How to make stranger as your friend ?

How to make friends? Lots of things written about it but I have never read any one of them. But what is the algorithm I follow to make stranger as my friend.This is purely my personal experience.
Smile Nothing works in life except the smile. Whenever you are trying to make friend with a stranger start with a smile. If you get a smile from the other end then you are all set
Hello Next thing you have to do is wish them by saying Hi/Hello. Then slowly ask them How are you doing today?
Location Then slowly ask from which place of India you are from. If he/she is from your place then it will be really great. You can discuss more things. If not then you can tell about your place and he/she can tell about his/her place.
Industry If he/she is working in the same industry as yours. You can discuss about their area of expertise, their technology,domain.
Interests Then slowly you can ask his/her interests. Be it music,film,books,food. Discuss about each and everything
Networking If he/she is from IT industry then you can ask his/her mail id to stay in touch.You can slowly build the network by getting to know his/her friend. Meet them when they are going out with their friend. You get to know many people
Communicating Emailing is the best way of communication. Get his/her mail id start mailing from the next day that you meet. Add them in your address book. Send "Good Morning" mails.Send forwards.
A step ahead If you want to move a step ahead of just friendship i.e Love, start sending mails addressing the individual. Go ahead and spend the whole day mailing.After few days add the person in messenger. Talk the whole day.Get the mobile number of that person and spend your life over phone.
Stay in touch Last but not least you have to stay in touch with that person.Once in a while contact the person through chat/mail and extend your wishes. Use some social networking site and add the person so that you always be in touch with that person.

Exhibition

Happened to visit Hosur over the weekend. Small town with lots of activities. Its the best place for guys who want peace in life. Calm and quiet. Completely different from Bangalore.
Saturday Evening I went to Exhibition.Government Exhibition usually happens in small towns that gives opportunity for people to buy things at a single place. You can call it Poor Man's Mall. Its quite famous in Small towns across TamilNadu.I don't know whether its there in any other states of India.
During my childhood days we use to goto Exhibition. The Exhibition in my place happens during summer holidays.You get lots of plastic goods,fancy things there.Things that you can place in showcase in your house. The main agenda for going to exhibition is to go on a ride in giant wheel. Its one hell lot of experience that you can ever get.Vomiting immediately after coming back from a ride.
Another exhibition specialty is eatables you get over there. Be it Punju Mittai (A sweet candy made of sugar)or Delhi Appalam (Huge sized Papad) or the chat items.
Mouth watering stuff . Make sure that you eat these after going for a ride. Not before :)
The Hosur Exhibition had all these elements. With 10 Rupees as entrance fees. Cheap and best entertainment that you can get.

The Boom Boom Guy

Tennis. The first time that I started watching this wonderful game was during the mid 80's when a guy from Germany was ruling the game. His name is Boris Becker. 1985( if I recollect correctly) Wimbledon finals. This guy was playing against Kevin Curren. Serve and Volley at its best. Becker Serving aces , falling left and right and volleying the ball. He conquered the net. What a player. He became my instant Hero.
The "never say die" attitude Becker showed in that match was fabulous. The "Boom-Boom" Becker arrived in the tennis world by being the youngest player to capture the "Wimbledon" title.
Just because of Becker I started following the game.His Serve. His volley. His return of Serve. His forehand shots. His backhand shots. I used to hold my breath watching his game.
Though I don't know the technicality of the game. I follow the game. I like the long rallies. Ace,Return of serve, Forehand volley, backhand volley, lobs of Becker are still fresh in my mind.
The Edberg-Becker dual is one of the best I have ever watched in the game. Wimbledon Finals 1990. Becker vs Edberg. I cannot forget that match.Edberg dominated the game throughout. The Swedish player was at his best on that day. Though Becker lost the match, he won millions of heart.
Though he stopped playing the game during the late 90's I am following Tennis ever since Becker days. Sampras came, Agassi Came, Goran came, Federer came, Nadal Came. But one guy always stands in my Heart and he is Boris Becker.

T R A I N

The blog that I wrote longtime ago and forgot to post. Just like films suffer because of producer, this blog suffered because of writer . I am releasing it after 10 months :)

Traveling by "Train" for me is the best compared to other modes of transport. There is definitely a greater advantage while you travel by Train.
Comfort
Stretch your leg and sleep as you do in your home. Sleeper buses have come , Business class in flights provide that level of comfort. But still train is cheap and best comfort wise.
Mobility
Till a year back I used to travel with my friend , he will be in another compartment i will be in some other. We meet up somewhere and we talk for hours together. Cricket, Latest music album, latest movies , Work and all nonsense. The best part is we roam around the compartments looking for another friend of ours. Using this opportunity we get to see all the girls in the train :)
Making Friends
The best train travel I feel is during the day time. People generally don't sleep and we talk. We get to know people in person .We build relationship in shorter span of time. I got many friends during my day time travel to Chennai . Generally the talk will start like "Its damn Hot in Trichy..I don't know how it will be in Chennai" You get a reply from other person . Then you slowly introduce yourself and talk about all under the sun. This is called "Rail Sneham" (Friendship in Train). Its short , but its sweet.
Local Trains
Writing about train and thinking about 7/11 gives me a heavy hearted feeling. The blast that ripped Mumbai a year ago on this same day still lingers my heart. Electric train is the life line of Mumbai . I recollect the day when myself,my brother,my parents caught the 11 o clock train from "Mira Road" to "Church Gate".That day My Mom while boarding the train lost one of her slipper and she boarded the train with another in her hand. Such a rush even at off-peak hours. My brother lost his watch while boarding the train once.
Electric train at Chennai is completely different. Me and my friend used to go by train from West Mambalam to Nungambakkam. You hardly find that level of rush during peak hours at Chennai compared to Mumbai. Off-Peak hours train will be almost empty.
Trains in the US Amazing. No need to stand in the queue to get tickets. Drop some money and get the ticket for both up and down journey. You board the train standing in a queue. Insert the ticket to enter the station. Similarly insert while getting out of the station. No escape routes. Was telling my friend the other day that I can sleep in the train and keep on travelling from source to destination umpteen times a day.

What's there in US ?

United States, Every Indians dream destination. If some one is there in US he is considered as God. But whats there in US ?
To really get to know that you have to visit US. October 16,2006 the day that I first landed my foot in this dream nation. I first pinched myself to make sure that I am in US. What's there in this country that people are really crazy about.
1) The environment . So clean and tidy. you could hardly see a waste paper, an ugly thing outside lying on the road.
2) The rules. People over there follow the rules strictly. I have hardly seen a person trying to speed away even when there is no one in a traffic signal and no vehicles around.
3) Patriotism . People are really patriotic about their country. You see United States national flag everywhere. They celebrate their countries achievement and they respect their country men. WTC site in NY is a great example.How they have honored the people who died in WTC attacks is a proof.
4) The Cleanliness People are so clean and they keep their environment clean and don't spit in the roads.
5) Decency People mind their own business and they don't bother whats happening around them. PSA happens very common in USA and they don't stand look and comment about it :)
6) Timeliness They come to office on time, in fact well in advance and leave office on time. They don't waste company resources by sitting idle and doing nothing . I have seen people come around 5'o clock in the morning and leave office by 3.
7) No corruption I have hardly seen a cop getting bribe. Hardly seen people asking money to get things done. There is absolutely no corruption . They don't bother the common man by asking bribe.

I am not saying the above 7 things are not there in India.There are people who are concerned about environment,follow the rules,patriotic, clean, Decent, Follow time,non corrupt. But they are only few in numbers. In US there are many in number. In fact almost everyone.
Our country needs a change. This will happen . But when?
That's why NRI have become Non Returning Indians instead of Non Resident Indians.

Weekends at ECity

Electronic items need Electricity. But Electronic city doesn't need. May be the Bangalore Electricity board thinks in this direction.Being at Electronic city for almost 1.5 years. The weekends have always been pathetic. No power. You will be forced to come to office on both Saturday and Sunday.
Weekends for me starts at around 10 on Saturday. At around 10.30 get a "Good Day" biscuit come to the seat. Take coffee from 3rd floor. Dip the biscuit in coffee and empty the packet. At around 12.15 , 12.30 have lunch at the nearby food court. Come back and continue working . By Working I mean listening to songs, browsing,chatting,playing stick cricket,watching some comedy video in you tube.
At around 3.30 go to 3rd floor and have one coffee. Of course no body to give company :( Then come back to desk and continue working :)
At around 6 (that's the time power will be back at room ) go back to room . Watch some crap movie (Sun TV of course) have dinner at mess nearby and go to sleep.
Copy paste the same thing for Sunday. Except lunch will be at Iyer Mess.
Iyer Mess,aaaaaaah that's one place I need to mention in Electronics City which is worth visiting apart from the office.
Iyer Mess around 2 years back use to serve fantastic "Tamil Brahmin" variety food. The sambhar,kara kozhambu,rasam, poriyal, kootu poriyal, appalam , curd are of quality which comes close to "Home" food. All for 18 Rupees.
But these days Iyer Mess has lost its charm. The quality of all the items are not up to the mark. Apart from that there will be 100's of fly giving company to you when you are having lunch.
Sunday nights will always be dull after tiresome weekend .
The only advantage of being at Electronic City is you will never get "Monday Morning Blues" :) All days are Working days for us.

King of Melody

Being a big fan of A.R.Rahman never stopped me listening to songs of Illayaraja. Whatever new that Raja comes up I keenly follow and listen to it. I have never seen a music composer who is as good as he. Be it western,classical,folk, rap Illayaraja rocks. He is still the Raja (King) of Melodies.
To substantiate this,I would like to narrate a fantastic incident that happened in my life. I was travelling in a state government bus in a rainy day from Bangalore to Salem. It was raining cats and dogs in Majestic. I was full wet in fact everybody is. The bus is jam packed. Everybody is wet and everybody is tired. Its around 12 in the night. After an hour we were in Hosur. Then around 2 o clock we were travelling towards Salem. They were playing songs from Illayaraja all melodies. There is a old saying in Tamil "Thunbam nergaiyil yaazh eduthu nee inbam serka maataaya"..(During difficult situation will you play some music to sooth my heart). People were really happy and I closed my eyes to listen to his composition. Raja is truly great. His music reached right from poor to the rich.
Similarly when I was staying in Chennai used to hear the Illayaraja melodies played in FM during the nights. I used to sleep switching on the radio listening to his songs.
Raja is different Rahman is different. Though I am a big fan of Rahman I always admire Raja . His songs last longer. His songs reaches all classes of people. In these area he scores over Rahman.
I love all his composition . Here is my top 5 of Illayaraja
1) Almost all Mohan songs (illaya nila,mandram vandha,sangeetha megam etc.,)
2) Illayaraja + Bharathiraja + Vairamuthu (ultimate combination)
3) Illayaraja + Manirathnam (though short but it was a sweet combination)
4) Illayaraja and SPB awesome combination
5) Nothing But wind and How to Name it (its divine)
I can keep on writing on all his composition. He is truly the King.