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!

Observations in Rural India

It was one of those rare difficult days in office after which I returned home to read something and face the next day with extra enthusiasm. I stumbled upon one of my favorite topics from B-School life - the 3 box solution. An interesting interview of Prof VG on this topic can be found here. His closing comments had a lasting impression on me "It (The Three Box Solution) applies everywhere. Not just business, it applies to churches, universities, non-profits, countries/governments, and to personal life. The central idea in the 3 box solution is that the future is now. The future is not about what you need to do in the future; it’s about what you need to do today to create the future."
Those thoughts enjoyed a good rest in my mind for quite sometime. A little later, I had to visit my hometown for a few days due to personal reasons. A walk around the town, and there were telltale signs of a beautiful, idle town that could become unlivable in the near future:

• The town has a population of around 70,000 as per 2011 census. One could expect it to be around 100,000 in 2017.
• The area of the district is 55 sq. km. according to government records. For the sake of discussion, the entire city is about 5 KM from the centre on both sides if we plot X and Y axis.
• Let's get to the point. At least 800 to 1000 two wheelers could be spotted in the town quite easily, which left me wondering - where is my town heading?

To put things into perspective, you can walk through the city in 45 minutes to 1 hour. How did so many vehicles come on roads? One can always argue that the purchasing power of citizens has increased over the years and folks are buying stuff. Nevertheless, a town as small as this was never built to carry so many vehicles.

In a city like Chennai or Mumbai, the roads were built to handle the traffic to a great extent. In towns like this, the streets are largely small, agraharam-type with no parking spaces. And four-wheelers are not yet taken into count. Add some 200-250 four-wheelers and you can already hear the town breathing with life-support. It can be stated with some level of certainty that many tier 3 / tier 4 cities in India are in this state right now so far as transportation infrastructure is concerned. Is there a way to improve here?

Let's try applying VG's strategem!
What's in box 1? Managing the present. The current state of 'stuffing in' automobiles into the town must reduce. The conditions of roads must improve to better suit free flow of traffic. This needs government will.
Box 2 is critical. It is never easy. The baby boomers' culture of "Get a job, get a bike, get a house" must go. Alternately, they can look at a bicycle-led lifestyle for office commute. And see how beautiful life is! And some other habits like, you know, following road rules would do the town a world of good!
The biggest difficulty with box 2 is that, there will be people in power who would have grown up this way. For them to challenge their own beliefs and get to work is not going to be easy!

Box 3 needs a visionary at the helm. Probably the easier way to make smart cities would be to target tier 2 / tier 3 towns since they are a whole lot smaller than the metros. Moreover, it is simpler to get buy-in from small town folks. Get some inspiration from cities like Amsterdam which have moved towards bicycle-led lifestyles! Once it is started, there will be no stopping.

The forces of Vishnu (box 1), Shiva (box 2) and Brahma (box 3) need to come together to make India a better place. If India lives in her hundred thousand villages, it definitely retires in these towns!

Not all rook endings are drawn;
Not all strategies are gas!

Until next time,
Adios!

Disclaimer: The views expressed are personal.

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!

An eye-opening lesson on sub-cultures!

"Traveling. It leaves you speechless, then turns you into a story-teller" - Ibn Battuta

One such official visit made me stumble upon a totally different culture that existed in a small part of a large organization, and how! Of course, I had come across traces of this culture in my IT days, but seeing it in real is a different experience!

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!

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.

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! :)

'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!"
-------------
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"
-------------
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!
---------------------
Back to Chennai city... traffic...
ak

The Chennai guy - PART 2

"Why is the room always airless?" I thought... I opened my eyes, and went back to sleep. The next day he woke up at 7 and the day had 2 rounds. The two great people meet in the evening again.

When the Chennai guy went to Vellore! (PART 1)

Sports persons have a very strong ego. City people have it too. They never say it out, but they all have it all the same!

Being chess players (this is the only field I know), we acquire by the habitual actions of the so-called "elite" company we get, some interesting peculiar character traits which can only be seen among chess circles.

Coimbatore - The Complete Place!

I wish all my Chennai readers a happy monsoon! :)

சென்னையில் மண்டை காய்ந்து உட்கார்ந்து இருக்கும் நண்பர்களுக்கு இந்த
blog post கொஞ்சம் சிரமத்தை உண்டாகும். ப்ளீஸ் பியர் வித் மீ!

I had the chance, rather, an opportunity to visit Coimbatore for a period of two days this summer and I got to say I am lucky to have done that. I really understood why CBE (Coimbatore) remains special to me.

Here are a few things that will attract you instantly if you are a Chennaiite (presently and also agmark)!

1. BUSES!

You will be surprised at the ticket fares. I travelled some 11 stops for 2 rupees! Also, the appearance of the tickets is totally different. Back here, it is written in rupees. In CBE, it's written 300 காசு,

Share Auto rides in Chennai!

"தமிழன் என்று சொல்லடா

தலை நிமிர்ந்து நில்லடா!"

This famous saying goes well for all of us who have travelled in share autos in this lovely city of Chennai!
Whether it is the Tata Magic vehicle or the golden-oldie yellow share autos (see images below), one thing is for sure - entertainment guaranteed! (Yeah, the tag line fits here more than it does for SONY television!)
Introduced only some years ago, the share autos have quite a bit of influence in the lives of Chennai people nowadays. From short distance emergency rides to long distance routes not covered by buses, share autos serve it all. We can stop them wherever we want and this only adds to our advantage. I am going to share here my own observations about this topical mode of transport covering the lighter sides of it!

 The first thing that strikes you about this 'hyper-modern' transport is that there is NO seating limit! It all depends on the moods and talents of the driver - he can accommodate any number of persons he wants!
 Being a frequent user of this means myself, I have experienced sitting in all the places. But I am a last bench guy in college - so I prefer to be seated at the last here also. One advantage in sitting at the last is that, u can have a look at all the other travellers. Sometimes, when I travel in Tata Magic, I prefer the front seat near the driver when I want to relax. (Usually I will be the only person seated there, so... privacy!)
There is one more funny quotient associated with the Tata Magic van - in some vans, you can find plastic stools at the rear end behind the main seating area. If you find such a van, GO AND TAKE THE LAST STOOL! It's fully worth it. You can see and smile at all the drivers and funny things that happen behind you. I have tried this many times myself and had had a nice laugh at all the other drivers who almost always look pissed off!
'Looking at them makes me feel I am much happier than 60% of Chennai's on-the-road population!'
Sometimes, people acknowledge my smile and they become happy too!

Of course, a coin has two sides. There will be some bad days when you have to be contended sitting in the middle of the auto...

'This is not funny anymore when you are 'out' in the middle!'

If you are in the middle, you are screwed! There is no comeback for you. You will be really upset finding yourself among all the old-aged pensive looking Indians! I always try to look happy but man, they all have a 'professor' look on their faces (No, I am not usually lucky to sit among pleasant looking youth boys and girls inspite of travelling many times) and they scare the shit out of me! I always think during these times... 'How on earth did I land up here???'

If you want to learn bad words in Chennai tamil, a share auto ride is definitely a top option!

(For boys only) : Share auto rides are quite popular now for entertainment purposes! It's mostly full-house!
(For girls only) : You will get a seat anyway, and stopping share autos are quite easy for you!

When the roads are full of ups and downs and you are seated in a not-so-friendly seat, better watch your *** :) !

All in all, you are not a Chennaiite if you are not enjoying your bumpy share auto rides!

Have fun! Happy travelling!
Arunkarthik :)

Riviera 2011 - Highlights

Here are some of the highlights of my memorable tour to VIT Vellore!

1. We managed to see a wonderful adventurous juicy scene in the middle of the main arena under the scorching sun at 3:45 PM on day 3 ;) (Prem and I were the only ones who saw!)
2. The guy in the Bihari dhaba could not convince us to order 7 plates of Hyderabadi biryani (we were 7 people)
3. I had to say 'please!' to the server to stop the order of Kadai paneer and order a Paneer Masala. He was a complete jerk. This was the first time I had to plead a WAITER!
4. The guys (Aravind, Abhay and Anandh) who left on day 2 evening missed the 'scene'! அப்படி என்ன அவசரமோ இவர்களுக்கு! சென்னை வந்து என்னடா சாதிச்சீங்க?
5. From day 2 only, new participants came from other places to provide entertainment for us! ;)
6. The over-hyped smoothies outlet (blue board) inside the campus could not do anything better than a lemonade. All the items had the same price - 50 bucks - and tasted similar - in different colors!
7. There was more crowd at the Reception desk on day 1 till around 1 PM than any other area @ VIT! ;) due to the artificial greenery!
8. VIT students also had to pay entry fees for the Pro shows!
9. SSN tennis team can play more! ;)
10. VIT campus is better than SRM campus according to me! (looks)
11. I will go next year if I get the chance!

Riviera 2011 - Part 2

Hi all!
For Part 1, refer my previous post! :)
Day 2 of Riviera happened to be the final day of our chess event. Those morons kept the 3rd round at 8:45 AM which was more or less our tooth-brushing time (Ya I coin some words!). I mean, who the hell gets ready at this hour? I was staying with the most active teammates one can ever get. I had to keep 3 alarms to wake up... myself! I think that tells the whole story. With unprecedented difficulty, we made it to the round on time. We defeated AMET University this round 4-0. The fourth round happened at around 10:30 AM. Our opponents were PSNA, Dindigul, a formidable opponent for any college at this stage. We played great chess (especially Shanmuganathan) to blank them 4-0. SSN College had lost to PSNA the previous day. So we had a 2.5 points lead going into the final round, which was scheduled at 2 PM on the 2nd day itself - there we are... nearing our completion!
We had time to witness a great stage show organised by Airtel. They had tongue-twisters, singing and dancing shows amongst others. It was great to see audience participation in everything. Except Tamil Nadu girls, all the other human beings took part in the singing and dancing (மன்னிக்கவும் தமிழ்ப் பெண்களே, நான் நடந்ததைத் தான் சொல்கிறேன்). We had an ordinary lunch at some mobile canteen outlet and went to the auditorium to watch tamil events.
Tamil events though did not disappoint us! When we were there, 2 events were staged. 1) A famous dialogue was played. The teams had to guess the movie in which it came. No points for that though - they had to sing at least a few lines of FOUR songs in that movie. Interesting enough! Some teams performed poorly for movies like Boss (a) Baskaran, Naadodigal et al. 2) Photos of singer(s) / music director / female singer(s) (any 2 or 3) were displayed and a song in that combination has to be guessed. This was even more fun than the previous one.
Our watches showed the time. Damn! 2:05 PM! 'What the hell' we thought. We are going to play SSN anyway and the results were decided by us! We left at 2:10 and finished off everything at 2:30
SRM first, SSN second!
Shanmuganathan, Aravind and Anandhraj left on the very same evening leaving 2 of us in the SRM team and 4 in SSN. SSN guys were our only companions and I felt the crowd was smaller now. It did not matter much however. There was plenty of happenings around to keep us going!
We watched the one sided Women's Badminton final where SRM defeated VIT easily 2-0. The match was funny even though SRM girls did not perform to their best (they said so)!
We fought with the organisers to get the prize and leave on the same day. After all the hassles, they agreed to give the next day at 11AM. Fair enough! One more day at VIT!!!
The very thought of staying one more night at VIT gave me a lot of energy! We went for an exotic dinner that night (SRM and SSN) and played the evergreen card game of 'literature'. Prem and I were the only ones who knew the game. We taught the game to the others and managed to play just 2 full games for 3 hours. Both the games were drawn 4-4!
We slept well... for a long long time! On day 3, there was no time prescribed for us to be awake. We could get up whenever we wanted (before 11 of course!). After we woke up, we just vacated our rooms, got our ID cards, got the Caution deposit back and packed to leave. We got out trophy, medals and cash award of 10,000 (yeah, a great prize money for a college event). The trophy was broken in VIT itself - we did not break it, a passer-by (participant from some other college, unintentionally) kicked the hell out of it! :)
On days 2 and 3, we tried out new stuff. We played silly games organised in the other corner of VIT. Mostly gambling games. Pay 10 rupees and get 20 if we do the dare. Anandhraj became an expert in arranging a chess board in 30 seconds! Abhay and I failed (with one black pawn remaining)! Anandh also tried holding a wet brick with 2 fingers (thumb and middle) for 90 seconds, but dropped it after 35 seconds! Games like these reaped a huge sum of money for the organisers I think!
We got the AC bus number 502 to Chennai at 5 PM - smooth travel to the rough city of Chennai! :)

SSN, SRM (and SSN tennis team ;) ) boarded the bus for a wonderful game of literature (we played 2) till we reached the outskirts of Chennai - a perfect finish to Riviera trip... a memorable one at that!
VIT rocks!

Arunkarthik :)

Riviera 2011 - Part 1

Riviera 2011 (http://www.vitriviera.com/home.php)- the annual Cultural event of VIT took place this year from Jan 30 to Feb 2 this year 2011. I had wonderful experiences in this sprawling campus. Read on for more!
Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT Vellore) ... for some people, the name says it all! I had always wondered why there was such a hype about this campus. Finally I got a chance to go to this so-called VIT. I say so-called because I knew nothing about this campus till... I reached the entrance!
Wow! - that's the word. The entrance is not ordinary at all, it looks wonderful. Having seen the SRM University entrance for almost 3 years now, VIT entrance certainly surprised me a lot.
'This is how a college entrance should look like', I thought...
With my team, I went in. Within minutes, I understood that not all public can enter. Everyone was presented with an ID card. Being a College festival, this basic security measure was necessary too! Got to say the registration process followed by the accomodation booking was rather clumsily organised by them. But for the beautiful girls at the help desks, this would have been a horrible experience for us. Anyway, they provided us enough entertainment to while away the time :) !
'All the walk was like a campus tour on day 1'
We were accommodated at L block, the last block of the campus. After our building, there's just fence and open countryside. This meant that we would have to walk for 25 minutes to reach there. But man, this is VIT - we were always entertained (so many events to see) till we got to the bridge. So the long walk did not matter much. :)
They gave us a big hall for lodging (DOM they called it there) and we did not stay with fellow SRMites. The friendly cricket team had already left by the time we reached there (They lost in the Semi-finals and eventually finished third) and the table tennis team had reached the previous evening. So they were accommodated in the H block which was much nearer to the main campus.
'Damn! We should have reached the previous evening!'
I have to mention this - the restrooms were top class! I have never seen such cleanliness in any college or university I have ever visited!
Coming to food, the customary mobile canteens for Riviera11 did not please me at all. Some were branded ones like Java Green (yeah, the same SRM thing), Pizza Corner, etc. Except for the Pizza Corner, others did not live up to expectations. I did not try Pizza Corner so I am not commenting on it. All the others gave food that tasted considerably worse than the already existing Canteens in VIT! We found this only in the last day that we stayed (Feb 1). Pity!
Day 1 we found out that we indeed had 2 rounds for our chess event. As usual, the arbiter did not know a thing about rules. We had to explain more or less everything. The 1st round finally began at around 2PM, not without the usual comedies that we do (we fought for the seeding) in these events. After finishing the 2  rounds (we scored 7/8 easily), we wanted to attend the Proshows. Since the tickets were outrageously priced, and also the fact that it was not so easy to get there from where we were at that time, we could not attend the proshows. From the photo gallery in the event site, it looks like the proshows went well.
We had a great dinner and came back for a tight sleep - we were so tired waiting and standing for the registrations. We woke up so late on day 2. More about it in Part 2!
By the end of day 1, we quite liked the campus... It is so nice and green. It is well planned, the hostels blocks are situated in proper positions, canteens placed appropriately to cater our needs. The main campus looks great - perfectly placed to study. I don't know how the academics happen, I am just saying about the atmosphere @ VIT!
'All in all, I was happy I could attend Riviera '11!'

If you have missed Riviera this year, you have missed a lot!
VIT rocks!
ak

Kolkata :)

Kolkata ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolkata )- 'The City of Joy' or 'The Football City' as people call it, is one of the cities I have visited the most number of times; and I still find it TOUGH!

We arrived at the Howrah railway station recently and found the magnificent Howrah bridge to welcome us... fine! It provides a great view alright (compared to the Cooum http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooum_River smell in Chennai, this is far better!) and I love it! But again, this city I feel is much worse than Chennai - I can assure you!

          First of all, the TRAFFIC - it's just horrible over there! Full of yellow colored taxis (ya, ambassadors!) that look like someone has done 'something' all over the city. And guys, traffic is supposed to move! Here, I don't think it happens ( above all, signals should be visible:) ). I have seen people eating lunch at signals (ya, tea & coffee also available) and I think it still happens! This city has a wonderful metro railway (ya, I am jealous that Chennai does not have one!) but I don't think it has done anything significant about the 'traffic on roads'! The railway station also looks like the biggest encroachment area in INDIA - people sleeping all over the station; dogs (animals in general)... it's just too much traffic inside the station too! The whole city itself looks too congested; it's too tough to manage! It's more or less like a big... well, fine, I am controlling myself! :)

        FOOD - When we say food in Kolkata, we always think about the mouth-watering rasogullas ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rasagolla )...Yeah, they are simply out-of-the-world but again, that's the only thing that this place can boast off! As an outsider if u go to Kolkata, it's tough to find a decent place to eat. Once I was in a tournament just next to Eden Gardens and I could not find a place to eat proper vegetarian food (non-veg hotel veg also ok). So I called my friend in Kolkata and he said "Go to Park Street!" What??? Take a metro to eat??? Nice! This says it all...

        RAILWAYS - This is a nightmare if you are from South India! (This applies to all places in general above Andhra Pradesh!) If at all you are in Second Class (non AC) compartments, pray God! Yeah, people just get into the reserved compartments and sit wherever they want to! And mostly, they don't know Hindi. Even if they know, they pretend they don't know (it doesn't matter even if they know Hindi ; tat's a different thing!). You are in trouble that's all! Even if u show ur reserved ticket, it's more likely that u ll have to bear with them. U ll get a 'part' of ur seat! And mind u - the so-called TTE (Ticket Examiners!) are most likely to be absent most of the time... In the south, this never happens! And u r most likely to get a fine if u get into the reserved compartments! In the north, it's PEOPLE RULE! :) and I don't understand why we even reserve! Once it happened that, the people got into the reserved compartments and did not open the doors for us to get in! Damn! Come here and see how it is (in the South)! In the south Indian states, right from food to toilets to seats, everything is mostly fine! I think trains like TAMIL NADU EXPRESS never go to Kolkata. Even if they go, I don't think they ll understand! :)

"Discipline is learnt in school!" At least, common sense!

If u are a vegetarian, please specify 'NO FISH!' :) because fish is mostly vegetarian in most of the places here!

I have always enjoyed the metro rail journeys though (Prem???)! They are fun if u understand what I mean! :) U can find many good-looking girls inside metros! ;)

But the buses... oh my God! Jeez... I hope they know how buses look like - again, come to Chennai and have a look! Buses are supposed to have windows; they look somewhat rectangular in shape; some buses have Air Conditioners; place names mostly are written in English (at least hindi for that purpose); and there is a conductor (ya they have a driver who I am not sure has a license or not!) who gives tickets! Enough about the description! And bus stops are marked for the knowledge of the public! (U must go to Kolkata to understand what I am trying to say!!!) The buses are mostly loaded full, yeah FULL, u can hardly breathe in places like Esplanade... It can be one hell of a journey - u travel at ur own risk! And if u look at the tickets, u can have a great laugh (nowadays they have improved though - they look somewhat like tickets!); previously they would have tickets that looked like exam bit papers - u can hardly see a thing! The conductors and drivers mostly have no uniforms (I don't think they even have one!) Ah... Enough said! Go and see the rest for yourself! :) I hope u r not unfortunate enough to travel in a bus in Kolkata! One more thing - the buses (so-called!) do not really STOP! They just slow down! U have to make use of the 'opportunity'! Sometimes life is cruel :) Good luck!

If u roam across the city, u will most likely find people spitting in most of the places. And most of the places look aloof most of the times- I really wonder where all the people go, I think they are on the roads stuck in traffic! Fair enough! Too much smoking too! It's not that I have never seen these things before, but Kolkata looks too special for all these... not that I am against Kolkata - the city of JOY! But I got to say, samosas in some of the platform shops are really hot and good! ;)

Kolkata has a few 'good' things too - the beautiful and peaceful Salt Lake City, the fantastic Eden Gardens cricket stadium, Howrah bridge, the trams (ya they exist), the traditional Kali temple, the books fairs, Salt lake stadium...

It's a nice place to visit and leave! I would never stay there though for these reasons:

1. I am a Vegetarian

2. I use public transport

3. I want to live in a metropolitan 'CITY'

4. I am civilized, at least to some extent :)

p.s. These are just my views - It does not mean that I hate the people and the place. I have great friends in Kolkata and I like the people over there. This is just my 'account' of the place from a public viewpoint! :)

Until next time, have a great life! :)

Inter Universities 2010

SOUTH WEST

       This time, SRM chess team was much stronger than ever before. The old people - Prem, Aravind and myself were there. Vishnu, Shanmuganathan (jammu), Adhiban, Sethu and Shyam were the new people :) So, there was, as they say in cricket, 'problem of plenty', which is good in the context of the team. Adhiban was in China, playing Asian games and Sethu went to Poland for a closed round robin. So, Vishnu, Prem, Aravind, Shyam, Tr and I were the teammates for both South west and All India (yeah, we know we will qualify).

       I was the Captain again as usual... But I can tell u, I really enjoy this tag! :) As usual, the manager and coach tell me some stuff before the matches; board order discussions, it's tough but fun at the same time. This time, the event was held at Sathyabama University ( http://www.sathyabamauniversity.ac.in/ )... home ground, it was easy to go and come; anyway, I stayed there... just for the so-called 'team spirit!'

The only teams that could put up some resistance against us were Anna University, VTU (Visweswaraiah Technological University)- that's it! Madras University was more or less without its star players this time around since everyone had already passed out - they completed their degrees! :) So, all we had to do was put up a decent performance against these two teams. We drew with Anna ... The fact that Anna University players had exams during the event helped us - they could not perform much; I really felt bad for the team... (We would have won anyway - that's a different thing!) We won the tournament with a phenomenal 31 / 36 - a South West record... We were really happy about our performance. Everyone - the players, the officials and the University people!

What makes team SRM click? More than the strength of the team (which is obvious), the secret is simply the 'team spirit'. A fact worth mentioning is that, a few months ago in Haryana, I had a chance to read 'Time to Declare' - the autobiography of Michael Vaughan.His captaincy experiences really helped me handle our team this time around. On paper, our team is quite strong; but when it comes to team, it's a new team and I had to bring the people together. I am happy that I handled quite well. The board order discussions were much better this year than all the previous years; the players enjoyed playing more than the last two years; lastly, the communication was great within the team!

        Shanmuganathan did an excellent job - above all, he came to play just after recovering from Conjunctivitis; he uploaded photos in facebook almost on the same days and influenced the team to a great extent. Vishnu gave me valuable suggestions before every game. Shyam played all games - he and I have made a sort of record - We have played in the same team for 4 different teams - Velammal school, Chennai Juniors, Chennai UT Dallas match and now... SRM. Prem and Aravind really enjoyed - they travelled together every time... This way, every one felt important in the team and played their part! It was a great experience altogether for me! Lots of lessons learnt too!
Also, I had the chance to meet some old friends - H__ Modi, Shri__ Raj, Sudhar___ and so on! It was great from a social viewpoint too!

Once again, congrats team SRM! :)

ALL INDIA

       The All India was again held at the Magadh University in Bodh Gaya and I can tell u - it's not the place u would like to visit. The campus is simply horrible - tasteless food; poor accommodation, no entertainment and almost no Internet which meant that there is not much connection with the outer world. We have visited this place in 2008 , so we knew the place very well. Anyway, we had to go there and play again.

Shyam could not make it due to unavoidable reasons. However, Vishnu offered to play - which was a great decision. He had to leave on the night of 8th to the National Premiers in New Delhi. Somehow, he made it!

        So - Vishnu, TR, Prem, Aravind and I - this was the team for All India. VTU and Anna University could not make it to All India due to reasons known to no one (or rather , not worth mentioning here!). Osmania and SRM from South West; Delhi, Amritsar, Magadh (home team) and Muzaffarpur from the North east.6 teams, 5 rounds... It was a relatively easy draw for SRM this time and we were determined to win the title convincingly. Delhi was the team to beat. Unfortunately, we only drew with them - I lost to Hemant so at the end of round 2, Delhi and SRM were on 5.5/8. But deep down, I knew this was enough for us because Delhi did not have the 'depth' to blank their opponents 4-0 in the rest of the games. And guess what, that was exactly what happened. The last 3 rounds, SRM blanked Osmania, Magadh and Muzaffarpur 4-0 and finished with 17.5/20 while Delhi could not do the same. So, we won the title with relative ease. Also, all the five players except of course Shyam, won board prizes (if Shyam had come, we would have got only on 4 boards)!

        In the closing ceremony, they invited me to talk on stage. It was a sudden call, somehow I managed! :D I did not mess up, thank God!

        This time, we had a rest day and we managed to play two games of Cricket with Delhi and Osmania people; it was a great rest day! We also had time to visit the historic place of Buddha at Gaya. It was a great trip , ok, we managed to make it memorable!

This was our first title in All India and I am extremely happy about it! Congrats guys!

As they say, "SRM rocks!" - the team which always redefined team spirit! :)