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!

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!

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

'Common' man Admission Test!

It was raining a little and I had to go to Koyambedu as usual, park my two-wheeler and get a bus to the exam venue. On the way the rain gathered momentum, so did I. By the time I reached CMBT, I was totally wet. The route from CMBT to Saveetha Engineering College (my exam centre) was unknown to me and I had to strain my eyes to see the bus numbers. I called my father and he gave some instructions. I was moving back and forth between the town bus stand and route bus stand. I found it hard to retain my focus.
I looked at the sky.

It all looked very familiar. I know I always do well in this weather :) The time was 6 AM and there was no sighting the sun. I couldn't remember the last time I had so much idle time standing in a bus stand. I asked a few local people and they said I had to take some bus number. I went to the said place but couldn't find the bus.
I decided to try one of the all-faithful 'route' buses! I noticed the wordings "Chennai - Dharmapuri" and I immediately went towards it. I asked the conductor
"இந்த பஸ் பூந்தமல்லி ல  நிக்குமா?"

He answered in the affirmative and I went in. In fact, I was the first passenger to board the bus. I was wondering how I would reach the venue, in what shape I would reach. I called my father again and updated the status and cut the call.
He called me back after two minutes.
"Did you say Dharmapuri? Give the phone to the conductor!"
That was all. The two good men knew each other. By God's grace, within a span of two minutes, the bus was transformed to a direct transport to my exam centre, which was well on the way!
"The bus wouldn't have stopped otherwise!"
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I reached the venue well ahead of time, about an hour or so. Fantastic organization in Saveetha, as is often the case in this place, or, so I've heard. No hassles, everything was spot on. The Prometric people had done a wonderful job. These kind of infrastructure rather motivated me to do well!
"When the dressing room infrastructure is good, even a debutant plays well"
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I had a stop in Poonamalle bus stand on the way back. It was this place that gave me immense satisfaction. I haven't been to a township for long. There was everything - a mad rush of people, a samosa+tea shop, citizens carrying wire bags, 'n' number of provisional stores, vegetarian hotels small and big, yellow coloured houses, families travelling together - a rarity in Chennai 'city', there was no 'single' person; it was either large families or a family of three or four - everything that was so close to me! அப்படியே சொந்த ஊருக்கு சென்றது போல் இருந்தது! I asked a person where the CMBT buses come. His reply showed me clearly there are still good people on this earth. "You can walk into the bus stand and get a bus. But they go in a roundabout route. You can even get share autos here, but they take a long time. Do one thing. Stand right here, you will get long distance buses going directly to Chennai. You can have a relaxed ride and reach CMBT quickly!"
And I did just that!

Just about 500 metres from there, I could see a house with a beautiful garden around it, and in the entrance, a bunch of old men waving at the bus.  சென்னையில் இது போன்ற காட்சிகள் காண்பது கொஞ்சம் அபூர்வம் தான்! அந்த ரோஜா பூக்களை பார்த்த போது ஒரு "holiday picnic" சென்ற அனுபவம்!

I tried hard to think about the CAT exam performance, but I was lost in the beauty of Chennai city. Friends called just after the exam. Happy.
Route bus was going fast, no halts. Happy.
Songs in the background.

Everything appeared so perfect for the day.
 All I asked for, was a hassle-free CAT exam. I got more than just 'that'! Including the beautiful people in the exam venue! :D
I knew the exam had gone well!
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Back to Chennai city... traffic...
ak

Why I avoid conversation with kids! :P

Conversation with kids are always fun! But then, sometimes it gets to you! Here is one such incident!

I had some important detail to check in the Internet and I was outside, travelling in a bus (I think results or something, I don't remember exactly now!) and I asked my friend, a 17 year old (YEAH SEVENTEEN!) to do the job. He said he was just about five minutes

Chatting adventures! :)

Once again, I promise an interesting read... This time, with a little difference! :)

"Hi! Hw r u :) ?"

1 "I am gud! Thanks!"

If u get this answer, probably you are talking to a person from England!

2 "ya... I am fine... Howz u?"

If this is the answer, u r probably talking to a girl!

3 "hi machan!" (definitely a tamil friend!)

4 "hi dude... am fine!" (tamil peter or hindi friend)

5 "hi macha" (if there's no 'a', it's a telugu boy!)

Have u ever thought how different people are? Talking about difference, this funny incident comes to my mind... It was the first semester in College and I had gone to my hometown for a weekend and I wanted to know if the following Monday was a working day (it was a continuous holiday for about 4 days). So I texted to about twenty numbers this question. "Monday is a working day???" and look at the replies...

"I dono!" (obvious)

"Hey I was also thinking about asking. If u knw tell me!" (can do better!)

"Yeah I think..." (padips)

"Hey man! How r u? I am in my aunt's place! I am not sure if it's working. Even f t is, I won't be coming! Are u going?" (U asshole!!! LMAO! Wat an answer!)

"No battery, will text u latr!" (aarghhhhhh!)

"Yes. Are u coming tomorrow? Mostly half the class ll be absent..." (nice motivation!)

"Some ppl r saying it's there; some are saying leave... Can we bunk?" (i like the last option, but it doesn't solve the purpose either!)

"Should we go???" (OMG!)

"I am not coming tomorrow!" (this guy is sure of his future!)

Unbelievable isn't it? It would have been better if I had not asked them at all... Previously I had only two options - to come back to Chennai or stay there! Now, I have about eight! From this day on, I really tried to avoid group messages! Did u guess u had so many options??? (relax!!!)

p.s. I switched off my mobile to avoid more confusions, I had already  had enough!

Some ppl have no idea how to start a conversation: "sup?" (what the hell this is supposed to mean? As a tamilian, I needed time to come into shape with this thing!)

How many times u felt it easy to sign out saying "Bye! Am off!"??? it drags on and on and on... like an evil war! Seriously, chatting online is a tough task!

1 -good night

2 - good night ... sd...

1 - sd :D (ya man! don't put that smiley!!!)

2 - :D

1 - wait a min... blah blah blah...

2 - yeah sure... am sleepy...

1 - ok gn...

2 - night!

1 - :) :)

"sounds familiar??? :) "

To all tamilians out there, how many ppl start a conversation by "vanakam ..."? :)

          Some times, I wonder what ppl have in their mind. They say 'brb' (wonder who invented this) and go off. How long is that 'back' valid? Should I wait for eternity???

And when they come back, they say "I am back!!! :) :) :) " I always think "SO???" (U r supposed to be here long back!!!) This is especially wonderful when u r having a conference! Some person suddenly goes out and comes screaming back "I AM BAAACCKKKK!" (come on ... there are 3 ppl waiting here!!! Don't u have any sense???)

During our exam times, we always get a forward message saying "send this to ten ppl else u fail in the exam" Alright, now if I don't send it, then THAT'S ONE MORE THING I STINK AT! RIGHT??? What am I supposed to do???

I have seen some ppl who want to discuss something in an SMS conversation... they always start with 'hi'! (I have done it too) Now... are we supposed to reply? I sometimes wonder, should we reply? Is he / she expecting us to reply? Or may be this is just because they r feeling bored? Or is it something important? Should we call him / her up??? Sometimes I would even think if they want to make fun of us:) Why can't they just send "Hey I need to talk. Do reply!!!" Simple, isn't it???

Some ppl usually send "Good night" as an SMS to so many ppl! Now if u really want to make a person feel important, send "Good night Arun" (or what ever name)! The individual will feel happy and also reply back. Also it gives a feeling that u mean something to someone and the friendship grows! Think!!!

"Chatting for chatting's sake!" This is today's world! Chat with purpose friends! After all, all are human beings!

Communication was developed to bring people closer; but now, people are moving far away from each other - the 'surprise' element which existed previously in meeting each other is missing nowadays due to the 'aggressive' invasion of the internet and SMS! People skills and manners are losing their value...

Probably it's high time to start considering writing atleast one hand-written letter to our best friend! Nothing wrong in it! (May be, I will do one pretty soon!) Welcome to Science age!

For the first time in my blog, I am leaving the readers to think something!

Keep smiling :)

ak :)

Teachers rock... forever! PART 2

Well well... I could not control part 2 for long! U all know what's it all about by this time, if u don't know, see my previous post :D
Back to the historic sayings by our gurus!
"I talk you talk why he middle middle talk" lol ...that was told by a PET master i forgot his name though...
"Y (he could never sound why!) showing teeth boy"
"2-3 min what side by side what go through"
"UNTAMED ANIMAL" (some chemistry teacher used to call at least 1 student every morning)
"U will get only koola" (God knows what this means!)
"சூடு பட்ட பூனை" :)
"Only one boy talking.. i know the boy.. i know his name"(actually he never knows the culprit)
"Star mark question maa" (it never comes!)
"I will kill u what? That what?" (This is English!)
Ultimate dialog my the most annoying maths teacher: "NOW 5 MARK IN UR POCKET" (wat the hell!)
"Catch my point!"
No one can ever forget this one -"Draw four side margin" (I understand how u feel!)
"பல்ல ஒடச்சி புடுவேன் பாத்துக்க!"
"ya...pa.......why talking! all weak buffaloes......"
"Cheating dogs.. One cheating dog talks another cheating dog talks!"
By a PT sir: "I want that girl I do know the name..." (Don't misunderstand :D )
One of the most annoying dialogues ever - "All take page number 87 example 19 "
Yet another : "ye boi take ur book and read the question" (I don't know what pleasure they get by making us read from the book; I still don't know!)
"Ye buffalo i calling u only boi" (boi???)
"Eppa I am good snacku " (அவரு நல்ல பாம்பாம்!:) )
"Asoso kadavale...enna man...chaiye...nuyi nuyi nuyi sound putting..." (Tanglish!)
"I'm standing... Y u sitting... Stand boys... Respect teachers first! No sitting front of the teacher!"  (PT sirs rock!)
"யார் வீடு எளவு மாதிறி உக்காராதீங்க டா... இது உங்க வீடு எளவு!"
"Heavy rain buffalo standing" (this was his rainy season favourite - our maths sir, of course!)

"Without this question, no question paper; without question paper no exam" (what a sense of humour for our maths sir!)
"...U must come out with flying colours" (everyday in the morning prayer he says this in school!)
"Now sitting and all stand and standing and all sit" (Who the hell knows what it means!)
Maths sir specials:

• "Mix it , Grind it, all the questions to get centum"
• "Tomaaro லீவு ... I will give bulk of homework..."
• "Keep 10 marks in your pocket..."
• "ey ravi (some random student name)!!! failing in the exam, why laughing?"
• "ey bafaalo, why sleeping in the classu?"

p.s. Thanks to the board exams, we got a lot of funny moments! :)
"சும்மா வாய பாக்காத man! புக்க பாரு! definitely யு வில் fail!" (yeah u guessed it right, it's a female teacher saying this)
"Leader sir கொஞ்சம் board ah பாருங்க!" (to the poor guy who was the class leader!)
"என்ன யா  where studied 10th??? ஹா ஹா ஹா ஹா" (It's really a pity if u land in a new school for 11th standard!)
''What is your roll number pa?'' (In college, u r not called by your name! U r a number - just like the ppl in prison!)
"U stoo..pid fellow.! Don't have manners?!" (This is college... So, some 'bad' words like stupid exist! :) )
"Refer the book and write... This is the best book!" (It simply means that u have to read ur text; u don't have a choice even though there is a library!)

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As it has become traditional now, I would like to quote yet another 'achievement' - this time, by my 12th std classmates! (I was on OD as usual when this happened!) This is dedicated to all my fellow Velammalians!
                   It was the Computer Science hour and our HM was the teacher. Being HM, he always had some work in between and frequently goes to his cabin. One fine day, this historical incident happened - I guess in the history of my school, no one has ever done it (yeah, my school is like tat!)...
                   Four boys - Dhanam, Viji, Joseph and Ravi (some random names - I would call them 'heroes' from now on; last bench guys; almost no interest in studies) decided to drink in class (yeah DRINK). We have to praise these guys for their courage! Come on guys... U can! There was one hyper-nerd in the second bench. One of these guys asked him for chips since this nerd had it in his lunch box. The nerd had no clue since it was usual for us to munch something during class hours... (well, yeah - we are exceptions in Vel) So he gave the box to them having no idea what was going to happen! Now, I guess they had some stuff already to eat; also, the 'saraku' was ready! (It was in 7up and Sprite bottles so that no one could find out!) All set for action... The HM showed no signs of returning in the near future...
               Dhanam was a regular in this, others quite new... Viji was the ex-monitor by the way and all our teachers knew this of course; he was of course thrown out of the post due to obvious reasons:) They all 'did' their jobs and by the time they finished (they had less time and clearly no time to dilute much!), the HM had arrived. Being a new happening in the class, there was obvious unfamiliar fragrance in the air (boys are not too clever - they could not avoid it of course) and our sensitive HM had found out! He was the kind of person who never punishes students directly. So he went to call the PT sirs (ya, they have no job otherwise during class hours - this was their chance to show their heroism)...
              In the intermediate time, our heroes wanted to cover up their 'fault'. Our classroom was in the first floor and we could always reach a tree which was bent towards our class in the corridor. Our heroes went and started to consume the leaves so that there would be no smell from their mouth if at all the Correspondent asked them to 'blow' (ஊத சொல்லுவாங்க; அப்போ தப்பிக்க தான்!)... What an ingenious brain! (U idiots, can u brush after tat b4 they come???) Anyway, they ate natural food for the first time in their lives...

            The villains arrive... PT sir (to catch their prey), HM, and some other jobless ppl... They ask our heroes; (the poor nerd was also enquired because he supplied the 'sidedish'; with great difficulty he escaped) heroes refuse to consuming alcohol. But their teeth are green :) LMAO!!! (அகத்தின் அழகு முகத்தில் தெரியும்; வண்டவாளம் வாயில் தெரியும்!) They are taken to the correspondent's room to have some fun there. They arrive in his room and wait...
"For perhaps the second time in their lives, our heroes realize that time is precious!"
Again, our time-conscious heroes wipe off the 'greenery' on their teeth so that the villains won't be able to prove their wrong (genius brains... but anti-climax awaits...)! Correspondent arrives...
Corres: "Boys, ஏன் டா குடிச்சீங்க?"
Viji speaks on behalf of our heroes: "நாங்க தண்ணி அடிச்சதுக்கு என்ன ஆதா....... (proof)... Saying so, he falls on the floor... :)

May be, students rocked this time around! ;)
p.s. They were dismissed, but were re-called on the eve of board exams. They wrote their final exams and scored above 1000 out of 1200 :) !

Lesson to be learnt from this story:
"Drunkards score well"
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Hope u enjoyed it! Have a funny life! :)