Aravind Kumar’s Blog

The Automan Cometh

A few Months Back (Yeah Yeah!!! I have not blogged in a while) I was having a conversation with a colleague at work and she said Personal blogs are Sad Stories. This one is for you lady!!!

Recently I have become an auto aficionado. Autos for those of you who do not know are three wheeled Vehicles which can take you on a trip or take the trip out of you and yes Auto guys tend to take you for a ride. Autos in Chennai don’t go by the meter it is good old bargaining which works.

IF you have time to waste and are looking for some fun and time pass, do this…

Wave a Auto down, Give him your destination then ask him how much it will cost. Let’s take my normal route Kilpauk to T.Nagar Say he asks you for Rs. 100 you do a small calculation 100 divided by 2 which is 50 and subtract 10 from that. So you will quote 40Rs. (Don’t think it is ridiculous If He goes by the meter it will not cost anything more than 35Rs. Now the autoguy will be shocked and will normally mumble jumble and proceed) If he does not I will assure you he is ready to bargain and can be brought to go on a ride for 45Rs.

Trust me there is nothing wrong in arguing for even 1Re or 2Rs. It is hard earned money after all. If you hate the auto guy and don’t want to have some fun torturing them feel free to take a bus back home. I do that sometimes or better still walk back home.

One of my friends actually tells that she is a college student and that her dad does not giver her enough pocket money. Interesting Story but I would not be able to tell something like that and get away with it.

Have some more Tips, Incidents coming up…
Comments, tips and real life incidents are welcome.

Have fun using public transport.

Tags: auto, autorickshaw, Chennai, incidents

Madras, My Madras…

Yes, my Madras is celebrating it’s 369th Birthday. Yeah, and this is what will be happening over this week.

I am feeling LAZY( apparently that’s a draft and I have been too lazy to post my LAZY post. So you know how lazy I am) again so I will just link it to Suraksha’s post. You should be able to see me on some of these walks, open mics, etc etc…

Tags: Chennai, madras week, suraksha

Let the Children be. You Control Freaks.

I was at the Chinmaya Yuva Kendra Culturals Ablaze 2008 the whole of Yesterday. So morning Narain and me(or is it I?) walk into the Chinmaya Heritage Center after a late night at the office the previous day and we started off by putting up Banners and setting up the www.findnearyou.com stall (failed miserably though)
it took Seshadri ( a friend at work ) to actually setup the stall. Where do I put up banners? This was running through my head for a while by then.

So while 2 Banners went to the stage flanks one went right inside the elevator. So when the elevator door opened up there we had a sign saying

“Stop Searching Start Finding” I was waiting for the elevator and two oldies joined my wait. So they were reading the back of my T-Shirt. which says www.findnearyou.com and then the elevator door opens and there they see the banner. They got a funny look on their face. and their eyes started to go between the banner and my Tshirt. So smart guy I am said “Yeah, it is Find Near You and I was the one who put it up there” , they said “Clever thinking” So I murmured my thanks and stepped out of the elevator.

We had all these contests and I found that boys and girls go crazy about

Freebies, A game where you have to rip the paper, crush it and then basket it with your left hand and of course brain teasers. I met some really sweet kids. I was shooting off like crazy about findnearyou and one kid I was talking to was like “I came here for Creative Writing and But I am being forced to perform Ship wreck and worse I have to play Salman Khan. Now why do kids have to play some dumb celebrity? I met some kids from St. Bedes and when I told them I was from Don Bosco, Egmore they got pretty excited and we shared some cultural stories. Previously I had watched them dance and trust me they were so different from all other schools. They were appreciated but did not win any prize. It is just like in Harry Potter when Dolores Umbridge says this is what school children should do more than this they should not. It kills the spirit inside the kid . They had made a lot of effort to do what they did. The judges should not say things like “You were very good, but this is a school culturals and we don’t entertain commercially good performances. ” Hey Teacher leave those kids alone… All in all you’re just another Brick in the wall” It is sad that talent is controlled and driven by people who are controlled and driven by some others.

Sad but True.

Tags: another brick in the wall, Chennai, chinmaya, chyk, dolores umbridge, harry potter, school culturals

Dear Reader…

Dear Readers,

I don’t know why I blog. I have been wondering for the last 6 months. It is fun though. I enjoy this immensely. But when I get an email saying someone has commented on your post. What do I do? Any work I am doing comes to a halt and I savour each written word.

But I got word today from my friend Venu (Of Sonu Venu fame) that there is this lady in his office who was spotted reading my blog. Dear lady if you are reading this please leave a comment. It will be an honor for me to know my readers. I even accept negative comments. So if you wanna thrash me verbally please feel free.

Love and Regards,

Aravind Kumar

Tags: Aravind, Chennai, crisil, JLT