What is English about English?

I am not in the league of persons who speak only in English. Though I am not particularly uncomfortable with that language, I know I am no king of English. I am much more comfortable with my mother tongue. I know, this holds true with most of us (I am not denying the fact that there are people who would like to pretend otherwise).Without any further ado, let me get to what I am trying to say. I was transplanted to the United States a month back. When I boarded my flight, I thought I am going to be comfortable on the language front because I did not find many problems with the American accent of speech. I have watched enough Hollywood movies, you doubting Thomas! But lilied did I know what was in store for me! I knew what a faucet was, but I didn't imagine my friend in America couldn't figure out what a tap is. And back home, I have talked only about taps you know! Who will bother to say faucet when there is a much, much easier word? I had never heard about okra, though it happens to be one of my favorite dishes. And to top it all, I had a worse experience yesterday. I was to travel from Boston to Portland by bus and I reached the bus terminal some 10 minutes too early. I saw a random crowd, faintly resembling a Q (literally) in front of the gate at which my bus would arrive. I went and asked the gentle man standing at end which I thought is the fag end of the queue:"Excuse me, is this a queue"?"A what???” the man looked to have been offered a puzzle."I mean, is this a QUEUE to board the bus?” I think I became more polite.But it didn't seem that he noticed it. He started thinking. He might be looking for some ciphers to decode my cryptic clue.But luckily for me, the lady standing just in front of him intervened, and assured me that it is. Thank God, she saved me. I got enough time inside the bus travel to figure out the Americanese for Queue. Boy! I had to ask if it was a line!That threw me off balance. I was thrown into some deep thoughts. How many of us remember that there used to be a time when our teachers would tell us that 'colour' is the right way to spell that word and not 'color'? Who cares to specialise these days when he sees all others specializing? The world of English or the English language of the world is drastically changing. With the ever increasing influence of USA on the world, its politics, economy and socio-cultural behavior, I don't think there is a going back. With computers, internet and software playing more vital a role everyday to each of our lives, I don't think there is a going back. With ever increasing dominance of US companies, particularly Microsoft, in anything related to computers, I don't think there is a going back. With more and more eyes opened towards the US as the land of opportunities, I don't think there is a going back. No pal, it is not going to reverse. The world is going to be more and more Americanized.England is the place where this language was born. I am not sure how much English this language would remain, though! A 100 years from now, I think people of England would fail to align themselves to the language which we call by the name English. It would be an alien tongue to them, and they would feel that they are robbed of even the name of the language that rightfully belongs to them! What a pity, but how helplessly on cards? We have got nothing to do about it. The world is going to the exact direction where it should. And the English is at a loss! Hey, my dear Anglican, time you started calling your language British, too!

Christmas on a foreign Land

Christmas is not a celebration of laziness, if you happen to be away from your homeland. Especially so, if you are in a group of 30 of which 4 or 5 celebrate christmas.

When it is snowing, you wish there was rain

I was brought up amidst heavy rains, literally!
Hey I would rather not go into the details of that statement, but unlike most of the fellow Keralites, I never liked the rain as a kid. I looked at rain as a big nuiscence, causic menatl havocs. And slowly, very slowly, days passed by and years passed by and I became an adolescent.Adolescent may not be a proper term. I had a feeling those days, that I am already an adult. And I demanded, from everyone I interact with, a similar consideration. In retrospect, I feel this wasn't a good thing to have happened. However, I developed a liking for the monsoons during those days. And it still hovers around. I still love rains. But now, sitting 6000 miles away from equator, rain is a distant possibility. Or, at least, so it looks. It only snows here. It snows and covers your home with a while layer of beautiful insulator and you no longer gets sunlight on your roof. You are colder and you ask your room heater to give you more heat. You are locked inside your room and you are afraid to go out. It is snowing out there. Phew much of water, just wasted as plain snow...Couldn't it just pour down as a heavy rain? It would have been warmer and I wouldn't have missed my monsoon...But again, I get to see the snowing which I had hitherto seen only in stories and songs...In my mother tounge, there are lot of film songs picturizing snowing...Now I am seeing it in front of my eyes! These poets, they sure have some imagination.

Apt World

Blog is something new to me. Relatively very very new. Unless I had this Toshiba M100 machine on my lap(which of course, my company so dutifully gave to me, hoping I would be able to perform my everyday tasks better with this) I wouldn't have probably writing this at all. And I have way too many things to pen down..err...key down, that I end up writing nothing. But this is not going to be the case any more. I have decided that I am game. So be prepared for the risk of having to add one more url to your favorites' list. A statutory warning first: You might probably end up taking nothing back from this page. Not even your mind.
Hahaha...I know by now you would have aquired the wisdom and an understanding about me to know that I write way too bad for my warning to be ever true. Anyways, if you don't mind, scroll down and have some fun. even if it wasn't any fun, do provide me your feedbacks, please.

Are you a home-bred heavy Indian?

Well...I used to be! And I am not anymore. Give me 2 months, I will be the healthiest athlete you would ever have seen. Those who know me may wonder how on earth is that possible. The answer is...flee!
Well, I was just 73 kilos when I left my college...and I soon reduced it to just 68 (thanks to a lot of reasons). I looked perfectly healthy at that point and then the inevitable happened. I started working. I started to put on weight at an incredible half a pound a week and within an year, I weighed 83 kilograms! Thanksfully, the acceleration was over, and the weight stabilized at that point. When someone asked me weight, I would answer 85. An year at work did a lot to me, pal...But this was one thing I never wanted.
The story looks familar, right? I know a third of those who are reading this have either gone through it or are poised to go through it. So, ask me, how much do I weigh now. The answer is 73! Oh yeah, it is a magic figure. I have gone back to it. Gone back to where it all started three and a half year back. And the way I achieved it was plain simple. I was transplanted to a different country altogether. I had to cook my own food, and man! I am a vey horrible cook. I don't know the basics, I should say, and you can't eat bread-butter-jam three times a day, for seven days a week. So the nature takes over and the excess fat your body had accumulated over the years is burnt down. And if you are to live at a sub-zero temperature always, some more fat is burnt to keep you warm. Yupp! That is it. By the time your body starts telling you that there isn't anymore fat to be burnt, you would have become an expert cook (or so I hope) and you go on to maintain a wonderful equillibrium. So take my advice, Mr fat guy...flee...Go to a place which is right at the other corner on the globe (does the globe have corners, by the way? I am too week in 3-D geometry, you know!)
By the way, if you are already lean, stay off the way, OK? If you are going to try this out, you might not get to see a week going past you! And for those lean ones trying to be still leaner, I have a request...understand that this worls is a place for fat people. You can't beat us. Better join us :-)