Rayil payanangalil

Some of our most memorable events occur during chance happenings. Prior to 30s I always used to prefer buses even for long journeys - I have covered Mumbai to Chennai by bus during student days. Of late however, due to covid largely I have reduced travels. Recently, I decided to try out a train journey and it turned out to be quite fascinating.

It was an intra-state travel for about 8 hours and I experimented with a Shatabdi (well, there's a lot of buzz about Shatabdi, Vande Bharat and the likes, so why not give it a shot when the opportunity comes!) for the return journey to Chennai. I booked the Executive coach though it wasn't really required - I was pretty much gathering proof for what I heard. (Pro-tip: Stay in touch with 2k kids - they are well-versed with latest happenings than you think! Before booking the tickets, I had a casual conversation with my office colleague who turns out to be a 2k kid. When I mentioned the word 'Shatabdi' his eyes lit up - he went on and on about how good the FOOD in the train is and the way soup and tea are served in cutlery! SOLD!)

Prior to boarding, I was expecting something like, for lack of a better expression, flight-like seating. But I was wrong. The moment I entered, I realized the seats were wayyy more comfortable than flights. Thanks to state / central government or whoever is maintaining these trains! Being an evening to night journey, the passengers were served snacks and coffee first. More than the food, it's the experience that matters - you actually FEEL like sitting in a restaurant that moves! And what's more - I was in the window seat with great views of the countryside.

And in the wink of an eye,
Painted stations whistle by...

You do not get this experience in flights - a combination of good views + good food (I am not saying food on flights is bad - it doesn't need to be told). Okay, the coffee wasn't great, but the snack was good. There was also a sweet which was quite delicious. After gulping the goods, I was slowly losing myself to the beautiful views on the right side provided by the window seat.

To my left, the seat was empty. In the seats behind me, there was a couple, likely senior citizens, and the lady was watching mega-serials with headphones (I respect people who wear headphones, because these citizens do not disturb the general public!). To my front, there was a couple with a small boy who was rather quiet and ahead of them were the middle seats. The middle area in the compartment had four seats where people can sit facing each other and the seats are separated by a table (like a typical 4 seater table in restaurants) - I do not know who designed this but this makes lives interesting. There were five ladies, aged between 40-60 (these are my guesses) seated in these 4 seats - they were beginning to play Cards! And I am reasonably confident that these four got to know each other only during the journey NOT before! They started with a game which everyone knew (probably Rummy) and got bored after a while. Then, the senior lady who looked like she's from Kerala, gave them KT about a new game (I don't know the name) which they started playing. It is hard to guess whether it was the game or their nature in general, but as the game progressed, their voices became really really loud - there was a time when I began to dislike the journey.

Soup was served, which lifted my mood for a while. I must say the soup was brilliant, and yes, it was served in good cutlery. It was a Knorr soup packet which had to be mixed with hot water and consumed. Probably it was the AC, or the view, or the ambience overall, hard to say, but this soup at that moment was bliss. There's a distinct feeling of luxury about traveling in Shatabdi which is hard to describe in words. On seeing the lush green grass and mountains in fading sunlight, your heart feels lighter. The point where sunlight passes through the train's glass window and falls on you inside an AC compartment while travelling around 80-90 KMPH... a level of warmth that multiple attempts at adjusting your room's AC temperature at night armed with bedsheets cannot equal. For a city-dweller like me, this was quite refreshing! I added some salt to the soup.

But you see, not everyone consumes soup. The cards gang continued their entertainment with progressively increasing decibel levels through the evening without taking any breaks. I was expecting some member in the compartment to lose his/her patience and shout at them but no, nothing of that sort happened. Suddenly, one uncle seated near them looked like he was going to talk to the crowd and he did. But guess what, it was a normal conversation - no complaints! The Kerala lady moved back to her seat after a while, the now four-member gang continued to play, unhindered by the exit of one player. The chatter continued without any loss of volume. I thought of telling them to lower the noise, but couldn't gather enough courage to do so. Besides, I do not like to spoil anyone's party so I let it go.

There's always a silver lining - it was time for dinner and the next set of delicacies arrived... Piping hot rotis with curry, rice and dal, all served in a perfectly packed manner. I have travelled in AC compartments in the past, but this level of quality was something I was not used to! The pure sight of the dinner in front of me reduced the volume of the ladies - there is something about food that alters your senses and focus areas! With noise fading in the background, I treated myself to the Rotis first, followed by Dal with rice. And yes, there was Curd, thick! When I thought this was all, we were finally served ice-creams! Long live Shatabdi.

Post dinner, we were fairly close to Chennai Central. This was the time the Cards games were finally beginning to end. Once they ended, the conversations should have also ended but no - they continued talking about life in general and started exchanging phone numbers. The nearby uncle also started giving his views about life and YOLO! True, that.

Back to Chennai, office, traffic.

One big learning for me from this trip is to travel more in trains whenever the opportunity arises!

Until next time, Incredible India!

Morning scenes at the airport

This happened in February 2017.
It was one of those days when I had to catch an early morning flight (Read: Indigo) to Mumbai from Chennai on a business trip. Needless to say, it is hard to pay attention at such times, well I woke up early at midnight to reach the airport. Due to some reasons unknown to me, I suddenly became wide awake. "Let me try and look around", I told myself. The result was an enriching experience!
The scenes are hard to describe, however, I will make an attempt.

- The rush was pretty much IN. At least 80% of the population were hooked to their mobile phones and walking fast to the destination. Whether the flight will take off as soon as they reach their gates is something only they can answer.
- A contemporary woman in saree calmly walking towards security check, with what looked like an iPhone on her left hand and a branded handbag on the right. One could guess that she is quite successful in her field, going by the sophisticated appearance
- Paatis (Accomplished grandmothers of Tamil Nadu) with their extended family finding a way through the queue before the entrance, Tam Brahm uncles carrying color printouts of the tickets and speaking in English and Tamil intermittently about their young ones in the Bay Area. Their veshti + viboothi combination deserves a special mention! Somehow a good-looking Sardar was in-between this Hum Aapke Hain Kaun family, appearing totally lost.
- Not all white and whites are nice. There is always a white and white guy who is a nadamaadum nagai kadai (Walking jewellery shop), whom I will not make jokes about for obvious reasons.
- You can never miss the random foreign tourists with that native language-speaking 'dude' who acts as an ISO certified guide, knowing everything about Tamil Nadu, more than Google.
- The random girl (who might fit as a candidate in Roadies) with T Shirt + Jeans + Overcoat combination whom some people always hope will sit next to them but will always end up in the next row
- The bald businessman with a frowning face answering heated calls on his Blackberry, the smiling business traveller in suits who smiles at everything (just like yours truly)

- To top it all, the big Indian Flag showing us all how we are possibly the only nation that is made of differences rather than similarities!

From that day onwards, I have paid more attention to things around me. Life, as it is, offers us a lot of joy - it is an intoxicating experience!

The next time you are boarding an early morning Indigo, stay awake at the airport!

Until next time,
Have fun!

Royal thrillers at SP Jain!

It seemed business as usual on a sedate Saturday afternoon for the NMIMS Chess Team (ak, Neel, Rahul and Akshat) After winning first two games with a certain level of comfort with Neel and Akshat, I went to attend lectures from 11.30-14.00, with finals slotted at 3 PM. I came to know later that it was a semi-final at 3.

Of course, Rahul joined our team for the semis. When we were paired against SP Jain, I knew it was going to be tough. Shyam's SP Jain team has always been a formidable opponent to us since first year. This year was going to be no different. However, the magnitude of competitiveness was on a whole new level this time around.

Disclaimer: This post contains chess notations and some technical terms. Please bear with me if you can't understand - they were all important for this post. All said and done, Chess is a royal game... for the classes!

Road-less travelled!

Every MBA student, at least from premier B-schools, has times when he feels he needs to discover himself. Be it his plans about what job to take, or more generally what to do with his life! For me, well, I just felt I needed a break from routine and wanted to unearth something that was missing or was present earlier that didn't come up of late! Of course, your favourite professor teaching Emotional Intelligence has some part to do in this (For those who don't get this last line, EI is a wonderful subject, by far one of the top 5 in my MBA life)

Of course, everything needs a little bit of inspiration. When one of your close friends undertakes a solo trip to Goa, you definitely get inspired. More so if she motivates you to do the same. And of course, with some pushing by others too, I overcame by initial hesitation and booked tickets to Lonavala (thanks to IRCTC it works well even at 2 AM these days!). At the last moment, one push came from my classmate, he said "Go go, if not now, then when!" That moment... sealed the deal.
"You need your support groups without which, life will still be fun but not so constructive!"

Grab something to eat. It is going be a long post!

Outsourcing the spouse-finding: Climax

To all those who have missed the prequel to this, click here
"If something is not your core competency, outsource it and save time and money"... and heartbreaks!

அனைவருக்கும் வணக்கம்!
Straight ah matterku போவோம்...
Let's say the hero was just doing his business from stage one. ("மூடிட்டு அவன் வேலைய மட்டும் பாத்து இருந்தா...") His parents find him an alliance.

Resources and Capabilities: He would have had a lot of time to explore his personality, build his career and become better. Not much costs and time involved prior to marriage or engagement, except for the sourcing cost. Your resources (parents and relatives) are fully capable of finding a good match. You don't have to build any capabilities. It is an asset-light strategy.

Competitive advantage: Easy (சப்ப மேட்டர்!) He would have got into the best colleges / universities and/or started his own business and/or other stuff! May be he may not have some advantage over others, may be he has changed his game altogether. It's so much easier to focus on one thing at a time than having some nagging text messages all the time.

Yada yada yada... Superior happiness!
"There's always more than one way to reach the destination. Look around."

There's been an interesting video doing the rounds in YouTube recently. Well, arranged marriages are cool. No big fuss. Parents decide - 11 times out  of 10, they are right. And they do know what's best.
And this is not to say they are marrying you against your wish. Assuming you accept and then it is a proper arranged marriage.

Benefits:
1) Straight to the finish line without much hurdles
2) Strong support system - doesn't break often
3) "If you can fall IN love, you can fall OUT of love. No guarantee in that. 'Arranged' is a safer option"
You don't want to find one more thing you suck at, right? Leave this to parents! :P

Tradeoffs:
1) It's not going to be a lowwwwve marriage. That's alright. Strategy is all about deciding what to do and what not to do. There's got to be some tradeoff - you can't have everything in life. Look at what happened to Continental Airlines when they tried to emulate South West.
 நான் என்ன சொல்ல வரேன்னா "ஆணிய புடுங்க வேணாம்!" (What I'm trying to say is, don't pluck the nail)
2) There are people who say "How can I marry someone without knowing him/her at all?"
Hey, come understand me, you have 5 years time. I know people who have said "ஐயோ T.Nagarல ரெண்டு வீடு போச்சே!" after a breakup. Think again! There's no such thing as loyalty, faithfulness in this world anymore. Broken glasses are always replaced with new ones, mostly without much crying over them :)

If you are of the adventurous type, try living with someone in arranged marriage. It's worth it. Our previous generations have done it extremely well. Sure you can do the same. Our generation is better in everything right? Better them if you can!

There's a traditional aspect worth enjoying - all the mantras (if you are a Hindu, others please imagine something I don't know what happens in other weddings) and everything - it's an experience in itself. And the food, relatives, friends, musical instruments. If you can't enjoy 'that' music you are struggling in life!

Coming to the I-am-a-very-modern-person types. Some 'stuff' for you
1) You don't care about the past right? Everyone has a past. Accept it. Still, this strategy works
2) You don't believe in dowry system and other traditions? Men: Stand up and say No. Women: Do the same. Still, this strategy works
3) Bored of dates and fooling around? Try this. Thank me later.

Coming to the traditional types...
1) Soup boy / girl? This is your only resort
2) Waiting for someone special? உனக்கு straight ஆ 60ம் கல்யாணம் தான்! அப்பா அம்மா சொல்றத கேளு! நல்ல வருவ!
3) Fell in love by mistake? Never too late. Escape or face facts! :P
And yeah, do MBA!

Like sarcasm, 'bro'?
"In a love marriage, you marry your own girlfriend. In arranged marriage, you marry someone else's! Sounds hot, right?"

Yeah, deep. [Same for women. Not being sexist]

In B-School you don't learn management alone, you learn a lot more. Putting it in a different way, it teaches you management only, but you can learn a lot of other things, starting from philosophy! And you understand people better. May be it's got something to do with age, doesn't matter. Whatever it is, I have never had so much clarity about many things in life than I have now. Hence this post!
Yeah, it's a little brutal and more realistic than usual. But then, you know...

மீண்டும் சந்திப்போம்!
Au revoir!

___ing the spouse-finding: A strategic viewpoint (Part 1)

"Wow what a cute couple!!!"
"Made for each other"
"Awesome" [ with 'N' number of hashtags ]
If you are one of those people admiring facebook posts like that one and wishing fervently that it happens to you some day in the near future, I am here to throw some cold water on your face. And for those people who are double (my favourite term for those who are not single) right now, I don't give a damn. Love, dating, relationships... are way too overrated in this digital world. And social networking websites, Whatsapp, Snapchat and other communication monsters have convincingly sold this point to the larger population that it's the 'in' thing to find that special some one during college days or school days for posterity.

These buildups (a South Indian slang word which means building a mountain out of a mole hill) are usually followed up with some home-cooked stories about arranged marriage, all of them showing arranged marriages in bad light. Now that I am nearing 'that' age inevitably and interacting to some extent on those lines, the time has come to give some enlightenment to the world.
Now that the context is set, get ready for some gyaan!

The Royal Game: Fostering friendships, promoting joy!

Welcome back!

It was a surreal Sunday last week (November 9, 2014) at NMIMS for the chess folks. With no games scheduled the previous day, the players got some time off. Scheduling became an issue for Sunday. As is often the case, the ‘cruel’ B-school mails before we close our eyes at night meant that I had to stay awake till 2AM (essentially running into Sunday) to finalize the fixtures for Semi-finals and Finals. With help from ‘sporty’ seniors over Whatsapp, I somehow managed to do so!

‘It’s a B-school; we cannot do everything single-handed!’

The big four teams of the semis were NM Warriors, SP Jain, Sydenhams and KJ Somaiya. The first semi-final of the day was between hosts NM Warriors and SP Jain. The visitors arrived bang on time at 1 PM. This time they reached the correct building without much hassles! After logistical delays, the match started at 1:30 PM at room 507. Fittingly, it was the Council room for the day, and it takes its rightful place in history!

Quite a Sweat in the AC Room!

When someone tells you chess players are punctual, you can believe them. Yes, even in Mumbai!

Almost all the participating men came on time to room 707 in the new building, where the boards were neatly arranged for the royal game to start. Only one team – SP Jain boys, had trouble arriving; they went to 707 in Mithibai building and phoned the author and said “It says School of Business Management and I am in 707! Where are you?” Poor guys, had to explain to them. Their captain, Shyam, spoke in Tamil, I had some old memories :P (Made friends easily with him - yeah, I am a little proud of my mother tongue, so what!) To the action now…

True to the IIM tag, the IIM Indore Mumbai folks were hooked to the books, well, binders – right from around 2 PM. And our stars SP Jain famously arrived to start their head-to-head match at 4:30 PM. The result of this match truly depicts what will happen when one highly enthusiastic bunch of guys meet three people who live with their books – SP Jain blanked IIM-I three games to nil. With that, they were through to the Semi-Finals.

Some things never change!

I am in Mumbai now for MBA. That meant a lot of changes - no Marina beach, no Chennai Tamil, no Tamil, more Hindi (as if SRM wasn't enough!), more celebrations (Dussehra, Ganesh Chaturthi et al.) and some irregular mindless food and sleep habits.

Mumbai is fast guys, I can tell this for sure - it's full of people and there's no idea why they are running so fast with their lives.
'If everyone is running so fast, why there's a lot of traffic jams?
Or is it because they are so fast?' I do not know.

Why we like Chennai Super Kings!

If you are a CSK supporter, you may enjoy this post. If you are neutral, you can read this. If you support some other team, you can try to change after reading this. If you hate CSK or a MI supporter, go away! :)

I can go on and on about why I like CSK. But I will numer them so that I can keep adding! :D

1. No other team has a better cultural colour connect than CSK. Here's the proof! :)

Yellow Fellow!

IT's so gOOd!

p.s. This post is for college freshers only!

Hello Everyone!
Of late, I haven't been so active here! I will give some reasons for it, that's what every one does when he/she (damn you, CAT Grammar!) fails to do something
Getting admission into a premier B-School in India is not so easy. It takes a lot out of you, especially the weekend holidays, Yes, been there. Done that, or not done that, in this case. A weekend in an IT company is a blessing in itself, after all that slogging during the week. But then, I had to go through volumes of English and Math sitting at home or TIME class, all for getting into a top B-school. It's all worth it I guess, after you do get into one!

And that means I will invariably have to leave my current job in this India's most admired company. True. I will miss this. People will say all sorts of things about IT industry, I have not heard them :) I can only share what I have gone through! I don't believe in rumours. You shall not read further if IT field is in no way related to your life, but you may read on just for fun :P

1. I didn't enjoy bench!
It's just a whole waste of time. Reporting every day to the Resource Management Group and not learning anything at all. That too, catching a bus in the hot sun... enough said.
If at all you land up here for more than 60 days, prepare for CAT / GRE / GMAT. The situation is tailor made for this.

Anyway, I was in bench for just 45 days. Then, project!

2. Get into Development!
Let's face it. Developers enjoy the most. Not because it gives lot of onsite opportunities or more challenging; but because you get to work in general shift. You will have life after office! You can travel one hour to home. Sleep well. Just the best life you can get as a fresher in the industry.
Having said that, getting into testing or maintenance or prod support is not the end of the world. Get a house nearby to office and work for 10 hours or night shifts or second shifts.
"Life is all about adjustments - divide and rule!"

Do coding!

3. Life's fantastic in IT
If some one tells you IT is boring, don't believe them. What isn't boring in life anyway?
Performance in the beginning matters. Then you can get things in control. 9 to 6 job in one week, 8 to 5 in the next, 10 or 11 to 8... mix it up. Don't do the same things. It's up to us to make it lively, don't blame the system like you-know-who!
Don't bunk Fridays - they are the best days in office. Some people make the best use of it to make life entertaining for us ;)
Get some nice team-mates.

4. Appraisal season - become a theist
You can dig the rivers and drain the ponds, but you cannot get a good appraisal rating or band or bucket or whatever metric your company follows. Employees hate it; employers hate it. But it exists. Don't facebook it, face fact. Just pray.

If satisfaction = true
     stay
Else
     leave
End If

Yes, I worked in Visual Basic .NET!

5. Training period - College life upgraded!
Of course you learn a lot. But this is the best period you can get. At least in a few CMM Level 5 companies. After training, you get a lot of responsibilities, but here you are treated just like a student so it's just fAWESOME!
You get to meet schoolmates and collegemates all in one place. Well, IT companies are well populated and India is over populated. Surely you will bump into people.

6. KT
Abbreviates to Knowledge Transfer. It blesseth him that gives and her that takes!
Be all ears. "Thozil kathukonga!"

Okay, tell me more!

7. Get allocation
If you are not allocated, fight for allocation. If nothing happening, leave the project. Don't sit and work for free.

8. Follow your company timings
Work for 9 hours only (or whatever hours your company pays you for). Not a little more, not a little less.
"Companies are good, rules are good,
it's the people that make them good or bad"
 We were fortunate to get a wonderful trainer in our training period. He said these words which I will remember for a long long time "Who gave you permission to sit after work hours?"
Indeed! Coming on time to work is important, leaving on time is even more important. Don't bend your work hours like Beckham, and tweet about your organization.

Have fun!

9. Use company transport if applicable to you
This is where you meet people who can, well, you know... Just go for it. Could be life-changing!

10. Live SEVEN days a week!
I say it again. One week has seven days, not two.

Sorry about the huge dose of textbook stuff. Yeah, I heard a lot of noise, so this was my time to make some! You say something about IT once more, I am here for you!

Until next time,
Happy Summer!

ak

Vada Pav!

Vada Pav – Poyayov! First hand report...

So much for the VadaPav! Okay, I agree, Mumbai is cool. The beaches are nice, B-schools better, people (you know what I mean) best! :) For some reason, for locals, VadaPav tops everything else! At least, that's how I feel.

I wanted to taste one of those. But I didn’t. End of story, at least for now.

I went in Mumbai by train. Like every Indian, after 10 hours in train, I started talking to the nearest passengers, can’t help it. It just happens. Two jains – who came to Chennai on a business visit; one malayali – settled now in Chennai, going for work purpose to Mumbai; two more guys – one surely Bengali and the other one is surely Mumbai. And yeah, all male. (Damn you, IRCTC) Why am I mentioning all this? Because corporate world’s favorite word is ‘takeaway’, even though the so-called takeaways are forgotten in no time! Here are my takeaways – it’s not a big deal if I continue to not know Hindi in Mumbai, they don’t talk in Hindi much anyway (that’s a great thing to hear); there’s no problem for Vegetarian food (most of them are Jains, and they don’t even eat potatoes you see! That means, I won’t have a big problem. They also said Jains make Mumbai – doesn’t matter, there’s a fair amount of Vegetarian population!); I got the Mumbai guy’s phone number (networking); my would-be university was by far the most popular among the Mumbai-common-man (that was quite heartening); that’s enough.

Next night, I was waiting to board my return bus to Chennai. This is when the ‘real’ Mumbai slaps you on the face!
Boarding point – Sion Circle.
Bus time – around 8.30 PM
Apparently, this is one of the busiest places for long distance buses. ‘So?’, I thought… every place that has a long distance bus boarding point is busy. But no, this is Mumbai.
“Mumbai has lot of multi-storey buildings; why Chennai doesn’t have?” “Because there is SPACE in Chennai” – this was my reply during the train journey. The depth of the answer was right in front of my eyes now. The buses were not moving. I was hungry. My bus did not reach. I texted my friend who boarded in Bisleri. “7.40 it started”, I got the reply.

I waited, texted him and waited.
I waited, texted him and waited.(switched on GPS)
I waited, texted him and waited. (Got hungry)
In between, I saw many vada-pavs on my side, a man with a guitar, a band playing loud music (this does NOT happen in Chennai, I wish it happens! :D), a foreign couple (okay, not sure, man and woman) waiting for a similar bus, one passenger spitting from a bus window (little far from me!) and more traffic. You need a lot of patience, tolerance and more patience to wait in such an atmosphere. The noise and traffic are just maddening. You cannot see a vacant spot in your eye range. Frightening. The Kathiparas, Vadapalanis and OMRs are NO match for this. This is by far the best (READ: worst) traffic, at least I have seen. That too, when I am ‘not’ travelling.

Finally the bus arrived. And my friend had VadaPav. Apparently, no recession or inflation has affected the prices of VadaPav. Forget the Big Mac Index, you really need a VadaPav index!
And I have not yet experienced much, the Mumbai local trains. What about the buses? Anything rectangle in shape with wheels is a bus here, I think – the one striking difference compared to the ‘classy’ buses in Chennai and Bangalore, and whenever I saw them, I found them crowded. I am a theist, God save me! :)

How will I manage two (or more) years here? Surely, there will be other things to compensate (with counterplay!) for these! Education, Fun, G_, H_, I___ and what not! Amchi Mumbai! :)

Carlsen thambi...

"For entertainment purposes only. Any resemblance to anything other than Carlsen is purely intentional. Don't mistake me when I make mistakes. Jai Hind"

p.s. Carlsen is a Tamil name in this story. ;)

--- Age 12 to 13 ---
Grandma calling... "Peraandi, cycle test mudinjudhaa?" (cycle tests over?)
"Paati, naan Aeroflot poitu vandhen. Title theriyumaa?!"
"Dei, olaraadha, ippo dhaan 7th standard padikra nee! Annual exam mukiyama cheks mukiyamaa?"
"adhu cheks illa chess"
"paati ya ethirthu pesariyaa? ellam unga amma va sollanum. adichu valakkala!"

Paati calls daughter "Nee pora vazhiye sari illa dee..."

Carlsen flunks the model exam. Class teacher puts him in coaching class and 'advices' him to attend school.
Carlsen's parents complain he won't be able to attend, as he has to attend a few invitational events. When Carlsen comes to school the following day, the Principal arrives in his class... "Ask your parents to meet me!" His fellow classmates are shell-shocked as these words are easily the most feared, in school parlance. Carlsen coolly goes home and tells the matter to his parents. Carlsen's dad meets the school Principal, the next day.
"Enna Sir, unga payan 'activities' seri illayae..."
"Enna aachu sir"
"Ozhunga school varala, marks kammi ya iruku. Society la enga schoolku nu oru paer iruku. Next year board exam vera varudu, we won't be able to promote him if this performance continues."
"Avan tournament la 'performance' panna mattum paper la news podreengale"
Principal cleans his glasses and says, "Oh really, I will look into it. This is a special child. We eagerly look forward to encourage and motivate these kind of children. We will help them come out with flying colours. Anyway, ask him to study well too, Sir!"
"Sure. Thank you!"
Carlsen passes tenth with 61%, ten days of preparation
-----
 11th standard. Day 1 of school. Principaaal comes to Carlsen's class.
"I know you won't be attending classes regularly. And I am sure you will pass eleventh. But as the Principal of this school, I have to say a few things to you. It's my duty too.
Next year unaku 12th board exam. Idhu 10th maadhiri illa thambi... Life-u! Board exam nalla ezhuthina dhaan nalla college la seat kidaikum; enga college la seat kedaikardhu avlo easy illa! Only outstanding students get into..."
(Classmates giggling)
"SILENCE PLEASE! ...our college. All the best Carlsen"
That was the last day Carlsen attended 11th.
Common exam of 11th standard was not conducted due to the 'professional' practise of starting 12th standard portions in the middle of 11th grade!
-----
Due to family pressure, Carlsen studies till 12th and finishes board exams. Applies to Anna University under sports quota.
-- Review panel ---
Wijk Ann Zee, Tata Steel, Nordic Challenge, Qualifiers, Blitz Championship, Kasparov Training... What's all this? Are these authorized by government of India?
No
Are these official world championships?
No
Continental?
No
Selected through Tamil Nadu / India ?
No
Where is SGFI? This guy is so irresponsible! He doesn't play State events, national events. How can he afford to miss SGFI Nationals? Even if he is state board, they have a nationals too, right?
Yes sir.

Carlsen's mom tries to persuade: "Sir, Madam, he's GM sir! Super GM"
"GM naa?"
"Grandmaster"
"So?"
"SIRRRR!"
"Inna maa, summa koovada, (eating a Good Day dipped in chai...) padu bejaara pochu unnoda. Inga paaru maa, GM o HM o. Rules iruku la! We are government officials. PLEASE don't waste our time!"

Carlsen scored '0' under sports quota, after completing his GM title.
---
Exam results arrive. Carlsen pass. Anna Univ dumps him.
Where does he go?

His paati still calls him...

"En peraandi oru nalla college la Computer o Doctor ko padichu irundha, oorla perumaya solluven; ippo graamathula thalaya kaata mudiyala, oru paya madhika maatengaraan! Idhu enga poi mudiyumo theriliyae! Ivanukku yaaru ponnu tharuvaa!"

"Avalum ava dressum... eeshwaraaa! Enna usuroda podhachurvaan pola irukke! Idha en oorla paatha oora vittu 16 varusham thalli vechuruvaanga!"


Meendum sandhippom! :)

SRM University, Kattankulathur Campus

After SASTRA, this is the second in the what-u-can-call 'SERIES'!

Hi all! :)
Cometh June and we see students running helter skelter for counselling! We all browse through all the colleges... in and around Tamil Nadu. All the 'College of Engineerings', 'Engineering Colleges', Universities, Multi Tech Colleges, High Tech Colleges, NITs, IITs, BITS and what not! But alas, not all of us
land in our dream colleges, if at all we have any! :) One valuable suggestion - whenever possible, try to visit some colleges to get a better idea! After all, you are jobless (vetti) most of the time after finishing HSC board exams! :D

SASTRA - Surely a place to be!

(A post which should have come a few years ago; left it here.
Counselling season will being soon - thought you guys might use this for reference!
"Social Service! Enjoy! Apologies for chronological errors. Rewind two years and read!)

The name says it all! I went to SASTRA University this year for the Colosseum'11 and I got to say 'Sastra rocks!' Being a student of SRM, we are so used to stuff like Fast foods, EMOs, Java Greens, freedom among other more obvious stuff. But Sastra is completely different. Being a Tamilian myself, I have longed to see 'tamil people' and eat 'tamil food' for a really long time now. Chennai DOES NOT represent Tamil Nadu these days. I hope many friends will agree with this view! Coming to the main thing, what makes Sastra tick?

A Facebook Friend Request!

Mindvoice...
I am telling with utmost certainty that you would have received uncountable friend requests in facebook, mostly from complete strangers. If at all you know half of them, let alone knowing them all, you are really lucky!
On the other side of the sea, have you ever made a New Friend and connected to him/her (her/him, sorry girls; don't go on a rally now!) in facebook, you will understand what I am saying after this! Until this happened, I've never had any prognosis that a thing so simple as a friend request would be so daunting, so painstaking!

True Story...
As a rank tyro in IT industry, it was hard enough to finally get a project. Now that, the offices are mostly located out of the city on the National and State Highways I had to opt for company transport services. I knew no one in the bus. Moreover, the difference in ages of "colleagues" makes it all the more difficult to strike conversations during travel. Been a frequent traveller and a gregarious person in recent years (SRM, what do you expect!), I found this situation absolutely antagonizing. Digital storage is not plenipotentiary! The gigabytes of songs saved in the gadget did not help the cause, for, 70km a day consumes the quantum of songs in less than a week!

Slowly I started finding people to talk to. Again, if at all we make it to the same bus in the same shift, well, yeah, some talking after an exhausting day. Otherwise, it's mostly sleeping and Radio!

I finally met a (newly-made) friend the other day on my return journey. We started having a pleasant conversation after an arduous day in the office. Office stuff only, can't help it! Eventually it came down to doing a facebook friend request on the go. We were both loaded with 3G internet connectivity, so that was not going to be a problem. Er... Issue (we are all IT!), or so I thought! She was magnanimous enough to login first; well, she was always online. I told my name with correct spelling. I missed the initials.

The search results did not match. I told to include the initial.
Now the output went haywire - Zuckerburg had designed his website in such a way that the initials are expanded to His will. Except me, we found many names.

A smart person, she intimated that we could search using the email id! "Of course", I thought! Elated with the turnaround of events, I gave my email.
Zuckerburg was smarter this time. His brainchild gave a 'No results found' reply. I was so distraught at this. The bus started moving faster too.
Thankfully, she was showing her customary patience, associated with most people from her region. "You are in any pages or something like that?"

"Yeah! Wait, let me log in". While she was searching something, I finally logged in. It happened quickly, thanks to Airtel 3G - no I am not advertising you Bharti, you still stink all the same! I thought I will give a query this time, as she was doing the harder stuff all the time.
"Tell me your name. I will search", I offered. She told her full name. I typed it super fast. The website has its habit of adding some letters to the beginning or the end of names at will. You just don't know how to control it. And even if it does display some thing, it's just not sane! She did not come up. All I found was a junk of unorganized data.
I repeated the ploy of email id. Didn't work.
"You are in any Confession pages?"
"No. You know anyone from this school (she mentioned some school name, not important for the story)?"
"No."
She again gave an inkling.
"We have no choice, tell me any page where you do some activity. May be, we could find your name!"
"Alright go to Chess Confessions page. I would have liked the first post or something!"
She went to that page. To my horror, there was a stupid post that time with no likes or comments!
"Scroll down" I said. She did it.
As events unfolded, there were so many jobless people in that page and hence so many posts. With no offense to the users of that page, you guys are not helping my cause here! My comments were no where to be found.

"O...kay, I will like something here!" (Eating up all my pride - the first post was totally horrible. No one would even man up to post that one liner)
She smiled and said, "You can unlike this after everything is done!"
"Amazing, their brains!" (mindvoice)
So I liked it. She clicked the item. My name came. She clicked on the link and went to my profile.

(The story is far from over!)
When my profile slowly loaded, I heaved a huge sigh of relief at the moment of triumph. However...
to my dismay, there was no 'Add Friend' button. Only 'follow' and 'subscribe'! No mutual friend it seems!
"You have strict security settings, it seems...!", she said.
"But we are sitting right here! Can't facebook see that!? I know this person! U stupid Markie!"
There were no mutual friends, only common pages, that too, a very few, not of any use. Now what?
"Alright, I will send you a message. That way, you can see me!"
I was out of my mind. Still, I parked myself well and sent out an "I am-cool-with-it" smile. She 'inboxed' me.
In my phone, I opened the links "chat" and "messages", but there was none. She hinted "Reload!" I did the same, no use! There was no message. Only notifications. Where's the message???
"Mark Sucker_burp!"

Plan A, Plan B, Plan C... thanks to Chennai traffic, the bus was still moving without reaching the destination!
My Cover Photos were public. She was a kind person - 'like'd a few of the photos and told me this was the photo she liked. I duly followed the instructions. Opened the EXACT photo and found her name. Meanwhile, she checked her security settings - "Any one can send friend requests"
>> I gave The Friend Request!

So much for the 'technology'! And yeah, I unliked the post, you can't find it now! It was just a temporary variable. Destroyed it after using.
"Software Engineer"
ak

The SRM phenomenon

It was a routine scooter ride in the morning when I chanced upon my SRM jersey the other day. Chancing upon it, I suddenly felt so POWERFUL! Why? It's not always that you get those "feeling of strength". May be, the SRM colors or something, I am not sure. There's got to be something after all.

Putting things in perspective, yes, my SRM life was actually SPECIAL - thanks to my teammates. It was a charmed existence! After a tumultuous beginning - convincing professors with my OD forms and then getting approval letters from HODs... it was hard at the start. But then, what isn't hard in the beginning?

The first big assignment in my Chess life (from now on, "life" in this post always refers to SRM life) was the South West Inter Universities in Tumkur. Facing three PT sirs, (or Physical Education faculties, however you would call them - we liked them!) was not going to be an easy task. By nature's wish, I was fortunate enough to be the so-called Captain of the University team. If at all there was going to be an indication of what could be in store for the next three-and-a-half years or so, this tournament was going to be it! There was a good crowd - Deepan, Rohit, Prem, Aravind and Mohindhar. Watching 'desi girl' song on television in the early mornings before every single round was not at all in my books; however, this was precisely what happened... throughout the tournament.
Winning the event was not at all going to be a problem; yet, we did have some anxious moments. It was the aftermath of the tournament that I had to face the wrath of the 'sir's. It was then that I began to realize the intricacies of playing a college event.
"Why can't you score 32 on 36? It will be a record. You have to better the record set by Madras University!" No body yells at us for normal individual events, the regular classical events. Here, it's a different ball (okay no ball here) game altogether.
"There's always some special grudge or significance associated with every event that you will participate - be it the Inter Universities, the regular VIT Rivieras or the odd weekend inter-college event"
And then this happens if you are the one point of contact (yeah, the IT influence, basically the scape goat or the Captain) - You have to attend all the calls from PT sirs! There's no way your friends will attend those. There will more or less be the same advice over phone, this time, the only difference being, the words more close to your ears - "Arun ... You have to win 4-0!"

What???

 For us, friends for a long time - Prem, myself, Aravind, Mohindhar, Jammu, Vishnu and others, college tournaments could never be a serious thing. Even though we all wanted to win, the whole 'thing' of being serious (or appear to be serious) in these events appeared artificial. We did have some competition but it was always going to be a victory for SRM. I don't take away anything from other colleges for it, but I am certainly happy and proud about my team. Having said that, I made sure some basic team spirit was always followed. Let me narrate an interesting incident.

We were in St Joseph's for a team event for two days. On the Saturday night, we had  to stay in the hostel. There I met a team member friend of another college, a very strong team - I am not mentioning the name here, to avoid unnecessary disturbance (matter is more important). He asked me "Anna, do you know if _____ is playing tomorrow?" (yeah, that ____ is my friend, but how do I know? He's not in my team!)
I simply said "Call him and ask"
"I don't have his phone number", he said, nonchalantly.
"How long have you been in this team?"
"We have played four tournaments together"
That sums it all up. Good teams may not perform well in acrimonious circumstances like college tournaments. It's always important to have a "X-factor" in your team when you got to 'click'! You can't afford to have differences within the team!
There's also many other things that make SRM click. We watch the same movies, we see the same "persons", we travel together, we eat together, we bring the jerseys to the board every time, we are together in outings, more often than not! And then there is this 'SRM' spirit that is associated only with SRM - you got to be here to know!

Oh yeah!

There was always a discussion on board orders before the tournament - whatever tournament we were going to play. And then there was another discussion to finalize it just before or after the inauguration, if at all there was one! Usually jammu (when he was in the team, else it was just me doing this) and I connected with all the players to decide it, the night before the event. It never mattered if the tournament was big or small, it was always this way.
Every one of us gave unique replies and it would be the same every time.
Prem: "3 or 4. I don't know Arun, You put me in any board. See you tomorrow" (Usually I would be ready to play anywhere)
Vishnu: "Board 1 is fine with me."

jammu: "What's Prem saying?" (so here's the first deadlock)
Aravind: "Edho onnu machi. Reserve ah podu" (translation: anything dude, put me as reserve)
But then, all of this would come down to me and the PT sirs would be calling me in one end. It was hard, these times, but it was enjoyable. After all, who gets this 'problem of plenty' at the college level? :)

"When every one feels his/her importance in the team, the performance elevates to a different level!"
I had this as one of my core principles behind these entertaining discussions. There was never an instance of misunderstanding. It was all smooth sailing as far as the team was concerned!

There were times of enormous struggle on the academics side, even in the second year - low internals in the beginning, permissions, re-exams, record notebooks... the list is not exhaustive! I always believed time would tell
"Give time some time and everything will be fine!"
Come the third year, and there were fruits for our labour. The internal marks were not that difficult because my teachers were by now 'used' to our routines - something that was imminent. Life was easier in the third year - I just had to 'inform' them about my tournaments, and they would tell me a date for the re-tests (yeah, Indians coined this word). The internal marks were more generous because of this and I had increased my GPA from a paltry 6.1 in the first semester to around 7.8 in the fifth. Yeah, placements were nearing and I had to cross 7.5 with my Cumulative grades at the end of semester six, to attend the direct interview. Through some 'application', I managed to do just that!

Thanks to these companies! We are all corporates now! :) In the end, we did not miss out on academics either!
Yeah, Aravind was a 9 pointer - he lives in Bengaluru! Prem and I were 8 pointers, we live in Chennai.
Luckily, I had time to give some thing back some thing to SRM, this time as a guest...

We play different roles!

Finally I would like to thank a few good people, personally - Mohindhar, Aravind, Prem, Jammu, Vishnu, Deep, Deepan, Senthil sir, Rajasekar, Louis and the other PT sirs, all my teachers, for making our lives so easy in SRM!
It was a roller-coaster ride. I had done a few mistakes and a few good things. On paper, however, good things come! I am quite happy about that!

Live life!

ak

Jillu nu oru sandhippu!

ஹாய் !

I often say this! When ever I travel down south of my state, I always get this ‘feeling of belonging’!

Recently I went to தஞ்சாவூர் (Tanjore) with my CSE A (and E) classmates for a wedding. Mr.A___ (yeah, "Mr." from now onwards; well and truly!) tied ‘the knot’ on February 14 – no no, it was an arranged marriage!

The function was fun in the sense that we classmates all got to meet once again - possibly the beginning of many similar events! Also had a chance to catch a glimpse of the “Big” temple in the centre of the city amidst heavy rain! Yeah real rain, not like the ones in Madrasapattinam.

What is always impressive to my monitor-looking, bus-sleeping eyes is the unhurried pace of lives in the not-so glamourous towns of the south.

True, Tanjore is not yet ready, it just looks foot-in-mouth for the oddly placed Maruti Swifts, Taveras and SX4s – the roads are too tiny to accommodate the huge cars. Strangely, there are a surplus number of buses on roads – the buses are mostly half-filled or empty. The vehicles never cross 3^rd gear and I am sure of this – when our car went above 3^rd and 4^th, it was chased by dogs! Proof enough, the animals were not used to such speeds! And then there is the more-than-convincing pleasant-looking ‘Vegetarian’ restaurants; something that I am personally very happy about! Being a veggie and finding a good place to eat in any street is always a good thing!

நாங்கள் கல்யாணம் கண்டு களித்து விட்டு பெரிய கோவில் சென்றோம். Nature started blessing us with water-drops, progressively becoming heavier.
"என்ன டா பசங்களா! என்ன feeling-U?" (வாய்ஸ் from heaven)
 We were running a little behind schedule. We had to reach Chennai on 14th night to catch up for office the next day. You see, 'Leaves' are worth more than gold in the Corporate world. They will be available but you cannot use them.
"Lay-offs are easy;
day-offs aren't so!"

 We weren't prepared to leave without visiting the shrine! And we did just that.
Most of us were thinking what to do in the next 5 years or so with our lives... It wasn't easy. Some of us had jobs, some of us didn't, some wanted, some didn't; it's harder than semester exams to decide...
On the way back to our hotel rooms, we got the 'privilege' of getting this guy's auto.
ஸோ far ஸோ குட்!
And திஸ் is what happened... (we were three of us in the auto, with the driver in front)
Autoguy (AG): "எந்த ஊர் தம்பிங்களா?"
"சென்னை "
"படிக்கறீங்களா ?"
"வேலை ல இருக்கோம் "
(2 minutes silence)
AG: "இன்னிக்கு பெப்ரவரி 14. தனியா வந்து இருக்கீங்க?" (chuckles. He looked to be around 60-70)
"friend கல்யாணத்துக்கு வந்தோம் "
"ம்ம் ஹ்ம்ம் ... நானும் டிப்ளோமா படிச்சிருக்கேன்! வெல்டிங் வொர்க் பண்ணிருக்கேன், ஒரு 3 வருஷம்! ரொம்ப புழிஞ்சு எடுத்தாங்க. வேலை ய விட்டுட்டேன்! பிச்சை எடுத்திருக்கிறேன். accident ல கால் damage ஆய்டுச்சு! அதனால பிச்சை எடுக்க முடியல . ஏதோ இந்த ஆட்டோ வ வாங்கிட்டேன்!"
(எனக்கு வயிறு கலக்க ஆரம்பித்தது! "who is this guy???")
He continued...
"எல்லாரும் நைட் தான் தண்ணி போடுவாங்க! நான் காலை ல கூட போடுவேன்! full  தண்ணி தான்! எப்பவுமே தண்ணி ல தான் இருப்பேன்!"
 (Dude! Watch the road!)
My friend intervened... "அண்ணே! steady ஆ  தானே ஓட்றீங்க , அப்றோம் என்ன!"
"அதெல்லாம் ஓடும் பா! அவ்ளோ ஏன் இந்த ஆட்டோக்கு RC book, registration கூட கிடையாது!  "
(That's ok!)

"எனக்கு லைசென்ஸ் um இல்லை! "

(what??? I started to analyze... No license, no RC, no insurance, PLUS watered! Will I reach home alive? Forget home, atleast our hotel room??? It was raining; clouds dim; vehicles whizzing past... it all seemed so 'perfect'! :D)
"போலீஸ் கேக்க மாட்டாங்களா?"
"யார் தம்பி இதெல்லாம் கேக்கறா! இது என்ன சென்னை யா???" (smiles, all along!)
-----
After we got down, he asked "5 ரூபா எக்ஸ்ட்ரா தாங்க பா!"
Yeah, right! Value addition for our lives! :)
This man doesn't really portray my sense of belonging, but definitely, the 'takeaway' from this,
"Life goes on"

 இப்படிப் பட்ட மனிதர்களும் வாழ்கின்றனர் ! போராடு! "தொங்காதே"!
Yeah, that was heavy!

வாழ்க வளமுடன்!
"Proud to be a தமிழன்!"


ak