Catching up

I have a quiz scheduled tomorrow and for once (no actually like always), I am in no mood to study. So I watched two movies in a row ...thanks to Niyanta. Taxi number 9-2-11 and Water... diametrically opposite movies .....one lightens your mood and the other puts it in depressive mode. The only thing common in both was John Abraham. :) But I liked both .......... only I wish the order in which I watched them had been reversed,.......... water has totally put me off color.

Given that, I suddenly realized the thing called responsibility which for so many days I had not even considered as a speck in the horizon, is going to catch up with me soon. For so many days, I have lived for myself .......... earnt and spent with solely me, myself, mine in mind. Selfish yes!

This should be among my shortest and most cryptic posts yet ...though I can never credit myself for having so much brains as to accomplish all that..... in any case ........ Sionara! (hopefully this is the correct spelling).

Videos out

The videos are out.... but unfortunately the video cam battery ran out in between and so the complete skit has not been captured on tape. The links :
Part I : The one with the entry of grad students to America
Part II : The one with the class-room scenes

Things have been moving pretty fast since then ..some up and most down as usual. :) But today I have managed to mess up a company interview and I am still in the process of blaming unblaming myself for it. So in no mood to write ... will get back soon I guess.I am actually just back from watching Brokeback Mountain. I should have taken the movie more seriously but a night of less sleep can sure put you in a half-drunken stupor. So don't ask me for a review. But yes, you should watch it once atleast to know what the hype is all about.

Right now , I am banking on F.R.I.E.N.D.S season 1 to cheer me up and maybe All quiet on the Western Front too. Considering that I am in this sliding window of moving from one movie to the next and one thing to the next ...its a wonder I still get time to crib and brood.
:)

Tucson Dreams - the skit in the making

My golden anniversary post. (for the uninitiated - this happens to be my fiftieth post :) and I took 11 months to achieve it) .

With all due credit to the creative talents of the crew involved, please do not reproduce this in part or in whole without the xplicit consent of any one of the crew. Else we will feel liable to charge a copyright violation fee of $500 in cash or cheque or via credit card! :) Having said this, we have taken two scenes from a NCSU skit which was put up on Google videos. (A phone scene and a Rita scene.)

I had initially thought of adding comments but the skit has been so well documented that it needs no prompting from me. :) However , there are a few back-stage and on-stage incidents which did not make it in the documentation stage. I have included them if only for reminiscence. The first of these was Rahul's accident on the morning of the skit, he broke his leg. We missed having him as he was one of the narrators, plus one of the actors in the skit. If I randomize my guess, I think it was half an hour before the start of the function that the India club treasurer , Ravi accepted to help us out. And the rest we improvised.

I don't know how much you might identify with......but this is how we live out our grad lives and almost all the scenes are based on real-life incidents.

Tucson Dreams
Shashi Kiran Chilappagari
April 14, 2006

Cast and Crew
Archana, Jaikumar, Karthik, Niranjan, Preetha, Rahul, Sapna, Sarika, Shalini, Shashi, Shivram, Sunil

Scene 0: Introduction
What happens: Narrator introducing the plot and setting
We proudly present to you, the smash hit Fraudway musical “Tucson Dreams”- the story of a man in search of his destiny. This is the story of a man’s triumph over his surroundings, this is the story of every Indian abroad, this can as well be your story. So sit back and try to enjoy. If you cannot, then God help you.

Warning: If you are listening to this, this warning is for you. All the characters are real and any resemblance is intentional. Our aim is to offend as many people as we can and we consider ourselves successful if we can offend at least one person. If you are not offended, please see us after the show. We might think of something special for you.
Now, on to the show.
The time setting of the show is eternal. It has happened before, it is happening now as we talk and it will happen for years to come. So, let us just say that it is May now and there are many people back in India who have got admits here at the U of A. We will look at some of them.

Owing to the diversity of the Indian students here at U of A, it is almost impossible to fit a student into a stereotype. However, recent studies have shown that a grad student at the U of A is from Chennai, has studied in SRM or SVCE with probability 1/2 and if you address him as Mr.Krishnan, you are almost certain to get the first or last name right. So let us swoop down to Chennai and catch a couple of students there.

Scene 1: Coffee Day

What happens: Two students meeting at coffee day discussing admits
Music: (Tamil song - to be decided...Kottu dheekottu from Narasimha)

Here in the confines of coffee day at Nugambaakam, Chennai we see Mr. Anantharaman krishnan from SVCE and Mr.Manigantan Seturaman from SRM discussing their future plans.
Ananth: So you also got admit in U of A. Any aid or fellowship
Mani: no, macha. I wrote to all the professors in the department and no one replied.
Ananth: so you have any special area of interest like signal processing or VLSI
Mani: nothing da, whichever area has funding
**Narrator: You have just caught a glimpse what goes on in a grad student’s mind before he enters the US. Apart from trivial things like coursework, funding, area of research, he or she has to think of more important things like how much sambhar masala would be enough for one year.
(Ananth and Mani get up and are walking off stage)
Ananth: So when are you planning to leave for Tuk-son
Mani: Next Sunday da. I am planning to go to San Jose (pronounced as such and what everyone learns after coming to USA - the actual pronounciation is San-Ose) and visit some relatives there.
Ananth: Oh, I am on the same flight. See you at the airport!
Of course, one of the biggest concerns of an incoming desi student is exactly who will pick them up at the airport. Not to worry, the incoming students are in the safe hands of (PLAY SHOCKING MUSIC) the India club.

Scene 2: India club
What happens: IC members deciding on pickups
The IC has a five year plan in action for picking up students and arranging temporary accommodation. The committee members meet to decide on the logistics and every minute detail is worked out. The process is completely fair and reasonable.
Jai: (keeps reading out guys’ names, and gives sheets one by one to Rahul) **Karthik, Ananth, Manikantan, Vivek, Rahul, Kishore, Shiva, Srinivasan**
Trin Trin (phone ring)
On Phone: Hello sir, My good name is Srinivasan and I am at the tucson airport. Is someone coming to the airport to pick me up.
Niranjan: abbe koi banda airport se call kar raha hai, kya kare?
Jai: kuch tho bolo yaar
Niranjan: Actually, we are busy planning the pickups. Why dont you take a shuttle and come.
Jai: Ramu shamu, hey check this out man....Pooja, soumya, archana, preetha, sarika, shalini, radha, sada,
what ranganathan....you take this man..(giving it to Rahul) Lets get going man...good job.
Everyone exits.

Scene 3: Airport pickup
What happens: IC members going for pickup
Narrator: Now, back to our heroes. who are leaving their motherland and travelling across oceans in pursuit of their dreams.
tee titi tii tiitit ttiti (music in narrator's voice)
(They reach one end of the stage)
Narrator: Welcome to Tucson Intl airport. Flight IC 814 from India arrives 10 hours late.
(Karthik and Shivram walk onstage, totally transformed into cool dudes) (Hip hop music playing)
(Rahul stands waiting. He’s yawning, looks bored. K and S are totally excited).
Andy: hello sir, I am andy
Mani: hello sir I am Mani. Do you know the funding situation.
Rahul: Welcome to Tucson. Take your bags and come. (Walks off)
***Think of funny music - two guys fighting for a girl/some hot babe song types****
(Girls come on stage)***Funky Music..think hard perhaps music which has claps in it*** Niranjan and JK are totally excited now, waiting for them. Greet them all excited, and fight with each other to carry their bags.

Jise dhoondthaa ho mein har kahi
jo kabhi mili mujhe hai nahi
mujhe jiske pyaar par ho yaki
woh ladki hai kahaa
tee tit tit tit tee tit ti
Niranjan: Let me take your bags
JK: No no, let me
(JK tries to lift bags, Niranjan pushes him off)
Niranjan: You can’t lift those bags da. Let me handle it.
JK: Ok then. Carry them to my car. (To the girls) You know, I’m fully funded.
(Walk off)

Scene 4: Fundaes session
What happens: IC members going for pickup
The senior at the U of A is the epitome of a fatherly figure helping the clueless junior in every aspect varying from tips on cooking to helping the junior in deciding what courses to take. Of course, all without expecting anything in return. The overwhelmed junior does not know how to thank the senior. He can hardly believe that so much good can exist in this world.

Senior: I think you should look for an apt and open a bank account. Come on let me help you with those things
Junior: I really dont know how to thank you, sir. I really appreciate it.
Senior: come on no problem man, our seniors helped us so we are helping you. One small thing; when you open an account and find an apt they will ask who referred you. Just tell my name.
The new student is understandably homesick. So he buys a calling card and calls India. 1-800-375-4100
Sapna: Please press 1 for english . Para espaneol numero dos
Narrator: Hearing this Andy breaks down. JK sees this and asks him why he is crying
Andy; Sir, I bought a calling card to call India. The aunty on the other side says, press 1 for english and press 2 for spanish. I want to talk to my mother in Tamil sir...boo hooo...

Classroom Scene
What happens: Classroom scene
Narrator: With the preliminaries out of the way, the student sets out to the university eager to make new acquinatnces, ready to experience new culture, and explore life on an American campus.
(Karthik walks around, looks very impressed by everything around him).
Narrator: It is midday now, and the student is now on the lookout for food. His initial enthusiasm has been scorched by the Tucson sun, and he enters the nearest building.
(Karthik looks around, approaches librarian -Sarika)

Karthik: Excuse me, can I have a cheeseburger and one Pepsi please?
Librarian (looking angry): I’m sorry sir, this is a LIBRARY.
Karthik: Oh sorry. (Softly) Can I have a cheeseburger and one Pepsi please?
(Librarian points towards the exit)
(Karthik looks sad and walks out)
Narrator: Since the new desi student automatically multiplies any number by 46.44, finding food on campus is a tough optimization problem, with too many constraints. Thus our hero continues to wander on campus searching for food (think of a sad song to play)
***Sapaatu yetu ledu paatina padu brotheru***
(Music suddenly changes to a very upbeat tempo, and another students runs by him excitedly)
Niranjan (excited, shouting): Come on come on, free pizza in the Agriculture and Life Sciences Department!
(both run very excitedly)
(Bunch of Indian students standing and eating pizza)
(Niranjan says hi to many people around him)
(Prof walks around)
Prof: Thank you for coming to my lecture on ’The role of scavengers in the Eco-balance’
Niranjan: Oh it was brilliant sir, I wouldn’t have missed it for anything
(Prof walks off)
Karthik (confused): So what is going on here? Are you in this department?
Niranjan: We are in all departments man. Take one more pizza.
Narrator: Now that our hero’s hunger has been satistfied, he can now go for his first class with full enthusiasm. The new student is always a little apprehensive about the classroom environment. Will he be able to fit in? Will he be able to understand the accents? Can he relate to the unfamiliar faces around him? It is with these questions that he enters the classroom expecting to see it full of Americans.
** Same Tamil music playing in the background***
*** Everyone talking in Tamil, greeting him ***

Socialising scene
Indians have a reputation for being bookworms. As all of you know, this is completely false. We are known for being party hounds and social animals. At any American party you can see a lot of Indians hiding in the corners. Guys are known to pick up girls with lot of ease and we shall direct your attention at one excellent example of a desi student in action
*** English music playing ***

Jai; Excuse me, what is your name
Sapna: Rita
Jai: Rita ji, ek haseena ke liye yeh naa cheez pesh kartaa hai yeh shayari
Mein tere pyar mein paagal hu rita
Mein tere pyar mein paagal hu rita
if and only if sintheta/costheta=tantheta *****************

India club scene
Narrator: At this point in the show, we would like to pause for a minute and dedicate a segment to the India Club, without whose support, this farce would not have been possible. What happens behind the closed doors of the India Club is a matter of much speculation, and not much is known about this very dynamic and creative organization. Please keep in mind that the following reenactment is just a wild guess at what goes on in the Fight Club. Oh sorry, the India Club.
(Fast music - Mortal Kombat, people acting like they’re fighting)
(Need to fix fight sequence, make it funny)
(Music suddenly changes to Shakalya baby (try to rerecord it))

Narrator: Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the president of the India Club!
Kishore: Stop your discussions people, we need to decide on Spring Fling by this evening.
******************************************

This was where the mikes gave up on us. And there were shouts of stopping and changing the mike as the jokes could not be heard. With all the actors on stage, and in the middle of the confusion, Shashi shouted out "freeze" and all of us on stage froze in place. He followed that with "rewind" and all the actors immediately did the best of rewind actions to the previous scene. And all this was impromptu.

******************************************

Guys (winking at each other): Heena stall
(Music slowly buils up, Mehndi hai rachne wali)
Girls: No no, we need to do something exciting and new. It must be original and thrilling. It must be totally mindblowing
(Guys yawning)
Narrator: Five hours later
(Music is now louder)
Kishore: Hey ok, the mail has to go out in two minutes.
Everyone: Ok, henna stall! Yay!
(Song - Mehndi lage ke rakna, everyone dances off)

Haircut scene
Narrator: Many months have now passed, we shall now take another look at our heroes (think of how to show long hair). They have found a new sense of fashion, and have also saved hundreds of dollars. All by avoiding haircuts for the past year.
Only one thing can make a desi spend money on haircuts.
The job interview.

Career Services
(K & S, carrying a big sack full of resumes)
(Looking very enthu)
(Go to a stall, resume in hand)
Person at the stall: F1 student? Next please!
(Keep going to stalls, same respone, people at stalls point to other stalls)
(K & S look very dejected)
Naa koi umang hai
Naa koi tarang hai
mere zindagi hai kyaa
ek kati patang hai

Niranjan and JK walk in looking very cool.

Niranjan: Why so sad man?
Shivram: What thale, no one’s taking our resumes
JK: What man, you came to the career fair to get a job? (N and JK laugh hysterically)
Niranjan: Follow us
(They go to a stall, person giving long speech about Tucson Police Dept)
Person at stall: Welcome gentlemen. The tucson police department is looking for strong, dynamic and energetic young people. You get to be part of PD is ..... (think of a funny speech)
Niranjan (looks very interested): Oh, fantastic. I see. Oh. Aha.
Person: Is there anything you would like to ask me?
Niranjan: Where are the T-shirts?
(Everyone takes T-shirts and they go off looking happy)
(Niranjan stops and realises something, goes back to stall)
Person at stall: Same speech...Midway, realises Niranjan’s been there before
Person: Have I seen you before sir?
Niranjan: Ah yes, I’m actually L, but I picked up an M shirt.
(Person looks sad, Niranjan walks off looking happy)
Person: Hey atleast give back the other t-shirt man!

Final Scene
Narrator: And this is how it came to pass, that in the spring of 2006, a change was in progress. The old stalwarts found new jobs, and moved on. Where are they now?
(Funky music - Kannada for Ninja/JK?)
(They walk on stage, full attitude)
JK: Very few people are lucky enough to work on a product that they have used to such a great extent, especially to solve their assignments. JK now works at Google, where he searches for the meaning of life. Narrator: Niranjan is now a highly succesful programmer with Microsoft. Any new bugs in future Microsoft products are mostly because of him. Rahul is now a PhD student who has taken upon himself the onus of heading the India club ably assisted bythe young blood Andy and Mani.
In this ever changing world India club remains as one reassuring constant and these three guys will make sure that the Tucson Dreams still goes on.
(Play some music)

Epilogue
If you have not realized yet, the show is over. All auience are requested to stand and applaud and show their appreciation by generously contributing tomatos and onions. Please note that we do not accept any frozen vegetables. Do not throw the vegetables at random. Form a line and wait for your turn. If you have not got tomatos, there is a stall outside selling vegetables and we have some discount coupons here. Now to the cast;
Andy played by Karthik Shyam
Mani played by Shivram Mani
JK, Niranjan and Rahul as seniors
Archana, Preetha, Shalini, Sapna and Sarika as the girls
Sunil the publicity manager
Shashi as the narrator

Back to the grind

It began with a very informal get-together... and some random ideas put together. But none of us could even have imagined that it would be a runaway hit. :)
I am talking about the same skit - Tucson Dreamz.

The posters here are the publicity stunts we adopted owing to the brainwaves of the "director". The best part about the entire skit was we had as much fun making it as people had watching it. This is the first time in the past 8 months in Arizona, that Tucson really rocked for me.


Which is why it is always difficult to face the assignment after all the fun is over...and you wish somehow yesterday had never ended. :) I guess its the same way after every trip that I have taken, every competition, every stage performance, .......... coming back to life from the stage is very difficult. :)

Awesome.....

Some days just turn out to be amazing. Whether it is because of the people you meet by chance or by decision, whether it is in something you participate or otherwise. Today happened to be one such day .... as varied in the experience, as in the dinner-buffet that I was lucky to have.

First I dug up this snap of the conference at San Francisco. Just one look at it serves as a great source of inspiration because it never ceases to remind me that there are millions of others like me with the same aims, aspirations, striving , succeeding and failing ........ working towards common goals, and best of all........ having the same dreams.

Then coming back to today, a group of students had sat down to write up a script for an Indian cultural fest coming up called Tarana. The skit revolves around the life of a graduate guy who comes from India to UofA and how he gets accustomed to the ways here and goes on to graduate. It focusses on the comedies of everyday grad life of an Indian.
- How just before coming here we refer to Tucson (pronounced Two-sun) as Tucson(pronounced Tuk-son) to all our friends
- How once we are here we go for all free food events .... actually for all freebies.
If there is news of a career fair where free t-shirts are available or free stuff, or a pizza store is advertising free pizzas ...... you are bound to find Indian students there.
- How we always smile and acknowledge other Americans(whoever greets us) but glance away on seeing fellow indians whom we don't know.

Just before leaving for the US, I had read a forwarded mail on how to recognize an Indian who has recently returned from the United states. .......... it included a few of the following anecdotes:
- he drinks nothing but mineral water
- he is always converting from kms to miles and kgs to lbs
- he tries paying by credit card for all purchases
and after that my memory lets me down. The point however is ....it seemed just a few days ago that I was sitting in front of my monitor laughing at these jokes. It seems so scary that I might be turning into such a nightmare myself, so soon.

Today evening, Luann and Dennis took me to a native seeds dinner. It was a formal dinner where all teh dishes were prepared from natural seeds of the region....... but non-vegetarian food was also there. So name something and I will probably say that I had it. The variety was amazing. What was even more amazing was, we shared our table with a lady from teh Tucson city council. Her brother happens to be one of the top 10 american sarodists who has been tutored by Pandit Ali Akbar Khan. Whats more, she happens to know Zakir Hussain since when he was twenty. I don't know about you , I nearly fell off my chair when I was sitting there listening to her telling everybody about the sarod instrument and about Zakir Hussain. The last I have seen and been completely bowled over by Zakir Hussain was in Hyderabad, where I went to watch a concert with Shobana. His personality never ceases to amaze me.
Anyway, I will be able to catch Pandit Ravi Shankar's concert in Tucson. And there still remain a few artists whose concerts I am still trying to catch.

My post's ending note I wanted to be on relationships. Have you ever wondered that even within your friends you have so many different levels of comfort, of familiarity. Mithra has written a very beautiful piece on this thought. Well once I got thinking...there were so many different relationships that came to mind. But I just wondered in how many of them did people go beyond themselves to think about the other person involved. I have been lucky to have friends, who, though ISD distances away, have kept me going by the very thought that they care. I could never thank them enough ...... be it for the mails out of the blue asking if I was still single or fixed :). (Should I add some more smileys here for the person I am targetting!) The best part I am thankful about is that they have never imposed, claustrophobic as I am with relationships which demand too much of me , the people whom I have crossed in corridors, gone to mess with and roamed around the whole of campus have turned out to be the ones I am comfortable with the most. I am not sure if it is college which sows the seeds of eternal friendship, for me it sure has ....... and it is only when it comes to my "this group" ..that I fail to differentiate between levels of comfort and friendship.
Isn't there a mail which goes, smile because you don't know who is falling in love with your smile. And feel happy because someone somewhere is thinking of you, well here's to all my friends. Hope you have a great day because I am thinking about all of you.
(And the above few lines are copied to the best of my memory from a forwarded mail:) but they seemed apt in the context).

Life

I wonder what it is that puts you in the mood to write and what it is that doesn't. I always thought your hobby is something that helps you to be happy when you are not. But it seems more like when I am not happy I can't write. :)

In the long interim period that I did not blog, there have been a zillion things that happened, came went, washed away ....... and somehow I was so absent minded all the time that while most of the things are there somewhere in memory , they do not agree to come up in sequence. (Effect of pursuing master's ...- "in sequence", "in memory" :) )

Memorable among these were, I went to attend a conference to San Francisco. SFO was awesome, the conference was equally motivating ..... there is a place called Sausalito which from the glimpse that I got of it I felt, was a wee bit of paradise. Best thing about California, which does not change everytime I see it,...... is that its so green.

I also caught some movies, somehow everybody nowadays calls me a movie buff, well in defense all I can say is ....atleast they give me a source of enjoyment and relaxation. :) But the movies that I caught, were Goodnight and Goodluck, The bicycle thief, Grapes of Wrath , ..... Fun with Dick and Jane. The last movie was one which I went off to watch alone. It didnt seem like a very novel thing to do .... I don't mean the going to the movie part, I meant the going alone part.
But it was only after one of my friends commented "Are you freaking gone mad" that I started to think if I had !! :) Then I finally came to the conclusion that I hadn't. Well until you go and watch a movie alone, or have fun alone and realise you don't need to depend on others to make you happy , you probably would not realise what I mean. Its just that I am tired of dragging people along to enjoy things that I enjoy and they don't. Atleast this way, I am not burdening someone under gun-point and I am doing what I llike the most.
So for this very nonsensical post, I think its best I end it right here before I let more sarcasm and cynicism get it by the throat.