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Thursday 18 November 2010

Saucy September to Naughty November continuing to Din chak december





Finally I begin my blog content, was so crazily thinking for ages for the blog title and today the enthusiasm took over from the laziness to move. Hmm so how have you guys been?? Months flew by and of of course everyone must be lost in the routine activities.

So where do I start , I dunno , three months have rolled on like nobody business with me as ever doing all the crazy things in life plus the endless goof ups mishaps golmaals . Ah well if these weren’t there I wouldn’t be Shyam!

Life goes on day by day in Melbourne with the initial hiccups all gone in the distant past and it’s reaching a stage where in I am inching closer to call Melbourne home. Am I too early to call it home! Well here is the deal, to me home is the place where I have a set of people to move around, talk around and share thoughts. And that has happened in Melbourne much earlier than I usually would. Am I so proud to say and if I could probably express joy in writing I would show a the most cheerful me in here , I have a set of friends in Melbourne !!! For those who know me, that am it, I don’t need anything else.

Springing out of nowhere just like my Hsbc gang are 4 of us from different corners but with the same wavelength and in short time we have become quite close knit and possessive of it. Welcome to the fiver gang of Phani (tom n jerry relationship , but yep ) , Prabha (the so called boli baali girl from the mystical mysore) ,Shweta ( homeliness at its best ,all our cameras love clicking her cos shes just to...eeeeeeeeeeeee ) , Sonali ( saggitarian at horoscope , MS application on the mindoscope ,and US on her heartoscope) and yea of course me (the guy who just eats food wherever cooked at whichever date from the previous four described ).

Thanks to one Mt Baw Baw trip and the toonpur from Kanpur the fiver of us met up and since then it doesn't really matter whether I am in the dumps or feeling low, cos I have someone to pep me up and I can spend time with. Well the biggest achievement is that I don’t have work issues anymore , I am so out of it and work place is now so so much better off , wanted it always like that ,so work is no more hated , love it and is quite nice chugging along in its own right. So where is my personal life heading, its being perfectly human, heheheheh. By the almighty grace I am living my dream here, friends, work is good cant ask for anything more. Of course I was reminded at frequent intervals that I still have a lot to learn and be responsible, which brings me to the Great Australian Adventure of Loses. Probably I would never forget the day in my life, it was on the 9th of October when I see my bag stolen by a construction worker in front of my eyes and I can’t do much. There would be a thousand fitness first gym bags around Melbourne and I can’t go stopping people asking to check if its mine. The day was to be the first ever road trip in Australia with the fiver gang to the Mornington Peninsula. It did not pinch me at that moment, but the days leading from then was horrific, miserable and far too worse to be described here. Those days were like as if the world came crashing down, I was like as if I someone has robbed me of my skin and left me to face the dangerous world. Three things I cherish in my life went with the bag. Music, Photos and my passport. Yes you read it right, my passport .Then on began a journey of running to the consulate, endless phone calls, sobbing alone in my room, praying that my passport at least be returned. It really was a big blow to me ....I know how I was feeling and trust me, you would not want to be in that situation!! Well this is now a thing of the past, with my new passport being applied for which will come in January thanks to Indian Bureaucracy, so which means effectively I am like Ramji Londonwale or Nala Damayanti. Stuck in a foreign ctry with no identity.

Come mid October that was all brushed aside with great difficulty and perhaps this is where my need for friends is most elaborated , I am sure if the fiver weren't there , I would be down like devdas here . But nah nah , I din let negative take the better of me , soon by October end we were onto another game , the game of playing cat mouse with the weather and some of the squeaky things we have done . he he nothing adult there, keep reading and you would figure out where squeaky comes from.

The month of October was pretty hectic with so many weekends worked and with every weekend being marred with rain, we were being driven to a point where the mind needed to get out of the Melbourne CBD of which we got so irritated off. Honestly the CBD comprises of 6 streets and there was no place not seen and invariably every street you go, you would bump into someone from office much to your dismay.

So we the fiver of us planned a road trip, on a weekend on which the forecast was very clear, Thunderstorms. Till the last day we were biting our nails, with every known fraternity around us saying you must be crazy to go in this weather. And for me I was really being adamant, I had decided to put my foot down whatever people talk and go ahead with the trip. I must say it was quite a cat mouse decision, the drive was just amazing, while starting off I made a secret detour to go to the temple which I did and prayed that things go well generally and that this trip is also good. The four didn’t mind it at all, all the more appreciative that we stopped. And then we began the journey to Wilson Promontory this was a national park at the coastline with some breathtaking scenery , the distance was 200 kms one way and with my secret temple stop taking a chunk of my planned journey time , it was a race against time to reach wilson . I call it a race cos I knew it was to rain heavily towards the later part of the evening which the remaining four will now know when they read this blog. Wink!
I was the driver for the trip, and considering I had a passion for driving and travelling, the roads were embedded in my head .My plan was to reach the wilson park at 12 starting 9 from Melbourne, 11 on my watch and I was barely half way until I take the dedicated road to Wilson’s, The last section of the road to Wilson’s as it is known is a dedicated road, i.e. it doesn’t have any turns to anywhere else and heads only to the national park.

I entered the road and was a happy guy because I could make for lost time by pushing here; having a Ford Falcon V6 4.0 litre under the hood with a torque of 270kW at 5250rpm and 533Nm at 2000-4750rpm under my hood was quite an experience. Not a soul on the road, guess most people did not even consider knowing the weather, we were the only car, I hit it and the V6 sprang to life, that last section I was constantly at the 3 digit Speedo. I always use to think that I could talk to cars I drive and I guess this car did speak to me. The road was so scenic winding up and down across various contours of the Australian landscape .Destination reached and we hurriedly caught the shuttle bus to the Mt Oberon hike , it was lucky that we took our bag of snacks and lunch with us though it was heavy , we would know the value of it when we reached the top . The hike up seemed like ages and with me and Prabha stopping to catch a breath every 500 metres while the others were lost in their gossips ,gupshups and treaded along. One and a half hours later at the top. WOW 360 degree view of the pristine blue ocean, solitude beaches and miles of land to see. It was quite a sight and on that occasion we opened our lunch box filled with lemon rice affectionately named chitraaana by the toonpur from Kanpur. I was missing my camera a lot , I did not have one as I had lost it , considering my love for photography , but I did take a few shots with phani’s camera . Job done and we hiked back to base. The never ending road was to finally end when the clouds finally gave way at 3 Pm, we ran the last few hundred metres to the only shelter a little stand.

Exhausted and tired and in pouring rain, we thought what’s next …..and withs next on my mind too I end part one of the blog here . hahaha so I still haven’t mentioned what squeaky is …….Promise part 2 will reveal the Secret of Squeaky .

Seeya all ,

Monday 13 September 2010

CBD to Strike , Sydney to Snow and the rest TBT( to be thought)



Screeechhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh and beep beep , welcome back guys , so hows your day life been hope its all cruising along well if its not go read the blog before this to get it to cruising mode.


23:49 on the clock as i begin compiling this blog listening to a selection of songs ranging from celine dion to evanescence and the UK top 40 . Well so yes as mentioned in my earlier blog this blog is gonna be super fun and lot more expressive ! So by now everyone agrees there are good times ahead of shitty times . For starters i have a new house to stay in , and the advantages of being lonely is pretty good .



Well so what have I been up to , well its now the days of the I me myself in full swing , the wacky funny immature goofy me ! Loving my work as i always do , gets stressful and strenuous but hey never will its not something to complain . The human brain too is sometimes funny , when i struggled it said give work and now when there is work it says woaa i am tired , Well in my previous blog there are a lot of things i missed . I finally am into a lot of stuff keeping myself busy going to the gym ,visiting places and stuff . Sydney was fun , reminded me a lot of Mumbai and yes i will make a trip back to sydney again . And I have a whole list of people to eat heads , most of them at office , all of em are pretty good people and nice too !



And then weekdays are usually on facebook , the gym and some music all the time , weekends are a variety of things from washing clothes to veggies to window shopping and what not . One of the weekends i did make a beee line to the snow and boy was super fun . By now things are smooth sailing at all ends and i am sure making the best of it while it lasts , the frequent walks and meeting of office colleagues for get together is amazing . Its always me at my best when i have a set of people to talk to and hang around .



And so work place chugs along knocking the days and miles of expertise and gaining new stuff and before i even realize it already coming to the end of the year . I am missing home at times especially my dog Bruce , i speak to him on the phone every day and boy and i just cant help myself saying buddy , am coming back . hmmmm am getting bored actually to put down stuff , oh yes just remembered how can i forget about food . Food is the most essential thing here in australia and i make the best of it by going for long days without making an effort to cook , I survive on salads subway and the occasional chips fries and coffees ,i seem to have more energy here to get along for hours until i ask myself for the next food.

By the time i write this sentence its been three days since i began this blog , suddenly been doing a lot of activities like downloading old pop albums watching tamil movies every night . Last night was a amazing learning , was running between the kitchen and laptop to make rasam and to read Wat's written , i took the hot pan of the stove and out it in the floor . Little did i realizes that the floor has a carpet and when i tried lifting , ouch i hear the crackle and heave and then disaster , I have this big burnt spot the size of a chapathi in the middle of the room . Lord heavens ! wat did i do . I was pondering the whole night , do i get it fixed myself before the agent knows or the house owner knows . I have in my past been quite nice in fibbing around and managing things . But there was point of time when i gradually grew out of it and now i don see any joy in lying , that does mean i dont do it , i still hide certain info hehe . Lol which .....................I guess all of us do , so i leave it here .

The news for the carpet repair wasn't any better 145 for making a patch and 600 for changing the carpet . I was in this utter state if kicking myself , i would have probably asked someone to do it to me . And in the middle of all these things , i leave office yesterday er i think its better i put the date , 23rd September and I was still trying to fix my carpet , I went to the local super market to buy a carpet cleaning liquid and a scrubber , just to try if it works . I did get and when i go to the cashier , i notice that my debit card is at home , I had taken it out the other day for some shopping and dint put it back in the purse . Sheeesh never been so embarrassed , with a dumb ass face I make the steady trot back home only to find my house keys missing . I was cursing myself , grr i left it at office , so which means I cant get my carpet cleaning liquid now as the debit card is inside my house . And thus begins Mr bean ( i.e myself ) ride back to office and i was going up the lift when i hear this familiar jingling sound in my shirt pocket . Turns out i did have the house keys with me . By now all i could see in front of me was this tom and jerry cartoon when jerry gets the better of tom and they make tom's face looks like jackass . i was no better than that!

Coming back home and after a good nights sleep began next day usual office and walk back home when the great mind set to work about the carpet again ,and then i notice this little note pasted in one cranny of my bldg that my buildings will go through some changes including painting and as i was just uninterestedly reading it , i had no job to do , i noticed this sentence new carpets to be installed . That made me really jump in joy , why cos the carpet used in the corridor is the same as whats in my house . Ahem ahem ! so i might get away with little damage after all . Smart thinking i say .....

This weeks will one day short as i have taken a leave for the friday and hope fully do some cleaning of the house and a visit to the temple . It been a long time . Also I did catch up with a lot of my friends back home on chats and boy it was a laugh riot at that .

Well .....I am yawning away to glory by by now and time to zzzzzz . Off I go to sleep and by no means is this the zzz to the blog . That will also be updated soon as i go along the good days .


Seeya all

Tuesday 7 September 2010

From Chennai with love to Hell Down Under ......self made self inflicted ..no masalas and added preservatives


Vanakam, Kushalamena, All is wellz and here I come back after 5months .So how have you all been , anyone there who has been missing this idiot ?? ahhh well who cares ..... . Ok so now where do i start from ?? I myself i dont know , cos I got my inspiration from one of my friends who was forced to read my blog yesterday and thus i thought lets update flamingreds soon .
Ok so you guys do know that i joined a new organisation , its rhymes with solaris and begins with a P .I will not go beyond this as  . Well I was flown straight into melbourne on the 20th of April from Chennai through Hongkong . And I had enough time in hong kong to get out and see some thing .
And thus begins the story of Mr Shyam Shankar Sivasubramaniam . Eh who is this you may ask , none other than my self .I have never in my life expanded the S in my name .Landed in a unknown continent and with no one to help , my nearest seen family member is now 5000 miles away in India . and checked into a room . I called someone called my manager to tell him that i am in Melbourne and reached safely . He picked up my phone and said , I will call you back ......
I am still counting my days from the April20th 2010 , he has still not called back . Even the almighty replied to my prayers soooner than this person .A new journey began just like life back in the UK , working on a project for a super regional bank . The first three months was a severe struggle , a struggle for survival , a struggle for my identity . Its far to long to describe what i went through . There cant be anything more pain than knowing yourself that your not performing at your best . I pushed my self step by step , more into the inknown only to find myself in more deeper troubles . Things with my roommate aka my friends from back home wasnt at a great level of understanding . I think there are some things which should be kept the way they are and not bought too close or too far . At the end a painful choice had to be made , struggle in the unknown to be a warrior or be the master of the known . I chose to be the master of the known . There is always a win some and lose some . I needed my space my peace of mind to perform . Such was my state that my parents had to remind me of my aggressiveness back home .I sought after solace in stuff i never did like going for concerts ,plays ,weekly trips to the temples and just introspecting .
Life in melbourne was not easy , it never was . I have to say a million thanks to my mom for supporting me and giving me inspiration to fight and surpass all odds . These were times of sheer agony ,frustration and many a day I would sit in my room and cry ,( to anyone who thinks boys shudnt cry, am sorry your just inhuman and egoistic.). It took a giant leap of faith to overcome my fears and break the chains which i had tied myself in . It wasnt a easy one , life was tough where i would get hurt , bruised and yet i would get these words of my mom ringing in my head. ,son' push you need to fight' .
And in all this they were this little moments of should happiness , a trip on a steam train and weekend visits to my relatives place was my only distraction .And my frustration with my organisation were rising by the day .
A new sea of change had to come , come july and I was put in a new team , I said good riddance to all worries and yep a fresh outlook into myself . My first task was to bring my performance which was in the negatives to zero . It took a good 3 weeks to undo my negatives and finally i could say YES ! I am at zero . I took some time to see how far my peers are . Or should I say one in particular . Considering my peers joined with me in April and I have reached zero in july , they were miles ahead in terms of performance , confidence and motivation . Between me and them stood 3 full months of effort . I said to myself , I have taken 2 steps back to get peace, 6months down I need to be 2 steps ahead of the guys who are now currently 3 months ahead of me . Now you work out the maths , i was never good at it .
By mid july , flamingreds aka me was chugging along the Australian journey of life with a firm and positive resolve to achieve and perform . Things from here are no more a pain in my bloody back . I was back in business and I thanked all who have given me the strength . By now i had got my work permit and got my first Australian dollar salary . Life now was much more smoother and I could now began expanding my interests a little bit , Did some trips to the nearby hills and slowly was pampering myself .
Am actually bored of writing this anymore cos I have now decided that all my pessimistic thoughts should end over here .
But hey I am leaving this blog at a point where my journey and my targets were to be achieved with many milestones to achieve .
I do apologise for making his blog boring and filled with negative thoughts , but hang on folks ....
The continuation of this is going to be one heck of a ride , super fun , super freaky and a lot more positive blog filed with all my passion , .
But if you have been patient enough to come til this way , life will always throw stuff at you . Migt be shitty . Some times the very own person whom you consider your shoulder to lean on will be your worst nightmare . All this should be only taken on a positive note .
The entire struggle made me a strong person , today i say problem mmmm ... I look upto the sky and say ‘so you started something again ‘?? Sure thing just bring it on and lets see what you can throw at me . This attitude took some time to get into me , but this will never ever go away .
Its all about how you look at things ,the satisfaction what you get when you get up and fight and win is something i cannot describe . That feeling you have to be and endure .
Next time you face and you think your a loser , oh no your not ,, you are ur best , go face the world !!
Till the next one , seeya all

Friday 9 April 2010

Striking Contrasts , Frequent Travels and Catch up with Chennai





Hellloooooooooo and a big hi to all of you following my blogs . There are loads and loads of stuff to pen down and I guess i would probably take ages to fill in this blog as well . Allright my last blog said I am waiting for my summer timings .

Err.....things took a rapid turn , I wasn't there to see my office summer timings ,it all started in the month of February when I was getting into the search for other job mode , well there wasnt actually any strong reason to Quit except for the Vitamin M factor . I basically wanted to scour around to see how much is the market outside and thus began a journey ,a choice between paths .....and thus the story begins .

I am now onto a new job into the ever famous 2nd Idiot box field , ie the software industry . It was a very very hard choice to make considering my previous employer treated me like a king and the current one only had money to lure me and nothing else . There are very few people in the world who would want to get out and get hurt and learn life , trouble is I chose that path .

April 5th was my first date with the new Office , one ramshackle place about 30 odd kilometers from home .First glance ........woaaaaaaaaa , wearing ties in chennai ! ! . This city is such a bloody sultry place , you would end up with soot in less than 20 mins and have a million sweat baths in a single day . I was shown my system , looked like a trash , discarded pc from some raddi wala , a far cry from my swanky 2gb system and intel dual core at my prev place . And then was this suicidal task of filling up a 50 page form . gosh I must have written my fathers name and residential address atleast a 100 times .


And then was this endless wait for someone to come I was sitting in the induction room with the docs ready and for 4 hours there was no one to even attend to, not the kind off welcome i expect from the HR considering that this was my first day in office . They seem to say , welcome to the land of laziness . Rubbish was the only word , The infrastructural facilities was poles apart . I take back every curse I might have said about the AC not working , blower only on at my prev place ,cos here I have to search like a rat to get cool air at some nook and cranny of the room .


I asked the guys around , you think the ac is working ?? to which they promptly replied . oh yes it is working take a walk outside and come back this is colder . Hmmph some logic and thus ended my first day .

The next day I was at bangalore to another office an this one day trip was fun , Starts of with a 40 minute plane ride from Chennai and then 2 hr Bus ride within Bangalore city goin round and round. And finally I reach this office , wow this office was swanky and just like my prev place . i would love to work here . Later the following day I met up with my classmate shruti in bangalore for like a quick 15 minutes and off i go back to chennai .

Well by now . I am more or less falling into a routine , i think i can say this as my grumbling about the new place is going down by the day and I am now reaching that stage where I can say from the good old tag line . 'What was once a problem is now routine " My day begins at 7am to the office and back at 7Pm . And I catch up my ever favorite pastime of sleeping in 3 hour combined Bus ride to the work place and back .

Soon the 7am to 7pm screeched to a halt as the weekend arrived and I just lazed around with the evng trip to the beach . The beach trip was a nostalgic one with the good old kites flying , the 5 bucks peanuts which is now 15 and the beach is smashing clean .

Well tht brings me to the end of this blog , Chennai has changed a lot and looks promising to throw some surprises at me . Really looking forward to those ......

Till the next time ..see you all take care and keep smiling




Sunday 28 February 2010

2010- Year of the Flowing Thoughts

19.33 on the clock and here I am sitting in front of my laptop on a Sunday evening . They say that idle minds is a devils workshop . I am not sure how true that is , but i am sure being restless.
Decided to do something useful by writing this blog .
By now all of you must have noticed I never keep my promises of writing my blogs on time ,so I promise not to make promises .Lets see if i at least keep up this promise .

Allright the new year has been good so far ,though I was a little upset about a few things which i will mention as we go further in to the blog . And for people who have been asking , whether i have kept my resolutions . The answer is YES . I have ....

January was a speeder , the month just flew the usual work home routine and stuff there wasnt anything special in january except for the fact that I made frequent trips to my favourite highway to get rid of my furios mode . Feb is where the action and the roller coaster ,this month was a goner and by no means a cakewalk ,For starters things on the relationship was'nt good and the on off ,on off saga seemed to drag on ,until a day came where i had enough to put a full stop to it . Wasnt an easy one to choose , but feel it was the right one ,and then came the period of post break off which was even worse . I was just getting out of it when the ever famous hike letters came over and it was needless to say a big dissapointment . My CTC now looks like a Bata Shoe store Price tag .. 99.99 something . Yuck!

And that whole week was me grumbling and lost in a myriad of though process whether i should stick around to the company , go for an other one , go for my further studies . And during these stages did i come to no a certain part of myself , which i thought never existed . While browsing though the net for jobs and found some jobs in other cities countries etc , I noticed me holding back something , a kind off hesitance to fill in the application form . Somewhere at the back of my head was this reluctance to move to another city .

Now for all you guys who know me , I always keep saying Mumbai is my home , but the fact is time has flown and now the ever so famous hyderabad is the place I have stayed the longest till date and all the time i ve hated this city . Coming to think of it and when I introspected myself it was just down to one thing Friends.....

Cities are not the show stopper for me , but friends are , the very reason I loved Mumbai for my friends there and the time we had is just repeating itself here in hyderabad . Of course the best times I had in Hyderbad are still not the same as compared to mumbai , but they are strong enough to keep me rooted to this city .

And somewhere down the line , there seems to be this bonding between friends ,where we havent talked for years ever since we left school , but there is that trust that we are there for each other . My connection with my school friends have increased, we meet up every day on chat and still talk about the old times , distances are so huge , that we all are now scattered across India and that leaves all of us to grumble ... when will we ever meet up .

Nevertheless things must go on and so it is .. i have been having a tough time with my choice of words offlate and it is not doing any good for me with the people i know .I dont seem to do it intentionally but I if i look back on it ,and look at it from an other person perception it does seem intentional and i would agree with those who pointed out the mistake . Man life is complicated!

I am trying to get rid of my flipsides sooner , and i really need to do it , the sooner I do it myself the better for me is what I understand .

Well apart from these , the upsides were there too and pretty interesting ones at at ,for starters the month of Feb was shop shop month . Me and Mom raided the lifestyle sale . And then was this first experience of clubbing . I must say ,I had never been so reserved and my feet just would'nt move at all . not that I used to dance ,I was not the dancer guy , but i do shake a leg or two to some numbers which i would know , but on this occasion ,i guess the signals werent reaching the nerves in the legs and hands ! hehe . And then were these long drives which was really refreshing .

March will come soon and summer will be as well ... I am just waiting for the time channge in my office .

Well that sums it up for now ... till the next one . peace and love to all