One more ....

Buoy.. I am getting into early late-20's. Should I start looking at the facial wrinkles(if any)? Should I focus more on the visibly dry areas on my head(if any)? Should I start researching about mens anti-ageing cream, which does more harm to facial harmful bacteria than the facial skin(if any)?

Huhh… weirdo thoughts creeped into my mind as yours truly celeberated yet another birthday away from home. Yeah, it is a hatrick!! And for the records, if the first was in Nederlands, then Singapore and now Australia. Holy Cow!!! Each one getting better and better when it comes to magnitude of celebrations.

The Budday weekend was supposed to be an "in-the-office" affair. But, when my manager got to know that it was my day, she let me enjoy the complete weekend without any official calls. Even taking the pain to convince the top management of how important my day was compared to theirs. Thanks Jas!!

The special weekend started off with day-trip to Great Ocean Drive/Twelve Apostles. More on this in the next post with the snappos of the "chopper ride" :-)

The 'yet-another-day-but-bit-different-one' kicked off with calls from near-and-dear ones wishing the obvious greeting messages, while some did tickle a few nerves. While I rejoiced in the pampering moments, my friends thudded into my room with a huge bang ala thalaivara style.

While one held a huge kitchen knife used to slice chicken, the other in contrast, had a kutty cake carrying as if it was his 5-day old baby. They had sweated it out to get a cake to resemble a cricket ground, unluckily they did not get the green pastures and the pitch :-). The white grass did not look so hazy either. For a change, was listening to the Happy Birthday song and "ooopheed" all the candle-lights in one go. First achievement of the day!!! Thankfully, the budday bums did not follow the triumph :-)

Midnight action over, back to my single(few people expect more information) bed. The tired eyes before sleep, refreshingly opened up around noon next day.

Now that I had slept over the breakfast hours, it was time for brunch. My friends gave me a pleasant surprise by taking me to a pure-veg Mysore restaurant. It was a commendable effort from them, as they being pure non-veg tamilians, had taken the extra effort to search for a mysore restau with veg cuisine. After a long drive along the freeways, the restau had the perfect making of MTR.

After almost 10 odd months, had "malligae idly" with chutney and sambar. Yeah, not to forget the filter coffee. Am an ardent foodie, aint I?

Wow.. temptations, rightooo ?

Residing in Melbourne, and not boozing with your friends on your budday is next only to fatal crime ;-), thats how the evening/night rolled off :-). Not much write-up on this, as this space is read by my bro.

As the day signed off with a surprise call, it had every ingredient of residing in my memory cells for years to come.

Thank you all for your wishes. And more so, the special communique of dedicating a Youtube video was pleasant improver to the list of SMS, calls and e-cards.

No, am not signing off as the party wasnt over yet. Monday morning blues were blown away by these wonderful aussie spring flowers and chocolates. It would have been more enthralling, if it wasnt "anonymous" buddy :-) .

cheers ...

Presenting the Gentleman...

For the last few weeks, have been exploring the smiling Rahul Dravid, for his dressing sense(off-the-field), which is so impeccable for the moment. Truly so, he has recieved many accolades from the fashion fraternity.

Before I upload the images of our thalai, Happy Dusshera to all of you :-)

Presenting the gentleman in his various avataars, only a best few from my repetoire: (due credits to Google)

My Best and the gem in the collection: Rahul Dravid in a social gathering at Bangalore - Take a Bow

Castrol Awards 2005 - For the color(Shirt) coupled with his smile is just too much to miss

Castrol Awards Dec 2006 - Pinky Pinky Ponky, Rahul is a smarty


After the Bangladesh Triumph 2007 - Legends in conversation

Castrol Awards 2007: Legends of 75 years of Indian Cricket
ICC Awards 2005 - Best Batsman - True Gent in a BCCI uniform ( ;-) )

Felicitation Ceremony at KSCA, 2007 - Elegance personified

Early days - Days when he practiced at St.Josephs Ground, Richmond, Bangalore

Promotional Event for Bank of Baroda

Picture Perect


Chinnuuu, papa won the test match kano... Smile maado :-) - With Samit after Jo'burg victory against South Africa, 2006. Samit, which means collected/composed, truly fits our man.

Why Mumbai...... ?

Source: www.ibnlive.com

You so look like them, damn you all freaking nutcase..

Fractured.. eh? Yep :-(

For the first time, I owe my abscence to my physical inability. Hurray, an achievement! Thanks to an accidental fracture to my right arm, which made my upper right symmetry immobile for such long time. To be precise, yours truly, succumbed to a spiral fracture on the distal right humerus. Sounds nasty, eh!!

Uss kaali amavas ki raat, sunsaaan jungle ke beech raastein mein, merae dost logon ne aisa prank khelein kii meraa haathon kii patti lagaani padii.. Sounds so exciting!! Unfortunately, no such thing happened. All sincere due credit to my own deeds, got to hear the sound of bones. Trust me; sound of timber is zillion times sweeter :-)

The above activity had satisfied all the requirements for me to get into an Emergency Department(ED). Now for people who are imagining the scene of an ambulance with glowing Red atop, zipping past the streets of Melbourne city, CUT!!! Nothing of that sort happened, as my own dear friends drove me at supersonic pace to the ED of Epworth Hospital.

Now this was my first entry into an Oz hospital and what an entry first up, Emergency! In a few minutes, had all my initial tests done and renowned (as the ED people mentioned) Orthopaedic Surgeon was standing in front within 30 minutes. All those movie scenes of getting umpteen paper forms filled, sounded hoax.

When you hear the word 'Surgeon', first thought crossed over my mind was the 'Operation Theatre'. The green bulb glowing above the shut door. People standing out waiting for the doctor to come out and say a few positive words. Yeah, too much influence of movies. For, have never been to OT, touchwood!

Back to reality! Unlike the Indian doctors, the doctors here mention every minute detail to the patient about the injury(sportive to patient tag in few minutes). Unfortunately, they start from the ugliest and become more optimistic towards the end. So the first few minutes of my conversation with the Surgeon was not pleasing. Thankfully, my friends were beside me and they knew the Doctors communication protocol. But for me, more than the physical pain erupting from my arm, those words sounded more painful.

Before the surgeon left, he wanted my family to sign on the dotted lines for the surgery. Holy Shitt!! Now I would not want to disturb my parents back home about my injury and not of this extent. So, had to request the surgeon to take me and my friends into confidence and go ahead with the next steps. Then, was moved to the hospital ward with the OT timetable saying 'Sunday, 09 Sep 14:00 – Prakash K.

Prior to this, had faint memory (childhood) of stepping into hospital wards. Array of Bed with patients and their close ones treating them nearby with nurses walking along the pavement. Everything looked WHITE. But when I stepped into my room, it looked as though was in luxury hotel. But in the hindsight, was in a hospital. The night was laboured with thoughts of OT – scissors, incision on my right arm, wasted biceps muscle to get into the bone, stitching etc., It was time for being brave and to face it head on.

As an anti-climax, the next day morning, Surgeon had other ideas. Park the idea of Surgery and take the conventional way of curing. No incisions and let the body metabolism cure it. Bring on the Sling coupled with braces, keep the right arm immobile. His only intent was to keep it simple and effective. I had passed the first test without attending it. Yet, it was still a long way to go. Most of the ortho-related cures are on-experimental basis catalysed with strong prior results (my gut feeling only). So now, it was all upto me and my body – the natural therapy as they say.

Now that my arm was supported by a sling straightened by plastic brace, felt that much comfortable. The surgeon did not commit on a specific day of recovery. He responded with a range. And the range spelt 4-6 weeks. That's a long time!!

After the discharge from hospital, next biggest challenge was to convince my mind to send signals to my left arm always. Now coming from a genre of 'Thy left is not right', needed some effort for traffic shift.

The next 5 weeks was filled with some single-handed official work, umpteen movies, lots and lots of rest. And special urge to my own body, to get all the calcium generated by metabolism to divert to my right humerus :-). Now since my parents were unaware of all this, every time they called, I had to shift to a happy mood. It did work sometimes but failed mostly.

After 4 weeks of right hand immobility, am now back to being normal. When the Surgeon saw my fifth week X-rays, [quote]Prakash, You will hit the pool in 3 more weeks[unquote]. I was so so happy to hear that. When he asked me to shake hands with my right hand, surprisingly, could do that :-). Hail me!

So am back in office, without any external fittings and slowly getting to use my right hand for normal activities. With four more weeks of physiotherapy and proper rehabilitation, should be ready to jump into the pool :-)

With all the self-bragging done, would want to bring in few people into this space. As a sincere vote of thanks, would want to thank my roomies/friends for making me feel normal. For treating me as a normal room-mate and not as a patient, which helped me break the mental barrier. For their prescnece and much-needed assistance, negated my thoughts of flying back to Bangalore. Guys - your cooking, attitude towards getting me up and running was truly rocking.

And, special mention of Dr. NH4 (I love naming people), for being there when it mattered. For your optimistic medical advice, warmth, feel-good factor is worth a mention here.

Also, thank you all for sending those daily get-well-soon e-cards, voice messages, phone calls and SMS.

For I wanted to get this documented, if in future felt bad about my own health/physique, should be able to come back here and rejoice reading of how my body responded to the critical call :-)

cheers...

Finally..

Finalyy, I am able to post here. Although, this space needs to wait for a full-fledgedpost on my abscence for such a long time.

Till, then, enjoy this funny Youtube Video, which triggered a "Who-works-better-in-IT?" battle with my dear friend. *Unmute your speakers*



cheerios