Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Toast to technology!

http://www.icq.com/img/friendship/static/card_16961_rs.swf


U don't need to go away from ur laptop to celebrate the new yr...

HAPPY NEW YEAR

So the time has come to welcome a new year!
HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009!!!!

2009 has so many things in store for all of us! A lot of repairs to be done, and hope its a wonderful year ahead!

After a good show at the EEE auditorium !


Cows - next to humans form an integral part of our NITT campus. A funny pic taken from the EEE dept.

Sitting next to a convict


I have been traveling a lot these holidays. The last of those journeys when i was coming
back from Ambalapuha to Trivandrum I was sharing my bench with a convict (handcuffed) and a policeman (with a gun which I strongly feel is .303).

Now this guy was being brought to the Police headquarters in Tvm. And I caught a few secret clicks of them.

I could not help but notice the way they both were sleeping! Like friends on a leisure trip!!

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Good bye 2008!

2008 was really a year of ups and downs.

Terrorism was at its peak, financial debacle that left a lot of vacuum (and uncertainties for a lot of us), climatic changes and cyclones..there were all. On the good side, America did vote for change (better late than never), Indian cricket team is going strong, and on a parallel line the Australian supremacy in the game of cricket seems to die out for the rise of other playing countries.

Looking back, 2008 will be remembered as a sad year for the innumerable number of job cuts, coming-to-streets it has been a witness to. The good old American dream was shattered and people like us who are all set to enter into work have no clue of the scenario out there for us.

With a new American government, that has already managed to gain confidence and raise the hopes of the people, at the helm of affairs, CHANGE has to come. Otherwise shoe dealers will make profit as more no. of people show their anger and frustration ;-)

Monday, November 24, 2008

Come back home?!

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/23/weekinreview/23anand.html?ei=5070&emc=eta1

A good article on the children of those Indians who settled in other countries in search of better employment opportunities.

In a chat that followed this. I told my friend in Sngapore about what it was for India to welcome them back. The excerpts are below. Just for fun ;-)
i have deliberately deleted the sections containing his comments.

me: i mean...dogs must ive in kennels and lions must live in dens .. neither are suited otherwise..
u cant be brought up a lion and made to live in a kennel n vice versa

11:26 PM me: nri n ppl like u who study outside learn there... and come bac to spoil the job prospects f ppl in india

me: india has become watever it si now coz of half baked half roasted professionals like us...
who learn to adapt over innovate..
me: and o by the fundamental principles of survivability...
11:28 PM *go
11:29 PM me: while in the case wid ppl like u who hav stideied overseas the case is not so. ur like well manufactured defect less products straight out of sony or toshiba..
so half baked ppl lose preference over ompany products available at affordable cost for indian companies..
right?
11:30 PM
11:31 PM me: if u trace back this is wat happened in america years ago...they found talented (relatively indians then were far more talented than them an also trained at iits )ppl at low price.. n built their gr8 empire yet wid weak foundations only to fall at the sneeze of a financial debacle..
11:32 PM so.. in conclusion...
11:34 PM me: indians like me...who lost on the education (by studying in india) and now also on the opportunty of being the part of building india inc (because better personnel availae at lower price for the employers) .. wil be under serious threat if the article is prophetic..
all this if the finacnial conditions dont get better in two yrs ;-)
howzzat?

i feel that this will result in a pool of Indians affected by unemployment or lack of quality employment.

twenty 20


Twenty 20 ..No i am not talking of cricket filled with colours, glam gals, and all superstars under one banner. In fact I am telling about a malayalam movie Twenty 20 which has all stars, superstars, comedians etc etc who have been around this industry.

The movie has rightfully identified the best role for each one of them and hence the best they can deliver. Mammooty as the lawyer, Lal in his typical style (Narasimham, Devasuram etc..), Suresh Gopi as polica officer with his lavish English that knows no bound, Jayaram in his typical funny way, Dileep the best at timed comedy and Manoj K Jain (as the bad guy).

The major omissions were Urvashi, KPAC, Nedumudi Venu, Thilakan, Janardhanan, Murali...

Whatever, I was only surprised to see the crowd at the ticket counter on this Monday aftenoon when every other person is supposed to be at work!

Have a look at the pic I took outside a theater in Trivandrum!

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Dont study today!

Today is Saraswathi pooja or the day of the year when Godess of education Saraswathy audits and inspects the progress made by every student and blesses everyone to have a good year ahead.

This is a part of the Indian tradition and it has been religiously followed by most of the people who believe in Hinduism.

But believe it or not, when all government institutions like banks had holiday, NITT worked!
We had to go to class!

The funniest part is that last year even the college records and stuf were presented for this pooja but this time they have decided to work harder than seek blessing by not working!
Lage raho NITT!!!

THE END OF AN ERA!

Revolution is in the blood of the people of West Bengal. Kerala and WB are the only Indian states where strikes, bandh and hartals are still so frequent occurrences. In that context, I find there is a lot common to these two places. Another thing i admire from this place is Sourav Ganguly.

If there is someone who has dramatically changed the way Indian cricket, it is dada. In an advertisement in yesterday's newspaper i saw RBS tell TENDULKAR, its brand ambassador, to be the one who changed the way the game is played. true! but if there is any mention of who changed the face of Indian cricket and made its presence felt strongly it was Ganguly. Tendulkar was a failure when given this task!

As a skipper, he did the magnificent task of identifying the best talent and provide them the platform. All the youngsters of today's team were his picks. And after Kapil he is the one who has got India closest to the World Cup.

In spite of all the things, he was dropped, insulted, mocked but like a phoenix, true to his style, he arouse and made a grand re-entry into the test team.
these days he is being monitored and analysed every match, every innings.
Sure its disgusting to play under such conditions,and he's gonna quit.

Ah! when has the BCCI ever bothered. They severed ties with Kapil Dev after making him cry in public at the Karan Thapar show and insulting him in different ways. Now with Ganguly they threw him in and out of the team until he has come up to a conclusion that its better getting out before the board goes even harsh!

Adieu Ganguly. We will miss your class and arrogance that define you and your boys!
Indian team will never be the same without the PRINCE.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

wake me up when september ends..

June.. july...august... Oh! nothing...i was only counting th no. of months i have managed to keep my blog dormant.

During this time, a lot of things took place. the last being that i got myself an internet connection. Reliance netconnect.

so i got stuff to write. (as usual... ;-P)
but.. not now.. some other day!

Saturday, June 14, 2008

The Demanding Customer

Phew! Long time…. A lot of things to tell… Exams, Delhi tour, IPT, to Mumbai, now Kerala…. But yes, let me get back home to madurai. Got some time now so thought I will write something.

“That’s it!” I could not control my laughter any longer.

Actually I was traveling from Mumbai to Cochin in a Jet flight. Rain had already delayed the flight for a couple of hours. I had opted for a window seat. I always do that whenever I come to Kerala ‘coz its simply beautiful looking down from there.

The two people sitting next to me were part of a group of five. This guy whom I call the DEMANDING CUSTOMER was sitting in the seat next to my neighbor’s. He was wearing a green shirt and black pant. Anyways his dressing looked far from impressive.

This guy did a series of funny things and that’s why I simply could stand it no longer.

First as soon as we got in, this guy picked up the Asian Age newspaper browsed through it for a couple of minutes. Then he grabbed the Times of India from the seat pocket in front of me. (No regrets ;-) I hardly read newspapers in flight) then without looking into it for more than a minute, he stuffed that also into the pocket in front of his seat. Well, I thought, he was gluttonous for sure and was looking forward to what he would do.

Then they came with the welcome drink. He took a lime and my neighbor took an orange. After finishing it, my neighbor says, “he changla aahe”. (This ones good, in Marathi.) This guy then signals the air hostess to bring another orange and one for my neighbor too. So there you go, two welcome drinks!

Then, the master-piece. They served us snacks. Being a vegetarian myself, I knew the veg one had potato vada and some kind of stuffed parantha, if I can remember it right. Whatever; my neighbor took a veg and this guy goes for the non-veg one and finishes it quite quickly. Again my neighbor goes, “he changla aahe” and believe it or not! He asked the air hostess to get him an extra veg meal!!!

All this while, I enjoyed his performance and was looking forward to more from him. Now he went for tea. No, you got it wrong this time. He didn’t ask for extra coffee but ravenous that he was, this time he asked for three extra pouches of sugar!!!

No, its not over yet. The air hostesses were winding up the meals and were carrying the trolley down the aisle when this guy flicks (yes, you read it right. ”Flicks” without her knowledge) an additional pack of mouth freshener each for his friend and himself.

“Ha! That topped it all”, I thought as the plane touched the runway of Cochin airport.

Yes, in between all this action, I managed have a beautiful view of Kerala’s greenery and its scenic splendor though cloud had disturbed my vision for quite sometime.

Catch ya later with the many more things I want to write about. The wonderful experiences in Delhi and Mumbai. And yes, the Kingfisher flight ;-)

Thursday, April 10, 2008

elections

for the first time i decided to stand for an election yesterday. the decision was taken an hour before the time of election. i quickly messaged most of the ppl i know if anyone else is also contesting...no one.ppl in both the hostels said they will me. so i went there with confirmation ki "is baar to munna paas ho jayega!". sudddenly from nowhere two more ppl also wrote their names for the secretary of eeea.
1st election- a tie between me n naizath. the third guy stepped out. the funniest part is i had asked my friend kc not to come for the election alone because he had bunked the class before. so now i called him

2nd election- believe it or not! he won it with 3 votes!! ppl couldnt believe it nor could i. so they counted the no. n saw that there were bogus votes.
the faculty got pissed off. he has told that he will announce some x or y from our class next week.

elections r always funny rnt they? i think its only now the present guy will how important is te post he was handling, for ppl r fighting n cheating for it ;-)

Monday, April 7, 2008

NITTFEST 08


Everywhere the internal fight is more gruesome and valiant, and the spirit of the warriors is unquestionably high. Our inter-departmental cultural, art and literary fest NITTFEST was no different. It would not be an exaggeration to say all the teams put up a brilliant show.

I don’t want to glorify NITTFEST over here. I want to tell about its conduct. Our dept came third fighting all the irreversible mistakes committed, when too many steve bucknors got into the judging panel. Tell you what; anyone in Nitt would agree ours was the most unlucky dept. If things went by audience poll I am dead damn sure that we would have won hands down. One particular department (perhaps because they learn to communicate) seemed to have an exceptional channel of communication with the judges. The judges seemed to understand and admire every other thing these ppl did. Whatever it is, I don’t wanna write too much on this coz the spirit is still high out here.

In particular, our movie spoof, music, choreo deserved better treatment!! I bet the judges of spoof dint have a clue what Troy is. They also had no clue of what Trojan War is or for that matter who Amitabh Bacchan is… I saw those ppl laughing their heart out for our performance and staring blatantly out of place at the Hindi skit by chem tech. the result: no eee in any positions, chem tech gets a prize!!!! Choreo I don’t know what the hell happened to them. Archi was the only better team. How did ece get in from nowhere?? And what on earth got the two Sarang winners of my dept no prizes at our nittfest? Those judges at music show had no clue of western music… and there were many more of such decisions like the one at zen gardening.

At the end of the day, it’s fun all the way. It was fun before nittfest, no amount of indecisive judgments could mar our spirit during Nittfest, and what a celebration was that after Nittfest… such a wonderful team. Seniors and our batch, we had a wonderful communication. So many new friendships forged in these few weeks. It was a fest to remember for life. That’s the spirit of my dept.!!!

And yeah, my new avtar in marketing team was cool. First time marketing, it was fun convincing and negotiating with people, bossing around with the ppl at stall, and the satisfaction of finishing off all the money settlement today itself!

Overall, three days filled with fun! Lot learnt, many new friends. Sometimes it seems funny how a person seeing whom I wouldn’t have bothered to look at, has become too close in a matter of three days!!

Once again a spectacular show put up by my batch mates vk, pooch, sappai, abhi and the rest and our seniors in particular anand, vishwa, punit, shaan, bong, kutty, deepika, gulji,…hey the list will not end any soon..So let me stop with this…

And yes, to all Steve Bucknors out there, our dept will be set to face you all in next Nittfest!!!

Thursday, April 3, 2008

How I escaped death!

I never wanted to catch up with death at least not when I am just twenty years old.


We are planning to shift to Coimbatore and so to get info about the place n basics like house etc we went to the place in a cab last weekend. The hero of the plot, our driver, turns up at 0545 hrs in the morning. A pleasant looking young man of late twenties or early thirties. As soon as he sees us, he goes ”sir I will take your luggage..Sir I will do that... I will do this...”. my dad n I are like this trip will be just fine. At least this guy is very enthusiastic. So there we began the journey.

Journey with my dad is always been a comfortable experience. The first signs of this guy’s ignorance came up when he started deviating from main road claiming short cuts only to find every time that the road is either having work going on or blocked. Stupid guy, in spite of our insisted demand to travel in the highway, he turns to every turn possible and returns to the main road!!

We reach Coimbatore. If you have been there, the Trichy road turns right to the station. There are three ways right, centre and left. This guy is told “rightila ponga” (it means –go in the right side road). Believe it or not, all of a sudden he starts moving in the second (central) lane and we are almost under a bus! First escape from death!!!

We were alarmed. This guy has the potential to kill us. So we now try to explain things to him as if we were talking to a child with mongolism or dyslexia. We tell him “inga stop pannunga”(it means-please stop here). This celestial creature stops the vehicle-an indica- right in the middle of the road in front of Coimbatore junction!!!! I was reminded of the elephant. You know how the elephant stops wherever it is, the moment you command it to do so! Anyway, Second escape from death!!!

Now this is ridiculous, we think. Should we abandon him there and take another cab?! Chuck… we decide to carry on. Yeah then in Coimbatore city near the cantonment area, we ask this guy to turn right into the lane that cuts the main road. You know what he does? He takes a perfect U-TURN!!! Damn it, we conclude, this guy is Deaf too!

The petty ones I don’t want to mention here. We finish our work in Coimbatore and start towards Madurai. It starts raining baldy. We are now very skeptical about his ability to drive in the night that too in the rain! So we follow his turns and moves very meticulously. First thing he does is to turn right and in the process go in the wrong lane. A transport bus is coming in the opposite direction but all the noise we make from inside just manages us into the correct lane. So, our Third escape from death!!!

At one point the indication says right. This guy turns left! So he has a poor sight too!!! I know it is getting dragged. So now this mega one.

The rains aggravated. Visibility is poor. We are kind of tired after patiently keeping track of the route. All of a sudden my dad and I observe none of the milestones have Madurai!! We are shocked and definite there has been a mistake somewhere. We ask our beloved Durai, that’s his name, “ennappa, maduraiye kaaname. Wrong routeila vandittte pola irukku. Check pannikkalame?”(it means-what man, no mention of Madurai? Why don’t we check if the route is correct). With all the pride in his so called experience on road (which I still suspect to be false), he assures us that this is the right way. Every milestone reads Tiruppur. Just then, I see a Madurai-Tirupur bus going past us. Eh?!! I try to explain him all logics possible that if the milestones say we are moving towards Tirupur, then the bus must be coming from Madurai. This guy kind of gets pissed off and says if you are so doubtful we can clarify your problem. We ask a few people on the way and they say, “You are 20 km away from the point you should have turned the other way”. Shit! This is my reaction. I have to get back to Trichy before next day morning.

We divert in the right direction. Our hero is dejected. He says he is sad! Anyway, I decide to get down at Dindigul and take a bus to Trichy. Then again I am afraid to let my dad alone with this moron. So we make sure that he gets off dejection. Have dinner and I get down at dindigul.

I tell my dad “keep callin every 15 mins. I have no peace of mind”. My dad gives me kind of cool I will manage look. Fine.

Next day he tells me, that the driver slept off in the middle of the way!!! Wtf!??so that’s the Fourth escape from death!!

So basically, we happened to scrape past death not once but four times on the same day. All credits to the great driver!!

Saturday, March 29, 2008

MARCH

came march and it was indeed a very busy month.
each weekend had something or the other for me.
the first weekend there was pragyan, my college tech fest.
the second weekend there was something else (i dont remember exactly)
the third weekend there was Currents -my dept. symposium
the fourth weekend there was a programme at anna university
this is the fifth weekend a breather after struggling my way through 3 days of cycle tests!!
another thing...
i want to tell that the blogging workshop at currents, though turned out not so crowd-pulling, had some tips for ppl like me
1. to have a specific blog filled with no one else is interested basically serves not much.
2. to have a blog and post once in a blue moon again is worthless
3. to not publicise a blog is as good as not having one!
4. to blog is not to submit a thesis. it is to showcase your observations(yo "observer"! a pat on your back)
5. to write a blog like your research paper is like producing a movie that will never be shown!!
so i thanked Rashmi Bansal in my heart and decided that i will reinvent my blog.
(no!no! for those of you who said,"another new one?!"; i am just continuin in this).
so let me get some fresh air these days and i then i will post about all these stuff!

Sunday, March 9, 2008

CAN U DISCARD??

As a kid, I grew up just like most of us, regularly admonished by my father for my poor maintenance of my books and stuff. And the one thing I always found quite difficult every time I did the repair work was to churn off the unwanted things. The decision making of whether a thing falls under the category of ‘wanted’ or ‘unwanted’ seemed to be a herculean task. I still remember the advice my father gave me years ago that “the ability to discard the unwanted and retain the wanted takes one closer towards success”. Today, I understand the value of this wisdom and the inherent meaning in what he meant.

Have you ever noticed someone telling, “I don’t know why, but one can never expect to get a “yes” out of his mouth for the first time”? I first learnt about this phenomenon in a book on Psychoanalysis by Ian Craib. In his analysis of the human mind and its reactions, Craib takes a look at the theory put forth by Freud in the 1980s. He explains Id to be something inside that can push in one direction or the other against our will, something that is beyond our control and that reassert itself against all attempts to control or divert it. In much more conceivable terms, one can understand Id to be the immediate temptation to deny an offer which is made (though you would have always loved to have had it), the tension and its effects, or in a deeper sense even the tendency to cut or kill oneself. Basically, these are reactions to the mind’s desire to find immediate solutions to internal problems and its attempt to find a reason for it in the outer world.

Another aspect worth considering in this context is the mind’s inertia against change. In our day to day life, we would have observed our tendency to sit in the same seat in the classroom, restaurant or train, prefer the same costumes, same food etc. All these are refusals of the mind to change, in a way similar to the concept of Id mentioned above. The mind places itself in a comfortable cage in all these conditions. A failure to break from these shackles spells failure on a long term.

It is important to train the mind to keep away from what I would call the cushion of repetition. The only way to effect this would be to consciously identify our tendency to repeat something and change it. Such an attempt only can make changes an integral part of our life. As far as Id is concerned, again all methods must be employed to prevent it from taking control of our actions, for a healthy person has a clear sense of self and of others and is not subject to inexplicable waves of feeling released by Id. Hence it is all about differentiating the wanted from the unwanted things around and not letting the mind control you with the unwanted things.

LOUD MUSIC!!

Music has been always been man’s prized passion. It is beyond comprehension how various forms of music originated and evolved into such complex forms as we have today. It has been a long way since the chirping of birds and conch shells to the latest digital music systems capable of delivering any intensity of sound at any rate.

Another significant change I observe around me is in our way of listening to music and appreciating it. There was a time when ones favorite music was close to the heart and the gadgets like walkman allowed us to lock it within our ears. These days, no one wants it to be kept locked so. Instead there is a growing tendency of playing music at loud volume such that it is audible to everyone in the near vicinity. I can hear them from hostel rooms, corridors, on the road, in restaurants and where not!

I happened to ask my friend as to why was this trend growing? He told me, “It’s simple! People want to show off their mobiles”. That set me thinking into the different new versions of mobiles that have beautifully transformed from a communication device to more of an entertainment device.

In India mobile phones have come into the market on a large scale in late nineties. The cellular phone boom in India can be said to have happened with the penetration of Reliance mobile phones (whose offer of cellular phone with connection for lifetime at Rs. 500 was irrefutably attractive) and the sudden increase in the service providers. Today, there are around 37 cellular service providers in India according to the TRAI website.

Looking at my friends too, I find a significant change in mobile phone purchase and usage. Today, people prefer the latest camera phones, music player phones over other models. They all have the Motorola L series, Sony Ericson’s K series or Z series or Nokia’s music-series phones. People have all of a sudden become rich! (Or the phone rates are drastically coming down?!)

Whatever be it, I definitely see evolution of a new trend at the behest of an existing one. A new kind of music is evolving, mobile phones are becoming mini-computers, and entertainment is becoming an integral part of mobile phones and to end it all, the growing passion for loud music among people is threatening the very existence of walkmans, Discmans and iPods that do not provide them.