End of one road and the beginning of another journey

I started blogging last year around the same time infact. When I started on this journey I hardly expected it to reach a year, I never expected to write as much as I did.

For a while I've had this feeling that I should put an end to this little project of mine. What could be a better time than doing it now when I've completed one year.

Thanks to blogging, I've made a lot of friends and have had some sadness as well. I realise one thing though, the world isn't shaped by talkers but by doers. I don't mean to brand blogging as a useless activity but in today's TV memory world, what one writes about is soon forgotten a webpage is important only till you read it. Writing ends up a mere selfish activity for the writer.

My life has seen lots of ups and downs in the last year, I think it's time that I changed a lot of things in it. I'd like to live more, be out there in the real world, travel, meet people, open my eyes to the wonders that this world has to offer. I aim to do just that.

Now, I'd like to thank Cheesecakey, -c, jaygee, the cowlick & Dusty. Without their support this blog would really haven't reached a year. These guys are nice writers in their own respect and do check out their blogs.

I would have left you a word of advice but advice is cheap, you know all that you need to run your life so dear reader I wish you all the best and many adventures!!

No More

As bloggers go, I think they can be broadly classified into two categories, the ones who write as a creative outlet and the others who write so people would read their stuff. I firmly belong to the second category. I like attention. I think 98.56% of men crave attention. The rest don't, only because they already have it. I guess we just stop short of walking around with a "Look at Me!" neon signboards attached to us.

Take the case of George W., he wanted to grow out of being called George H W.'s son so he invaded Iraq and started calling himself a War President. Or take the case of David Blaine, the magician, can a guy go any further in craving for attention?? When you think about it the list is endless on how men make absolute asses of themselves to seek the one thing they want, attention. Having said this, much of human achievement has also been fueled by these Look at Me moments.

Women on the other hand are different, sure they would like people to look at them but they don't go overboard in doing so, you would seldom find a gal stuck in a fishbowl for a week for the sheer heck of it or see a girl child shouting 'Look Ma, no hands!!'. Most women like to be noticed but only few crave the centre stage. Anytime your wife or your girlfriend wears a new dress, if you look at her appreciatively she would like it, but if you give her the full appraisal, she'd start getting nervous or worse, clobber you with the nearest handy object.

Talking about new dresses, when you are asked for an opinion on a new dress by a girl the best way to go about it is to look at her with your head tilted to a side, let a small smile playing in your lips and to cap it off give out a sigh of pure pleasure (I think I read about this technique someplace) Trust me I've tried this a few times and it worked every single time! Careful about using this technique on men because it can can lead to issues you don't really want to face.

Offlate I've realised that I've been looking forward too much for people's opinions of my blog, rather than focussing on the quality of writing. I'm afraid my posts seems to have ended up being at best 'cute' (to quote a frequent reader) rather than being a true reflection of my thoughts and experiences. Offlate there aren't many posts that I myself would like to read. So, in short, I don't think you can expect more posts in this blog for awhile....

The Japanese Encounter

Yesterday was one of those rare days when I had all the time in the world for lunch. So I thought I'd use the time to rented a few DVDs too. As I headed out of the the video library I saw an old neon sign for a japanese restaurant in the same complex. Now this was an old and derelict building, with hardly more than one or two commercial establishments in it. I was surprised to see an 'Authentic' Japanese restuarant in it too. As I made my way through the dark and dingy corridor I was a bit apprehensive because I didn't quite know what kind of a joint this was.

I opened the door to the restaurant and I stepped in. I was immediately taken aback because of a total transformation I just witnessed. I had entered a brightly lit restaurant, filled with japanese people. To think that a second back I was in a dark corridor, wondering if there would be anyone beyond that dark door, I was stunned. I don't think, they expected any indian guy to walk in too for they all looked surprised. Everyone was looking at me as if they were wondering what the heck I was doing there. I hesistantly asked the gentleman at the counter for a table. I was politely directed to the one free table in the room. As I sat I looked around, It was as if I had stepped into a transportation warp which had carried me from chennai to japan.

There were rows of books, which I found out after craning my neck were in japanese, the television was showing a japanese language programme and the people in the restaurant were talking in japanese ofcourse. The manager of the restaurant, walked over to me with a menu and handed it to me with half a bow. I flipped it open and scanned it intently, there were nice pictures of all the dishes they served. I pointed to a picture and looked at the manager questioningly. He stonily pointed to the words 'Grilled Fish' written in English(along with it's Japanese version) right next to the picture . I nodded wisely, I was on to their system now. I flipped through the pages again as he stood silently, eventually I looked up and asked him for the day's specials. He sneezed. I 'bless you'd' him and asked him again, for which he sneezed again. Doubts about the hygene levels were beginning to worry me now. I looked on, waiting, he looked at me, took a deep breath and slowly mouthed the word 'S U S H I' and then said it again fast. I realised that he hadn't really been sneezing in the first place, he had just being saying sushi very fast and half nodding everytime he said that. A genunine misunderstanding there.

I shook my head and told him sternly that dead raw fish was out. I flipped the pages of the menu again. I saw an appealing dish and pointed it out to him. It turned out to be meat and vegetables. He nodded and asked me in a slow voice if I wanted to make that a meal or I wanted just the dish. I couldn't understand it, but it was 2 PM and hunger was making me half crazy, anything that wasn't a full meal would have been a disaster. So I said ok to the meal, which cost about double of what just that dish cost. As he left, a waitress came over and placed a wet napkin and a bowl of brown liquid. Not knowing if I should wash my hands with the liquid like a finger bowl or drink it, I decided to give it a miss. Better safe than sorry, right?

The meal arrived. The laugh was on me, the difference between just the dish and the meal which was double the price was a small bowl of rice and another small bowl of soup. If the japanese manager didn't have to look so distinguished all the time, he would have pointed at me, slapped his thighs and giggled. Anyway, the meat and vegetables did look very good and my mind suddenly realised that there was another large issue, chopsticks. I'd never used one before, I sure as hell couldn't improvise, how do you eat with sticks anyway? The hunger was there and so was the food but the 3 feet between the food and my mouth seem to be a big trip now. The waitress sensing trouble handed me a fork, the angel!

I dug into the food with a relish which I assume was seldom seen in those parts. Every mouthful was pure delight. I looked at the fresh bowl of brown liquid that had been a part of my meal, thankfully it had a spoon in it so it was the food variety not the finger bowl variety. I took a sip it was pure, unadultrated, undiluted varnish. I made a mental note never to trust brown liquids in japanese restuarants.

I finished the meal in no time and paid the bill. Contented, I slowly got up and walked out of the door of the restaurant. As I stepped through the door and into the darkness of the corridor, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned back to see the manager of the restaurant, I wondered if I had missed out on some japanese post dinner tradition. He stonily handed me my cellphone which I had left it in the table.

He bowed stiffly and I bowed back clumsily and both of us parted company.