The lifestyle of a TamBram software engineer

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What does he speak?

Tamil obviously, very difficultly anglicized – Trying to be as near as he / she can to the American accent. Overdosed with “Ya kno”, “olrite” and “I mean”

With strangers the conversation mostly veers towards “Ya know back in America, when I was there…”

When it comes to people they know, it is mostly Tamil, difficulty anglicized in the American Accent. Invariably all conversations would have a mention of America, their economy, dollars, the American roads & infrastructure and the Indian behavior.

Mostly he is pretentious, cold in his attitude, I know everything look & smile on his / her face.

To summarize the language and outlook – everything is “plastic”

Things he loves talking about

The Meenakshi temple in Boston, The Saravana Bhavan in London, The cousin who works for Wipro, the last time he played tennis ball cricket, what Sachin scored in the last match & Rajni’s next movie, Oracle 9i, data warehousing, HTML, ODBC and other non recognizable software lingo.

Key people / Places they identify themselves with

When it comes to business / their work

Narayanamurthy, Larry Ellison, Bill Gates, Sillicon Valley, Steve Jobs

When it comes to their way of life

His senior in class who bought 3 flats in Chennai & 1 in Bangalore, who also owns a huge house and two dogs in Chicago.

His uncles wife’s younger brothers wife’s elder sister’s son who has X amount of Intel shares with him and $ X millions as deposit in a bank in the states.

When it comes to movies

Rajinikant, Kamalhassan, Balachandar, Bharatiraja, Maniratnam…

Thalapathi, Apporva Sahodarargal, Guna, Baasha, Arunachalam, Baba, Pammal K Sambandam…

When it comes to movies (Other than Tamil)

Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Amitabh Bacchan, Aishwarya Rai, Mallika Sherawat…

Enter the dragon, Armor of God, Bobby (Hindi), Sholay (Hindi)

Favorite dialogues from movies

Paadu Shanta Paadu… Unn Paattai Ketkave Oododi Vanthen… (Konjum Salangai, Tamil)

Basanti, Enn Kuuton Ke Saamne Maat Naachna… (Sholay, Hindi)

Favorite Music

Anything Illayaraja, some A R Rehman…

M S Subbalakshmi (this is for the extremely pretentious)

Music other than Indian

Michael Jackson – Dangerous & Bad (not albums, but songs)

What they like about in games & sports

Cricket, Kapil Dev, Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar, World cup, next one is in 2007 in West Indies, Viv Richards’ place

Australia is the current holder, India stands a good chance to win this time.

What is their level of general Knowledge?

Abdul Kalam, Manmohan Singh, Chidambaram, Karunanidhi, Jayalalitha, Sonia Gandhi, Italy, Bofors, Rajiv Gandhi, LTTE, America, Bush, Rice, Iraq & Aishwarya Rai might marry Abishek Bacchan

Newspaper / Magazines read

The Hindu (from sports page on), Kumudam, Ananda Vikatan, All other Tamil newspapers and supplements & magazines when he goes for a haircut.

Favorite book

The 12th standard mathematics book, Chemistry practical records book

Favorite television / program

Sun TV, NDTV (an Indian news channel), BBC, Discovery Channel (occasionally), ESPN, Star Sports, TEN Sports (especially when an India cricket match is on)

50% of the soaps that come in the evening (Sun TV, Tamil), 9pm news in NDTV and any cricket match live on TV when India is playing

Food preferences

Vegetarian in public, but wouldn’t mind a Chicken BigMac when nobody’s watching (occasionally)

Saravana Bhavan (anywhere in the world)

Thair Saadam, Idly, Masala Dosai, Sambar (in copious quantities), Thenga Chutney, Appalam, Vadam

Only bottled water, preferably Aquafina or Kinley

Favorite drink

Fresh fruit juices (Mango). Pepsi or Coke if juice not available

Sweet Lassi

Filter Coffee. The tea from vending machine in copious quantities if in office

Favorite biscuit

Britannia Milk Bikies, Good Day and Marie

Dressing & Styling

Brylcream (two tubs an year)

Any perfume will do, as long as the packaging is attractive

Hushpuppies for formal shoes, Quadies for the casual footwear

A pair of rubber slippers (Hawaii) to go to the temple

All bought from the nearest BATA store

Dressing – Mostly the mother or wife buys it or he gets it stitched with his family tailor (for the last 20 years!!). With fabric from Vimal, Dinesh or Madura Coats.

Prefers a dhoti / shorts (2 years and older) and a sleeveless vest in private.

If not in software, where would you have been?

In a nationalized bank in India as an officer, as a mathematics teacher in a school / college, in some government department

Nicknames

Maths Tiger, Cool Calculus Clan (CCC), Ramayan, Black & White, Fruit Face, Angry Ganesan

Strengths

Software coding, Mathematics

Weakness

Food – Indian, Tamil movies & music