Road to Perdition :(

Hello Hello !!!! ... Looking at the title ... Do not expect an engrossing story like that of Michael Sullivan, Sr . Okay??? Thanks... okay.. lets start!!! :)

What an excruciating day !!!!

The only reason i booked a ticket for Dhobi Ghat was : "What to do in the room on weekend ... lets go and kill some time." For no reason, I was not at all that much intereseted to see that film.Having said that, somewhere deep inside i wanted to see it :). Finally I booked ticket for Saturday 11 45 am show at PVR Banglore.

Saturday Jan 22 2011 : The D-Day

After TV-ing for quite a long time on friday night I slept in the early hours of saturday .. hmm .. around 2 am. Didnt have a sound sleep and woke up at 6 30 am. Switched on TV and was changing the channels in random.At one channel,TV9-kannada...a deserted bus-stand was shown. I was like "oh God...is that Banglore". But i found peace a few seconds later when i found that was Mysore bus-stand. Then i forgot about that and got ready.I should have glued to that channel or some other news channel for some more time. Really should have.

The weather was awesome.Cool winter breezes were circling me. Feeling the morning freshness in the air. I went to Bus-stop at 9 50 am .Generally, It takes almost 90 minutes to reach PVR from my place.Please do not mock at me for travelling that long for watching a movie.I know you wont. Thankyou :P . Ok... I reached Bus-stop and there was already a big crowd there wating for buses. 5 minutes later a bus came and took some with it .People inside were like biscuits in a packet.Tightly packed.Couldnt dare to get in. No other bus was seen coming.I thought that the 'bandh' in Mysore(about which i saw on TV) was trying to cast its shadow over here. Never came the idea into my mind that it was actually 'bandh' here at Banglore too. Infact,it was state wide bandh.

As i didnt have a proper sleep, my eye lids were intermittently falling down freely closing my eyes.I supported my back against the railing of the busstop and was feeling tired and wanted to go room and hit the sack when the inner kranthi came out and said "..but kranthi,waht if the movie was good..what if you missed some great performances.." Actually, i was also looking forward to experiencing the background score by Gustavo Santaolalla, oscar winning composer. i had been waiting there at bus stop for 30 minutes till then . when I was about to drop the idea of movie, a truck arrived with almost 80 to 90 people standing in the back of it. A person sitting beside the driver was crying "silk board". Thats the place i had to go .As there was room for one more guy i got up into the cabin and I was so elated :) Now,the cabin had: the driver,the other person and me. The truck was so high above the ground unlike the bus. Good engine.Good speed too. Trying to see Bangalore in a different perspective from that height :) .

The drama begins:

The truck picked me at 10 20.To reach on time it must go faster. But kya kare!!!!Kranthi proposes - God disposes. the truck stopped at every person's horizontal hand i.e.signal to stop . And it stopped at every bang on it by whoever wanted to get down from truck.You know the trucks!!! To get down and get on to it was not that easy.Time consuming task. At one stop, one guy stopped the vehicle and when i showed him to go back, he was totally reluctant. He wanted to get into our cabin. I said no room and he was adamant.He opened the door by himself, was hanging in the air holding the handle with one hand like a skilfull Orangutan hanging from a tree-branch . What he was doing there hanging was he was discussing and also demanding me to let him in. But there was no room at all. Uff! finally got rid of him.I knew he hated me :(

The only stop i know about, which comes between my place and the Silkboard, is Marathalli. I know nothing about the other stops. When people stopped the vehicle they would ask me whether it was going to "domalur" or some " xxxxxx" ," yyyyy" or "zzzzz" . The first thing is i donot know whether those places come en route. And the second thing is i dont know even the basics of kannada to tell them that "i dont know" . I just would give them my 'blank face' as reply. And in turn i would get some serious, disappointed and sometimes threatening looks too from them.All their grimaces posed one straight question for me " what kind of cleaner are you ,you dumb fellow??!!! Who gave u this job?? " :(

The driver was lank and had a light beard. Somewhere in the middle he was saying in kannada to my co-passenger "more than 100 people sir... will get 1000 today". He was so ecstatic . I felt good seeing his happiness.

I thought it would be better for me if i had some clarity on why buses were not plying much.But the driver and the guy next to me who was also a passenger,were chatting in kannada.What to do?? Finally, after my observation , i found out that the guy next to me, was speaking only 2 words in kannada " eshtu" " barthi" .He was cleverly managing with just those 2 words. i figured out that he was not a local and he must be either a telugu or a hindi speaking guy. Taking my chances, i asked him in hindi whether there was any bandh that day. He said yes and explained in detail in hindi the reason for bandh.Trust me he gave me a not less than 15 minute lecture. This guy was crazy too, in a way. He was asking the driver to pull over the vehicle and go back and collect the money,though a cleaner was there in back. Enkamma!!! I was already running out of time and this guy was hatching some more plans to aggrandize my plight !! :) . But he had the point !!

I opened a book from my bag which has been in pending for quite a long time. But the book found its way back into the bag within a minute. The reason: As the truck was giving me up&down oscilations with a little wavelength,the book was coming close to me and then it was going far down.Up-down-up-down. I couldnt even had the vigour to put on my ipod which was a very unlikely and a rare case. I was so restless and had a strong desire to sleep . But the truck stopped for every 5 minutes and i was bombarded by those incessant enquiries of the road-blockers i.e, people at bus stops . A cleaner's job is the most demanding job.Lesson learnt :)

The driver stopped the vehicle at marathalli .The driver was absolutely unhappy and totally disappointed when the cleaner who was at back came to driver and gave him just above 100 rupees. A zero less in what driver expected i.e.1000. He was completely dejected.But he didnt say a word to cleaner .i felt sorry for him. After some more time when my stop came , i gave him little more than waht he asked .He tried to give me back but i insisted him to keep it.

It was already 11 45. The movie time. I hurried..caught an auto to reach PVR. He charged me more than than the usual rate citing the bandh . I was already late by 10 minutes . I got down and was made to pay another 5 rupees besides the doubled fare when the autowallah said he had no change to give back :( .Having no time to argue,I crossed the road and rushed towards the entrance. There i found one A4 size white sheet clipped to a card board on a stand with these bold arial fonted words imprinted on it "MALL IS CLOSED".

What have i done? :'(  I embarked on a journey which didnt augur an iota of excitement right form the start.But i continued with all those restlessness,sleepiness,tiredness only to end up like this. Emi faceuraa ,kranthi? .Lost all my strength by the time i reached PVR.

I could have got down from the truck the moment when i was made aware about the bandh.But i didnt because my mind(if there is) vouched saying " By the time the movie gets finished..buses will ply normally." But now what??? I didnt have enough options. Immediately , I called an auto and he charged me double (obviously) to take me back to silk board stop. I got down and caught a van to drop me half way . This van driver was smarter than that truck driver. He clearly stated the fare which was double than the usual and he started the vehicle only after he collected all the money.I was woken up by someone when the van reached its destination, Marathhalli. My sleepy eyes were burning and burning. A few minutes later, luckily, got into a bus to my place. Finding no shop to buy food ,i got back to room...and .. and ... i just slept for the next six to seven hours like a dead man :)

hmm... THE END

adios

Kranthi

ABCDEF ( A Boy's Cool Dreams & Eerie Fantasies :P )

I know u will feel weird once u start reading this post. So .... to lessen the boring effect , i have a plan :) .Before u start reading this u need to alter some basic Reading Settings of your mind .Okay? Now... what u need to do is : Enable the checkbox which reads 'I must think like a little kid in school while i read' .

So,having done that..now check out a kid's dreams and fantasies as related to profession he wanted to choose :) . By the way... good luck :) haha !!! .Dont forget to check the time periods of those fantasies  as i didnt follow the chronology :) . Here we go ...

Time period : 1st standard - 8th standard

When kranthi was in school....when relatives or acquaintances came to house and if they asked him “kranthi..what do u wanna become in life?”

He would say with full confident air “Doctor”

And when they wowed he would feel great.

Why did he want to become a doctor in the first palce ? As this was his prime and serious dream & wish, i would write a bit more about this dream of his:

He considered that there were only two career options for him : Engineer or Doctor . He heard a lot on "maths for Engineering & science for Medicine " .So he had to go for Maths or for Science. But he disliked maths as he was not confident (upto 8th class) and maths always sent shivers down his spine. He obviously chose to become a doctor as he always got very good marks in Science. Well…. Coming to marks…he got good marks in maths too but he knew it was not his forte. ”So..take science and become doctor “ he thought so.

His grandfather was a doctor(RMP) and sometimes little kranthi would be given a polythene bag with different kinds of medicines in it by his grandfather to give them off to known patients. . The kid would go to their house and give them saying “this tablet – in the morning, this one-after lunch..so on ”. And they all would appreciate him for his suave doctorgiri ( need to apply for patent for this new word 'doctorgiri' :P ) and would say “you sure will become a doctor” :) .You should have been there to see his face and an auot-change in his gait. Oh boy!!!! full nakhras!! :) On his way back to home.. he flew up in the air like a bird having accomplished the task perfectly ;).

He always and always thought of becoming a doctor until his interest shifted to maths in 9th class. Loved maths since then and opted for MPC :) . Lucky people/patients :) .Ain't they? :)

Time period : In 4th standard

One day in this time period … his friend sreeman told him that he wanted to become a 'bank clerk'.

Kranthi asked him curiously with eyes wide open “rey sreeman...whats that job raa ?”

You know kids. They always boast innocently what they know. And our Sreeman was not an exception .He explained enthusiastically ” it’s a job in bank ... very good job , I will become a clerk. i will get lots of money as salary ”

As the word 'bank' seemed synonymous for 'money', kranthi pondered over choosing that profession . But this hardly lasted for a few minutes.

Time period : 1st standard - 5th standard

Radha(Krishna) and kranthi were so close friends from their kindergarten days. Their day always started meeting at the back of their house under the neem tree with tooth brushes moving in and out of their mouths.They used to talk / discuss everything under the sun at this hour. Many a time, Radha said that his grandfather worked in Mintry. Don’t try to find the meaning of the word ‘mintry’ . He meant ‘millitary’ :). As kids,we both ( and everyone of u too) loved action stuff. Machine guns ... millitary dresses … etc. So .. sometimes in this period , he dreamt of becoming a mintry officer (;-) ) fighting against Pakistan fiercly eliminating all the enemies and bringing victory to his motherland :P. But this too faded so fast.

Time period : 3rd standard - 5th standard

Radha and kranthi ,on one sunday, saw a hindi movie on DD(only channel then) called Raksha starred by Jithendra. It was a james bond kind of movie . Gadgets, sleek guns and most importantly what caught us like wildfire was the –automatic knifes in the boots of the hero which he uses against a giant sized rowdy :) . Also,we saw many other CID movies too. So, we both thought how cool spies were. So, kranthi dreamt what he would do if he were a spy and what disguises he should wear to deceive villains and extract SECRET files from them. He thought about disguises like : Rickshaw puller, Fruit Vendor pushing a cart parking infront of villains house etc etc :) . All heroic thoughts.

Time period : 4th standard - 8th standard

This was one more important dream of his which continued for a long long time. One day in 4th class..in classroom… kranthi drew 3 cartoons looking at a cover page of srikanth's notebook. He liked it. He felt he did draw good and he enjoyed doing that. From then on… he started drawing everything he wanted to draw. Cartoons, scenes of nature, Gods, ships, cars, flights, writng names in different styles. sometimes he tried drawing movie artistes, national leaders too . During Kuwait war he drew saddam Hussein offering flower boquets instead of missiles. It came up so well. He enjoyed drawing. As he used to go to school on rickshaw (i mean sitting in it with others / not riding it :P ) ... everyday on his way to school he would look at the name boards of the shops observing the style ,clours etc. Sometimes he thought how good it would be if he became a great painter.

while in 6th class,kranthi and his benchmate Amarnath used to discuss a lot about drawing. all the time, he used to fill every white paper with some drawing or etching his name stylishly. His shelf at home was filled with crayons,sketches,colourpencils,water colours,brushes.So Cool!!! .At school, His friends used to give their new notebooks to kranthi to have their names wriiten on the first page .

He always wanted to get trained which he never did. But he still continues drawing like a dilletante.

I wish he should have gone in that direction seriously.

Time period : In  6th or 7th standard

One day at Radhakrishna’s house….Radha was having a serious argument with Srikanth.War of Words . Full heat. Full aloud. Kranthi went there.. saw the scene and asked them to stop for a while. Then he asked them to explain what happened actually. Both started at once. He stopped them and asked them to speak one at a time.In the mean time while one was speaking he stopped wherever needed & questioned to get clarity. After listening to both of them –individually and jointly, Kranthi pondered, analysed… and finally solved their problem with his brains. All were happy :) . Radha’s father who was a lawyer himself appreciated Kranthi's reasoning very much. Then he thought “ how would it be if I become a lawyer ? this seem so cool. “ :)

That night he slept dreaming about the prospects of becoming a lawer :) . Next day he forgot everything. :)

Time period  < 4th standard

Black dress, black coat, black shoes, black goggles, black super bike etc etc. Got anything? ;) This is the superhero stuff yaar. Sometimes when he was alone and was in his dreamland ,he imagined himself in these costumes and accessories . If ur question to him is “But Why? “. He would say “c’mon yaar… with my super powers, i will appear wherever the evil exists and whenever the people are suffering and will save them , help them and then they  cheer him 'HERO HERO' “ :P . i think,may be, he drew inspiration from his all time favourite super hero Spider-man :)

Time Period  <  5th standard

As Science was his favourite subject, he thought he could become a great scientist. He discussed the topic with Radha who also shared the same opinion. Under the neem tree( the same tree which was mentioned before :) ) they kick started thinking about becoming a scientist. As they believed that a scientist invents creative and new things they pondered for a while about what to invent. Brain storming was begun. TV,Radio,Bikes,Aeroplanes,Trains,pen, pencillin..etc etc...everything was already invented.They found nothing to invent ;) :P  and they took it lite  :) .But they thought about that often.


Time period : from the day the little  kranthi started walking - 10th standard

Kranthi was brought up at his grandmothers house and the house is just behind the govt junior college which has a big play ground.Just a wall separates backyard from college. His grandmother says “you both (me and radhakrishna)were not even 4 years old , picked a bat and ball and went to college grounds and then u walked one kilometer outside college on road. Actually what happened was , one evening, suddenly we found u both were missing . we went inside college and there someone told us 2 kids played there and went out sometime ago. Then we went in different directions and finally found u people far away coming back again talking to each other with bat and ball ” .

So… that was just the beginning. Cricket was his life in his school days. His heart ached whenever he missed a match . If u subtract the time@school and sleeptime@house from his total school life, the time u will get is the cricket-time@collegegrounds. In some class,7th or 8th, he was bedridden for more than a week with fever .Medicines ,saline bottles,Injections were on high. One morning he felt a bit better and slowly sneaked into the college ground. He was watching a match and it was like he was back to paradise. Within few minutes his grandmother came searching for him and gave a big lecture while taking me back .

Every night before Sunday he used to sleep dreaming about the wickets he would take ,runs he would score and catches he would take in the matches coming up the next day. Not only dreams during night he also day-dreamed about nothing but cricket. Lovvvvvely dreams. Never thought of making it a career but he thought he would play the game all his life.

So ...whats the status of  ABCDEF now? ;)

I didnt turn out as a doctor but ended up as a Software engineer. Still i am a kinda doctor to myself..because i (like everyone of us )take my own medicines for little problems :) 

I never did a job in bank clerk but usually I go to banks :) .

And didnt join mintry too ( millitary ;) ) though i considered it once in engineering :)

I was never a spy but these managers spy on our work all the time yaar :(

By the way, i forgot to mention that i had one black shirt,black jeans and black honda shine bike ;) Despite that, i'm not a super hero but i love watching hollywood superhero movies :). Just love them :)

Hmm... if a  'scientist' job is to create something ... then i created some code  :P

Still i try to resolve some conflicts of friends and in family playing a peace maker and thus I am a sort of lawyer to them :) .

Well..now my engineering & office friends will understand the root cause for my multitude drawing galore in every page of my notebooks :) . This is the only thing i am continuing till this day. Last year when i went to a training the trainer looked funny (only to me though) and i could draw him on first day :)

Yeah ..I miss cricket.Played so much till engineering. And in some rare occasions later. I dont remember when was the last time i played. Years passed. Sometimes, on weekends , i get a great rush to play a match again. But Its not a single person game.right? . I miss the game so so much. The sound that emanates 'when the ball i bowled hits the stump' ' when my bat strikes the ball for a perfect square cut' 'the uproar of jubilation in team when i take a great catch' is truly madly deeply missed :'( .

P.S : 1.Theres one more dear dream which i feel i should have nurtured .I wish I were in that area . Any guesses?
2.Hey.. dont forget to restore to your original settings. You did change one in the begining.Remember? :P

adios folks
kranthi :)

A Collection of Best Embarrassing Moments - IV

Faux pas :(

At school..whenever exams...even monthly Unit tests...got finished..all my friends would go to movie ... evening show .. on the last day of the exam. They would celebrate as if they had just finished graduation :) :). I never went with them. Dont know why. Just never went :)

But one time..they (Radhkrishna,Srikanth,Hari,shyam ) inisisted and even I thought of joining them. The movie was a tamil dubbed movie 'I Love India". As the title evoked some patriotic flavour with full of action, i said okay. . In the last minute one friend dhani alias dhaniah alias Daniel ( thanaki moodu perlu :) ) misinformed us ( we didnt know he didnt see the movie).. that he saw and the female lead's part was too indecent .And Shyam who was also bringing two other kids with him who were in their fourth standard, didnt want to take them to such movie and declared that we should not watch that.

He came up with an idea of goin to another movie called "asale pellayinavaani" which had Naresh as hero. We didnt like the idea.He convinced us saying it would have comedy as it had Naresh. what to do?? We went and .. oh... no. .. this movie had some top notch damn vulgarity. edchinattundi cinemaa. After the movie..i was going home thinking how would mom react if she found this .I was embarrassed . I went home ... she didnt ask me .... silently had dinner...she didnt ask me ... i lied down on bed and was trying to sleep..and then she asked :(

She asked "how was the movie?".

chachhanu.. I was 'dead' silent.

She asked again."i am asking you ... how was the movie".

I said with full embarrassment " we didnt go for I LOVE INDIA. we saw another one"

she stressed "Then..which movie?"

"we went to 'asale pellaina vaadni' " .

ఇక చూసుకోండి....she began " అసలా cinema పేరేంటి .... pillalu chusey cinemaanaa adi...? What did u say in the morning? Why did u go to that movie? c'mon say something ...". Full Class. . తల తీసేసినట్టయింది .


SLAP STORY

That day in school .... second period in the afternoon.... Telugu teacher Anuradha ma'am was asking questions on sandhulu-samasalu which was a daily routine for some time. That day.. She asked one question .... and nobody could answer that .... everybody was rising from their seats in sequence .A bit geography about classroom. the class room seating would be like I_I and the last benches were joined. The left column was of girls and the right column, boys.And the long jointed last row was occupied by boys :).

Back to story... everybody in the class was standing...the line would meet me in the last bench in a few seconds. manadeppuduu last benche :) . .Finally it was my turn and i answered. OOPS.... it was wrong. I was shell-shocked and i stood still. The standing line started from the first bench in the right and it came back to last bench where i sat and it was going again to the front in left side. The  wave kept its tempo and rising all the way. I wished it would go on like that keeping everyone standing. But it didnt. Rajini would always sit in the fitst bench-first seat. She was the one who would get to face that question last. So...the standing wave reached her.She rose and ..and answered. Correct answer. My heart cried " NOOOOOOO !!!!... "

There was a reason for my muuga-outcry . Whoever would answer to the question by ma'am should slap the other not-answered-boys/girls. The humiliating slapping process was like: Hold the nose of the person with one hand and slap with the other. And .. And Rajini began her work. Slapping everyone in the class. She was reaching me .To slap . She came.She saw.She slapped. Embarrassing. Embarrassed for many reasons. Emabarrassed because i couldnt answer and she was the only one in the class who could answer.Embarrassed because she got a chance to beat everyone.Embarrassed thinking how proud she would feel with this mass-slapping :) More embarrassed thinking what if i never get a chance to repay her in this style :) :) . [ Months later..i got that chance :). i'll tell u phir kabhi .i dont think she remembers any of these :) ]

Okay guys ...  thats the end of the series. Thanks for bearing with me all this time :) 

adios
Kranthi :)

A Collection of Best Embarrassing Moments - III

Half  नाम brings बदनाम :)   :

 This was a difffferenttt situation. You know that my name is kranthi kumar.just keep in mind :) . I have one habbit since my schooldays. i always draw something in my notebook. If u open my notebook u will find something ... some kind of drawing.My friends knew this. sometimes u will find some unfinsihed drawings too. The reason is ..somewhere in the middle..if i lose interest or if some other work is to be addressed i would leave that in that middle. This habit is still ON :) . Okay besides drawing i always write my name in different different styles embellishing it. I always,mostly, write just "kranthi" leaving "kumar" to gaali(winds :) ).

 Okay..getting back to story : One day, in school, I started writing my name in the centre of a notebook...in one whole paper ... in big double lines like we find the movie titles on posters. For a time i developed a fascination towards the "kumar" in my name.That day i was writng just "kumar".I allocated one complete paper for that . ఒక అమరశిల్పి జక్కన లా K చెక్కాను. U చెక్కాను M చెక్కాను A చెక్కాను. చివరగా R కూడా చేక్కబోయాను . కాని అప్పటికే bore కొట్టి చచ్చాను . So lite తీసుకున్నాను . I was in class ..i got so so bored and I didnt sculpt the last letter "R" :)

AFTER FEW MONTHS. One day Jani who was famous for his mafiaic activities like having powerful connection outside the school :) was flipping the pages of my notebook and accidentally stopped at one page and cried loudly with excitement " OOOOOOOO... whats this?...hammaaaa!!!!." I looked at it and was shell shocked. I found there K U M A . bore కొట్టి మధ్యలో వదిలేసిన నా సుందర నామ చివరి సగభాగం . OH god...!!! చచ్చాను ...There was one girl K.Umamahalaxmi in our class. just naa mundhu bench. My "KUMAR" sans R outputed a new eaquation "K UMA " . Shortform for Umamahalaxmi :'( . Though there was sister-brother jargon in the school... no one in class would miss this opprtunity to comment. I was fully embarrassed. Ee జానిగాడు balckmail చేసి చంపేస్తాడు అని అనుకున్నాను ..కాని luckily he forgot everything and saved me from further embarrassament :) .Thanks Jani :)

 AUTO-matic-GRAPHS :) :

 Final semester... the twilight of enginering days :( everybody was thinking "what they're gonna miss"!!! .E verybody was buying autograph books /slam books and running after their dear friends. There was one girl Aparna,my classmate . She was also in my lab practicals batch who once, (2-1 / 3-1? not sure) helped me in the lab external exam. I was stuck with some problem in the lab and she herself came to me and helped me.That day I felt like she was some angel descended to help me in the lab :) .

So ..coming back to final days of engg... i thought i would take autograph of hers. I decided. That day..everybody was busy scribbling in others' books. I took Ramesh with me for company and went to her and gave my book. She was scribbling and i stood there.Some other girl(our classmate) came and sat beside her.After Aparna finished she asked "shall i pass on this to her?" .That other girl was looking and if i said "NO" it wouldnt look good though i hardly spoke to her before. I said "okay .... u pass it on..". By then there were already 5 to 7 girs accumulated in that area. nenu booked.Then I said,pointing to another girl "after that...give it to her.. " Then Aparna said "Dont worry...i will pass this to everyone". I didnt say anything but okay.They were all scribbling in my book like automatic machines as they didnt know anything abt me. I left that place and went later to collect.

I collected and was goin to hostel with Ramesh . I was feeling embarrassed. Actually dying with that feeling. I didnt feel okay having those details (though they didnt write much ) of the girls who i never spoke to.I wanted to have Aparna's and i ended up with all. Even they too might have disliked and totally hated writing in a person's book whom they hardly knew. Finally ...i vented my anguish to ramesh " Hey ramesh..am not feeling good..this is embarrassing". And u know waht ramesh said " hammayya!!! thank god!!! kranthi.... now i am happy ... 2 days back ..even i gave them mine ... and from that time i am feelin awkward too .. now u added to the list ...cool " .He was ROFL. I kept aside my suffering and i joined him. Laughing. But till today... whenever i think about that i feel embarrassed :( .


Two Birds At One Blow :)    :


This is can be called Collective Embarrassment :) మా father కి telugu భాషన్నా ..telugu literature అన్నా మాంచి ప్రాణం అన్నమాట . He likes the movies which reflect telugu culture and indian culture. So..obviously he loves the director Bapu.

okay now coming to the point..while i was in school..on some holiday...soembody brought VCP .We were watching the movie Rajendraprasad's "Mister Pellam" directed by Bapu. My dad was sitting beside me on the bed supporting his back against the wall. The video was being played on TV infront of me but the audio was being played beside me.Didnt get this??? నేను చెబుతాను kadaaaaa.... Ever since the movie started my father started eulogizing about Bapu ,his films, his film-making-style . నేను "ఊ " కొడుతూ చూస్తున్నాను .
  
So ..then came a song sequence in the movie.Hero sings about heroine . it goes like " aa sogasu chuuda tharammaaa..." My dad re-bounced with full enthusiasm and was saying "See...the other directors show herones in a bad light..see Bapu..see there..how decently bapu is showing his heroine with that బారు జడ ..నిండు చీర ...." .Then it happened.I wish i were not there . All of you who saw that song would understand. what happened was :

while my father was singing paeans about Bapu ...alas.... during that song.. at one moment ... how to say..hmm ... ok.. the heroine's saree slipped/slid from her shoulder... The second we saw that scene ..my father instantly stopped talking and was absolutely silent. I think it was a crest-fallen moment for him .. .. and i didnt find a place to hide my head :) . I dont know what the director might have thought about including such scene but i cursed my presence there at that moment .Usually ..in normal cases..when we we happen to watch such scenes with parents we would feel awfully embarrassed. But in this case ..even worse...while my father was raving abt the director and suddenly happening this kind of thing out of blue .... its million zillion times more than that.

But ...everytime i think about that there comes a smile on my face :) . Dual embarrassment :)

-Kranthi :)

A Collection of Best Embarrassing Moments - II

 బతుకు "BUS-STAND"  :)  :

Actually..this is not just a story.This is a saga :) తెల్లని shirt పై మరకలా కాలికి అంటిన బురదలా ఇది ఎప్పటికీ అలా గుర్తుండిపొతుంది . After Engineering , all my best buddies flew to US for their MS programs and I took shelter somewhere around Dilsuknagar. What I was doing? Applying for jobs and learning some course at ..haha..obvious Ameerpet .Here the story goes to an alley near my room. Every evening ,me and my roommates would walk from our room to the main road to have some snacks (pani puri/ mirapakaya bajji :) ) or to buy vegetables.So..on that lane from our room to the main road there was a flat on third or second floor of an apartment which had a family in it .

Our saga  deals with two good looking college girls from that family . So while we walked the damsels would come out to their balacony and smile at us. There was one guy Vamsi in our gang who was 100percent sure/adamant that they were there at balcony for him,for him only. I never believed him nor understood those girls . i knew it was coincidence .

One day ..vamshi and i were going on the same lane ... I looked at window even before we came close to that appartment...no one was there but as soon as we came even closer they popped up at the balcony.They were smiling.vamshi was smiling. He was saying "అదిగో ..చూడు .. చూడు .. చెప్పాకదా వస్తారని ".Usualgaa కనిపించే నక్షత్రాలు కాకుండా asteroids commets తిరుగుతున్నాయనిపించింది నా తల చుట్టూ . అందులో ఒకటేదో పెద్దగా వుంది ..బహుశా Jupiter ఏమో . వంశీ ని criticize చేస్తున్నానని కాదు కాని , we didnt think they were coming for him as he thought. No offense.రోజులు గడుస్తున్నాయి .They never spoke to him nor "hi"ed  him .

Now the second part for this story. One day i was coming alone on the same street too. As I approached their appartment ..one girl came out to balcony ..stood there..and went in :) A few days later I saw her in the bus-stop . And two days later I saw her again in the same bustop. NOW WATCH THE TERRIFIC DRAMA: We had a chat :) The whole conversation took place in english only.Somehow ..I filled my heart with sahasam seyara dimbhaka courage though it was a tough task indeed. Taking for granted that she kinda knew me..i mean అప్పుడప్పుడు చూస్తూ ఉంటుంది కదా lane లో వంశీతో పాటు అని ..(time బాగోలేకపోతే ఒబామా కూడా మామ లా అనిపిస్తాడు )

I went to her and said " Hi"

She was staring at me like i was from our ninth planet Pluto .. I didnt know what she was trying to see but I saw a big quesion mark on her face.Confirmed .Book అయ్యాను .Terrible runtime error. To avoid my further self-embarrassment ...కొంచం తేరుకుని

I said again " Hi' (believe me..i said again)

She said " WHO ARE YOU ?"

నాక్కూడా same అలాగే అనిపించింది . who am i . మళ్లీ తేరుకుని....

I said " I just thought i would say 'hi' ". నా vocal cords నుంచి మాటలోస్తున్నాయి కాని ....వాటికి నా brain తో connection already lost.

She twisted her brow differently and with full frustrated voice brutally attacked me again " BUT WHO are you ?" ( she added a word extra this time..and the accent was on the word "WHO" which was even more embarrassing to me)

"వామ్మో !! ఎన్ని సార్లు అడుగుతావు తల్లి who are u who are u ani. నాకు మాత్రం ఏమి తెలుసు " అని నా మనసు ఏడుస్తుంది.అసలు ఎప్పుడూ లేనిది నాకు ఇలా wish చెయ్యలని అనిపించడమేంటి and ఇలా book అయిపొవడమేంటీ.... ఏంటో .... అంతా మాయ!!!

వీలైనంత తొందరగా అక్కడినుంచి పారిపోవలని ధ్రుడసంకల్పంతో  ... finally i replied "hmm..okay..no problem" and jump-jilani .... escaped from there :)

That was one awesome embarrassing moment.Dont u think?? haha. I never revealed this to my then roommates :) . Actually.. i didnt do my home work properly. I should have equipped myself with suitable replies to answer unexpected questions . i think i expected a NO HI from her but not this :) :) . As the saying goes every cloud has silver lining .... thank god/thank her .... she didnt call police :D . hmm, adi naa city bus-stand story :) 


Meltdown in Maths Class :(     :


No matter how hard i try i cannot infuse a funny or happy smiley in this article. I told u once that i was not good at maths till i entered 9thclass.And though i was poor i always got good marks all the times except this time. This event happned in 8th class . In the quartelrly exams that time ... as a matter of fact i could not solve a single problem.The syllabus mostly included a chapter called Commercial or business mathemetics which was a hard nut to crack for me. . After blisfull dasara vacation ... back to school and the time for results. SeenSaar (maths sir ... srinivas sir..we call him fondly that way) came to class that day with the bundle of our corrected answer sheets and with an expression on his face which was furious. The look itself distanced me from him.The sheets were distributed and he was calling each one by roll numbers . 90% of the class got very less marks and sir was beating them like never before.

I was called. There were many moments of embarrassment here. After he called i was walking towards him and he gave the look. The look which I never saw before. It killed me.That was the first of the many moments that hour. I went to him he and he asked my marks.I said my marks.He asked me again loudly.I said "24" (out of 100) .He smiled sarcastically.That was the second. He got hold of my ear and started twisting it.Did it hurt? If u are asking me whether it hurt me physically i will say NO. It should hurt but i didnt feel any physical sensation. It was more than that.The infliction infront of the class was waht that was hurting me. Then.. placing his hand roughly on my head he forcefully pulled my head down making my body bend before him.Then he beat me on my back. Again I didnt feel any pain physically. He was saying something to class while beating me.That was paining .I didnt cry. Whole class was watching and everyone was feeling sorry as they always saw me as the one who got first or second rank.


I went home.Next morning .. i didnt want to go school. It was embarrassing. I didnt go. At home, I feigned "stomachache ".The next day it was head ache.The other day it was dizziness. I acted that way infront of my mom for almost 7 to 10 days. THIS was embarrassing too but i didnt have the gut to face the other teachers and the whole class. RadhaKrishna,my classmate told me at home that all the sirs and ma'ams were talking about my incident.They never might have assumed that i would be in that kind of situation. adi katha. Now a smiley : :)

A Collection of Best Embarrassing Moments - I

1. Piece-of-चाकू ;)  :

Engineering Frst year.In Workshop. That day ,our task which could be called "excruciating" was : Each of us were given a small matchbox sized iron piece. We had to file its edges smoothly and also cut into a bizzare shape.There was something more to that process...i think we had to put it under some machine...ok whatever...wil come to the point...somehwere in the middle or end of the process we had to rub that iron piece with some wet piece of chalk and must be allowed to dry.

So..here the story deals with that piece of chalk. Somehow I found one very very small piece of chalk and started rubbing the slab . As I was using that one friend Mastan Rao came and asked me for the chalk once i was done with it. naaku mandipoyindi .so i said seriously with a disgruntled distorted face " rey.. naa daggara vunnade chinna piece... emi ivvamantaav". He went away. I was still doin the process.  

A few seconds later one girl Mitra came to me and just said " chalk piece" . Could not say anything to her like i said to mastan.As my track record dealing with girls was always utmost pathetic , i just gave her as if i was a machine . Just gave it to her.Just like that. Strongly Seriously Sanctimoniously praying god to not let happen an event i tuned my face to check whether god had answered my prayer or not. No,He didnt answer. Mastan was there.Looking at me. he saw waht happened. That was not a usual smile on his face..it was something different ... a lopsided smile kinda thing embeded with the best sarcasm and best satire. alaa aa chalk oka chaku laa heart lo dhigi i died that day on the spot.Condolences to me !!!! ;)


2. ఆడవారి మాటలకు అర్థాలు వేరులే :) :


ఇది మాంచి variety. school లో జరిగిందే . మా school లో ఒక ఖతర్నాక్ సంప్రదాయం ఉండేది . " అన్నయ్య సన్నిధి ...చెల్లెమ్మ పెన్నిధి " type. i mean... boys girls ని "sister" అని అనాలి .girls boys ని "brother" అని పిలవాలి . Super brother-sister sentiment కదా .Yeah even i felt weird when i moved into this school in 6th class. okay now the story :) : 

This happened in 9th class . One day ... I finished my lunch at home and came to school a bit early for the afternoon session. I was doing my hindi handwriting notes .. adey chinnappudu raasthaam kadaaa .. handwritng copy.. so i was writing which must be submitted in the last period . Otherwise ... khallas mana pani. Anitha was already there in the classroom. She would bring lunch box usually. After a few miutes..Rajini entered. Only we three were present in the room. Then the drama started .

I dont remeber exactly who started first. Anitha asked me


" Brother, మేడి పండు చూడ మేలిమైయుండును పొట్ట విప్పి చూడ పురుగులుండు ... పద్యముంది కదా... ఎవరు రాసారు? "

Unaware of anything...I answered " vemana anukntaanu sister" .

she said "Thanks brother".

I felt proud for my accomplishment. I was still scribbling in my notebook. A minute later ,Rajini started.

Rajini asked " Brother..తప్పులెన్నువారు తండోపతండంబు తప్పు లెన్నువారు తమతప్పు లెరుగరు .." అంటూ ఇంకో పద్యం పాడి " ఈ పద్యం ఎవరు రాసారు? " అని అడిగింది.

Me unable to read between their lines... scratched my head and said " correct గా తెలియదు ..,భాస్కరుడా ?? " . She smiled . I smiled too.

Later bell rang at 2 pm and the classes began. The second period was Chandraiah Sir's Social studies. That day he seemed cool and was not teaching anything. Just talking with students. I was doing something I dont remember . Finally chandraiah sir came to the subject of animosity among girls in our class. Even i didnt know about it before. There were two groups among girls in our class.Rajini and Anitha belonged to rival groups. Sir was trying to be a good peace maker and trying to unite them.

The arguments between groups soared up and suddenly rajini said "master... కావలంటే ... kranthi ని అడగండి....ఎవరుstart చేస్తున్నారో గొడవని... afternoon జరిగింది క్రాంతికి కూడా తెలుసు" .

Calling out my name suddenly that too as a witness brought me form my world into the classroom. Before i came to senses the whole class,ofcourse boys cried out loud mockingly " OOOOOOOOOOO....." "kranthiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii" .Snickering everywhere. 

I was mortified. మా boys అసలే ఎదవలు ...వాళ్ళ అరుపుల కి comments కి ఏడ్చినంత పని అయ్యింది . మధ్యహ్నం ఎంత అమాయకంగా అడిగారు questions.హమ్మ !! అది enquiry కానే కాదు .infact,పద్యాలతో యుద్ధం . నేనేమో పిచ్చి సన్నాసిలాగా వాళ్ళడిగిన దానికి బుర్ర చించుకుని ,అలోచించి మరీ answer చేసాను . ఎంతైనా ..pawan kalyan పాడినట్టు ఆడవారి మాటలకు అర్థాలు వేరులే !!! :)


3.Chemical ' Reaction' :)  :

haha..once again a girl made me look like a fool. . First year of Engg.Chemistry lab. What would happen in lab usually was: we would be given some salt (some powdered chemical) ..first we would weigh it in a balance and later go for the experiment stuff. So as ususal... i was given some white coloured salt like everybody else. There was a room with all the miniature common balances..very small....enclosed in a glass case. I slowly placed my salt on those tiniest paltes of the balance and was trying to weigh. And...i did a mistake. While weighing ...my hand touched the balance with force and the salt fell on the case bottom.
Heart attack. అసలే hostel లో ragging చేయించుకుంటూ చచ్చిపొతుంటే ఇప్పుడుsirs తో కూడా చెయించుకోవాలా దేవుడా అని మూగగా ఏడ్చాను...రొదించాను. అటూ ఇటూ చూసి ఎవరూ చూడడం లేదని confirm చేసుకుని...కిందపడిన salt ని చేతికి దొరికినంత తీసుకుని మళ్ళీ plate లో వేసాను .ఇక weight చూడడం waste అని decide అయ్యి...పక్కనోడి weight ని రాసుకుని .. చలో to experiment :) 

Already i lost hope about the marks which would be given in the end. Experiment was done somehow and I was calculating some molarity or molefaction and was just rounding up every value analysing friends values.And from out of nowhere...Divya Kannan came.A few words about her.A tamilian ,full height, she would talk so fast as if words were coming out like bullets from Ak47. And this was the one of the only two verbal encounters i had with her in the whole 4 years.

A confession to make here :) : In the past...Though I was not good in talking with girls...I had one peculiar quality.I could go and talk to them if there was a need....but if THEY suddenly would pop up before me and talk ...it would take time first to come out of shock and then to acknowldege that somebody was talking to me.The point is I must be the initiator because i would do all the required homework and rehearsals and approach them :)

Okay..comin back to story..Divya kannan seemed to have some doubt in her calculation and she found me leaving everyone. She came to me and emitted a super sonic wave " @%$-----some encrypted voice message-----$&#" . what i could decipher that as was " wahts your output value ?" . Suddenly seeing her asking me the question i mumbled, topping it up with an awkward smile " well....i did ....appropriately" . She looked confused. Why wouldnt she? so was I. The moment I saw her ..my brain cells related to reasoning and understanding got switched off. You know that only my Vocal cords would work during those times. She left giving an awful look.Devudaaaaa!!! 

After she left I started thinking what happened : she came..she asked the output value...waht i intended to say was "I messed up while weighing the salt and so i calculated roughly..approximately.". Instead of using the word "approximately" I used "appropriately" which is an exact opposite. Godddd!!!!! I felt like jumping into one big concetrated H2SO4  bottle there in the lab and kill myslef infront of all the professors and fellow sudents. చీ బతుకు ..!!!! :)


-Kranthi :)  

క్రాంతిగాడి తొలి "music-లవ్వు" story

There used to be a telugu songs program called 'Chitralahari ' which was telecasted once in a week by Doordarshan when i was in school.Thats the only primary gateway to telugu film music in those days to me. I used to stay at my ammamma's house most of the times.As there was no other colour TV available around ,all my colony friends and the neighbours used to throng our house everyday. And when the program was Chitralahari,they were always punctual :) . Ontime.

That day. Chitralahari day. Everybody ,as i said ,arrived on time ..sat on floor .....some leaned against wall....some leaned against door...totally relaxed :) .Festive time for everyone. The maximum people were MY friends. I sat with Radha(krishna), Nagu(nagabrahmam, 3-4 yrs senior to me) watching the show. After 2 or 3 songs.. there came a song....

The way the song began...wow.....the crystal-clear, beautiful, enchanting begining itself took our breath away.And the lovely voice of the singer was so good. Me and Nagu watched the whole song in awe. After that song..a few more songs were shown. But I was still stuck there in the previous song. It was something new which i never experieced before.

A few days gone.. . I didnt forget the song yet. The tune was still lingering in my mind but very feebly. I think it was saturday or sunday. I was walking in the quarters where nagu stayed. He suddenly started humming the first few words with that tune.And that made me remember the tune properly. Oh..Enchanting!!! And for the next few days that was the only song i sang (Dont worry..I sang to myself..not publicly :) ) all the time..at school..at home..streets...bathroom.... everywhere under the sun.

After nearly 2 years:

There was one function at my ammamma's house that summer. summer holidays for me. Enjoying the season :) A few days after the function...my mamaiah brought one of his friend's taperecorder. We didnt have one at our house.It was a small one though. He brought some cassettes...and in that bunch of cassettes...it was there. The cassette of the movie ,in which there was that song i listened long time back..around 2 years ago, was there. KRANTHI IN EUPHORIA :)

I used to pick that cassette and look at the case. WOW...How beautifully the title was wriiten in telugu . ROJA .The song I watched on TV two years ago was "chinni chinni aasha" :). i felt even more happy whenever i read the name AR RAHMAN. My first his-word-encounter with him. Whenever my mamaiah went out..the only one cassette that was played was ROJA. I never even looked at the other ones. After i pressed on ... I ,with full attention, used to listen to that song completely immersed.Every bit of the song..every second...mesmerized me. Its a different world to me. Never before experience.

Sometimes .. when my mamaiah was not around..i would just lay on floor with no bedsheet or mat(the floor was sometimes so cool :)) and with only a pillow supporting my head...and close my eyes... while the cassette was getting played. In the initial seconds I used to attentively observe the music of the songs...and everytime i did so..my heart palpitated heavily. Never before it happened that way...and after that..i would fall asleep like in trance. My mamaiah ,when he was back,finding the tape in ON though the playing was done(No Auto-stop )..would wake me up saying in a stern voice "rey ..entraa...alaa padukunnavu...kaneesam off cheyavchhu kadaa padukunemundu". haha.I would have turned it off if i knew when i was about to sleep. But i didnt know.I didnt know when i slept and i didnt know when my heart got calmed from its heavy throbbing. After a few days...tha tape was gone. :( . edupokkate thakkuva.

Days were rolling. Still in schooling,...as i said we didnt have any taperecorder....but I seriously wanted to buy that cassette.The reason/thoughts : "I dont know how long it takes to have a tape at my house..but it may really take a long time.....and what if they stop that ROJA cassette production later..Oh..no!!!......but I donot have any money to buy one ". I was so naive :)

2 more Years later:

Finished tenth class. Like many others...one day...I went to the other town to attend a one-hour-entrance-exam for some intermediate college.After the exam.I came out of the hall. Ennallanuncho manasulo vunna korikaki rekkalochhina vela.ROJA audio cassette knali.That was the first time i had some money in my pockets :)I could buy a cassette and still could afford bus fare to go back. :) .I was walking on the roads still pondering ... to buy or not to. Couldnot make up my mind. The biggest factor restraining me was : " though i buy..where shall i hide it. Hmm.not an easy task. What would i say to my parents if they found my hidden treasure and waht if they asked my logic behind buying when there was no tape to play it." I stood before a music store. What do u think? Did i go in? Did i buy ? Any guesses?


P.S: Why this post now? :)

Everytime AR's muisc is slated for release... its exhilaration for me...and yeah...its because .. his new movie album is getting released ...you know it too..Its JHOOTHA HI SAHI. I LOVE RAHMAN kadaa !!! . So..oka rangelo waitng ...yama yama curious......eppudeppudu vindaamaa ani..!!!! :) hello !!!! naaku vinapadindi..evaro anukuntunnaru akkada "konni jeevithaalu inthe.." ani. Who's that ???? ;)