Whats Happening back home ?

Dear loved ones back home (That's my patented greetings)

I am sure there is lot going on back home. The Swamis are in town. They are already complaining abt the poor roads in b'lore. Dhanya did a Erin Bronkovich kind of stunt at the french embassy to clinch a visa (Nattus are going thru a Bad Visa phase). Ravi is getting ready to go to the US with Stars in his eyes. Karthik is going thru some rough phase post college, That's good in a way. Soum.... well no body knows what she is exactly doing . she never makes much of an effort to communicate .Last I heard she was working with HIV Patients and Blackmailing her dad for more money. Satish the Dude is just married and must be waiting for his Bride to come to Dubai. Raja Anna he was unwell in thelast few days, we will talk abt Kikee .... She is enjoying her days in Eurokids. She has a lot of poems in her kitty and I am missing the days of dropping her to School. Enjoyed that responsibility a lot. VARSHA... What a turn around.... They say Big Decisions in life often are taken in jest... Quiet true with her. Cant fancy her working with/for patients! Can she even communicate except to her mother (and that ludicrous Athai of hers ). But they say necessity is the mother of Invention. She Will learn but she like soum will make a sexy doctor. Heard Manni amma is already claiming that all her Grand daughters are Doctors !! She is like wily politician makes the best phrases out of absolute chance situations. That stmt did not go well with the grand sons!

As for me, I am learning and unlearning a lot of things. Interestingly I feel more responsible these days. Very unlike my laid back life back in B'lore. I cook, I wash, I clean and I love doing all this. In fact I was teaching a Russian student how to scrub the collar before u dump the clothes in the washing machine !! TAKE THAT ! I sometimes get annoyed when others around me are not as systematic as I AM. TAKE THAT AGAIN !


I hope you are taking some time to read out my weekly diary. I would love to receive some responses from you. That's my big motivation. I have to say Swamis and GPS Thangam have been sent me some lovely responses and updates of whats happening back home. I would love to read more of such mails.

As always I love you all.

Arun/Jillu

Take time to view this video clip....

Even an MBA can do this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Vx1BTBhg4c

Check out my foto album... dedicated to all you guys

ENJOY!
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/dhanya.p/FamilyMatters03

French Revolution in India

state of mind, 11 th July 2007 : cool, composed, relaxed
I was roaming in the wonderful British paved streets of Mumbai. I had just submitted my documents in the outsourced VFS French Consulate building. The last words which the outsourced personnel told me was "your VISA fees will be reimbursed if you are not given the VISA". I believed it was just the norm followed by these people....

Chill, meet the Nairs, do some socializing with new sis-in-law - on a whole IT WAS WONDERFUL TIMEPASS!

state of mind, 12th July 2007 morning : a little nervous, but no tension. Go to VISA consulate after a thorough searching of Backbay - managing to reach the consulate a few minutes before the clock struck 11! Quick process, finish a clean interview and wait for my VISA and passport to come. I was quite excited - it was the 4th stamp on my passport in the last one year ... All I was thinking then was "I am gonna beat Ravi clean, with this stamp!"

The VISA issuing officer calls me, and asks - do you have any other intimation letter from the French organisers. I show him the invitation letter - and the comment he makes is "This cannot be the real invitation. And this is not how the FRENCH give invitations" .... I was bemused. Few seconds later - much before I realised what was happening, the VISA officer was nodding his head in disgust and stamping REJECTION!


State of Mind: 12th July 2007, Noon : pissed, irritated, annoyed, helpless, desperate!
Soon the security comes and asks me to leave the Consulate immediately. I tell them "This is not fair, the grounds on which you are rejecting my vISA" ... they threaten me saying ... "Now, we will call the lady security and throw you out Madam" ... so I say in anger " At least give my money back"... "Sorry madam... just mail to this email address, we cannot do anything" .....

Sadly, with a rejected passport I leave to meet Saranya for lunch. This person called A2D, calls all the people he knows, encourages me to go back to the Consulate like its the most obvious thing to do.

Meanwhile, I just mail the consulate the links to the course and my page on the course webpage.

State of Mind: 12th July 2007, 3pm : relaxed & non-chalant !
This time I speak to the security guys in a more proficient way and explain to them how the VISA officer will be keen to meet me, after he reads my mail. I explain it to them in my spitter-spatter Hindi! It was just a shot in the dark - luckily they believe me and go talk to the officer(JMR) abt it. JMR agrees to meet me! What luck! Still I was sure of not getting the Visa.


I manage to get into the Consulate and wait there ...

State of Mind: 12th July 2007, 4pm : relaxed & tensed ... and bored !
Finally, JMR comes out and tells me he wants to see an intimation from them saying they expect me in France. "What crap!!". I again tell him to look at the invitation letter.

JMR goes back in, and makes me wait longer

State of Mind: 12th July 2007, 4.30pm : relaxed & bored ... and very bored !
This time JMR comes out with my documents and and tells me the same things and asks me for more documents... the consulate closes at 5.00pm... i only have 30 minutes to prove whatever i have to - to him....

State of Mind: 12th July 2007, 4.40pm : excited, tensed and determined
I quickly chekc my mailbox... find some mails and manage to pay 20 bucks and get the printout and hurry back with 5 mins. GIve the printout to the security to give it to JMR and WAIT....

State of Mind: 12th July 2007, 4.50pm : fingers crossed!
He comes out quickly this time and tells me .... this is not enough(expected!) ... but(luckily there was a but) I will wait for an intimation directly from the course organisers and then decide whether to give you the visa. He is angry with me for wasting 2 hours of his(all i was thinking was - "what abt my 2 days!!"). But I was sure, that I had managed to convince him abt my integrity!!

Then it was almost peaceful after that...

I directly called the course organiser who was really nice to mail the VISA ppl (in french ;-)) 3 minutes after i spoke to him.

Then, I mailed the all-feared JMR.... who replied typically "The Visa 'can' be issued" ... whatever that meant....

Again, I respectfully wait for 2 days for the passport to reach home.... which didnt come. Again I mail him ....this time another typical laconic response "Somebody should come and collect it"

Then I bug Saranya to go and collect the Visa and all she told me was "I don't know what you did to the security guards, they were desperate to talk to you" ....

and guess what the security guard told me "we have never seen this happen before, you better give us sweets" ...

How the oldies tried to imitate R&J "differently" :)

Combo 1:



Combo 2:




PS: JUST FOR FUN

...LEO li(o)ning in....

I am just out of a bad state called “Blogger’s block” and that was the reason for the delay in putting up my first blog here. To outsiders, let me introduce myself as the “LEO” of 9over90, shouldering the responsibilities of taking care of beautiful sisters and smart bros and also the added responsibility of taking care of “Handsome ME” J .
This blog as already stated, is a space on the web exclusively meant for us to put up our memories and to reminisce the wonderful times we had spent together.

This is a big time in our family when we are getting truly internationalized. With our JILLU already in HK for an MBA, me having my one foot in the US and Dhanya’s French revolution about to happen, our family newspaper’s international section is demanding a lot of space these days. Nevertheless, Dr. Soum’s terrible treatments in a village called “Tumkoor” and Mr.Kaka’s full-time romance in Chennai is having the local section equally interesting.

The personal “ME” is counting his last few days in Bangalore….He has got emotionally attached to this place and “#306, 7th CROSS” in particular and is finding it a lil difficult to step onto his next endeavor in life. He is at least satisfied that his time here has taken him to the next rung in the ladder.

…….And the news from centre court, NCBS is that the Dhanya-Ravi finals is equally poised at 7-6 5-5 with Dhanya taking the first set in the breaker. This is after the champions knocked out the “UNDER-DOG” from the competition, who at present is covering himself in HK. Tennis has become the family game for us now and this is manifested by the facts that our grandpa has developed a recent crush on Venus Williams and Mrs SP is continuously getting bewitch’d by Djokovic.

Kannappas are coming to India next week and “Salam Ale Gum” to them. We are all pretty excited about the goodies that they will bring along J . …..

Lots more coming up on the other side of the break…..Stay tuned for more fun….

How the monkeys imitated R&J...