Ambigramming...My old new hobby - PART I

Well this is a hobby I developed when I was in 11th. But of late Aravind has regenerated the spark in me. Here are a few of my early works. My miscellaneous list of ambigrams got misplaced. And my camera is low on battery and I'm charging it now. So I put up a few of the ambigrams that remain.

Thats my name

Thats not my name!

Shreyas..A good friend of mine

Very eccentric!

Ahh...the word!

Niveditha..Good friend from coll

Abishek...bud from skool

Parthiban a.k.a Tp...lives next street...great pal..And thats shivram below that.

Vivekanand and vasanth....not that gud ambigrams but great guys

Shivram again and karthik..Mr.Humility

Thats upasana...My distant cousin and a great friend

Rest later..Ciao Folks!

Stop....Rewind....Fast forward

So another year ends...I have effectively lived 6490.5 days till now. Another span of 365 days coming up. I have always wondered why this calendar had 365 days in a year. Now I guess I know. This is a period neither too short nor too long to look back on.

For me, this year has a lot of firsts to its credit.

First time:

1. I went to the gym
2. I stepped into college
3. I Started blogging
4. I started appreciating rock music
5. A reporter took photo of me[ :P ]
6. I felt really terrible and extremely pleased after the same F1 race.
7. etc..etc

Too much happened in one year for my liking. Too many greats retired. The world saw a great revolution. Saddam's throat is at the guillotine, the very minute I type this. What has lead to all this? Year after year, people take resolutions, only to break them. People have cultivated this die-hard habit of breaking the resolutions they make. For the record I'm not a believer of making resolutions only after a new year dawns or whatever.

This year, 2006, has had a mixture of everything. I've had my share of happiness, guilt, misery, awe, and every other emotion I could imagine. The tuitions at the beginning, the exams made my life hectic. But we cruised through that unscathed. That was one big obstacle because nowadays, sad it may seem, academia is being associated more with verbatim knowledge rather than understanding the conceptual matter and having the sense to relate it to day to day occurrences. This year, also happens to be the last year the entrance exams were conducted.

When I look back on this mammoth rollercoaster of a year, I must say it has been a ride to remember. School gave way to college. First there was a nagging sorrow, but then college was not all that bad. You can't have everything can you?? This year was kind of like the "parting of ways". People went on different routes, pursuing different paths enroute to achieving their destiny. However, this year I got acquainted with a lot of people who have effectively brought a new dimension to my life. I would also be pleased if there is one person whose life I have influenced in some microscopic positive way atleast!

Approximately 32 hours from now, millions will wake to the first dawn of 2007, face the first rays of the sun hit this Earth as 2007 dawns. Change is permanent. Every year holds something new, something fascinating. Whatever is in store for me, I'll be glad to embrace with arms wide open. After all, what's so intriguing about the future, if it isn't shrouded in mystery?

Cheers to 2006!!Happy new year folks. This is most probably my second last post for 2006. Ciao folks!

Movie mayhem!

Three days back I started going to the gym. Since then I have not been able to venture out, let alone play. So I was left with no other alternative but to read books or to watch movies or to listen to some music or to indulge myself in two papers which my friends had prepared. I did a little bit of everything. Which is how I ended up watching 5 movies in the past three days. The following is the list of the movies with a little bit of info on each. ( Just a little bit because I'd rather like people watching them!)


#1 : The Shawshank Redemption

Ahh...Morgan freeman at his best. The life of Andy Dufresne who was wrongly imprisoned for the murder he did not commit, how he strolled among his prison mates like a free man with no care in the world, how all he wanted to do was read the Bible or carve chess figures out of rocks, how a poster of the american beauty Rita Hayworth saved his life is what his is about. Morgan freeman, the good-getter of Shawshank prison,who can get anything you want from outside if you pay him the cash, and Brookes, the prison librarian, who spent 50 years in the prison which he made his home, form central characters in this movie. This is a story of a man who realised his dreams, escaping from the clutches of a sly dean, the corrupted officials, with the help of his friends whose very lives he changed; a story of man who crawled through the narrow hole he carved through his prison wall, and then crawled through 500 yards of shit and emerged clean on the other side.

#2 : Brother Bear

Animation movies never fail to fascinate me.
this is yet another fun/senti/family movie by
disney which portrays the fact that if everyone
learns to live along well, then life becomes all
the more enjoyable. A fun watch and a great
way to spend time though it defies all logic.

# 3 : Open Season


Another animation flick by disney and a recent release, Open season brings a whole different angle to animation movies. This is a movie which portrays the hunting season from an animal's point of view. Boog the bear and Elliot, the moose make an awesome duo. Elliot receives his voice from Eddie Murphy, a magician at this. The porcupine, the squirrels and the skunks never fail to tickle a rib. Excellent creativity and excellent outcome. Pity it did not get released here.
In the pic:This here is the squirrel i told you about. He poses as a gladiator in one scene, a dachshund his faithful steed!

# 4 : Monster House

Adults never believe kids when they say something *out of the ordinary*. So naturally when two kids who say that a house is a monster and eats people alive they naturally tend to see some other reason. Added to this is the fact that the house acts normal in front of adults. Totally out-of-this-world story with the house being possessed by the woman-of-the-house's spirit, but really cool watch. Check out the review somewhere. Spielberg's still got it in him!

In the pic:Thats jenny, Chowder and DJ who form the crux of the story.



# 5 : Dukes Of Hazzard

I was bored when I started watching this. When I finished
watching this, however, boredom vanished completely. Good,
old fashioned, comedy throughout the movie. The antics of Sean William Scott and Knoxville are of laugh-tears extracting
material. Daisy duke ( Jessica Simpson appears as the bait
every time and she looks cute for a change) and uncle Jessy also add to the entertainment. This is a story of the dukes who love
their village and would do anything to prevent it from being
strip mined for the sake of coal. The rest is history. Watchable
comedy!

Well thats about it. Good Will Hunting is next on the list. Review later! Ciao!

5 point me!

You know what this is.


5 Things YOU (the reader) don't know about me ( Some people might know a few things written out here already :| )

~ I won the running race( yea its not a typo..) when i was in LKG. A moment to savor.

~I still have my collection of Pokemon tazos which came free with cheetos. Now although I've stopped watching it or collecting it, I don't see any reason why I should throw the old stuff away!. By the way it's arranged in a way so neat that Monica ( from F.R.I.E.N.D.S) would have been proud of.

~I Write under the pseudonym Ryan.A.Nash.

~I can squirt. Nobody else can do this. Or atleast nobody till now has challenged me. By squirt I do not mean spit, regurgitate or vomit. You would understand better if you watch me in action. ( I can do a maximum of 2 metres now...lol)

~I have so far written a lot of stuff but my first ever poetic venture was a poem called "Untitled". I wrote it after a french exam on a graffiti covered question paper. The second one was my biggest " To Dream Or Not To Dream". Then came the rest.

There you go. 5 things you dunno about me. By the way, please contact me if you can squirt too!
Ciao!

Change is universal.....

Nothing is permanent in this world. Everything changes. One day you are 17. Wake up and blam!! You are 18 years old. Gone are the days when snail-mail and diary writing were considered hobbies. Gone are the days when I would step into my white santro.....

She never failed me once!!

But now, a limited edition Lancer seconds waits for me! My dad is known for changes. This one is a change I do appreciate.!!
Black, menacing, michelin tyres, alloy wheels, cool grill,....A nice buy!!

Yep. another change in my life. I guess this is what makes life anything but monotonous.
ciao!

A journey through the annals of truth

You won't realize how much 50 Rs. will open your eyes to the horrible truth that surrounds us, shrouding us in mirages of treachery, until you bought a first class ticket at Carnatic and sat down to watch Kabul express on a wednesday evening, with a guy who felt the urge to sleep during documentaries a bit, a girl who loves journalism and likes these kinda movies , and her mom came along partly on her own accord and partly due to the relentless persuasion by her daughter, however, she enjoyed it as much.



This is one of those movies which, falling in line along with Kurudhi Punal,really drives the point home; whose impact is not dampened by some songs which do not fit in as there are hardly any songs. Short, Crisp and sweet is how I would describe it if asked to in three words. After The Road To Perdition, this is the next movie I have seen in the same Genre and I love this as much as I did that.

How would you feel if your daughter were married to the enemy and you worked undercover as a soldier and later when returning back to your side , they shoot you down? Probably worse than how Mr. Victor navorski felt when his country Krakozia was the battlefield for yet another U.S exploit. But this time, thankfully the person was not alive long enough to feel the pain. The string of bullets from the rail gun drove it right through his heart. This movie is about the exploits of two journalist Suhel and Jai from India and Jessica, another journalist fromU.S.A, An afghan driver and Imran khan Afridi, a patriotic pakistani general who likes to discharge his duties, because it is his Farz, and a loving father who takes money from people at gunpoint just to give to his daughter who he is not supposed to see, during the two days which changed their lives.

I finally found myself able to remove the golden cloak off USA and see the ruthless cold metal inside. Theirs is a policy of use and throw. Use Pakistani soldiers to fight afghans under the pretext of lending a helping hand, and later condemn them to death by making a false statement that no Pakistani exists over the border. Now it all comes back to me. The intervention in Vietnam, the hand in the afghan war, the political skirmishes, all come back in a blinding rush of colors. As Jessica says "these inhumanly gory events"(I think I've got it right!) could have been avoided if USA had not felt the need to poke its nose. But then they had the blood from the 9/11 attacks fresh on their hand but that did not give them the license to use the Pakistanis. Neither did they have a valid reason to indulge in the Vietnam wars, except if you consider lending a supposedly helping hand.

(Vietnam war : unnecessary intervention)

The trust that Imran builds in John and arshad, the pack of cigarettes as a little something from India, the friendly salute and the outstretched arms holding the paper containing holy writing on one hand, and the forlorn, distraught, astounded eyes of Imran when he is shot by his own men on the other, speak louder than the dialogue itself. It is but saddening to see that even after that, his army officer badge and his favorite something-from-india is swept down the stream.

People like Imran, I salute you! USA, you can go to hell if you continue doing stuff like this. It is very heartening to see the citizens of USA condemning their nation's acts. USA has a glorious history. Her story of independence and all the wars she fought over the years have indeed added to her crown. But such moments of thoughtlessness, such foolish acts tend to erase them from our memory.

Kabul express, in short. Kinetic Energy(There you go nith!) which has the potential in it to disturb the cells of your lachrymals. After all as suhel khan says, "Why should I call it a ride with a terrorist? After all we were all in the same vehicle for two days, we all felt fear and anger, we all loved cricket, well not all, we all loved singing. It was just five of us in a vehicle for two days. I just wish he reached home safe."


The occasional squabbles over cigarettes, the gun-threats, the ghaadi chalos, the discussions over imran and kapil, the Arshad warsi one liners all make it a delight to watch. Some may say it's rather slow. But such movies are meant to be slow.

Over All Rating: 4.5/5

Random Googling!!

Just one of those boring times when you have nothing else to do.(Actually I have got an exam tomorrow..ah but it's only C)...So after an hour of Counterstrike( I have become obsessed..)and a few minutes chatting with my co-bloggers nithya and vaishnavi, during a so-called-break from study which as of now has successfully lasted longer than study itself, I just decided to see what treats google had to offer me. I suddenly got reminded of the words of Vaishnavi "Hey, I googled Ryan.A.Nash but I did not get anything". That coupled with my recent tryst with words like "panegyrize", "Anacoluthon and Amphigory" (You know what?? Mozilla doesn't know these words too!!) made me type "Weird words " in the google search bar. The results took me by surprise. There were people who even made it a job to compile these weird words!

The following is a list of a few I got:

QUODLIBET

Either a topic for (or exercise in) philosophical or theological discussion, or a light-hearted medley of well-known tunes. (Ah....remember those days when we had a quodlibet under oak trees??)

ANFRACTUOSITY

A channel, crevice or passage full of windings and turnings.(Actually I kinda like this word...)

CALLITHUMPIAN

Relating to a band of discordant instruments or a noisy parade.(Probably referring to me singing!!)

COCKAMAMIE

Something ridiculous, incredible or implausible.(They shouldn't name words like this!!!)

CIRCUMBENDIBUS

A roundabout process or method; a twist, turn; circumlocution.(Leaves a nice sound in your mouth...)

DIDGERIDOO

An Australian Aboriginal musical instrument.(I played the didgeridoo but it sounds like callithumpian cockamamie... :|)

HA-HA

A boundary to a park or garden that doesn't interrupt the view.( In our terms....that is same as he he or hee hee)

HEBESPHENOMEGACORONA

An irregular solid figure with 21 faces, 18 of them triangular and the other three square.(sure let me draw you one right away!!!)

PANJANDRUM

A mock title for a person, real or imaginary, who has or, claims to have, great influence or authority. (Mr. Raju the great!!LOL)

SALMAGUNDI

A mixture or miscellany.(ROFL...These words sound funny)

SLUBBERDEGULLION

A filthy, slobbering person.(No comments :|)

TINTINNABULATION

A ringing or tinkling sound.( tingaling would have been better :D)

ZENZIZENZIZENZIC

The eighth power of a number.(he he...This sounds way cool...a couple of Z's and a couple of I's with a few C's...Imaginative word making...No wonder this word was abolished)

There is also this part from F.R.I.E.N.D.S. In the ninth season TOW the lottery, Emma says Gleba!!.Check the audio out.Click here!

P.S. Please don't use these words in any of your future speeches or written endeavours because you might find yourself on the receiving end of a few very rotten tomatoes.

Cia!

Weird Poetry!!!!

A.L.I.V.E
A Large Intestine's Views on Existence

You Think You've Seen So much shit in life??Think again. Here goes my story.......

A hollow tunnel is what I am,
And trust me, I don't look that glam.
While you take in eggs and Ham,
I make it all into a squishy jam!


A long colon, rectum and anus,
I work without creating much fuss;
Even during festive times of X'mas,
When a man 'thout me is dangerous!!


The lil one sucks his best,
And sends tome the rest;
People eat more than we can digest,
What's more I f$%#*& can't protest.


Goeey stuff enter the tunnel,
Someone screams,"A long bowel!!"
My soldiers pick up pick and trowel,
And push it to the next level.


The soldiers satisfy their thirst,
And push it forward lest it bursts!
"Good work",Some of 'em shout,
"Try to make the shit pop out!"


Heave ho!! They toil and moil
God knows he's eaten how much oil!!
After chaos, confusion and much turmoil,
They see the light at the end of the coil.


Hours of hardwork, Virtual slaughter,
In the abdomen of this big fat farter,
All i get is a load of shit,
And man I can't even quit.


So in these tunnels poorly lit,
I toil while you eat nuzzer cheese bit;
So remember me, you lousy git,
As the guy who's seen the most shit.

-Ryan.A.Nash

Tagged during exams...I blame Nithya

So for once you feel like studying for the exams but then suddenly I find out that SOMEBODY has tagged me. Who is it?? You really wanna know?? Oh, for the love of God isn't it obvious..NOTHYA of course. She loves tagging, we are the victims. He he, kidding. Ok anyway here goes.2

The mission:

1. Grab the book closest to you.
2. Open to page 123, go down to the fifth sentence.
3. Post the text of next 3 sentences on your blog.
4. Name of the book and the author.


One of Brazil's greatest poets, Vinicius De Moraes, says in the words to a song

" E no entanto e(with accent acute) preciso cantar,
mais que nunca e(again) preciso cantar.
[And meanwhile, we must sing,
more than ever we must sing."]

Like the flowing river, Paulo Coelho

If you make sense of this crap, tell me.

tatah!!

Past two days...

Here I am, this is me
There's no place else on earth that i wanna be!!

Well there are places on earth that I sure wanna grace with my presence, but I just wanted to give a melodramatic comeback to posting after a considerably long time. Exams were not the reason for this temporary farce in posts. I just did not feel like blogging because of the following reasons.

• I was totally involved in my mini project.
• Got three awesome books to read.
• Hung out at ARC
• Played counterstrike
• Saw a movie.
• Watched F.R.I.E.N.D.S
• Saw another movie[:P]
• Sat simply and stared at the wall.
• Listened to a few songs which I recently downloaded using my "suddenly-OMG-turbocharged" Limewire.
• Ate extremely exquisite food in the past two days.

And that is why I start off about the past two days. The rest later, after some time. At the most this farce will continue till december 22nd.

Sunday the 1oth of december, 2006

Woke up late after a long time. Man, it sure did feel great to get the pleasure of getting up late after more than two weeks. I woke up and applied oil to my hair. Something which I usually don't do. After a nice warm bath (which I took time taking), I settled down to check how much "THe godfather" had finished downloading. 100 %. Excellent news. That meant I had another movie to watch!! Then my dad asked " Patti aathukku polama da?? Or is your highness busy??"
I, also equally sarcastic, replied" Hmmm...let me see...." and let it hang. Thus it started. The trip to my grandmother's house. I took my pen drive which had a few songs in it with me. After all the his and how-are - yous and the much awaited grandson-grandpa talk, I was invited to play cricket by my cousins.

The wily critters had half-early exams the next day. But that did not stop them from playing. Neither did they allow their mom and dad stop them. The game was called " INDOOR SPONGE BALL CRICKET". Little did I know that they were masters of this very little known game. However, Neophite's serendipity (for everyone except the dictionary nithya....this means beginner's luck) was by my side. First match saw me score a mammoth 78 with 5 sixes and 12 fours. But..er... the boundary was just 25 feet away from me. Nevertheless, That was the high score. I won the first match. I was beginning to feel at home with this. It all came crashing down. I just won another match after that. The rest either of the two won. tut tut!!. If you think I suck at it, you try playing with them.

That evening somehow my mom and her sister thought of cooking up something special for all of us. Cool. They finally settled on, or were made to settle on, fried rice and pulao. It was then that the two guys started to study and I indulged myself in some music and preparing the project report. After some time dinner was served. Delightful affair! my dad also decided to chip in. he made wonderful "thavala vadai"...You wanna know more ask him, not me! After that dinner I thought I could never be more sated after a meal. I was wrong, wasn't I?...Yea, I was. After watching th arsenal and chelsea match, I was happy it ended in a draw and grabbed some shut eye


Monday the 11th of December, 2006

The day dawned. A momentous day in the offing. The 23rd wedding anniversary of my mom and dad. I was made to get up really early. I mean really early. 5 AM. We were supposed to go to "then thirupathi". We started our journey by 5 30 AM. We reached there after a long ride peppered with talks about " All these years". I love these talks. Finally I was about to meet THE ONE. The only person whose existence I refuse to believe. Wait. Refuse is a tad strong. I'd rephrase that "The only person whose existence I choose not to believe." This time we were within one and a half meters of Him. I could not stop myself from being awed by the elaborate decorations. Faith is costly! He seemed to radiate such power. "It was a good darshan. Not every day do you get to see Him at this distance" said my mom. After that and a good long talk with our friend who worked there, we were about to leave. The gentleman asked if we could drop his daughter off at gandhipuram. From what he said we gathered she was in psg arts doing her second year. I dunno why brahmin girls seem to be so beautiful. She was nice company too. After dropping her off, we went to one of my favorite places in coimbatore--> ALANKAR GRANDE for the anniversary breakfast! It was a buffet. I was wearing black trousers and white slacks that day. So it was not unimaginable to be mistaken for a waiter. It happened when I went for my third serving. I piled up two slices of bread on my plate and two blobs of different flavoured jam on the little plate. Suddenly a cute northy girl walked up and asked,"Can you give me two slices too??". I stopped myself from laughing just in time to answer,"Well, I could, but unfortunately I'm not the waiter". She was flushed and muttered a few hurried sorries before leaving. Another old lady(Think it was her mom) came up and asked me where the plates were. I saved her the embarrassment and showed her the way.

After that fiasco, I went and narrated it to my mom who burst laughing. So much for the elegant white shirt! After some chit chat and a lot of eating, including a few new stuff my dad gave me, we were through. This is what I had.

• Two slices of French toast
• 4 pieces of omelette
• Three slices of bread-->one each with honey, mixed jam, and orange marmalade
• A single podi dosa
• A cube of butter
• A few pieces of papaya
• And a sip of grape essence

That was how hungry we were. Then we came home and I finished my report on the project. Then we all had a nice long chat with my brother in USA. He had waited up till 1 30 AM (for him) just to wish mom and dad. Great guy!!Mom and dad cooked up the lunch which was also special because it was typically south indian and was liked by all of us. On the menu was "Keerai koottu, All veggie sambar, And appalams".

While that was getting ready, I called up my good friend and sister(Sob Sob...senti..:P)Niveditha to wish her on her birthday. The lazy girl had woken up at 11 30 AM for crying out loud. Her dad was on the way there. She had felt lonely for the past few days, it seems. Poor thing!!! So I hung up after some time assured of a treat on or after December 22!! Then at 3 we again went out to my granny's for their aashirwad on the Marriage day. After that and kicking the opponent's ass a long way, in stage 11 of WORMS FORT WORLD WAR on my cousin sisters W550 i, we returned home. On the way we got a few sweets to distribute to colleagues and other people.

Evening somehow got hectic. I suddenly got to know that the report had to have a bona fide page. I hadn't done that. And I hadn't taken a print out. So I went out, did all the necessary stuff then marveled at how the snapshots had turned out.I made a makeshift game manual from it. I turned out pretty well. I tried out the game with the new cheat codes and it worked like a charm!!. I called it quits for the day at 10 and turned in.

Nice day it turned out to be. It would be fun if the entire world were a family. everyday would be someone's birthday or wedding day. But naah. That would be too monotonous and what's the fun in that? What makes these days special is that they come but once a year. 23 years of marriage gone by like dust a wind(I'm listening to Scorpions' Dust in the wind now). But this dust somehow has etched itself on the stones. 18 years have breezed by after being born, and she faces her first semester!!. Man i can't wait for march 20!!. Life does rock, doesn't it???

I leave you with these words of Scorpions resounding in my head.

Dust In The Wind

I close my eyes, only for a moment, and the moment's gone.
All my dreams pass before my eyes, a curiosity.
Dust in the Wind.
All they are is dust in the wind.

Same old song.
Just a drop of water in an endless sea.
All we do crumbles to the ground.
Though we refuse to see.
Dust in the wind. All we are is dust in the wind.

Now don't hang on, nothing lasts forever except the earth and sky.
It slips away, and all your money won't another minute buy.
Dust in the wind.
All we are is dust in the wind.
Dust in the wind.
Everything is dust in the wind.
In the wind.

Two extremities

All of a sudden one thursday evening I took the dictionary to look up a word "FURLONG" I knew it had something to do with distances. But was not sure how much it measured. Obviously you people are thinking why suddenly "FURLONG???". This guy has got his brain screwed up by micronano waves from the distant planet of zork or what???. NOPE. ...FLASHBACK!!!!

Standing in S11 having no place to rest on, I was compressed from all sides. I did not have to catch hold of anything because there was no place to fall even! Just then a guy with a drum in his hand came in. He just made way for himself and got a seat too. Imagine my plight. Standing all the way from Peelamedu. Then the guy started asking directions for some community hall. All of a sudden another guy talks. Let me describe this guy first. Unshaven , ruffled up hair, with a stained shirt and lungi!!. The guy said in tamil "It is just a furlong or two from the edayarpalayam stop.!!


I was stunned for a second. Thats when I realised that people had knowledge but did not have the means to expose it. I don't have any idea how he gotta know that word! But it finally made me know the meaning of a word i thought was long extinct. But then there was this exact opposite guy. The word he used "ASSAULT". And the usage---> Makes-me-hit-myself-on-the-head-with-a-shit-covered-moth-eaten-piece-of-cloth inappropriate. Why do they have to assault that word!!!!! Such people are the unfortunate ones I realised. The ones who have not been given the facilities to prove their mettle in such areas. But then another thought nagged at me. Isn't it also true that it is they themselves who choose to be the way they are??Are'nt they the ones who know they are wrong but take no effort to correct themselves???

There are some people lazy enough in this world not to choose their own destiny and just lie down letting the stream carry them along. No aim, goalless, drifting, hitting the bum on the occasional bump and later letting the stream soothe it as they are lazy enough not to do so. Such people I detest. I would like to mention that it is not the people who do not opportunity yet have the desire. It is those who just live because they are born that I loathe. Evidende: Near railway station there is a bus stop. All sorts of mendicants in all sorts of poses and varying degrees of filth can be seen. I can't help but pity them but there is a certain degree of anger mingled in that pity.They are created with six senses but I found them eating along with a pig. I was moved, by anger and shame. Shame on the human race for letting this happen.


As Led Zeppelin says." And a new day will dawn for those who stand long and the forests will echo with laughter!". At the same I have found that I have become "Comfortably Numb."

Ciao!