Ouch!!

1. Play badminton matches over the weekend after a full three year gap (I had not even touched the racquet for name sake too in those 3 yrs)
2. Drive around 40 kms a day on Saturday and Sunday (car-nu ellaam high level-la don't think...It was afterall in my kutty Scooty)

Result : Terribly painful right hand and sprained ankle. Idhu podhaadhunnu severe cold and cough due to the change in Chennai weather. Throat suththamaa out. My voice sounds alien to me :( Used Iodex/Vicks Vaporub in my life after ages.

This is bad...very very bad. After I became one of the many software engineers, I stopped all my work-outs and the only minimal exercise I do is climibing the stairs to reach my Unit on the 4th floor. May be I should make plans to resume the weekend throw ball and shuttle sessions which we friends used to have earlier. Or atleast do skipping/cycling regularly in the early mornings. However, the latter's possibility looks bleak due to my late rising skills :( Neways, lemme give it a try.

Highlite of the weekend was - My mobile conked off on Saturday. All my contacts are in the fone memory, am not able to access it and hence unable to reach many of my friends. Damn! the "Phone book" and "Speed dial" option, I couldn't recollect much :( Lesson learnt - Always have a copy of the information in SIM. I'd been planning for months to buy a new mobile and kept postponing it. So now, itz time to say bye bye to my Samsung C100. Nokia darling, am on my way to ur showroom :)

PS: Have given the old mobile in Samsung Service Centre. Desperately want my fone memory to be restored. Fingers crossed.

Update: Got my Samsung mobile from Technocare centre. Phone memory in tact and I got back all my contact numbers :D First thing i did was copying them to SIM.

"The Thalas" of Kollywood and Cricket

Flash of thought at the moment - "Thala" Ajithkumar and "Bengal Tiger" Sourav Ganguly have something in common. Both of them had tasted the sweet fruit of success and are currently not fairing so well in their respective areas coz of their poor form.

After the famous 2 minutes Maggi noodles joke on Dada, it was the grandfather asking his grandson to go buy vethalai "poi Ganguly madhiri chattu puttunu vaangiNdu vaa. Dravid madhiri paraaku paathuNdu nikkadha". And recently happened to see Dinamalar quoting "Nam Indhiya aNi Videocon thodarai kaipatRiya sandhoshathil irukkum pozhudhu aNiyin munnaaL thalaivar Sourav Ganguly-in nilamayai paarungaL" and a picture of Ganguly appealing for an 'out' in Duleep Trophy. I am not degrading the Duleep Trophy or anything like that but still I doubt if Ganguly would have ever ever thought about being thrown out of the Indian team after having led the team for World Cup finals!! Will he be able to make it into the team again is the million dollar question.

And as for our Shalini's husband, though his initial "Madhumathi", "Amaravathi" type movies failed, he got a good break in Vasanth's "Aasai" and "Vaali" saw him come back with full josh. But that was it. "Mugavari" and "Dheena" were feeble hits and adhukku appram edhuvumey paakaRa madhiri illa. Yesterday I got an SMS

"Rajini's latest hit Chandramukhi - 230 days, Vijay's latest hit Ghilli - 209 days, Kamal's latest hit Vasool raja - 125 days, Vikram's latest flick Anniyan - 130 days, Ajith's Red+Raja+Attagasam+Ji+Jana+Anjaneya - 150 days"

Am not sure of the statistics of the other movies but last one seems quite possible. With Paramasivan on the way and after having lost a few kilos, letz c vot Ajith has in store. Ippo Shalini is also not acting. Eppdi dhaan samaaLikkaraangaLo??

Neither am I a fan of Ajith nor Ganguly is my favourite. Just found their current predicament coincidental.

Yaen endra keyLvi

What is/Why Alfresco Pages? This is one of the questions posed to me very often whenever I give anyone my blog URL.

It all started way back in Jan 2005 when I took up this new year resolution of "Learn an English word a day" (Well, I have something to crib about this...shall do that later) Sometime in March, I came across the word 'extramural' which meant "Occurring or situated outside of the walls or boundaries". When I clicked the thesaurus option, the very first word I encountered was ALFRESCO - which means "In fresh air". I liked the word, it was kinda different. But couldn't find a context in day-to-day life wherein I could use it.

When I decided to blog, this was the very first word which came to my mind. And hence the name ALFRESCO PAGES. True to it's meaning, it has introduced me to a new world with fresh scented air everywhere - the blogosphere :)

MettukkaL palavidham

New Year Celebrations have started in our office with a BANG!! We had Antakshari yesterday and I (ahem) had participated in that. The organisers' involvement in the event was just ammazing and it was evident from the 10 rounds that were conducted. Though it was all the regular Hindi/Tamil video clippings, instrumental and Paragraph guessing, etc the selection of songs was extremely good - a blend of 80s, 90s and the most recent ones.

There was one round which was very difficult and I found it pretty interesting though the rules were slightly confusing. We asked the organisers to repeat and re-repeat the rules. Have tried explaining it here. Hope you are able to understand it.

You pick a chit, the chit contains a Tamizh word. You can sing any one line from any song that contains this word. No, thatz not the end of it, you need to continue the cycle with related lines from different songs (any one line again not necessarily the beginning) which has a logical connection with the previous song.
You are given 3 mins to prepare once you pick the chit. And atleast 50% of what you sing should be from the middle and not the very 1st line.

Our pick was "saththam" and this is the exhaustive list prepared in 3 mins by 3 of us.

Enna saththam indha neram (Punnagai mannan)

Pon arumbugaL malargayile men melliya saththam varum (MottugaLey - Rojakootam)

Kodiyilae arumbudhaan kuLiril mazhaiyil nanayum pozhudhu (Aathaadi ammadi - Idhayathai thirudaadhey)

KuLireduththaal vaanaththiRkey kudai kodungaL neengaL - (Megam kottatum - EnakkuL oruvan)

Andha vaanam pakkam indha bhoomi sorgam - (Thirakkaadha kaatukkuLey - En swaasa kaatrey)

Sorgamey endraalum adhu nammoora pola varumaa (??)

Chennai senthamizh maRandhen unnaaley (MKSOM)

MaRakka manam koodudhillaye adikkira kaatha keyLu (Inji iduppazhagaa - Thevar Magan)

Vaadai kaatRukku vayasaachu vaazhum bhoomikku vayasaachu - (Hai Rabba - Jeans)

Rekkai muLaikkum vayasu dhaana Macareena ok dhaana? (Kushi)

Sari dhaan idhu kaadhalin aRiguri dhaan..Malligaye malligaye maalayidum mannavan yaar sollu (Ninaithen vandhaai)

Paerai chollavaa...adhu nyaayam aagumaa (??)

En keLvikkenna badhil...un paarvaikenna poruL (??)

Hey hey yeNNa aachchu unakku? (Kadhal virus)

Nalam nalam aRiya aaval un nalam nalam aRiya aaval (Kadhal Koattai)

Nee thandha otRai kadidham aayiram murai naan padippeney (Chaanakyaa Chaanakyaa - ??)

And well, that was the end of it...this was one of the high scoring rounds which helped us secure the 2nd place among 10 teams :))

P.S: This is my 26th post in 3 months!! Ah! that was not that bad :)

P.P.S: I dont know why people are biased with multiples of 25, so I decided to celebrate my 26th post with a Cadbury's Crackle :)

Harry Potter

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is hitting the theatres on 18th November 2005 and I just can't wait to watch the movie. I loved reading the book and am just wondering how they would have been picturised

-Quidditch world cup
-Challenges of the Triwizard tournament
-Yule Ball
-Mad Eye Moody's rolling eye
-Rita Skeeter's irritating journalism

And ofcourse, the new spells, charms and the Weasley twins' pranks.

No change in the trio casting as usual.
Daniel Radcliffe - his craze among school girls getting wilder.

My expectations are pretty high and I really wish they are met. Getting released in Sathyam, Mayajaal and Motsham in Chennai. So hurry and book your tickets all ya Harry fans :)

Hopefully I get the tickets on the 14th day from today - i.e 19th of November. Fingers crossed!

Indha naaL iniya naaL

- Wake up at 8 only to realise that I need to attend a wedding (Muhurtham 7.30 to 9)
- Get ready and reach at 9.30
- Wish and gift the couple
- Off to to my uncle's house for a late but sumptuous breakfast
- In office waiting for my friend
- A few hrs of shopping
- Lunch with a few old friends
- Back in office to avoid rains (did nothing but bloghopping :))
- And now time to go home

Am on leave till Monday but loved being in office today...without work pressure, calls, coding and bug fixing...Wow!! It was altogether a different experience.
Itz 6.20 pm and pitch dark outside. Rained heavily for the past 1 hr. Hopefully I reach home before the next spell...

On the whole, it was a pleasant holiday :D