. Had they been minimized, the movie wouldn’t have reached even 1 and a half hours. J

Prabhu as DSP. Uffff…. LMAO. He didn’t get into my mind at all as a police officer. He was not Deputy Superintendent of Police, but, Dumb-Snickered-Personality. I couldn’t refrain from thinking “Is Prabhu trying his hand in comedy?”. He tosses his fingers towards his subordinates standing behind him, to face billa. I didn’t sense a pinch of majesty in it. I could only imagine it analogous to kaipullai tossing his fingers towards his allakkais to face kattadurai.

Nayantara as Sasha in don’s gang. Good to see her having reduced weight and she’s not hassle-some to the eyes when she’s glamorous, unlike the bulky Namita, who is utterly obnoxious [am not gonna dedicate a paragraph to her, I hate her man. But I should say she was a degree below the peak of intolerance in this movie]. I pity Nayantara as the costume designer had made her roam around in the movie with high-heeled knee high boots and she struggles to walk. Better luck next time Nayan: Everyone cannot be Angelina Jolie aka Lara Croft.

I uttered a deep sigh of relief on seeing Santhanam on screen but before I could complete sighing, he disappears off the screen. I wish he was given a bit more number of scenes.
Rahman as drug lord has given an optimum acting. He has done perfectly what was given to him.

Am sure the dialogue from Ajith “Murugan aaru thalai, naan ore thalai” would have been sumptuous to Ajith’s fans. Ajith’s belly gets tucked in his suits but it’s pretty noticeable when he’s in casuals. I have to admit that he’s charming. Long way to go Ajith: You need to tent at a gym.

“My name is billa” remix deserves a wow but I feel it’s not Yuvan’s music which created the magic but MSV’s. I didn’t find any other song reverberating in my ears. Probably it requires repeated listening.

The former half of the movie pushes you off the seat [or lay back in the seat and sleep] but during the latter half, you can be awake and comfy in your seat. Director Vishnuvardhan didn’t do a justice to the director of old Billa, R.Krishnamurthy.

Despite racing towards the movie scenes, my mind was keen in observing who amongst the audience would crack what comment next. The taunts from the audience were the only cajoling factor I would say, which made my money half-worthy.

It was me who suggested this movie to one of my friends who joined me to the theater and I am sure he would have cursed me for it. I was saved as he was decent enough, by not spitting over my choice. Anyways, I seek apologies buddy.

PS: No disrespect intended to anyone.