Riaan's Ramblings

The day after yesterday !

2011-05-22T22:56:00.002+05:30

So apparently there is a 2012 woody impersonator on the loose...

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/22/us-apocalypse-prediction-idUSTRE74I3KS20110522

...and with Britney Spears’ “Till the world ends” making the charts across the world, one wonders what got this into the 89 year old’s head...or was it the other way around?!

But honestly, this isn’t the first proclamation of the ‘end of the world’ or the apocalypse! And while each time the world shudders at the thought of vanishing into the thin air or perhaps crumbling into dust, Ramlal can’t help but wonder how the close to 7 billion people of the world would be judged....I mean wouldn’t that take an eternity in itself !!

So thus, on this, “The day after yesterday”, Ramlal wonders what it would really be like...

.....drifting into imagination...

All the souls are escorted to the judgement arena and handed out forms, forms to be filled in detail, then evaluated and then judgement is made ! As you will see it could be well...worse than hell itself..

---break to scene---

Ramlal has justed waited for 42 days in line waiting for his turn to hand in the form...he finally gets to the counter...

Angel at counter (AAC): forms please...

(Ramlal hands over the forms...)

AAC: where is your proof of religion?

Ramlal: errrm I am a Roman Catholic....

AAC: yeah...yeah....and I am the Son of God...where is your document? If we don’t know your religion, how do we know which rules to judge you by?

Ramlal: But where do I get this...?

AAC: Well, if you say you are a Catholic then you need a letter from one of the Popes/ !

Ramlal: And how would the Popes know my religion?

AAC: Get a letter from your parish priest....take that to the Archbishop..he will issue another letter...take that to a cardinal...he will issue the letter you need for the pope ! And remember, the Pope’s letter must have the Vatican seal ..

Ramlal: But..but...

AAC: And complete your sins screening form (hands back form)...you haven’t answered question 8 – Have you committed adultery? !

Ramlal: This is gonna take forever !!

AAC: You can stay in purgatory till then..

Ramlal: Isnt there a faster way?

AAC: Yeah....confession...why do you think the confessional has such a long line!

Ramlal: Confess? ...but Im on trial !!

----end of scene---

A new beginning

2009-03-30T10:41:00.003+05:30

Well, 7rrml has graduated with 2 names and there shall be no more of WIMWI for Ramlal.Yes, Ramlal is done with WIMWI. Convocation over on the 28th and he leaves for Bombay in about 2 hours. Its easily been the best 2 years of his life, but alas all good things must come to an end. He is gonna miss being on the job, living in Unnees and every other aspect of life here.

But Ramlal does begin a new life with Nestle in about 2 weeks. Whether or not he will still be able to remain in touch with friends and 'family' at WIMWI, he does not know but he knows that he shall come back at every given opportunity to relive all those cherished moments out here.

Ramlal is signing out from IIMA.

All the Names

2008-09-06T21:35:00.006+05:30

Let me begin by telling you my real name. Its Riaan Mark Rodrigues. Mark is my middle name and is the name of one of the evangelists( 4 gospel writers). Rodrigues is a Portuguese surname which literally means "Son of Rodrigo" (Patronymic). Riaan is my first name. As for its meaning, well I was told as a boy by my mother that it is named after a Persian King(yes my parents decided to give me a Persian name as my mother also has one....actually my parents had come down to "Riaan" and "Rhys" but my uncle Robin felt that people would keep calling me "Greece" !!), which was really not a satisfactory answer ! So before my IIM interviews I remember trying to find out if there was a meaning. So I scrapped all the active "Riaan"s on orkut to find out if they knew the meaning. Unfortunately just one sort of did. Apparently "Riaan" is also a derivative of "Aryan". Anyway so that's all about MY name !!

Needless to say, Riaan Mark Rodrigues as a combo is very intriguing to most people. A lot of people have a problem pronouncing my name. My first name for instance has been turned into a "Ryan", "Rian", "Rehan" etc and well, lets not get into pronunciations...I had a south Indian professor once who would call me "raiyan" !!A lot of people prefer to call me "Rodrigues"...given the apparent complex pronunciation of my first name....but then there are those that have trouble with all the names....I remember this one occasion during my school days when I had to go to some public school to take an Olympiad exam or something. When the time came for the supervisor to take attendance, he called everyone's names....but at mine he stopped..." Rai...Ree....errrmmm rodree...rod...rodddd no 23 are you there ?"...yup i was number 23 that day !!

So I spent my life being called all sorts of names...yes without actually being insulted !! as for the derivatives plenty but most came later...in school it was just "Rod Dick" !! yeah....and to make things worse ...my first hotmail id was riaanrod7@hotmail.com, the implications of which didnt hit me at that time till one day someone came up to me and said.."Riaanrod7 huh..really?? 7?"...so the names and their derivatives kept coming till i came to WIMWI. That's when things just exploded !

Now on registration day in the first year, I was asked to fill up my name as it appeared on my certificates. In Bombay university, our names appeared in this format surname-name-middle-father-mother. Why they needed all these names I don't know, but they did, and to make things worse, the PGP office registered me with all 5 names rather than trying to make sense of it. My name tag had all 5 names, so did the attendance sheet and so everytime the prof decided to take the roll call, it was a riot at my turn...some called me by my first name, others by my surname some wanted to read out all 5. I had to shout present really loudly before they reached the second name !!, still do infact ! Furthermore, the computer centre also refused to figure things out and I was too lazy to sort it out. At wimwi ur email and dbab(internal chat) ids are year-name-Initial of Surname. So I should have been 7riaanr but Noooooo !! I became 7rrml !!yes 7rrml !! they missed out my mother's name ! So 7rrml became the joke of wimwi...and quite frankly I like the name 7rrml (I mean its different and yes I like to be called 7rrml and not rrml)...but it was a big problem for the previous placecom. The dbab id is in some way a primary key and is used often to sort of people's names. So in my case they had to sort out a Rodrigues Riaan Mark Leonard Rayna with a 7rrml !! definitely was a big pain !! oh and I almost forgot, the office also mispelt my name as Rian !!....so from 7rrml came rrml and sometimes I would even have the PGP office calling me mlrr. The batch even made it mltr (which is incidentally also one of my fav bands). The PGP continues to blunder on this front..sometimes the attendance sheet has the other 4 names with my name Riaan reduced to an initial !, at times there isn't enough space and Rodrigues is made rodrig ! For those of you who read my blog, you would know I have yet another name ...Chuchcha Singh !! yes my dorm name (explained in an earlier post)..and from Chuchcha Singh came another derivative...Chooch !...well that's it for now...those are all my names !!

If some of you haven't noticed, the number 7 keeps repeating ....well, when I decided upon my email ids (hotmail and current yahoo )...it was chosen because as a football fan the number 7 holds a special place. A lot of my fav players wear that number and so I used it in riaanrod7@hotmail.com and futebol_riaan7@yahoo.co.in. As for the IIMA id, the number 7 denotes the year that I joined...uncanny isn't it (I am also born in July)....so I figured that Seven should be the name of one of my kids...yeah seven. For those of you who watch Seinfeld, you would know that George also thinks really highly of this name ! As for a middle name ...was thinking something exotic and cricket related(the whole Indian connection)..so I came up with "White Lightning" !! yes one of my fav fast bowlers and a native American (Indian) name !! So there it is ...my Kids name will be Seven "White Lightning" Rodrigues !! The tradition shall live on !

The renaming of Riaan Rodrigues !!

2007-07-18T21:45:00.003+05:30

Wheeew...its been such a long time since ive blogged....good lord !!!!.....well its now almost 4 weeks into lectures at WIMWI....and its been one hell of an experience so far.....I am btw, in Dorm 'unnees'...well most dorms are known out here as D1 or D6...etc....mine is spsd to be a desi dorm so it is called just 'unnees'.....and yes i'm on the new campus...which means bigger rooms...less insects(ie few mosquitoes.... :D)....and being closer to the classrooms......got a nice bunch of tuchchas in my dorm....pretty helpful chaps......Now I must introduce you to another WIMWI tradition.....the dorm name.....well guys this is really serious stuff....out here at WIMWI, we are not known by our real names.....well very few of us are....we get something called dorm names....its the resposnibility of our tuchchas to give us our names....just to explain to u how serious this thing is...well....if u guys have ever read articles abt former HLL chief MS Banga in the papers...u would notice that they normally print it as MS 'vindi' banga.....well vindi is his dorm name....and he is still known as vindi in corporate circles!!!......now like i told some of u guys before i left....every dorm has its own culture(like my desi dorm)...and with it come traditions....its a tradition of unnees to name the fachchas..."xyz " Singh...yeah my dorm is the only one that dishes out a surname( it is and always will be 'singh') as well....and the name will be one that serves no other purpose than embarassment !!!....infact the entire campus eagerly awaits the naming ceremony of the unnees fachchas every year!!!.....so lets cut to the chase......my dorm name is ...brace urselves.....ready......."Chuchcha Singh" !!!....yeah yeah laugh ur guts out.....but its certainly better than what some of my fellow dormmates got.....sussu singh, potty singh, khada singh, nirodh singh, orgy singh, semen singh, tevadia singh ( shainu u shud get this one),....etc :D....

neway guys i guess ill wrap up here...below are some photos...keep visiting this space for more stuff....

A shot from my dorm.......rgt opposite is dorm 22....the row of buildings on the right are the classrooms/seminar rooms....each building has one classroom on the frst flr and a seminar room on the grnd flr....

.... of Unnees !!

...and from my balcony......you can see the entrance to the undergrnd tunnel in the left bottom ....we gotta take it to get to the new campus.....its goes under the road u see in the pic.....the tower in the rgt top part of the pic is on the old campus....u can also the wall of the new campus.....

Adios Bombay...well just for now !!!!

2007-06-14T14:45:00.001+05:30

Wheew...its been so long since I have blogged...even though I have well...been ..."Jobless"..LOL..for the last 2-3 weeks, there have been the loose ends that i have had to tie up.....the bank work, the attestations, the last minute shopping,the reordering of all my documents, the goodbyes and the dinners that go along with them. Its been a boring(well the dinners werent boring... :D ) but not empty 20 days.....
I leave for gujjuland on the 19th....yeah just a few more days.....cant wait to walk around the Louis Kahn plaza, to spend my first day in the dorm.....
This is certainly gonna be an experience of a kind for me.....its the first time I will be away from Home for sooo long.....yeah I get to keep my room as dirty as I want :P , can sleep late...can live like a real "Bachelor"..LOL...ofcourse I will be leaving family and friends back, but its just 2 yrs...and like I said it wud be a different experience.....and ofcourse I almost forgot..WIMWI has a Bball court, tennis courts, baddy courts....TT tables(plenty of them), a football grnd and a crkt grnd.....oohhhlala !!...just one prob...acc to our seniors we wont have the time to make full use of them, yeah acc to them, the only thing for a fachcha(frst yr student at WIMWI) to do is to to "magoo". When I met them at the IIMA meet at Bombay, I was askin them how much time we wud get to play everyday....and one of them just gave me that look...u know..the one that says "You poor ignorant bugger !!!!..You are just like me one yr ago...all hopeful, all excited.....they r gonna eat u up alive.." and he just said sympathetically," Well, it depends on your time management.." I mean, seriously these guys were tellin us that they study for at least 8-9 hrs everyday.......I can understand doin it for one day when there is a lot of pressure on you...but everyday!!!!...its scarin the crap out of me !!!
All the same I am really lookin forward to the WIMWI experience keep checkin this place for info on it :P ......next post in Ahmedabad !!
Cya guys !!

They found me !!!!

2007-05-14T09:41:00.000+05:30

Well, for the first part of the blog, I'll let the picture do the talking.....

Glory, Glory Man Utd !!!

ok...now to the other half....Ladies and Gents...I have been discovered...Remember that post abt all the crazy stuff I did as a kid and abt how I have to hear abt that all the time at family functions....
Well, it just so happened that my uncle Conrad decided to search the internet to find out what his notorious nephew was upto and wala!!...google returned by blog page !!!! and more importantly it returned that very post abt how the family keeps reminding me of my behaviour as a kid.....so on Saturday during a dsilva meet....I not only had to contend with the usual horrifying flashbacks but also with the family discussing my blog entry on the very same thing !!!
I really need to be careful abt my posts now.. :P

The First Bihari !!!

2007-04-19T11:30:00.000+05:30

In the beginning, the land of Kings, of the Buddha and of learning lay in peace. Men loved their women, women loved their shopping and the Gods as usual didn't give a hoot. But Loki the God of mischief looked down and saw that all was not good.Loki realised that he needed to send down a conman, a trickster, someone in his own likeness(not image) to save the people from boredom.So he picked up some clay and fashioned a man..stout, with the hair of Diana ross and a brain that can be described as relatively brilliant. Loki looked at this man he called Einstein and realised he was not what he wanted."We will send you to Facist Germany...that should be fun!!" he said and with a puff of smoke Einstein vanished and crashed into the fatherland. Then Loki again set to work, but he made a few mistakes....there was an arnold that he cursed never to be back, there was Ross who he cursed to marry a lesbian and an Arab sheikh who he cursed never to think!!!...but finally it came out right ....just as he wanted...he was brown,had hair that could never be combed, a belly of a laughing Buddha and the wit to charm the ignorant...that was it...Loki looked at him and said," You are the chosen one. You shall save my land from boredom
and predictability. From now on you shall be called Laloo...and you shall be...the first BIHARI."

Laloo was born into the Prasad family and therefore came to be known as Laloo Prasad.His childhood was a very normal one...punctuated though with acts of brilliance...like the time when he left his family at the age of twelve to contest in the annual cow milking festival in Patna. The elders were astonished with his speed and the skill with which he charmed the
animal....legend has it that he used something he called "orbait whaait" to do the same....

When Laloo reached the age of 40 he knew the time had come....his gaurdian trickster Loki had appeared to him 5 years earlier and had given him the effort estimation of the creation of Bihar...it was to begin when he was 40...and was to take 7 days...
So Laloos first act was to create BAST( Bihari Accepted Standard Time)..which incidentally he thought was the spelling for Best. By the standard, 1 year of IST was to be converted to 1 day of BAST. Now Laloo had 7 years to erect Bihar !!!

Laloo woke up one fine morning and rushed to the back of his house where the bulls and cows were. And Laloo said.." Go forth and Multiply.." and the cows continued to chew their cud...another looked at bulls and slid onto the hay.....so Laloo took out his can of Axe and sprayed the Deo all over the bulls and within minutes....well...too graphic to describe....u know what i mean....( any young boys/girls readin this go home and ask ur parents what happened..). So within a year the streets of Patna were teeming with bulls...here a Moo..there a Mooo...everywhere a Moooo MOooo.( Now we know where the term bullshit was
coined)The first part of his triple-headed mission was complete.

In the second year(day accordingto BAST)..Laloo was sitting under a tree when one of crows crapped on him...he knew it..it was another sign from Loki...He had to find a staple food for his people. He searched long and Hard the whole day(IST)...but nothing ...nothing was good enough and he finally collapsed on the ground near what the locals called a paan shop.. It was owned by a man called Nitish Kumar.... Nitish handed Laloo some paan and Laloo beamed with delight..."Come...follow me and I will make you rich...This will be our staple." said Laloo..So Nitish and Laloo opened paan shops at every nook and corner of Bihar..and from there...paan shops went to Bombay, Delhi, Lucknow....etc..Lalism was spreading !!
The second part was completed just under 2 years(IST).

But Laloo wanted more power...how else could he shape Bihar according to Loki??...how else could he establish the Third Wreck?? He had read about "Robain Hoood" and wanted to emulate him....what a noble idea he thought...rob from the rich and give the poor...but he wanted his own mark on it...Laloo had to be written all over it...so was born extortion. And thus Laloo and his men became rich....Extortion was hailed by the communists as a great economic leveller..Laloo was getting stronger politically !!

By the fifth year(IST)everything had fallen into place....people abducted bulls, men extorted from the rich paanwalas and Loki was rolling in laughter...Laloo smiled as he looked on...after all he had completed his task 2 days early !!!

PN: Laloo went on to become chief minister of Bihar...one of the first things he implemented was BAST. There is a story about him marrying a certain Rabri that has been debated all over India...Infact one story says that he and Rabri had many kids...who are still protected by the Municipality of Patna...to ensure that anarchy continues in Bihar !!! Only his trusted henchmen ..the gundaas of Ranchi know this secret.(also known as the secret of the Bullshit.)

[the above story is not intended to make fun of people from any part of India.......I hope the readers of this post see the funny side of it all....]

A Bittersweet Week....

2007-03-29T21:50:00.000+05:30

Well...first the good part....I have RESIGNED from TCS...my last day will be the 31st of May...what a relief...IIFT wants the first payment by the 27th of April so with IIM results coming out in mid April...it seems all ok....But the biggest achievement for me was resigning on MONDAY Morning...yeah...I had this planned for God knows how long......ever since I took the CAT I dreamt of resigning on a monday mornin....for 18 bloody months the stupid day slapped me, kicked me....and dragged me to work...now it was time for revenge!!!!...so even though I got intimation abt the IIFT result in mid-week...I waited for a few days just so that I could slap Monday for a change...so it was decided..even though I had a UAT that day...and worked the previous day....I made it by 9:30 in the morning to the fort office...so that my first act of the day in office could be my resignation....sooooo sweeeet!!..well my PL wasnt so taken aback..I guess she was expecting something to happen sooner or later....so I gave her the letter and even though she said that she didnt need a copy..I insisted and gave her another signed copy....I felt like I was rubbing it in for Mr. Monday now...It felt sooooo wonderful !!!

Now for the bitter part...well, unfortunately..this week has seen me work like a freakin dog!!..2 night outs in the last four days(2day inc) and approx 60 hrs of work so far(2 consec 19 hr days)..so considering that will I be working on Saturday too..this week will most probably be the longest working week for me ever!!!...hmmm.. talk abt extremes!! what a way to start..what a way to end !!

Anyway..now just hopin for the best and looking forward to dumping work on my juniors ..hehehe....:D

Cant think of a title for this one.....

2007-03-25T18:50:00.000+05:30

My life so far can be divided into 2 major segments...the first when I was a kid.....made a hell of a lot of mischief, troubled everyone I met...and the second when I became a little older and had to(still do) have to hear about it from everybody who knew me during the first part!!!....yeah for those of you who have only known me only for a few yrs..well apparently I was a crazy little imp when I was small!!....You just need to come for a D'Silva or a Rodrigues get-together and you'll know....It normally happens around lunch/dinner or a little after that...like any family get-together(I'm sure u must have all had this experience), now the drinks have settled down nicely in everyone's bellies...the women have finished their gossiping...the men have finished discussing sports...and then its time for the elders to discuss who would be next in line to get married!!!...and since I've shown no promise in that area so far....they begin to dig into my notorious past!!!....somebody just has to drop the idea of a 3-4 yr old Riaan and then it begins..."My God...I remember him running after his Aunt Judy's wedding cake!!!"..."Remember the time he told his KG teacher that he could see her panty...???" and "Oh..My..how he troubled the air hostess on the plane!!!"...sheeeesh!!!.....It is at this point that I make quiet getaway if possible to another part of the house...any outsider hearing all this for the first time would wonder whether I was sent to boot camp to change into the person I am today!!....but quite frankly I think coming to India had something to do with it..what exactly.. I do not know ..but the changeover began when we moved here....every experience teaches you something...I remember the TCS ILP as one example...that was the first time that I was away from home for a considerable time....I remember being in awe of everyone there...they were all so focussed on their careers...In this respect, I on the other hand was more like a drunken fool wandering through a forest and getting smacked on the forehead by branches and bumping into tree trunks every now and then....people saw a different side of me there.....just read by scrapbook and you'll understand....even I found out things that I didnt know about myself....for one I never knew how exhilarating it could be to sit in the front of the rickshaw next to the driver and poke your head out like a canine...I didnt know that I had an interest in photography until I met machcha...didnt know that literature could be interesting until I met Niraj....and I never knew I was so shameless so as to simultaneously drink banana juice and dance on one leg to the tune of "Hail banana..." sung by my friends at the local juice center while the locals(in bubaneswar) in at the center looked on wondering what to make of the whole show(It was the second last day of ILP and everyone thought that I was dead drunk with the celebrations..).....Yes I know It may seem that I'm gettin all nostalgic about my ILP...just trying to cite an example though....I await the next experience that will change my life and my personality!!!

OF ROBOTS AND MEN

2007-03-09T11:35:00.003+05:30

Characters

Homer

Donald Trump(Trump):Chairman of the FIRM

Marvin the robot

PB: phoebe Buffet

SC: Simon Cowell

Kramer: Well, as you all know by now, Azhar has left THE FIRM.
PB: And why did he leave....was it because of Simon's rude comments??
Kramer: No, he fell for the ZEROX offer...so he has left for Hyderabad..
Trump: I didnt know Xerox has a branch in Hyderabad???...btw they make the best photocopiers
Kramer: No..No..this is Xerox witha Z ..you see ZEROX...
Trump: Ahh yes...my previous hairstylist quit to join them!!!
Kramer: Yours too??...Hmmm
SC:So I'll begin scouting for someone else??
Kramer: No, I have already done that..
SC: Hey, why dont you take my advice on these matters?
Trump: Cos...nobody is ever good enough for you..you are always cribbin ..you arent a team player!!!..you need to step it up...
SC:Oh C'mon...I'm a nice person....people just cant handle my constructive critisicm!!
Kramer: Anyway, I would like you to meet the CFO of the firm....but before that I must say that as an organisation we must move forward...and as my guru says..we need to decrease dependencies on the human kind..
Homer:who is your guru anyway??
Kramer: Err..umm..a man by the name of ...errr...Vonnostran...
PB: Oh i've heard of him....He's goooood
Kramer: So taking his advice..I have made my selection...members of the firm...meet Marvin !!!!
Marvin: Introductions!!!...they are so depressing!!!
Homer: hey cool we got a Robot!!..hey hey...can u stand on your head??
Marvin: Yeah i suppose...when you have a brain the size of a planet..i suppose you can..
Homer: and can you juggle 10 balls at one time?
Trump: So you are a genius eh??...We'll see how you perform here..
Kramer: I'm sure he will do well..He is a robot generations ahead of his time!!!
Trump: Ok for your first task..you will tally this restaurant bill of mine..(hands him the bill)
Marvin: Wonderful!!!...a million computations a second and he gives me a bill to tally!!!
Trump: You know what Marvin...ever since you stepped in this office you have been nothing short of depressing..you are a negative influence on the team and Mavin..you're fired!!!
Marvin: Oh my ...and what on earth will I do if I cant tally your bills..
Kramer: STOP IT ALL OF YOU!!!...I'M TRYING TO WORK THINGS OUT HERE AND YOU KEEP ARGUING!!!....I WONT HAVE ANY OF IT...I WOOOOOOONT!!!
Homer:hey Marvin can you shake your head like Kramer just did??
PB: oh shut up Homer!!
SC: I'll give you a burger if you agree to shut up for the rest of this meeting...
Homer:Ok...munch...munch..
PB:Poor Marvin!!!...
SC: poor Marvin??...what happens when I'm abused??
PB: Oh..that's ok...
Marvin: So you hate me too SC??
PB: Nobody hates you Marvin..
SC: I do..
Kramer: Look...everyone...Marvin is here to stay and he is a valuable asset to our organisation...
SC: Yeah...100 bucks of metal!!!!
Kramer:daaaaaaahh... THIS MEETING IS OVER..FINISHED....FINITO...OUT ALL OF YOU OOOOUUT!!!
Trump:Thats it all of you out!!...and I think you all have potential!!

Origins

2007-02-12T10:32:00.000+05:30

Okay so I was preparing for any questions that I could be asked in my interviews...One of the questions they could ask me was about my community of east indians...I started reading stuff on the net and a book a neighbour gave me entitled "The East Indians" by E.Baptista...what I found was absolutely startling...Now, most of us catholics here are under the impression that christianity was brought to India by St. Thomas and the people of Kerala or more specifically those on the malabar coast were the first ones to hear the good news. I always assumed that we east indians being Rodrigues',Dsilvas,Fernandes',Dsouzas..etc were converted by the portuguese and therefore the portuguese brought Christianity to us...Well, the first part is true
but the latter is wrong... all wrong..What I found was absolutely astonishing!!!
Now, we all know that St. Thomas preached to the people of Malabar and there starts the history of the Orthodox church in India. But, what we dont know is that historians are almost certain that St. Bartholomew visited Norhtern Konkan. Infact it is said that he met his death at Kalyana (Kalyan) where he was skinned and crucified.Also Pantaneus, some religious head from Alexandria visited north konkan in 189 AD and apparently found a group of christians wih the gospel of Mathew in Hebrew, most probably one left behind by St. Bartolomew himself.This is according to 2 ecclesiastical writers of the 3d and 4th centuries ..Eusebius and St. Jerome. However, there is this dispute amongst historians as to what "india" meant in the texts of those
times...Very often Ethiopia and Arabia was confused with India. Thankfully, Eusebius had made references to the practice of Sati, while St. Jerome referred to India as the land of the Brahmins..clearing up some of the confusion.Moreover, Kosmas, a sailor, visited India in the sixth century and wrote that he saw a christian community in Calliana ( Kalyan). So, this means
that christianity reached not only the malabar coast, but could have also reached the north konkan coast as early as the first century....much before it reached countries like England and Ireland!!!!. However, this wasnt a Roman Catholic church...The North Konkan(NK) was under the church of Persia...yup an eastern church...Now here is where the confusion
begins...Apparntly the church of Persia turned to Nestorianism in 800 AD..The question is..what happened to the christians in the NK???..Friar Jordanus visited India in 1321...He was incidentally the first missionary from Rome to visit India with 4 others who were martyred at 'Thana' (Thane). He took their bodies for burial to 'Sopara'..yes..sopara as in Nalasopara!!

* Sopara incidentally was a religious and cultural centre. Buddhism and Christianity were flouishing there. The old testament refers to Ophir as the place from Solomon got his Gold. Well, Historians believe that Ophir became Sophir to Sophara to Sopara!!!!*

Jordanus wrote that he found a few christians scattered here and there, unbaptised and not sure of the doctrine..they even thought that St. Thomas was christ. When he began to baptise people though, hundreds came forward!!! This could mean that christians held on to their faith but since the church of persia sent no priests, they were left without sacraments. Also The muslim rulers had destroyed quite a bit of the churches in NK, taking with them part of the christian community. The Portuguese on the other hand say that when they arrived in NK, it was a nestorian church that existed there. They went about comverting these christians to Roman Catholics. Historians also believe that there were Nestorian churches in Daman which were destroyed by the Moghuls. So, that means Nestorianism did reach the shores of India. Nobody is sure if the early christians of St. Bartholomew actually converted to Nestorianism or whether the portuguese used it as an excuse to convert them to 'European Christians'. Nobody is even sure if the Muslim rulers managed to wipe out the christian communities of NK creating a break in between.

But one thing is for sure....my ancestors could have been some of the first christians on the earth and they heard the good news from an Apostle of Christ!!!

Much ado about a port

2006-12-26T21:22:00.000+05:30

My friends ask me what its like to be working for a client like RBI...you know the government connection n all.....well here is a nice story...real one mind you.. to illustrate the same.
* These are the real experiences of Sumo and Me(referred to as 'We' in the text), the names of the others have been changed to hide their identity...

These are the events in chronological order as they occurred on the 26th of December 2006 from 4:30 pm to 8:30 pm.

--Ol' mad mak asks us to ftp a 2+ GB file to mcrft team...
--we keep trying for 15 mins...
--finally we have to ask CMC to open the port to enable the ftp.
--CMC tells us a form has to be filled for the same.
--CMC sends the form to the PL.
--PL sends mail to Gowman(RBI).
--Gowman responds to the wrong mail.
--Wrong mail sent to CMC
--We are told by CMC that the ip we have given does not correspond to 22nd flr of the main bldg but to bkc
--We are told by CMC to sort out the matter with RBI.
--We try to call creature(RBI official) but his phone is engaged...simultaneously creature gives missed calls to Pud(colleague of ours)
--After half an hr we call creature.
--creature calls shen(RBI official)
--Shen calls CMC.
--creature calls us ..tells us to call CMC and tell them to call Shen.
--CMC calls shen.
--CMC calls us...tells us that it can be done but BKC is in the domain of 3i so we will have
to call PV.
** now in the middle of all this ...creature calls PL and tells her "See how fast RBI works".**
--CMC does not have PVs no.
--creature does not have PVs no.
--nobody has PVs no.
--we go down to security to get PVs no.
--we get it.
--creature also manages to get the no.
--Creature calls PV.
--simultaneously we call PV...wife tells us to call after some time.
--PV cant understand creature.
--creature calls us..... tells to tell CMC to call PV
--CMC tells us to call Shen instead and ask him to talk to PV.
--CMC now tells us that it cant be done today.
--We call Shen and tell him to call PV..he asks us to get the status after some time.
--We call creature..he tells us to call Shen and tell him the reason why we need to
ftp.
You see PV cant understand creature.
--We call Shen....he wants to know why we need to ftp things...
--Shen tells us that since PV has gone home they can open the port at 11 the next day....

Now if you still cant understand what it is like to work here then perhaps RBI is the only place in the world where you will be considered competent.
Remember the story is still not over...the saga will continue tomorrow.

To act or not to act

2006-12-04T10:44:00.001+05:30

Google Talk like its older siblings allows the user to display a custom message......it was the earlier message of my good friend Gordon that prompted this entry....well the entry was something like "All the world's a stage, and we are all actors..", obviously the modifed version of the actual sentence..."All the world's a stage,And all the men and women merely players..."..from shakespeare's 'As you like it', meaning unchanged nonetheless....The first thing that entered my mind was 'aren't plays scripted???'....if so then are we acting according a script???.....if yes again, then is the belief in freedom of choice just an ego building exercise???.....Gordon of course had his own views on the same....that I will come to later....Well, to the astrologer, to the believer in destiny and the like....this would just be matter of fact...'it's written in the stars', 'My role is decided by fate'...etc..But then as Scott Adams would say..'You make up your mind first and Rationalise it second....'. So with the above arguement I beg to differ!! The most delicate issue intertwined with all of this is of course Religion...and I too will touch it at the surface, not sink in, for all religions form their basis on blind beliefs....those of reason, logic and rationality are simply termed as 'doubting Thomas' '...but certainly whatever faith we do profess, a majority of us would include a supernatural being or GOD as part of our creed. Thats my first assumption..that there exists a God who created man, loves him but like any creator, would like to see him evolve a certain way...Here's where the antagonists would jump up saying..'yeah I told you....its all preplanned'...but hold on ..... It is true that a certain end result is desired, but there must be a challenge....A desire to experiment and curiosity must be traits of our God, else why would he create us in the first place...just to see this world play out in a way he already knew it would??.......there must be another explanation, and well since this is my blog, you are gonna have to read mine....whether you like it or not...Allow me to introduce the 'Playmaker'. Who are these playmakers??.....they are ppl like...Hitler, Saddam, etc and on the other hand ppl like Mandela, Lincoln and perhaps even Christ himself, the ones who are the actors, the ones living according to a script, infact Christians would know how many times Christ made references to the scriptures and acted accordingly...These are the ones meant to guide and influence those with the 'freedom of choice'...In this way the people have their freedom and the end result can be achieved, with some experimentaion though. However, this could also be expanded now to redefine the role of evil from one who propogates all that is bad to the one who threatens the 'end result'....ofcourse, that is different debate altogether and we shall leave it for some other time...Now for the response by the writer of the line himself....."well we are all wearing masks ... thats what i meant ... have seen too many ppl in the past one yr with masks..."...Hmmm, totally different approach....wonder whether my point of view was necessary in the first place....but what the heck, I'm not a playmaker, I have the freedom to write what I want!!

WACACACAAAAA!!!!

2006-09-18T10:33:00.000+05:30

"Slavery is not dead, you have just stopped recognizing it..."

This one is from the Tata Safari advertisement....tell u what....that is one of the best lines ever...in all the ads that i have seen.....

I'm goin to hell !!!!

2006-09-11T12:23:00.001+05:30

I dont know what it is with women and their exaggerated cleanliness...i really dont...My mother and her sisters are compulsive cleaners....I, on the other hand, am a 'PIG' as described by them...I dont know how many times I have had to hear the 'Go clean your room lecture'....which somehow always popsup when you are really busy...like in the middle of your exams or something.... All I can say in my defence is that I am not Dirty ...just untidy....and there is a difference...the books on my table will be clean but in a heap....now how bad is that??...i often tell my mother and her sister jokingly that when they die, I would probably have to tile the inside of their graves and bury them with a rag and some detergent...cos if they cant clean the grave, their souls may not rest in peace....but its not just my family....its a common trait in all those of the opposite sex.....all of them.....and i have quite a few friends who grumble about the same....a few months ago during my spanish class....we had to write a few sentences on 'mi casa'(my house)...one of the sentences that i added just for a few laughs was 'aparte de mi habitacion, mi casa es limpia'(except for my room, my house is clean).....What a mistake!!!!....thank God there was just one female amongst us students.....the teacher started off..'All you men are muy sucio...my husband is also the same ....he will never make the bed........'....fortunately the males were in a majority and we could just laugh the whole thing off....but the other day....came a big blow...a big blow to my desarreglado attitude.....it came from the altar...yes the altar....it was Fr. Nigel saying the novena mass and his sermon went something like this...' today even the young men need to learn how to do housework....the women are working too, so they need to share the burden too....I've seen marriages break up bcos the husband is too lazy to do anyhting in the house.....if your sons cant cook and clean, then there is nobody to blame but the mothers....'...can you imagine the lecture i got when i returned home???.....I somehow never understand the logic of these people...i mean if you dont want to cook and clean, you get a maid...if you dont want to do the dishes, you get a dishwasher...right???....its so simple....and what about the "marriages break up cos the husbands are too lazy"...i mean have husbands forgotten that there is something called jewellery ???.....but I do know this ...that if cleanliness is next to godliness..then I am going to Hell !!!!