Random Rat...

The mighty mighty CB tagged me... ahem... :( shylu forgive me but your tag was bit too much revealing to take up.. sorry... will do ur next tag, that is if it aint that complicated. :P

so back to CB.. you should visit her blog, folks.. she is one gem of a writer.. mom of my pal Vinnie, the pooh :P her "The L&M and the brats" posts are a laugh riot... try, you 'll adore her blog..

and yes the tag... apparently i have to reveal some 7 random things about me... err as if i hadn't flashed enough on this blog over the last 2 years, or is it more than that.. god knows... yeah the mighty 7... here we go..

 Monday : While crossing the road, I actually notice the tire of the approaching vehicle than the driver... my brain goes into a frenzied calculation of t = v/a ,  v = u + at and such formulas and calculate the speed of approach to cross the road accordingly... believe me i have faired well so far...

Tuesday :  I order only my regulars at CCD and Fruit shop @ Greams road... i experiment at all places but rarely at these two... eight months of regularity earns me special place at both these places :P *the waiter reminded me of the price fall on my regulars today at CCD.. man i was thrilled when the boy remembered to tell me*


Wednesday :  Dunno why but my life and tastes are closely related to Rat or being a Rat.. i love all things that a Rat would love... Cheese, Vadai, Dingy spaces, small hole in the name of house, sleeping on well padded surface i.e. on freshly washed unfolded clothes etc etc.. you name it, i got it..

Thursday :  i love cooking for others.. but i rarely eat what i cook though i may be hungry like an elephant or ermm a Rat.. may be the smells that rise while cooking kills my appetite.. mind you i cook well, my sister is still alive as a testimony to my cooking skills... :D

Friday : Yippee!! Weekend is here :P I have visited a beauty salon for a total of three times only in my life so far.. 2008, 2009 and 2010... first was a laugh riot.. i was standing at the door contemplating the visit, when the lady in charge of the place invited me in for a lemonade.. i blew my money off over a hair cut, hair straighten, manicure, pedicure and a massage.. heavenly!! Second was on my 23rd birthday and third for a hair cut..

Saturday : I collect Paper Tissues... no not the artsy one's... whenever i go out to a restaurant, i make it a point to take a tissue, write the date, names of people who are present and such details... i have a whole box of such papers...

Sunday :  I love Indian and Greek Mythology... its another story that i don't believe them but it is fun reading them and correlating them.. i can blabber on some obscure story, you probably would have no clue about.. i ll even so you the story source and stuff..

Phew thats it... done.... i am tagging no one.. but if you feel like flashing, go on take UP :P

P.S 1 # To all those who feel that my language is obscene, buzz off, i am not paid to please you...
P.S 2 # Seeta Darling so wanted to take your tag but your profile is unfindable and i don't how to reach your blog... pliss to tell your website name...

Gagged and thrown askew...

Had to be at Bangalore for the past 7 days with Pop being suddenly ill... i shud have realized this is gonna be an one helluva week when i saw the following hoarding somewr along the NH-7 near Hosur...

XYZ - Logistics and Whorehousing 

i was sipping some water and spluttered instantly... this hoarding on the National Highway and no one noticed so far??? WTF!!  the one moment i regretted for not carrying the camera.. #sighs... was staring out at every hoarding after that.. pretty me...

Pop was in ICU that means i had to burn my ass on the Hospital corridor and run around like a headless chicken everytime Pop's name came over the hospital speaker... needless to say, most of the time i took out my ideapad and sat processing some click or doing stuff.. No connectivity inside the hospital :(  This made me a curio item with every security fella passing me every 5 mins just to take a peek into the screen... one fella said "Computer?" everytime he crossed me... mind you i hate the word "computer" now.. You will too have u been subjected to the word like 300 times every day for 7 continuous days :-|

actually the Laptop brought me closer to the security guards, who started allowing me to visit Pop even though no one was allowed into ICU... he he he he.. me and my charm!! #EKSI

and i was rechristened "Sandwich Madam"... there wr these CCD counters at each floor and i would go ask for a sandwich around dinner time daily... dunno abt my luck but they ran out of sandwiches every single day... the final day when i was leaving hospital the counter fella came running "sandwich madam, sandwich madam, we have Chicken Mayo today"... umm *facepalms* this in front of hundreds on patients and visitors :-\

Language barrier was another thing.. u shud have seen me dancing like a "boom-boom maadu" every time someone started off in Kannada.. Pop's Doctor was the best, even after clarifying several times that i understand no Kannada, he insisted speaking in Kannada to me and in English to my Mom... errrmm shud i say Mom understands no English.. #grammargandu :D

One nurse went further, she insisted my mom that i can understand Kannada.. mom was stunned and asked "since when??" *facepalms*

Perhaps the highlight of the whole saga was this interesting Male nurse with an even more interesting name...
Actually me being me was reading through Pop's treatment chart and taking notes to consult Google baba to understand stuff... This nurse came over and started asking stuff about me... ahem the fella was tall, cute and ahem ahem sweet... so i was flirting along.. that was till he took out his name tag from his pocket... i balked and moved away within seconds... You would too had you seen the tag.. who in the world will name his kid as "Dildo Raj"... Duh!! oh wait, will u?? seriously?? :D like how did he survive college?? oh wait he was a Malayali... :D

sighs... i am going back once i am free, the roadside trees and flowers are beautiful, i say...

Cancer, Christmas, me and you....

Being someone who had been a science student all through her school days, Cancer was not a new term to me when i first met a cancer patient. She was a relative with Blood cancer. I didn't give her much of a thought.

Then in 2004, a lump appeared in my left breast. A quick check up and the doctor feared it might be a cancerous growth. Many sleepless nights and endless trips to the hospital confirmed it otherwise and it was put down as an arbitrary muscle growth. It got solved by itself.

Last month, Papa called up.. "Can you call amma and talk to her?? she just came out of OT" he said in a worried voice. i was like WTF! what happened. Few calls later, i came to know, there had been a cancerous growth in her breast and she had to be operated given her age. But second opinions and second tests revealed it wasn't malign but just a random duct blockage in her mammary gland.

Anyone in Adyar or crossing Adyar would have seen this building once you cross Madhya kailash signal. If not the building, one would have noticed at-least the many number of people sitting scattered in that area. Well it is the Mohandevi Hirachand Nahar Rajasthani Dharmasala situated in the old Cancer Institute Premises at Canal Bank Road, Adyar, Chennai. Started in August 2000 following a request from the Chennai Cancer Institute, it is run by the Sri Matha Trust handled by five retired and experienced Trustees.

The building accommodates around 100 patients  and provides daily food to the patients and their attendants, free of cost. This includes a breakfast and 2 vegetarian meals along with milk twice a day. The trust folks say that a 1000 rupees feeds one patient for a month.

Now why all this??? Well connecting all the above paragraphs it is only sensible to say, Rat wants to help someone in a big way this time. Save for my random acts of kindness, i never tried to do anything big. May be fear may be laziness. But this time my dear friend Java sowed this seed of though in my mind and i have nothing else running in my mind now.

So this is the scene... # Java, Wired, Idlee and Yours truly have joined hands so that we collect a considerable amount by Dec 22, 2009.. the plan is to celebrate the Christmas by helping the patients there with what-ever money we collect... Even a 100 rupees from each of you will be of a great help. Not in Chennai, never a prob.. With pay-pal accounts, account transfers, checks, all can contribute what ever they wish too.

Thinking of doing something bigger?? always you can drop into the Trust anytime and treat the folks with a meal or a dinner. Any kind of help will be a great gesture... Kindly take some time to check the website...

P.S - Twitter handles given so that you can know, that we are real folks and this is a genuine request...
P.S - Look out for this space in upcoming time.. Meet-ups, Sales where the contributions goto this cause all coming up shortly...

Thanks in advance folks..

Rat Rambling Randomly and Ruggedly...

Hola!!! Seems like an era passed between this and my last post... i am in Chennai.. Feeling at home after a long time... i have already settled comfortably into a routine between  work, room, hanging out with Malar... its years since our time in school and we have around 8 years of stories to catch up... not a simple feat but yet a great feeling... :-)

I have taken to half an hour Morning walk daily... yesterday, thank to rain god, it was raining all night... so you could imagine the many miniature pools sprouted all over... i was dodging them today as i was walking towards my bus-stop.. at a certain point, i walked under a tree... a passing bus grazed the tree and i was showered with flowers, leaves and mainly rain water.... i stood there for a moment enjoying the feeling.. it was as if i as being welcomed... it was a moment of bliss... it justified my early mornings, crowded Metro train, and tiring day at work!

And i can sense History being repeated... Last time i was in chennai, Bird flu was making a heavy hue and cry, making my Mom frantic... she asked me to avoid eating chicken which i thoughtfully chose to forget... but Bird flu escaped me... yesterday again she called me more frantically worried about swine flu... i started joking about flying pigs and avoiding Ham, but somehow her tome made me stop.. she was really serious this time :-(
Today people at work were real serious and were circulating pamphlets/emails about Swine Flu... the symptoms it seems include continuous cold, cough, severe body pain, fever, Fatigue, Lack of appetite, sort throat and Diarrhoea.  Symptoms very similar to normal cold and flu... and even the diagnosis isn't fool proof... it seems they prescribe a antibiotic treatment for three days and anything could be said only after those 3 days.. frankly speaking this way, H1N1 can go undetected...  like body pain, at the end of strenuous work who won't get body pain along with headache... and with some one like who has perennial cold and dry cough, seriously i wouldn't know... Lack of appetite, with me dieting to attain a minus 2 size, i don't even feel hungry for days together...

Let me get serious now! i have jotted down a few details regarding places treating Swine Flu in chennai and a couple of helplines...

Hospitals treating SF in Chennai: (click to get location details)
King's Hospital , Guindy
Centre for communicable diseases, Tondiarpet
Government Hospital, Opp. Central Railway Station.

Chennai Swine Flu helpline : 044 -2432 1569
Mumbai Swine Flu helpline : 022 -22029070
Kasturba Hospital : 022- 23083901

Let's be serious for a change and spread the word.. Lets try to avoid anymore causalities.