Karthik calling Karthik-movie review

         I don't remember the last time watching a movie, being almost certain of its roundabout climax.The title 'Karthik calling Karthik' and the scene with the protagonist, Farhan Akhtar as Karthik in the telephone exchange seals the plot for the viewer.Going by its name,  if you were expecting some spine-chilling suspense thriller, you are disappointed.
        The story is about a seems to be normal schizophrenic guy (Farhan) who is trampled by the society,owing to his low self morale.He lives in his secluded world and is hardly noticed  by his colleagues, even when he is right before them. In his anguish to earn his deserved dignity and his love, his mind creates another Karthik ,who he presumes to aid him, boosting his morale and there by flipping his life upside down.The mousy, diffident Karthik becomes this stylish,self-assertive guy, thereby earning his self respect and also winning his love.But in due course, he loses all this when his mind tricks him into beleiving that the unreal karthik wants to avenge him for being ignored.The story thus caps off with his psychriatist and his girl friend (Deepika) realising  his problem and resorting to helping him out.         
        The opening scene showcasing Farhan Akhtar, in a timorous role, offbeat from his other movies does make the character really intriguing.His unsent mails to Deepika, light hearted conversation to impress her makes you wish he were actually normal.Deepika, on the other hand potrays a common urban professional.So, you are not going to find the hip smacking Nescafe girl or the bikini babe of Housefull.The music by Shanker Ehsaan Loy really tunes you into the movie.
          The bottomline is 'Karthik calling Karthik' is a predictable yet an ok 135 minute flick.

Bench Boys

           Who says being idle is sick??Never so, especially if you have good company.
          
           Jan 6,2012, fresh from training into production, I was energetic,vivacious and eager to lay my hands on the cutting edge technologies, hungry to prove my mettle.That was how we were expected to be by our reporting  TL(Tech Lead).But on the contrary, I was expecting a long vacation and wondering if I would ever switch out of my stand by mode (btw I am an android developer..so got to use a few technical terms to make my supposed to be obsession evident).We met our TL, I guess the third day or so and that was a morale booster because we were told, she had been on bench for 9 months before getting into project.Thus began our almost 4 months of  peaceful bench period.
          Well, this was how we spent the first 2 months of bench.We reach the campus each day around 8 am and our meeting hub is  FC2, a few seats away and perpendicular to the Carnival counter.We have this morning talk about the various societal issues causing psychological imbalance and have a visual survey of  the opposite gender attraction quotient.After this daily ritual, we move to our (I am using 'our' since we occupy it before the others do)Warren Buffet classroom, where we check our mails and thanks to a few gracious forwards, there is always something new in our inbox.This is followed by reclining in our push back, stretching out legs on the parapet with one on the other,adjusting until we are perfectly comfortable and reading a novel.Though some resort to gaming, chatting or sleeping as per their metaphysical needs.Around 11 pm, we are forced to vacate the room by the formerly bench boys and we go to our next abode.We call it 'The Bamboo Forest'. Fresh breeze, good benches, I only missed the cushions there or it could have been as good as the dormitory in Infy.One could talk,read or sleep too inspite of a number of people moving across.Rightly said in the Bible 'Circumstance does not make the man, it reveals him to himself'.This hectic life was followed by a much needed break-The lunch.After the lunch hour, we bask in the comfy of Warren Buffet and Bamboo again.At 4 pm, it is our time for refreshments, an expensive one too.Icecreams for a hundred bucks almost every other day.I do think once in a while if it was worth it but had the company thought the same about paying an idle lot 22k every month, things would have been different.
         A couple of months later we were mentioned the floor and the likely cubicles we would be working in.The initial days, there was hardly anyone apart from me and my friends occupying the floor.So we indulged in many recreational activities like watching movies, Dumb C, dancing, cards, reading all kinds of stuff, planning for short films, novels and what not, sleeping prostrate on the computer table and if I am right, the best of all, face painting.This was probably the place I realized the  implication of 'moving up the corporate ladder'.Only after a  few days in our cubicle, there was  power(till then we had to either sit in the bamboo forest or endure the sweltering heat in the cubicle with no power) followed by occasional lift facility, restrooms, systems, log on servers, a permanent TL and finally the AC.
        Presently, I am in the solutions team of MOBL and there is a honcho sitting in Hyderabad, planning our schedule.The bench life was fun and hope the work would be fun too.
                         Who says being idle is sick?

Infosys, Mysore

            I was done with my final year graduation exams and  I had got through  the campus placement too, so I hadn't much to worry about in life atleast for the time being. I was expecting  the Infosys joining date to be around 8 months later and a long holiday welcomed me.My mind was bogged with all the things  I could do or learn and was pretty excited about it.A few holidays passed and never did it surprise me that I was occupied all the time.Books, movies,tv shows, incubating some story in my head (though never came up with any full fledged one...happens often with me though :) ), guitar classes ( thats when I realised watering a tree is never as relishing as the fruit), evam ( ended up getting their call on the same day as that of Infy),I was shuffling my time among them.
             On one fateful day(though sounding dramatic, it does justification to the way I felt), on one of the days in August, I got the call letter from infy with the DOJ as July 18th,2011.I felt like I was gonna  miss my life.I was cherishing my holiday life, busy round the clock, when the call letter was welcoming me to a mechanical life.Infact, there were times when I felt I mustn't be accepting the call letter.My likes shadowed my logic.Though, eventually, sense did prevail and whether or not I liked it, I had to go.
         All the packing started and if I am right, I was heading forward to my first time independent life (more importantly, a life of fulltoo freedom) and on July 16th, Mysore Express rattled me to Mysore, my abode for the next five and a half months.My bro received me at the station. A long queue and a few registration processes at Infy,gate no 2 and Ramanathan Venkataramani (which is me) treads the path of an Infoscian.(sounds awe(y) but trust me,IT field is not any assorted chocolate box to keep you hooked for long :P ).My room number 78/345 (block number 78 and room number 345), kya bindaas room tha.Never felt like I was staying in a hostel, it was a hotel with ulterior room service.I tell you all the hotel sorry hostel staff are karmayogis there,keep working all the time.Well, the first week in campus was only induction and sight seeing (This is a 350 acre campus-cricket ground,tennis,TT,gym,swimming pool,shuttle, snooker,multiplex,7 food courts..this place rocks).Our classes were allocated and our generic stream thus begun.I loved the place,I was seated in the classroom.360 degrees entertainment.That means on every side I had friends I could laugh my heart out with. In fact, I even stayed back in the class a lot of days just for their company.Time never had its time then.There were classes, exams but fun and academics were on two different tracks and running in parallel too !!Then after a few days in generic, began the one week of PSD(Professional Skills Development).This one week was even better.No assignments, no reclining in your push back waiting for break..That was fun tym.It was supposed to hone your interpersonal skills and who wouldn't cherish  talking,entertaining and also being entertained.
          TT,bowling,multiplex movies,Tonif Dhaba,gossip in classroom and in rooms,b'day celebrations at 12am, pizza treats in friend's room,weekend outings, cosy rooms to put my mind on paper, ice cream at 12 am,a few interesting characters around :),  I had a gala time there.I even philosophized in my mind that life is a prepaid mobile and so one should never be upset for anything (heard it somewhere).  Around a month later, the results of our RDBMS exams had come, the last day in generic.None of my friends had cleared it.Walking with one of my friends that evening, I got a message that our classrooms for 'intermediate' had been allocated.Out of nervous anxiety, I went to the GEC to check my classroom to only be relieved that  all the people I wanted were in the same class..Yippee!!
                 The first day of intermediate, I still smile recollecting the moment when we were swapping our places so that we friends could be together.There was only one thing missing in intermediate and that was something new to learn :P. So even the exams were tension free.Silly forwards during sessions,gossips during break time, all were fun.The intermediate was nearing its end and it seemed really short.There were trainees who were being sent to other cities to continue their training and so the last day of intermediate, I was being given a hearty send off by classmates as if I wasn't going to return to Mysore :D  Though I was happy at that time that I could go home for Diwali, I only realised it later it was only a bane since I was to be put among strangers in a tougher stream and my life was going to be a total contrast to what I had lived so far there.
                  Stream began and no more did CGPA or TPI mattered.All that mattered was 50 in each module and hoping that the aggregate would somehow reach 65. I missed my friends and each day, I despised going to class.I wasn't myself anymore.I wasn't talking much to my classmates or having  fun anymore.I fell sick during the third module exam and that was just icing on the cake.My CGPA plummeted from 4.9 to 4.3.Stream was the worst time, I had in Mysore (which might not have been the case if I hadn't cleared the RDBMS exam or atleast had my friends been there...life does become easier when you know there could always be someone scoring lesser than you :P:D (just kidding)  )   
                   Well, nearly five months gone since I returned to Chennai from Mysore and still I miss 'the City of palaces' badly and this was something I never expected even in my weirdest imagination to happen, when I had got the offer letter.Life in its contrasting hues brings in many everlasting memories. Bogging in the heavy downpour of life, u never expect the glaring sun to create a colorful rainbow.It is only the unanticipated labyrinths of life, that makes it so precious.There were moments that I wish
I could live some day again but who knows,in the maze of life, tomorrow could well end up being that day :)









                

FIRST LOVE

A time would come when you are down,
your heart and mind is fatigued
lying in death bed and whimpering in pain
your fondest memories of life

Those fondest memories are your treasured secrets
you yearned for in life
Alas they would remain secrets
buried deep within you

A limousine and a villa were not your treasured secrets
nor was a peek into the world's exotic places
For all these seemed frivolous
just for her hand in yours

You treasured her and moved past in life
Earned everything one possibly could
Yet you are insatiate
For she was all you sought

She is now in another world
You don't know where it is
Yet, all that is left of you
craves to meet her again

You hope for a life after death
Just to see her laugh and be happy
You want to cry out aloud
just for a moment of life with her

A time had come
but for fear and discretion
when you could have lived your life
when you could have lived with her