LITE RA MAMA

The B-School app process

2011-05-17T23:47:00.002+05:30

I am writing after a long time. I have just started the ultra painful process of a foreign B-school application. The enormity of the application is just mind numbing. It is a 5 step process in my opinion.

1) Crack GMAT
2) Cook up essays on "Why MBA" and "Post MBA Careers"
3) Shortlist univs (There is the whole world to choose from!)
4) Get good recos
5) Profile building - Show some extra curriculars, fast promotions at work etc

I had a discussion with the ever probing Sandeep who questioned the process saying " Dude if you have all that, then why do you need a MBA? You are already a world beater". This got me thinking.

Assume you have to get a loan from a bank. The obvious question from the bank is "security" or a "collateral". As it is often said, to get a loan from a bank you need to prove that you don't need it in the first place. Meaning- If you want a loan for X million, you show that you already have that X million (which becomes your security). In a similar manner, to get admitted into a Top MBA School, you probably need to show them that you are already "MBA material". Your GMAT indicates good grasp of quant and English; your essays reflect clarity of thought and clear goals; your univ selection indicates your ability to filter out relevant stuff from a plethora of options as each univ has its own specialization and also your enthu in doing some R&D before taking a decision ;your recos indicate a sort of a validation from your supervisors about your ability and your extra curricculars indicate how passionate you are about your interests (which probably translates to passionate about work since it automatically qualifies to be an interest as you want to do THIS work in future). So what the Top B School is "lending" you is its Brand; a comprehensive learning experience; networking and ofcourse a position in that company which might elude you without an MBA(the Brand guarantees this). In turn the "returns" you give to the school is your industry insights from your work ex, your decision making skills which you acquired while steering your company's s decisions, your leadership potential and a whole lot of other things which bring value to the class. So the 5 steps above is a sort of "guarantee" to the Admission Commitee which says " OK we are giving him blah blah things, this bloke will add value to the class and to the company which he eventually gets into by virtue of his learnings. "

Just my 2 cents on how I perceive the app process.

On a side note, I was scanning through the FT and WSJ's rankings of Top 100 B-Schools globally. It has stud B schools from the usual suspects like USA, Canada, UK, Spain, Australia, China etc. The surprising omission is Japan. Despite being a global economic superpower, it has NO B-Schools in the Top 100. I actually wonder if it has any great B-schools. A sort of a reply to the West which says "Screw your MBA. We produce top notch products and house some of the world's best companies without your overhyped MBAs". Let me do some research on this.

Singapore-First thoughts

2010-08-09T23:59:00.007+05:30

A trip to Singapore was on the anvil since March. After a long wait, my boss came up to me and said that the tentative date was Friday, July 23^rd. My VISA processing took up extra time because of which I had to get it postponed to Sunday 25^th . That meant 2 bad things – (a) I was losing out on allowance for 2 days. Given that allowance per day was substantial, the loss was actually not a small amount (b) The wretched Singapore Airlines flight leaves at 11-30 PM IST and arrives at 3-30 AM IST, which is 6AM SG time. So effectively Monday is screwed.I flirted with the idea of taking a Jet Airways flight on Sunday morning.3 of us were going, so on further persistence from team-mates, I ditched the plan and stuck to Spore Airlines.I packed more than necessary baggage for my first international trip and also weighed it to ensure I didn't end up discarding stuff due to excess baggage. I had another uphill task on Sunday - vacating my Kilpauk house. We were vacating in the 1st week of August to T.Nagar. I did the packing for Spore and shifting simultaneously and conveniently handed over the task of shifting my baggage to my roomies since I would be away on 7th.The usual hourly update calls from parents took place."Did you weigh your baggage?". "Double check the passport,ticket,hotel reservation.Take enough forex on hand.Call up paati before leaving,OK?" and so on were the instructions given over phone.I finally finished both the packing in the last moment and called out for a taxi. Since the taxi travel would be reimbursed, I explicitly mentioned "AC car", with the tone of a person who has never travelled in non-AC.I had fended off a few calls by friends in the day due to my hectic schedule. I spent the travel time to airport in catching up with the calls.Finally I reached the Anna International airport.

The airport looked anything but international. However, it is under renovation so a major overhaul can be expected.We finished the check-in early and had lots of time to kill in the waiting hall.The smoking zone there had equal no of firangi females-this was my first sign of things to come.I spent my time on phone and finally boarded the beautiful plane of Singapore airlines.The air hostesses were smoking hot chinkis.I just imagined saree clad fully decked air hostesses namasteying me and immediately patted myself on the back for not choosing Jet Airways.After settling down,I noticed the uncle beside me watching Vikram's Kandasamy, a wannabe Sivaji.Shriya was hotter than the chinki airhostess,so I just played around with the remote to catch the give-up movie, all along pretending that I was a seasoned traveler. Despite my best pretending,I just couldn't spot the movie.I thought the movies were different for each seat (:P) and continued surfing to spot other good movies. I finally gave up after wading through stupid movies and asked the uncle for Kandasamy.He showed some option,with a look on his face which suggested that it was easier than adding 2 and 2. I grinned and started the movie.I was already damn hungry by then.I also had to sleep considering that I would land at 6AM and had to go to work straight from hotel.But hunger kept me awake.The usual welcome drink was served but food was nowhere in sight.I was swaying from hunger to sleep and back.I half dozed off, but keeping my nostrils wide open to smell food.It finally arrived after what seemed like years and I gobbled it up.It was just tomato rice and raitha,but hunger doesn't know taste.It was yummy and I finally dozed off.

It was very odd to wake up in 2hrs as I was sleepy and full.Changi International airport was simply superb.Now that was truly international.The first thing that struck me at the taxi stand was the ordered and structured taxis and people in queue.We got into a plush Sonata , which was the most common taxi.The slightly less common were Innovas,Mercedes,Corollas etc.I was still groggy and dawn did not break out yet.The roads were broad and clean,with a good dose of greenery.It anyway was a highway, so I couln't make much of a difference. I didn't even see my hotel properly.I just went along to the reception, did the formalities but had to wait as my room still had an occupant. I directly went to my colleague's room and just jumped onto the king size bed.I didn't know anything else for 2 hours.I was finally woken up at 8-30AM by my TL.I slowly woke up and went near the window.The sight really woke me up with a jolt.I was on the 16th floor with a skyscraper in front of me and a swimming pool on the 5th floor.I was thoroughly excited.This, was a kick-ass start! Further kickassery continued when the female beside me in office was in micro minis. And it is called formal western wear. me ogle at the chinki beauties for a 3 weeks before returning to Thamilselvis with jasmine pinned to the hair.

PVR

2010-06-27T15:37:00.002+05:30

I am quite peeved with PVR. at Ampa Skywalk near Anna Nagar. As of now, Ampa is Chennai's biggest mall. Situated beside the stinking Cooum, at the crazy NMR-Poonamallee junction with stratospheric levels of pollution and decibel count. Kudos to the location.Express Avenue (EA) at Royapettah, which will soon be the biggest, however is at a mundane cleaner location and center of the city while simultaneously bordering Citi Bank at the other end. Totally spice less. So going back to Ampa,my first irritation is with the name of the mall. Whoever has heard of a mall called Ampa? That is like calling a tech park Senthil Velavan IT Park. Add Peeliamman Thunai to it, and it sounds awesome. A small background on Thunai. All cabs,autos and taxis in Chennai think that their lives are in utmost danger on the roads. Hence they want divine intervention. So 9 out of 10 cabs/autos/taxis in Chennai have a bold so-and-so Amman Thunai. Thunai, I suppose is company. Since Amman always accompanies these auto drivers, they now have the courage to drive at break-neck speeds and flout the rules because Amman will take care of them. I propose that we discard the Thunai sentiment. I am sure the count of the erring drivers will reduce by 50%. So what were we talking about? Ennapa? Illa pa it is Ampa. Right.So let us add a Vaidhya Veera Raghava Perumal Thunai to it. Super. So what about the skywalk? Skywalk brings images of a bridge at the 50th floor connecting the twin Petronas Towers in Malaysia.An Indianised poorer version could be a bridge at the 10th floor. This Ampa Skywalk bridge, decked in yellow, is above the 4th floor, connecting 2 wings of the complex. Kickass I say! So we walk through the Skywalk and enter the red-light area called PVR Cinemas. There is Red everywhere. Red lights, red carpets, red counters etc. It resembles a red-light area literally and figuratively. The entire place is so badly done that it reminds one of some village mela. The PVR at Hyderabad/Bangalore is no better. The red aspect is equally overboard and flashy there.

The seating is actually pretty cool, of course in red. No cribs about this. But the seats were so close to the screen that I could see the hero's nostril hair. God knows what other hair would be visible from the chair. There were just 10-12 rows of seats in all with a huge screen in front. It was like a big screen in my hostel mess or common room. An aside - To all IT industry managers who want to give a motivational speech to their donkeys(also called reportees): Common is NOT EQUAL TO Come on. OK? Please take care while mailing. We checked out the food counter during the interval.part from the main pop-corn and free calories drinks counter, there were other vendors out there to squeeze out our blood. There was some hot-dog selling for 75 bucks. Thanks to the huge queue at the main counter, we decided to check out the non crowded HotDog. We ordered 1 veg Hot dog. I got 2 long loaves of bread with a pinkish stuffing. I wondered if that was dog meat, served hot and hence the name. I cross checked with the guys twice. Their repeated assurances did not satisfy me completely, but I still dug my teeth into that. A week-old rotten bitter gourd curry would have tasted better. Hot Dog it seems. Even a dog will not eat that.

We got back to our seats. Matter over, THE END and we came down. The mall issues an IT-company-access-card type token for parking, to be paid after the show. I gave it back at the counter and the guy coolly asked for 30 bucks. What the #$#$? "Why?", I asked. "20 rs for 2 hours, 10 for every hour above that", he said. So 30 bucks for a 2.5 hr movie. I made a quick calculation on the long spiral way out. 120 for ticket, 20 for online, 75 bucks for Idiotic Dog and 30 for parking.Close to 250 per head! I swore I would never revisit PVR. Sathyam is so so cool and better. It is THE BEST multiplex among Hyd-Chn-Bang in my opinion. The ticket costs 120, online is just 15 bucks, and parking 10 bucks, and the interiors are far classier. Totally looking forward to the new Sathyam at EA and hoping for one at Hyd also, the Gult that he is. For the record, the owner is the son of some Reddy MP from Nellore and stays at a palatial bungalow just 2 min from my office. Reddy garu, you rock! PVR - no comments. I think even this guy is Gult. Not sure

Give me a normal 50 bucks theatre please!

PAANCH POINT PETROL DAALO

2010-05-23T16:37:00.008+05:30

A conference call with my childhood buddies on a non happening Saturday night reminded me of an epic phrase used in our school and early college days - "Paanch point petrol daalo" (Put 5 points petrol). A peculiarity of mine is that a Saturday night MUST have something happening - else it is one precious night wasted. Ok ? Anyway,in those days petrol bunks did not have digital counters, petrol cost 40 bucks, we were non earning 15-16 yr olds and SRK-Karan Johar combo sucked. These days petrol bunks have stylish digital counters, petrol costs 55 bucks and SRK-Karan Johar sucks even more. So yeah in the non digital days, 10 points(0.1,0.2... to 1.0) on the counter was equal to 1 Litre. And we had to go the grounds around 3-4kms away for a bet match. Obviously we couldn't walk down that distance. We had to take our dad's discarded bikes. I mean Chetaks, Kinetic Hondas and Priyas. That too triples (trikki in local lingo) because of the demand-supply inequality. Also a fact worth reiterating is that these Chetaks were exclusively for our use because their 45yr old dad drivable life was over and only rough and tough 15yr olds could handle it. We handled it with grace of a Laxman flick, style of a Sachin straight drive and economy of a Wasim Akram over. Since we had to take the shortest route in order to avoid the police mama,the 15 yr old Chetak was driven across many slums, untarred roads, shady dwellings and the likes one usually saw in the movies where 2 baddies exchanged briefcases after raping the hero's sister. All this was done trikki. A few enterprising pokiri kids from the neighbouring colony even went to the extent of performing stunts on the Chetaks to impress the 10th class girls in our colony. Sadly my dad had discarded his robust parrot green Chetak in 1997 for a non-spicy, dull Kinetic Honda, so I never really had a chance to change gears and become macho at 8th class.I think we have had enough background on the Chetaks.

So Sriram's dad had a green Chetak, Sharat's dad a blue and Shankar's dad a white. These were our primary modes of transport to the ground, movie, roadside pani puri and Chinese noodles. Let us check out the financial aspects now. As a rule of thumb , we invariably HAD to eat mirchi bajji/chaat/jilebi/manchurian followed by Mountain Dew or Sprite almost daily in the evenings. So that ate up 20 bucks per head. The matches were played in the mornings and as mentioned earlier at grounds around 3-4 kms away. Since the scooters weren't used by our dads anymore, the fuel filling responsibility was completely left to us. Mind you, it had to be done within the alternate day allowance of max 30 bucks. Since 20 bucks had to be saved for the evening, we resorted to the trick every second middle-class guy our age, across the world did - fill just enough fuel to last for this moment. Thus was born the epic "Paanch point petrol daalo" . I guess 0.5 on the counter needed a 'Dravid square cut' level stylishly name instead of a boring 'Chanderpaul defence' level name like Point Five Litre. Hence the name Paanch point petrol. This half litre usually lasted for 2-3 days. On the rare occasions where 50 bucks remained, the smart guys used to ask for 1 litre - half in the tank, another half in the bisleri bottle in the dickey for an emergency (which usually was very often). Awesome, right ? There were other ingenious but ethical methods to raise quick money on days where had to watch movies First Day or a grand meal at Papaji-Da-Dhaba. It was, hold your breath, selling newspapers. Total kickass. Assimilate the papers, go to the old thatha at the paper shop, and come back with a whopping 50 bucks. The other guys even sold whiskey bottles discarded by their grand dads. That also had excellent returns. The harvest of 50 was usually spent without a cent remaining. Ah, what joy! Just to contrast, I spent 50 bucks a few hours earlier for a mango milk shake. That was of course superb so no cribs. In the engineering days, my friends used to buy every textbook at the beginning of the semester and treat them with utmost respect, care and devotion. They took care not to deface any page or sully any parts. The reason being - textbooks(past and current) also served as a ready source of quick money, that too big amounts like 200-300. When the need for 300 arose, typically a birthday party with excess booze, the spic n span textbooks were sold off, only to be bought later at the same place for a throw away price before exams. Well, have you ever thought of selling current year textbooks? Genius move.

This might give some wrong impressions that our parents were the kanjooos kind and stereo typical Tam Brahms as portrayed in movies. On the contrary, they were quite generous and always gave money when asked. Just that we were more generous while spending and so it was never sufficient. I don't remember any instance of being denied money as such. However, I am sure that any amount of pocket money wouldn't have been enough! We used to travel 12kms just for chat at Jubilee Hills, followed by juice at Mayurs. We always needed more - more for movies, cricket, eating out, shirts and what not. Of course I don't repent even a bit because we had a huge blast, actually at nominal rates. Cut to the present. None of us use Chetaks or Kinetic Hondas. In fact Chetak production has been phased out. We graduated from 2 wheelers to cars to roam on the streets of Hyderabad. We take control of the bill and argue "I will pay". My Apache always gets a full tank once in a month, using a credit card. The paanch point days are gone. We only deal with paanch sau (500 bucks) on going to a petrol bunk. I am really curious as to what 15 yr old kids these days do. In all likelihood, their dads must be earning whopping amounts slogging in Infosys as AVPs. I am not sure if these kids play. I mean sports and not games. Even if they did, it would be going to coaching classes with a driver and unanimously agreeing that Yusuf Pathan is the best player in India. What a pity I say. A superb meal at ITC Sheraton or a plush seat at a PVR multiplex will not give me even 10% of the enjoyment and satisfaction I had then. The common answers to the best dialogue would be mundane stuff like "Mere paas maa hai" in Hindi; or one among many immortal Rajini dialgues in Tamil. For me, the one phrase that stands above all these dialogues for the memories associated is Paanch Point Petrol daalo.

CHENNAI 4/20- THE TWIN ATTACK

2010-02-08T19:19:00.009+05:30

April 20th will go down in the history of Chennai as "Black Day".Chennai was bleeding from head to toe with a few ruptured ribs and non functional bones, thanks to the unprecedented riots,arson, vandalism, mob fury,burning of buses etc. The arson started just a couple of minutes after midnight.More than a 100 are seriously injured and public property to the tune of crores has been damaged. IT companies and BPOs were forced to shutdown,because they operate only in night shifts.Pubs anyway close by 11pm, so no damage was reported.The total loss due to stoppage of operations is said to be atleast 500 crores, but the actual figures could be much higher.

In a double blow that will put Hiroshima-Nagasaki twin attacks to shame, Chennaites got the shock of their lives when The Hindu and Hotel Saravana Bhavan(HSB) simultaneously tweaked their policy by 1%. Call it coincidence or conspiracy, but the shocking fact is that 2 such incidents have had to happen together.The Hindu has decided to post atleast 1 interesting article daily and HSB has decided to reduce all rates by 50p and increase all quantities by 1gm, with effect from 4th April midnight. Upon announcing this,crowds immeditaley thronged the various branches of HSB to get the last few morsels of overpriced food.Huge and serpentine queues were seen outside the main branch at Vadapalani and the police was called to control the crowds. The otthers meanwhile resorted to random attacks.

The Communist Party which was silent over the past few months mourning the death of their tall leader(actually short) Jyoti Basu, has decided to rise to the occasion and get back to doing what they are best at-Resist any change in the prices of any commodities without giving it a thought.They are planning to sneak in a few of their comrades from across the Kerala border in Coimbatore as well. They are planning to take the support of Liberation Cheetahs as well.

Meanwhile,the other hotels are watching the developments closely. The Sangeetha group, which matches HSB to the T, atleast in pricing if not the quality, has decided not to touch any of their rates.Particularly the Adyar and Citi Center branches have been given strict instructions not to compromise on the cost. For the information these are the costliest branches.Hot Chips,Murugan etc have also decided to stay put with the existing rates. Vasantha Bhavan is contemplating a hike in the prices, thereby putting to practice the make hay while sun shines theory.

It is rumored that both The Hindu and HSB,in the wake of stiff competition from TOI and Hot Chips respectively,decided to rope in McKinsey India to give their sagging sales a boost. An IIT Madras guy, Karthik Vaidyanathan, is said to have come up with the brilliant proposals after spending 5 months putting in long hours at work, roaming around Chennai in a suit, doing a thorough study of the existing policy and that of the competitors' and making secret trips to his house in T Nagar in the garb of work.Karthik has escaped to Mumbai but his relatives here are a worried lot.They have sought police protection.The dept has posted an officer at each of their houses and plans to escort his father to work too.Any case,the dept is adept at spending crores to protect a criminal like Kasab. Spending a few thousands for an upright Indian Overseas Bank manager will not do any harm.

Our reporters interacted with a cross section of the vandals to gauge the public pulse.An overpaid IT employee who was burning The Hindu furiously says - "This is ridiculous. After a hectic day's work,I use The Hindu to sleep. If it is made interesting, I am deprived of that small pleasure also.This is just inhuman." Another IT employee seen damaging HSB rues "I am used to spending Rs 30 for a cup of Pongal which is not more than a Tirupati ladoo. If he reduces the cost,how can we manage our expenses and financials? I have to spend hours to recalculate the family budget.This is just not cricket". A gang of mamas and mamis sporting naamams were seen conducting a funeral ceremony at Mylapore Tank with a garland on the picture of HSB Mylapore branch .A disturbed mama says, "This is nonsense. I mourn the death of HSB. It is no lonnger alive for us.I always used to love the 18rs coffee before a kucheri at narada gana sabha. Now with lesser rates less even other castes will come and spoil the sanctity of this place which is within 100 metres of a temple. The TAMBRAS has unanimously decided to quit going to HSB.We also plan to put up an obituary ad in The Hindu. HOTEL SARAVANA BHAVAN,born 1985, attained Acharyan Thiruvadi last night. "Another member of the mob, who belonged to the Health Club says ,"HSB did a great job of checking people's obesity with their minimal quantity. Now with the increased food, I fear all Chennaites will have a pot belly and it will be difficult to identify a policeman".

The HSB management is just flabbergasted."We totally don't understand, we are always famous for overpriced meals - you need to donate blood and sell kidneys to pay us .We also serve insanely low quantity that will get digested by the time you reach ground floor from our 2nd floor.The situation demands that prices be reduced, given the intense competition. Even after reducing ,we are still in tune with our astronomical pricing-minimal quantity policy. The riots are totally ridiculous"

Seeing the trail of destruction, Karunanidhi decided to go on a fast, after breakfast, upto lunch at Anna Arivalayam. He has called on a team of doctors too to monitor.He has a Plan B also ready, unlike his AP counterpart YSR who kicked the bucket plunging the state into chaos due to issues in identifying the new leader. Stalin will clearly be the CM and Azhagiri can continue screwing hapless women in Madurai.Btw CM has given strict instructions to come up with something concrete by lunch time so that he can break his fast. He is afraid that starving beyond 4 hrs at the age of 85 can put him on a permanent fast. Meanwhile DMK cadres have lined up from Guindy to the airport to form a human chain, braving the scorching Chennai heat.Another worker threatened to self immolate.It was only threaten- he just poured kerosene over himself.Little did he know that he had indeed immolated himself - the Chennai heat burnt him to death . Further development shows that Karuna has decided to negotiate with N.Ram to go back to square one and publish only stuff like poor runways in Indian airports, birds in and around Pulicat Lake, discovery of 11th Century frescoes in Peru etc.N Ram has agreed to talk to Karuna mainly because they both are atheists and have a mutual respect for each other. But HSB owner on the other hand, with a strongly theist and heist background, wants to poke Karuna with a Vel from the HSB logo. He is anyway adept at murdering, so taking a risk like this is like eating rusk for him.Karuna of course is suppressing a smile and delighted at the back of his heart for causing pain to Tam Brams.

Autowallas meanwhile are having a hearty laugh. "No one will protest if we reduce the rates.As it is we quote 60 bucks to go to IIT from Madhya Kailash.Make it 50-40 hell even 30 and we still will be overpriced. I only see protests if we start using meters because that would mean more than 50% reduction in prices. Anycase if the protests start, we can pacify the agitating public by promising them rigged meters so that they end up paying 10% less than what they pay now.Like our superstar, we also proudly say"Naan autokkaran,nyayam ulla rate kaaran".

The other persons who are having a hearty laugh , of course apart from autowallas, are Mani Ratnam and RGV. Mani has decided the topic of his next movie and also has plans to bring back an overfed Manisha Koirala. RGV meanwhile, has tentatively titled "Chennai ki Aag" with Big B, Abhi and Ash. Up a 700kms North, Rosaiah is absolutely delighted with the riots in Chennai and wants to poke Karuna in Face book and say "Take That. You laughed when Hyd burnt. Now we will laugh.Muahahaha. Take KCR for help if you want". Now IT companies want to shift back to Hyd. Finally an old grumpy thatha was seen shaking his head in dismay,clutching a worn out copy of The Hindu in tatters. He said "I will post an obituary of The Hindu in The Hindu"

LONG TIME NO SEE

2009-11-03T20:45:00.006+05:30

Been more than a year since I blogged. This was a good time killer when I had infinite time. Right now there is no time to kill ! Also, the interest is on the wane even among my friends, whose blogs I used to follow religiously. I guess the same lack of time is the case everywhere.

Somehow I feel 9 to 6 types on weekdays, with a half day on Saturday is better than slogging 9 to 9 and 2 full days off. Of course, the grass is always greener on the other side and unreachable grapes are always sour !I have reasons though -

1) If you are used to working 9 to 9, weekends sometimes can get boring with nothing to do. Instead of 2 holidays, if it is a 1.5, you wont be left with much time. Esp Sunday noons if you don't get sleep and TV has crap movies, pain wonly.

2) If you crash majorly in the weekends, Monday mornings are a huge pain

3) You are left with NO time to start a hobby / go to gym / finish some work. Most of the shops close by 9 and are closed on Sundays. That leaves just 1 Saturday to finish ALL your work and that includes household chores like washing, pressing etc

I have few more reasons. Of course I don't have "tearifying" work till 9, but it gets 9 by the time I come home if I have dinner also at canteen. This leaves me with just about enough time to read the Left biased Hindu, watch the oft repeated comedy on Sun Music and Siripoli, see Sagarika Ghose and Barkha Dutt crapping away and the ritualistic phone call.

Digressing from this, I now live in Kilpauk. There seems to be some thing with my proximity to politicians. In Thiruvanmiyur(more of Kottivakkam) I was a stone's throw away from Chittappa Sharat Kumar. In Kipauk, I practically live next door to the silent right man of Thatha, the Finance Minister Anbazhagan. He seems to be a no frills guy, there is hardly any poster with this guy wielding a pen as a visionary and a band of thugs beside him. Just a negligible painting opposite his house and the mandatory red and black flag. In fact have seen him board his Innova in the mornings when I leave to work.

My house is near the Kilpauk Water Tank, a mammoth tank. It is like a Kathipara juntcion level flyover among all flyovers. I presume it supplies water to major parts of Chennai. Kilpauk is also the abode of a huge no of Northies. Well Sindhis,Gujjus, Marvadis are all indhi pasanga for us right ? The nearest landmark near our house is a dept store called "Mummy Daddy". Apparently its been here since 1985. We went in to check out the stuff. The stuff is also since 1985 I say. The house is not very great. Particularly the bathroom flooring is pretty old. If I were to wash my clothes here, my clothes would get dirty and the floor would be sparkling clean. Somehow arranged for a "Mummy Daddy" level 2nd hand washing machine. It is of TVS make. Do they even produce now ?

Kilpauk also seems to have been a major abode for the Britishers. Most of the roads have Bangalorean names like Barnaby's Road, Ormes Road, Langdon's Road,Aspiran Garden (where I stay). Still wondering how Thatha has not renamed these. I am sure these will be rechristened Loo.Su.Manivannan Salai and Kay.Di.Periyakaruppan Salai soon.

It has been raining non stop for the past 3 days. With Cooum ready to overflow (or some nala I am not sure) just behind us, we got to be proactive and inform the minister's security guys ! I am going to call them, of course after safeguarding the electronic items....

BUT PAPPU CAN'T DANCE SAALA

2008-06-23T11:53:00.002+05:30

is a song from the latest Aamir Khan production Jaane Tu .. ya Jaane na . Music is by God and the songs are already chartbusters. The lyrics of the above song -

Hai muscular, hai popular, spectacular
Paapu ki gaadi tez hai, Pappu kudiyon mein craze hai
Pappu ki aankhen light blue, pappu dikhta angrez hai
Rado ki ghadi haathon mein perfume gucci wala

But Pappu can’t dance saala, Pappu can’t dance saala
Pappu naach nahi sakta

What the hell. If I am muscular,spectacular and have a Rado watch, I care a damn if I cannot dance !

Hey ye.. ye.. Pappu hot hai and smart hai
Hey ye..ye.. karta hai France mein holiday
Hey hey hey Pappu guitar bajata ha
But Pappu can’t dance saala, Pappu naach nahi sakta

Similar argument holds here !

AH ! BLISS

2008-06-10T23:56:00.003+05:30

My joining date has been changed twice so far ! It was postponed to August 18th and then following a rebellion and a volley of mails from our side to advance it, it now stands at July 21st. I guess this is the final official date as the HR herself has mailed us personally with the list of certificates and things to bring on July 21st. We will be reporting at Karapakkam (OMR) as against the N'bakkam campus followed by a week long orientation at Hotel Ambassador Pallava. I only hope there are no more changes.I am all eager to start working , rather eager to keep my mind engaged because for the past year I have been majorly vetti and jhak maraofying at college in the garb of project. It was actually a paid vacation of sorts thanks to the monthly stipend.

I am perfectly enjoying my vacations. Time simply seems to be flying. I haven't had a single boring moment so far. Apart from the eat,sleep,roam,movies routine and IPL in the first 2 weeks, the other time occupying things are internet,a teeny weeny bit of cooking, cleaning,( Oh yes my wife is lucky :P) reading etc. I have perfected coffee (apparently) and can cook up edible rice, sambhar and some curry. Cutting seems to be the only headache as it is taking ages for me. Ideally I should be able to dole out a full Tam meal ( rasam,sambhar,curry ) by the end of the vacation.My granny is home right now which virtually rules out any access to kitchen for the next week. Obviously she has been churning out finger licking stuff. This sums up a perfect vacation before the drudgery of a 10-11 hour work per day and monotony lying ahead.

I have seen Indiana Jones,Sarkar Raj, Aamir, Bujjigadu, only Ind Jon is worth a watch among that list. Aamir has been receiving amazing reviews and ratings. It seems to be majorly inspired by Phonebooth, Nick of time etc. However, it is neither engrossing nor captivating. The only unique aspect has been the showcasing Mumbai in a totally new angle - a glimpse of the Muslim infested slums, ghettoes,slaughter houses, markets etc.

A typical day's sleep is from 1am to 9am and 3pm to 5pm with minimal physical activity. This surely means a Jyothika level waistline and Rambha level thigh line in the next couple of weeks, as against the Trisha-in-Bheema level circumference as of now !

THAT'S IT FOLKS

2008-05-30T23:14:00.005+05:30

Note : I had posted this on May 16th, a couple of days before leaving IITM . I then wanted to edit it . Thanks to the wonderful net at home, I never really had the chance to publish it. I am reposting it now.

What began on July 28th,2003 has ended now. May 7th,2008 was officially my last day and grades were released today. It is now confirmed that its all over. The last one month was not very peaceful, what with thesis submission and another end sem on the same day, the last weeks of April and first week of May had been torturous. Like a Bollywood movie , it has been a happy ending with A grade in project. My first sem magic continues to haunt me. I put a wretched E in the final course in the last sem. Logically, it should be attributed to thesis submission and end sem on the same day. Practically, it should be attributed to the inadequate knowledge that thesis can be submitted peacefully even 3-4 days late, just before the viva. However,I am happy there are no last minute hurdles. I will be leaving once for all by 17-18th , once I am done with all the formalities. I have some works left in the meantime. The no dues is almost over, I have disposed many shirts, jeans and books, and computer and cycle ( Oh yes I got it back !) are the only things left. These will stay put at my aunt's house and retrieved later. The train tickets have all been booked, so volvo beckons. My joining date is July 2nd and I am surely looking forward to one solid month of eat,sleep routine a trip parents .

I have been wanting to share many things about a travesty called Dual Degree Project (DDP) which lasts for about 1 year . The Btech Project (BTP) is for 6 months. Crudely put, for a majority of the guys it is essentially about how to convince (a) Your guide and (b) The panel consisting of 5 wise men that you have done enough work to pass out with the coveted IITM degree. A project is essentially sabko ullu banao. Of course, there are many guys who slog and carry out their projects with utmost dedication. But regarding the others, there are a few time-tested methods. Given the amount of outsourcing done in the project, it could actually be renamed BTPO on the lines of BPO. The modus operandi generally includes

(1) Copy from vague and obscure source. Emboss it , add a medley of beautiful symmetric graphs and it sells like hot cakes. This is what music directors like Rahman ( Brazilian tunes ) and Pritham ( Korean and Indonesian tunes) do.

(2) Blatantly manipulate values. You just need to know what trend the graph follows after the experiment. The readings are all a formality. What we do in MS Excel the reality. It is an excellent tool to obtain wonderful, expected,tallying graphs. Just chuck out the aberrant value and obtain a wonderful result. Bill Gates needs to be mentioned in the acknowledgments alongside the usuak guide-parents-wing mates routine. As an aside, I have noticed Mtech students inlcude their GFs name also.

(3) This is the ultimate crack. In case of non experimental work, like analytical studies using ANSYS / FLUENT / MATLAB or coding etc Orkut works wonders. Join some community and actively participate in the discussions. After a week or so, post your problem. In all likelihood, there will be a bakra from some remote corner of the world who will chance upon your problem. A friend of mine got all his work done by a Chinese goat. His work was very similar and that chinki was a major enthu putter. He peacefully wrote the MATLAB codes and FLUENT stuff and gave our man all the graphs, images and everything. Strong stuff I say.

Btw the above list is in no way exhaustive.

Coming back to the vacation, amma has major plans for my Hyd stay. Cooking is the first of her priorities. She is keen on my eating home food atleast on weekends. I hope to grasp atleast the basics now and explore further later. Other than that , IPL, shopping, practicing not sleeping in noons, and getting used to a 11 pm- 7am biological clock are the other things in my schedule. Goodbye, IITM

GOODBYE, IITM

2008-05-17T12:59:00.002+05:30

This is the last blog post from my room. I will be leaving for good tomorrow evening. I am packing he comp now and it will stay put at my aunt's place and retrieved later when I come before joining. There are no feelings of India as of now, I guess I will surely feel the pain when I leave tomorrow. Goodbye, IITM.

DUBBING FOR LAXMAN

2008-04-25T00:14:00.003+05:30

- After being given "icon" status

W T F. Naku icon status aa. I better renounce it. As it is I don't have a place in ODI team. And my athleticism is being compared to the likes of Dada, Aloo etc. I can't handle this. Ok I can do one thing. Renounce my icon status and use it to bid for better players

- After being made captain

Ayya baboi. Ok, I have Gilly, Monkey,Gibbs,Vaas etc for experience. I will act as though I am at the helm of affairs but will secretly use them for field placing and tactics. I cant even hurt any bowler. I can only cut and slice him unlike others who murder him. So it is pointless to come in the middle order. I'd better use the initial power play field restrictions. I can atleast get 2-3 boundaries by flicks, slices and pushes. Else I am dead. So initially I will go one down and later go and open.

- 2 overs 20 odd to win against Rajasthan.

Goes to RP. (In hyd hindi) Dekh bhai. Merku field setting yeh woh nahi aata. Jo bhi hona bol. Main waisich act kartun aur field placing kartun. Aur thoda Gilly ko bhi pooch. Aur acchi bowling kar. And in the melee of things places an extra fielder in outcircle as a result of which it is declared no ball. RP ( to himself) - Kya c****ya hai yaar.

- 1 over, 17 to win

Discussing with Monkey. Monkey asks Laxman something. Lax ( to himself) - Nee yabba. Nene sastunna ikkada. Inka comedy chestava ra. Nake emi telidu. (You ass. I am myself dead here. And you ask me for tactics and do comedy. What do I know ?)OK do one thing. Just bowl something. Tail enders only no, we can pull it off.

- After losing 3 matches.

Man this is getting ridiculous. We had the best betting odds and Rajasthan had the worst and we lost 3 on the trot. The Hyd ground is also half empty. Goes to DC office. Hey! Can we have some more squads of cheerleaders ? Else no one will fill the ground at this rate. Currently we have 3 porn stars masquerading as cheer leaders at one section. We can have one at every fielding position. And add a desi touch by roping in Mallika Sherawat, Shakila, Rakhi Sawant, Mumtaz. This serves 3 purposes. The proverbial one stone, 3 mangoes
Firstly the ground will be full.
Secondly , the batsmen will surely get distracted. They will concentrate on other balls instead of cricket balls.
No cheering when are batting. Only when we are batting and hit in the deep will we have cheer leaders. Mallika with her fine legs will stand at fine leg. Aishwarya who has a third man ( Sallu,Vivek, Abhishek) will stand at third man. Mumtaz who has had a long off from films will be at long off. Rakhi who is never covered will stand at covers. Tanushree who revels in minis and midis will be at mid-wicket. Anyway I dont have cricketing strategies. Atleast I will contribute in this way.

NO MORE CLASSES

2008-04-17T12:59:00.009+05:30

It started on July 28, 2003 and ended on April 17, 2008. I just attended my last class at IITM. As is my wont, I went in 2 min late. I am sure I can never attend classes on time unless there is a negative incentive in the form of X beside my name.

My first class in 2003 was a core bore subject in Mech and probably one of the worst courses - Materials Science and Engineering . It had this stupid concept of prof in one room and the students in the other, staring at the screen like some movie ,and the profs did not take attendance. It was the foundation for bunking, sleeping in the last bench, killing time etc. Of course I wont be a loser and attribute my lack of enthu to the lectures, but yeah why should I take all the blame . I think I got 5/20 in the first quiz , the least score during my stay here . The best thing being in Mech is that you always have company , and in many cases people who outperform you. So yeah, there were people with binary value level marks also. Btw that course was scrapped the very next year. I guess it was an aftermath of our wonderful 2003 Mech batch. This reminds me of one incident, in another class though. A gets 1 and B gets 0. A goes to B and says - Macha I got infinite times more than you. Thus started the saga of proxies, bunking-and-maintaining exactly 75% attendance, one day internationals, xerox, assignment submission by faithfully adhering to just-in-time policy (JIT) with a six-sigma level accuracy like Mumbai dabbawallas etc.

4th sem had an awesome incident at which I laugh even now. One guy had not submitted the assignment like our entire gang. The prof catches him. Here goes the convo -

Prof - Did you do the assignment ?
Guy - No sir
Prof - I always see you in the last bench and you never have interest. You people slog day in and day out in your 11th and 12th and give up like this. You wake up at 4 am and go to Ramaiah's classes braving the cold Hyd winters and end up doing nothing here. What happened to that dedication, commitment etc
Guy - Sir I was in the evening batch.

The most common graffiti seen were IIT - Insti of Idiotic Teachers, Insti of Infinite Tensions and a coffin with an inscription - In memory of those who died waiting for the lecture to end. My favourite time pass used to be snake on Venky's mobile and arbit drawings on my notebook. A few samples are shown here.

This cartoon was obviously not an original one. A reproduction, but a decent one in my opinion. As you can observe, the girl has a :P expression. I urge my readers to come up with a satisfactory explanation for that. The winner gets to play basketball with that cute girl in her micro minis. In case the winner is a female she can chat with the cool dude below who has a cell phone surgically grafted to his left ear, given the plethora of calls he receives daily.

However, when I do have enthu I scribble down something which generally resembles an aeroplane taking off of every line. A few more samples -

These were about 2 famous playwrights - Arthur Miller and Ariel Dorfman, both of whom had strong Leftist ideologies. This was from a Humanities course - Drama. We actually had to stage a group play at the end of the course. Given that it was my debut, I had the least number of lines. However , I got to play the bridegroom in that play titled "A Matrimony of Errors". It was good fun though.

And yeah, hold your breath, I am about to reveal a tsunami causing news. There was a clamour for my notes in the 8th sem Mechatronics course. Many guys photocopied my notes as they felt mine was very legible. On a personal note I actually put major fight for that course and it was by far the best I had ever written . I can now proudly say "been there , done that" regarding all aspects of classroom life. I am not sad or nostalgic about it being the last class. Infact, there is no feeling at all. I am happy that I had at least attended it. I now bid adieu to the rooms which housed most of our classes - Class Room Complex (CRC) - 101,102,103, Mechanical Sciences Block (MSB) - 257, 357 and Machine Design Section (MDS) - 217,306. I hope my name is scribbled atleast on one bench.

I GOT PICKED-2

2008-03-26T22:17:00.007+05:30

So, it was well past 10pm now and the lights in the entire bogie were off. No dirty conclusions please. I sat at the edge of the side lower seat, she at the other edge.To add to your mood, let me include stuff like the moon was shining, and it was pretty cool. Everyone was asleep.

*****************
She - So when do you gen sleep ?
Around one. After net goes.
Hehe, ok I sleep at 12 types. I just can't sleep at 10-11.
Yeah, same here. ( She got the message that I was game for more chat)
Then some gen talk about movies, weekend hang outs etc. Since she was scolding Chennai, I too cribbed majorly. Again, I had to score points, right ?
Enter Pongal la Sambhar (PLS). Yes, he was as welcome as sambhar in Pongal. Why ?Because I was seated in his place , and now I had to move further towards her. He seemed to be of my age, and obly yet another s/w guy.PLS and the girl ( ok call her j) had already spoken to each other while I was reading. So, overlooking me ( I was beside her rem) , she talked to him for the next 5 min. I really felt odd. J sensed my displeasure , and well left him now. She resumed talking, that guy left, but intelligently I continued to stay put at my place. A call at 11pm, this surely must be PLM I thought. She was talking for a few minutes. Now, I had to do something. Genly window gazing. Thankfully PLM left in 5 min. I deliberately emptied my bottle of water and asked her. Again we chat for some 10 min. PLM calls again. She cuts, says we use CUG in company, so it is free. This might take time. I now decided to gather some sleep.

****************
Morning, around 6-30. I came down. She - Smiles. GM. I am so sorry, I had to cut you yesterday.
Me - Yeah its ok. So when did you sleep ?
Hmm at 4.
Whattt ?
Yes, phone itself till 1. Then I couldn't get sleep. I was staring at the moon.
I guess you were right. Like Jab We Met Kareena you sure talk a lot.
Hehe. I know that.
And what made you gaze at the moon from 1-4 ?
Hmm it was a beautiful sight.
OK forget it. Coffee ?
No thanks. I had it.
Hmm ok.

**************
It was almost 7-20am by now. She asked me when we would be reaching. I said in ten mins. She was seeing the stations like Falaknuma Palace, Malakpet etc. I said now 2 more mins. We started packing the bags and kept it on our seats. I decided not to act despo. I did not want to ask her no . Now the train started decelerating. I did not even look at her, feigning total lack on interest. And now halt. I picked up my bag, a bit sad. She too picked hers. The PLMs and kids also picked up and I was about to disembark. Voila!
Rajeev, I will be coming to IIT for some work next week. Can I have your no ?
(1000 watt smile) Oh ! Sure.
She takes out a slip and I blurt out.
Me - Why slip ? What happened to mobile
She- Hmm no charge.
I decided to give a final parting shot. Avunu mari. Raatiranta fone matladute charge ela untundi. ( If you talk through the night, how will charge be there)
Hehe.
Her sis comes, and she introes me saying this was the guy I was talking to. Thankfully my dad had not come yet. I gen aa smiled.
Bye Rajeev. Have a good time
Thanks. Wishing you the same . Bye
******************

The next time I am traveling in train, I have a ready pick up line for F 23.
Innocent face, a bit tensed, stumble here and there - " Excuse me. I am travelling along this route for the first time. Does this go up to Egmore? I really have no idea. "

blah blah

I shall update as and when I get a call reg her "work" at IIT :)

I GOT PICKED - 1

2008-03-25T21:31:00.006+05:30

Girl ( F - 23. I had already checked the reservation chart) - Totally tensed, in full chaos. "Excuse me, does this train go to Sec'bad ? I am travelling for the first time in this train and don't really know !
Me- "No, it does not. Kacheguda is the last stop."

(OMG W WAR 3 has started level reaction) Oh shit ! But I was told every train goes and told my parents to wait at Sec'bad.
Hmm. You can catch a local train from Kacheguda.
Yeah that's there but we stay at Sec'bad.
Anyways you can always call them and tell them to come to Kacheguda.
Yes , I will do that now.

(Break for one hour)
*****************
I would have traveled atleast 15 times along the Chennai -Hyd route over the last 4 years and never had a Jab We Metish, DDLJish or Before Sunriseish conversation. This was the perfect chance. Seat no 36 - F 23, upto Hyd; Me M-23 Seat 38 ;Seat 39 - F 23, Hyd. Neither great looking , but still great stuff.
*****************
Girl - Hmm so where are you working ?
I gave a similar WW-3 has started reaction. I am a student.
(Girl as shocked as Prabhu in C'mukhi when he discovers that Jyo is going to kill him.) Student aa ?
Hmm don't I look like one ?
No way. With your french beard and all you look like a 25 yr old corporate executive.
Hehe ok I am in final year, engineering at Chennai.
Hmm. Meeku telugu vaccha ( Do you know Telugu)
Yes.
Oh ok. Native Hyd or Chennai ?
Born, schooling Hyd. Engg Chennai.
Oh. Why not at Hyd ? Didn't get a good rank in CET or gen you wanted to study here ?
Hmm I got in IIT.
IIT aaa. You never told.
Hmm you didn't ask.
Aha. I thought you guys flaunt that tag liberally.
Yes. If you haven't noticed, I am wearing an IIT T-shirt.
Hehe ok. Btw, I am so sorry I haven't introed myself. I am (beep- censored) , stretches out her hand
Oh pleased to meet you. I am Rajeev.
****************
I am sure I had a kick-ass start. I had to have a six-pack middle now. The initial brownie points had been scored and enthu sustained. Obviously some pesky creatures have to intercept and poke their nose. Lets call them Pongal la Milagu (PLM) as Kabab mein haddi is passe. Milagu is the extremely despicable black balls in the delicious Pongal which gen aa people discard, but it's a huge pain. I think the analogy suits well. PLM-1 then majorly started paining me about tips for IIT as his kiddo was in 9th.
PLM-1 (to kid) : This uncle is doing IIT. Talk to him
Kiddo, with friends : Uncle, uncle blah blah
In my mind , as pained as SRK and John Ab in the new pepsi uncle ad- Enna rascala. Mind it. Use your Saravana Bhavan chutney sized brain . I am a student. No uncle business
It went on for a few minutes.
***************
She - Hehe see everyone thinks the same.
Me - Hmm blame the beard.
Hehe.
Ok forget it, so what do you do ?
Engg at beep college Hyd, passed out last year, employed with beep firm , posting in Chennai at beep
Oh actually even I belong to 2003 engg , I am doing Dual Degree. I get Btech and Mtech, hence 1 year extra.
Hmm. Good. You save 1 year.
Hmm yeah its good.
***************
PLM-1 ( I didnt know he was eavesdropping) Final year aa.Got placed aa ?
Yes. With SCB
Why bank blah blah
What package ?
Now this was getting uncomfy. I didnt want to reveal, kinda dicey situation. I thought ok ditch I wont even see him ever again and told him a reduced arbit amount.
***************
She - With a :O expression. Hey thats awesome.Congrats
Me - Thanks :)
She -Hmm, so have you read 5 point someone ?
Yes. Its good fun. But exaggerated.
I thought as much. Stealing question papers and most stuff seemed too much.
Yeah. But life is more or less like that. We do major time pass.
Ah !Please don't bluff. I am sure you spend hours daily digging your nose into books.
No. Free net in room plus single room. I am online 20*7 ( No net from 1am-5am :P) . LAN is there. Orkut,gtalk,movies,sitcoms this is what we do.
Oh thats cool. You said gtalk.
Yes. Majorly
That means you have a gf. Why else will you chat so much ?
Hmm. I am jobless. I have many friends. Chatting need not mean gf.
Bluffing. I am sure you have a girl.
I think, therefore I am single.
Aha interesting !
Me, or the quote ?
The quote . Nice one.
Hmm so I am not ?
Hehe now please dont do nitpicking.
Ok, I am single.
Hmm, it beats me how you guys are left !
No answer. Smile. Blush.
Ok. Do I remind you of Jab We Met .
As in , you look like Kareena ?
Hey no ! Do I talk like her ? Ekkuva sollukodutunnana ?
Hmm so far you have been tolerable
What do you mean !
Whatever I just said.
Ah, you are free to resume reading .
I will, if I find this boring. ( Bring on my super smile)
Kinda laughs. Ok you can go then.
Hmm so you find me boring ?
Hehe ob I didnt mean that !
Ok. So do I have the liberty to read at my will or need your consent ?
Hey I am very sorry. You can do whatever whenever you like !
Hmm. What if I really pick up the book now ( Smile again)
Oh god! Can we please digress.
Hehe ok so how many months in Chennai ?
Oh 2 full months.
Liked it ?
Majorly cribs. This that etc
***************
It was around 10 now. I had finished my dinner . I had the upper berth, she had the side lower. Now PLM-1 enters, says he wants to put up the middle berth for his kid and he wants to sleep. I now had no place to sit. The best strategy at this moment was to buy time, so that she herself calls me over to her place. Take out cell (zero signal) . Act as if some message. Go drink water and come back to original place and look helpless. She HAD to offer a seat now beside her.
***************

AUSTRALIA DOWN-UNDER

2008-03-04T21:33:00.004+05:30

Finally after a long and tiresome tour , infested with plenty of on and off field incidents, we have triumphed over the Aussies. The papers and cricinfo will give you plenty of reviews , I would like to point out my personal favorites and power plays , in no particular order though. It will obviously have an overdose of Sachinism, but I shall try to be fair and unbiased

1) Sachin's counter attack 60 odd at MCG, 1st test and Dada's fluent 40 in both the innings.

2) A very very special 109 in the 2nd test at SCG by Laxman - What an innings ! Silken drives, wristy flicks everything had a touch of class. Sachin broke the jinx of hundreds thanks to his patiently grafted 154* rallying around with the tail enders, though the 90s were in ODIs and he had a couple of snail slow centuries in tests against Bang in June 2007 though. Obviously it was reported that he played for averages, but then he had clearly mentioned that the field was spread for him. Again solid half centuries by Dada. He never looked so comfortable and at ease. In fact even his defence had the touch of authority and confidence.

3) The hour that shook Ponting ! A sensational spell by Ishant at Perth and the pacers setting up a historic and famous test victory at WACA. As Sunny said, a 19 year old rookie made Ponting perform Kathakali. What a sight ! Sandeep mentions the 2nd innings by Laxman also deserves and rightly so I acknowledge that. Just forgot to add it

4) Sachin's 153 and Viru's 151 in the Adelaide test , both at pretty good strike rates.

5) Gambhir cementing his place in the team with very good innings at No 3. The centuries against SL and against Aus while chasing 313 were awesome. He is very good while facing spinners and as mentioned by him started playing in the cover region also , which earlier used to go square as he tended to open the face of the bat. I guess Dravid can retire from ODIs now. His return is almost ruled out, which is actually a very unceremonious exit for The Wall. Actually I would prefer his return. No one can pull off a victory like he does while chasing when the chips are down.

6) Ishant again ! Totally bamboozling Ponting and Symonds repeatedly in the ODIs. Actually when Aussies toured India for the ODIs , Symonds made a whole lot of a difference with his 70s and 80s . We got the top order quickly but this guy( no, not guy. use f***er, b*****d anything you like) was the thorn in the flesh . Ishant sorted him out and we were able to restrict Aus in most of the matches. Ponting's comment - I am happy that Ishant is playing in the same team in IPL :P

7) Praveen Kumar's crucial spells in the 2nd finals and in the ODI where he bagged MoM.

8) The icing on the cake !Finals. Chasing. Huge pressure. 80 odd for 3. Top class fielding. A sell out crowd under lights at the majestic SCG. And an unbeaten, chanceless, no slog , superbly crafted match winning century by my hero. I couldn't ask for more . This should rank right beside his best efforts like Sharjah, 98 against Pak etc. One innings which I rate very high, which unfortunately is not remembered by many is the 90 odd scored against England last Aug-Sept. Uttapa's 50 helped India clinch a cracker of a match, but Sachin's blitzkrieg had laid the foundation for that. Full marks to Rohit Sharma for his great knock and 100 plus partnership with Sachin. This guy is very calm, composed , has a great technique and can hit the big shots. His 50 against SA in the T20 WC was a class innings. He can try recreating a Dravid for India in the near future.

9) Bhajji snapping up the right handed obnoxious fat ass twice in the finals and the left handed obnoxious fat pig once. Happy that his run out was also in Bhajji's over.

10) Obviously the 2nd finals and the winning moment.

What a feel ! I want to meet the Indian team and shake hands with each and every bloke who was instrumental in this victory . The MCG 1st test aside, I think we matched the Aussie side on almost all occasions and on many days on top of them. Full marks to Dhoni/Kumble and co. Chak De! India :)

RESTAURANT REVIEW ( WEEK UPDATE )

2008-02-24T15:23:00.005+05:30

The week was good - covered 4 restaurants, 3 being first visit and one a revision. The weekend was particularly good.

Vrindavan, Woodlands , R k Salai , Mylapore - This one is a pure veg multi cuisine restaurant with a very good ambience. The place has many beautiful paintings of Krishna and the different aspects of his life , thus justifying the name. The soup and starters were good. I assume roti/naan cannot be murdered by any one but the side dishes can surely be and that is what happened. We ordered kadai paneer , and thanks to the overdose of capsicum it was almost kadai capsicum. Thankfully the finale was good - veg pulao and raita both were good. I have read / heard that the desserts are also good there, but couldn't check it out. Overall a nice place. A 3-course meal for two should cost around 500.

Breakfast buffet, Savera, Just beside the above hotel - This is a 4 star hotel . The dinner buffet was a total disaster, especially because of the high cost (Close to 400 per head) , had very few items, not so great taste and limited desserts. I am actually kind of saturated with these grand buffets. There is absolutely no enthu at all. However, the breakfast buffet turned out to be really good, the high cost notwithstanding (200 per head) . I suppose the extra psychological satisfaction was due to the absence of any burden on my wallet . Idli, Vada,Pongal,Masala and Plain Dosa, Paratha-pickle-raita, fruit juices, toast, coffee and a plethora of non veg dishes. I did full justice. Ideally go on a weekend around 9-30 am thulp for about 45 min, go home and and crash. You can peacefully skip lunch. It was better than the breakfast buffet at GRT , which I think was the last wing treat last year just before our Kerala trip.

Mathsya , Near Hindi Prachar Sabha, T Nagar - Another good restaurant with a buffet option. We had a lunch buffet , it was not the grand GRT level but a thoroughly satisfying one . The items were limited, tasty and not very costly. ( 150 per head). Strongly recommended. It gets pretty crowded by 1-30 on weekends, so better to go early. I went there on my friend C2's 200 cc red beast - Bajaj Avenger. It scorched the roads on a scorching afternoon. It surely was a head turner, but then I was strongly dissuaded from owning one. Looks like Pulsar it is by July-August.

Cream Center, Near Park Sheraton, R A Puram - A 10 min walk from Park Sheraton , situated amidst greenery, this one was the icing on the cake. One of the best places in Chennai, and of course that comes with a price. It is damn expensive. Continuing the legacy of wing treats (a gang of 8-10 for some job treat), this time I went with the dear old Alak hostel wing guys. We caught the 5C and reached there @ 3 bucks per head. Totally wonderful I say. I get a great sense of accomplishment when I do not use these lousy autos. In fact I am trying my best to avoid it as much as possible. The restaurant is in a house, much like the Mocha joints. The menu was damn impressive - it literally covers all genres, albeit with limited items. It is very similar to New Yorker in my soon to be area Nungambakkam opp Hotel Park, but notches higher. This surely will have a few revisions soon. Very strongly recommended. The only warning-A proper meal for 2 will cost a cool 700 !

Btw, I just realised all the above were treats. Wow ! That aside, I am totally in love with the Alwarpet-R A Puram-Mylapore and surrounding areas. R A Puram has a thick green cover and I would love to take a furnished 2 BHK apartment there. That will cost just about 25-30k per month. A 100% hike in my salary might allow me that, till then let me keep dreaming :)

SING LIKE NO ONE IS HEARING

2008-02-12T21:53:00.000+05:30

I will try a Mani Ratnam type post. So, lights off, minimal dialogues, (x,y,z,t) etc. Unfortunately no first night description (It is seen in almost every movie of his)

1996 , Hyderabad - I was inducted into Carnatic music classes . This was despite my infinite resistance and refusal. I couldn't even bunk because the teacher was just a few metres away and had to go with my sister. I totally despised it. Also, since it was in the evenings 5-7 types I had to miss my daily gully cricket session. It was a total torture. And the teacher's constant praises about my ability to sing high pitched tones , esp to my grandpa made matters worse. I certainly contest those praises and I strongly feel she had ulterior motives - retention strategies. So I had no reason whatsoever to avoid the classes . In hindsight I think I did a decent job, surely not the way she used the retention- strategies-accolades , but fair enough. It went on for a full year. An epic struggle bordering on the lines of 1857-1947 level freedom fight occurred at home and my August 15th was sometime in the beginning of 7th grade in July ,1997.

1996 , 31st Dec - I think Sandeep and I won/ were runners up in some Antakshari competition conducted in the colony.

1999 , Hyderabad- Some arbit singing stuff in classroom where every student had to sing. I think I sang "Woh Pehli baar" from some Dino Morea / Rinkie Khanna campus movie. Praise from teacher again, as usual that was surely because those were the days when we were the oiled hair- notes writing-shiny teeth-goodie goodie children.

2003,Alak hostel,IITM - There was this pain max lit sec who used to sing at the drop of a hat at every hostel function. Function is an overstatement,he used to croon at any place which had more than 5 guys assembled. He had organised Antakshari in the hostel and I teamed up with 2 northie guys. I think we qualified for the inter hostel finals but some senior funda thing and we were not able to participate in the finals.

2008, Pongal, Hyderabad - I met the aforesaid paatu teacher after eons. The usual oh-my-god-so thin-so dark level reaction aside , she asked me if I had any enthu in music. She lamented about how she lost a super student with great voice , grasping blah blah. In reality the grief was out of the 100 per month *12 rupees she lost since 97 , consider inflation and make it 250*12 in 2006 , assuming I would have continued for 10 years like my sis. One other reason why I presumed she showered encomiums then was that she found a potential son-in-law in me. I have to admit though that her daughter is a perfect Tam beauty. Tall, fair, very beautiful, sings well, studies well etc. Ok, tall is not a desired credential in my case and I had to strike off a potential candidate from my list when she came home recently as I found her a full 1 inch taller. Really sad ! Anyways as an elderly advice she told me to restart singing, which for a change I feel was genuine and devoid of monetary undercurrents as she knew there was no way I could go to her. Atleast try singing filmi stuff , she said. Yeah, as if A R Rahman is waiting for me.

2008 , Saarang ,LM pro show, IITM - I totally fell in love with Karthik , the voice behind "Girlfriend"in Boys, "Oru Malai" in Ghajini, "Unnale unnale" and many hit numbers in Run,New (nani in telugu) etc. I rushed to my room, checked Wiki and downloaded almost all of his songs.

So this is the background. My mom and sis are huge music rasikas. Inadvertently I have some knowledge of carnatic music, singers, marriage songs etc. Advertently have always had a huge passion for desi filmi music though it was never apparent. I am a total devotee of A R rahman (a) , huge huge fan of Harris Jeyaraj (b) , Karthik, Sonu Nigam, Unnikrishnan, SPB, Hariharan (c) Harini,Shreya Goshal, Aruna sairam (d) and any song involving a-c-d or b-c-d combo. Tam-Gult-Hindi music blares 24*7 from my system , though these days it is strictly Tamil. I actually,really think I am a good bathroom singer and repenting now for having fought for my August 15th then ( and of course missing ogling at the then shorter than me beauty) . Music is a great hobby and de-stresser and singing some Rahman song at some public place with >=50 members now figures in my things-to-do-before-i-die.

I now seriously want to learn music and sing, but strictly no Carnatic stuff. I have infinite free time now. Any suggestions ? For starters, I am practicing Unnale Unnale with lyrics and might soon inflict torture on you guys by posting it here :)

SPELLINGS

2008-01-31T13:38:00.000+05:30

This dates back to my 1st year. A Hyd friend of mine , a very keen observer, asked me about the so called strange spellings in Chennai. That guy's only exposure had been the central-iitm route and it was just the 1st week here. He asked me why "h" is always missing in the spellings here. As in, he said from what he knew and saw, it is Bhaskar, not Baskar. It is Paav-Bhaaji and not paav-baaji. Abhirami and not Abirami. I can come up with many more. I tried explaining that they are directly translating from the Tam script which does not have the ta, tha, ba, bha, type like in Telugu or Hindi . It is just a "pa" for pa,ba and bha. Similarly "ta" for ta, tha, dha etc. He then went on to ask why it is like that and wont we get confused while reading it . Almost every regional language has the bha,tha,dha type in script but not Tamil.

In the same week, a northie friend cribbed that Southies always use an extra "h". He saw this after seeing the hostels named Sarawathi, Sharavathi and girls being spelled Anitha , Kavitha whatever. His contention was that it is Anita,Sarawwati,Kavita as that is how it is written in Hindi. A recent one being Ram Setu and not Ram Sethu.

Another crib of his was that Southies pronounce h as "heych" while it should be "etch".

Any explanations ?

COVER DRIVE :(

2008-01-30T12:54:00.000+05:30

I just don't get it . I have been playing quality cricket with the leather ball since 2003 (post JEE) and have not mastered it, err even got it right once. I am able to score in the V like a Shoaib Malik consistently but never in the covers. Like the Hyderabadis love affair with flick, I think I can flick/leg glance pretty peacefully though I miss out many on-drives by trying to flick every ball even marginally on the leg and getting hit on pads. This again is because I dont bend and find flick easier than bending, moving my feet and scoring. Is my inability to bend a manufacturing defect? :(

If it is between cover and point I generally tend to hit it in the air and have gotten out to a catch in point or cover point twice . I just cant get the ball to go along the ground in this region. I am able to score between cover and mid off though. Even if the ball is pitched short I try a back foot drive through covers instead of waiting for it and cutting it. One reason pointed out was that I dont wait for the ball , hence missing out on juicy cut shots which are very fruitful. Another strongest reason was that I do not bend at all and have very minimal footwork.

A suggested remedy by a stud max batsman from my team (Karthik Naib)was to do this.Take a leg stick guard, as soon as the ball is about to be delivered concentrate on the bowlers hand, move your back foot to a small extent towards the off stump, and take a back lift simultaneously. This will get your feet moving and give you some extra time to play the ball. After that focus only on the ball and watch it till it leaves your bat. I dont watch the ball till the last moment though. As in, when you are hitting the ball you should see the ball where as I see where I intend to place the ball thereby not bending my head. I started watching our batsman. Laxman, Dravid and Ganguly take a small step back with a back lift as mentioned by Naib whereas surprisingly Sachin hardly moves his back foot, and on the contrary sometimes pulls off his front foot also and on many occasions moves from leg to off in the same line but not back. Anyway, I cant replicate him, but would like to ask you guys the funda for a proper full blooded cover drive with a Yuvi level thud sound which should unnerve the bowler. I have a match this Saturday, and my last tryst with cricket surely in the near future. I would like to end it on a high note . Fundaes , please !

Btw check out cricket on wiki.

GEN

2008-01-04T21:55:00.000+05:30

Gen want to post something. I do not have any specific topic in mind though. I guess some random updates will do for now.

Taare Zameen Par totally rocks .It is a bit slow, but I felt it was necessary to effectively drive home the child's psyche. A sure tear - jerker movie, and that makes it the second privileged movie for which my eyes became moist after Black. Aamir are gawd only - he was successful in making my eyes moist ! Another decent movie was Scorcese's Good Fellas , a totally gangster movie with taut story and screenplay, though I would certainly contest its position in the top 20.

Dec 31st 2007 was one of the quietest New Years Eve I have had in recent times. Last year was maajar fun in ECR. Out of that gumbal of 10 odd only 2 are left in Chennai , thanks to whom I am pulling on here and without whom it would have been miserable .Only one guy (PK ) was with me on 31st and it was kinda nostalgic when we relived those moments - a planned surprise treat extraction at an expensive resort , crashing on Bessie Beach and footer at 3 am. Also , on the same day I got the 7th sem results and my highest GPA in my stay at IITM helping increase my overall CGPA significantly ( which later proved to be amazingly fruitful as Scope International had a 7.5 CGPA cut-off, but not explicitly mentioned). Though it was not much of an achievement given the extremely small number of students, it was a very satisfactory accomplishment from a personal perspective . I just had a late dinner with PK and a couple of other guys and was having my usual midnight coffee . I received one sms at 12 and one call while the other guys seemed very busy with their cell phone keypads , the sound of which makes my mom call it paen sudukardhu (knocking the lice) . They seemed to be answering calls and replying non stop while I was just watching them. This prompted a wise crack - People like us much more than you, hence the messages . They were made to eat their words the next day. My calls number and duration peacefully outnumbered theirs. Continuing my trend of a temple visit on Jan 1st , I visited the Kesava Perumal Koil in Mylapore .

I have almost become a social recluse now.Wing fart sessions are totally defunct . And my project is still amorphous. This is really dangerous with mid-term review on 11th. I hope my good relations with my Prof will save me from an extension , because if I were to be in the panel I would have given an extension to the student with this low progress . Anyway, lets see what happens. The time-tested method of meeting the prof daily wil surely be followed now. I have exactly one course this semester. HS dept has introduced a new course Carnatic Music with a prof from Madras University. Totally strong. I guess it will be purely theoretical as practicals do not seem practical. My mom will be totally ecstatic if I enroll for that course, but since when have we been such obedient children. I will decide after a good look at the courses across all the departments as this is a free elective.

I am putting a Hyd-Tirupati trip on 12th followed by my cousin's engagement on 20th. Totally looking forward to 12th. For now, saving extension is the only thing in my mind.

THE WEEK THAT WASN'T

2007-12-12T13:14:00.000+05:30

Is a show aired on CNN-IBN , anchored by the veritable bakra , Cyrus Broacha. The post Diwali episode , which I saw recently was damn hilarious. The first digs at IPL. The likes of I-dont-know-which Ambani , I-will-have-bikini-babes always Mallya, Sallu-I-too-have-a-six pack SRK , Hollywood stars etc have evinced keen interest on owning the clubs . The latest news is that even EPL owners want to have a bite of IPL .That is interesting news. Cyrus gives us a few other bidders who have tremendous enthu but have a few riders and conditions.

Pervez Musharaff is bidding for ?
The one where everyone is in military uniform.

Aamir Khan-
All the players rehearse 12 times before the match and should always interfere with the captain.

Farah Khan -
As long as all the players have a retro and a gay appeal. Like floral decorations on pads, pink uniform etc

Sanjay Leela Bhansali -
As long as all the players wear shades , strictly black or blue. Monochromatic cricket.

Laloo Prasad -
Only if I can have my children. I have ten now, fighting for the eleventh.

Ram Gopal Varma-
As long as I can remake the "The great Indian squad that won the WC in 1983"

SRK -
Only if I can get the weakest , least successful team, the underdogs. However, effeminate guys with six pack will be preferred . He will call his team - Saawariya

Amitabh Bacchan-
If I can feature in every ad between the overs.

Karunanidhi -
Only if there is Tamizh commentary , rational tamizh players, names in tamizh, ads in tamizh with frequent doses of anti Hindi, anti English, anti God.

SCOPE INTERNATIONAL :)

2007-12-05T23:32:00.001+05:30

Phew !! Finally I feel so relieved . Words cannot do justice to the amount of happiness , relief and joy I have now. Euphoric would be an understatement for the kind of state I am in. I would rate this higher than JEE ,thats because I was confident of cracking it. But, I was in a total depression now after screwing up CAT - resulting in a feeling that I am analytically challenged and reject after reject in the 1st 3 days. Like Sisyphus who continued to roll the stone up , very well knowing that it would roll down the other side of the hill, I continued filling up infinite forms, writing the tests, waiting eagerly and the inevitable reject. I cannot agree more with Kesavan's (Baada) words after he got his job - Hajaar, no, lakhs of money are there. I am elated and excited, probably have not been this much since post JEE. Dad is impressed, mom had never heard of the company, but is of course extremely happy. And I am sure junta here are slightly syked and surprised by this turn of events, especially given my worst level CG here.

My mom's initial reaction was "Oh no not another banker in the family !". Thing is there are too many people in banks in our family and extended families . I suppose her apprehension was short-lived after further impressive details from my side. Dad is yet to digest it ! Many do not seem to be knowing Scope International, so I prefer saying I got placed with Standard Chartered Bank as Scope is a subsidiary of SCB.

There were 5 rounds - 2 online tests, 3 250 word essays, 1 GD and a final interview. A pain maxx psychometric test took 2 hrs, a quant test 1hr. After that the 1st s/l of 80 guys was put up just yesterday night and today morn was my GD. I went in with zilch expectations because the PPT said we would be having a tech and HR interview after the GD .In the tech part, analytics and coding, both would be tested. I thought pack,I dont even know the syntax of printf or what include meant. Lets do the GD and get a feel of it.Thats all.This was my first GD.

The first lucky aspect was a mild group with no sood putters. GD was peaceful. He wanted our views on Next Gen banking. I started off very arbitly, my points not being very well received. A weird point by one guy was the driving force for me. I blasted him, diplomatically of course, and from then it was very strong. Someone suggested grassroot banking and I came up with sood points ,using jargon which not everyone was well versed with ,like microfinancing andNobel Prize for Grameen bank, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)- educating farmers and giving them loans would be a win-win situation, thinking on the lines of NREGA in banking for rural areas and all that. I am sure the moderator was perplexed. Junta in the group were talking about gadgetry, fingerprints, eye detection, security, a new 3rd form of virtual money this that blah blah and I was totally tangential , talking irrelevant stuff like microfin , upgrading PSUs, and crap in all forms. 4 from each group were shortlisted. I felt I would have been screwed had it been 3 , because there were 3 guys better than me.

Then followed the interview. Again luckily, the same mod was the interviewer. As soon as I walked in, he recognized me and asked me if I was Rajeev. That was really heartening. I was kinda prepared for HR , so it was a cakewalk. More so, because he was very friendly. I felt that it was a travesty of an interview. It was like a conversation in a pub between 2 strangers. Not an iota of C, not a speck of tech !! HR, unadulterated. Finally, when he was through, he told me that my GD performance was excellent. I had a flicker of hope then. And finally I get the news. The profile says Business Analyst , the way I see it, it is more of coding with a full knowledge of banking operations.

The training as of now will be in Nungambakkam. With MOP Vaishnav, Ethiraj, WCC, Stella all nearby I can look forward to some eye candy now after 5 years in this place. It is also a shopping hub and has many good restaurants and is in the heart of Chennai, so no cribs as of now. With no other branch in India, I will surely be here for the next 2-3 years. Room mates are already taken care of, a couple of my dear old Btech wing mates who are with Covansys here. This is again something which I really look forward to , as I badly need a frequency matching social life.

I only need to meet my prof to kill this euphoria. He has told my fellow Mtechs that all Duals under him are on the verge of getting an extension and a couple of guys have already called me up saying prof is seething with rage and I need to meet him once. I am about to leave now , will cook up some story on the way.

For a change, after years of mediocrity, I am proud of myself .

MURPHY

2007-10-03T10:07:00.000+05:30

Whenever I go to Shakes and Creams (or any ice cream outlet for that matter)I always get a feel that the other guy's ice cream is better. Even recently , among 3 ice creams I felt mine was the worst. Is it due to wrong choice or a perception of the mind ? So, while I was married to Pista , I lusted after Nutty Affair and Black Currant. Is the same perception thing applicable to wife also ?

BASKING IN REFLECTED GLORY

2007-09-27T09:30:00.000+05:30

Why was SRK's presence at the final accorded so much importance ? Like all others he just went there (a) To watch the final live (b) Give his son that experience and (c) Promotion and publicity for his new film Om Shanti Om. After the presentation ceremony he went and hugged them. So far so good. Now, Rajdeep Sardesai interviews him and asks a question on these lines - " Shah Rukh , do you think your presence inspired the Indian team ? " What crap! Thankfully, he did not take credit away from the Indian team.

It was free publicity for him and the eternal diplomat and charmer that he is, he perfectly cashed on that. I am happy he did not promote himself . But every news channel , online news sites like cnn-ibn , rediff and even newspapers had a photo and some unnecessary coverage.

So much footage and publicity for just being there !

Why CHAK DE is a winner

2007-09-21T22:55:00.000+05:30

Enough has been said about this movie . I do not wish to start all over again. Here are some of minute details and a few reasons why I rate it high -

1) The choice of the lead actor- SRK . He suits the role to a T. He was a hockey player during his college days and is a very good athlete. Never in the movie do you get a feel that he is "acting" as a coach. People have said that he has sacrificed his image and his role is kind of subdued. The film started and ended with him , so he is the real hero.

2) SRK is shown going home on a scooter . His house is in a near slum like area. Though I would contest an Indian Hockey captain being depicted as a lower middle class guy , it certainly tells us about the sorry state of the players.

As an aside , to give you a flavour of the facilities and treatment meted out to the players , the Chennai Open -2007 was won by India recently. A couple of weeks ago we had been to Savera , at- the- max -a -4 star hotel. The Indian team, along with the Japanese guys, whom they had beaten in the semis just then, was having dinner there. Though I was elated to have food alongside them , one certainly would not expect the National Team to have food sitting beside him. There was no autograph seeker either. Fittingly , the Ind-Eng final was being aired and people preferred that ! The entry at(to?) the Nungambakkam Stadium ( I think) was free. Too bad, being a part of a sports crazy wing gumbal, we never knew that . Most of them passionately follow cricket, football, tennis , hockey and F1 . Phew !

3) The training sessions , practice, exercise etc are near perfect. Having undergone many similar ones , I can vouch for the authenticity. Once again, I never felt SRK was acting . Full marks on this count.

4) The choice of the girls - Apart from a couple of them, there was no glamour or oomph content.They were pretty much the cliched girl-next-door types. Sensible

5) This is the best part - It is devoid of the Great Indian Film Curse. No songs, duets or love track. Almost all the Indian movies of this genre have had a love track. Lagaan, in fact, had a small triangle element too, with the firangi also putting fight for Aamir. Closer home , Sye in telugu, based on rugby had a full love track with 6 songs. And much closer, Chennai -600028 , based on gully cricket, had duets too.

6) The players are asked to register at the desk before the training for the WC . An AP female , Nethra Reddy, says
Nethra, Andhra Pradesh se .
The clerk says- Oh Madrasi ho kya .
She - Nahi Andhra se hoon.
He - Madrasi ya Andhra, Kya farak hai .
She - Utna hi jitna ek Rajasthani aur Bihari mein.
Perfectly sums up the attitude of the guys above Vindhyas .

7) I am not sure of this one, but there are many who feel Muslims in India support Pakistan in an Indo-Pak match. While I personally know of some classmates in my school who did that , but that is a very minute fraction. As expected , SRK aka Kabir Khan, center forward, and captain, goofs up the shot in the WC final against Pakistan and is branded a traitor. In fact a guy scribbles gaddar on his wall. This needs guts , given the superstar status he enjoys , and also due to the fact that he is also a Muslim.

Readers are welcome to chip in with their views . My personal rating - * * * * (scale of 5)

UTI - I don't TRUST U

2007-09-06T14:16:00.000+05:30

Recently , I went to the SBI ATM in the campus to draw about 500 bucks to get a track at a shop near Velachery. In fact , it is just below the TIME coaching class and for some inexplicable reasons is named Sperm . Without going on a tangent , the issue was that the ATM had cupped and I borrowed my friend's UTI bank ATM-cum-debit card. The guy at the shop accepted the debit card and he swiped it at the counter. To my amazement and horror it did not ask the PIN . I asked the guy and he said that the machine did not ask for any PIN. My friend and I just left without much delay and then this question surfaced - What if he loses the card and the finder swipes at it at will, since PIN is anyway not being asked ? Assume that he takes a few hours to discover the loss and block it. Those few hours could spell disaster. I later came to know that even ICICI cards do not need PIN . In my experience with SBI , I have always been requested to punch in the PIN .

I wish to know 3 things -

1) Is it absolutely mandatory to punch in the PIN everywhere ( for UTI/ ICICI ) and that this was a one-off incident ?

2) Is the requesting of PIN machine specific ?

3) In the unfortunate and foolish case of PIN not being asked , how do you safeguard against losses in the wake of a lost card ?

FUSSY NIGHT

2007-09-03T09:34:00.000+05:30

Disclaimer - Extremely objectionable language and content

Yesterday, on the way to the mess I found a whole bunch of guys in "Superman" attire i.e the briefs (to be more crude undys) worn on the pants ,heading to Students Activity Centre (SAC) . Another gumbal had bedsheets as dhotis . Our hostel guys had their pants worn on the heads like caps . All these guys , under the able supervision of their second yr seniors and hostel secretaries were on their way to Freshie Night at SAC. Btw this is the same place where the convocation takes place .

A Freshers Night is supposedly to break the ice between the juniors and seniors , the end of the ragging sessions and is mainly to pave the way for their smooth transition from the spoon feeding of schools to independence here and finally for a peaceful integration into the campus atmosphere. And how do the guys do it ? Firstly, every hostel has a dress code like the ones mentioned above . I won't be surprised if the freshie junta come partly naked or in objectionable attire sometime next year. Next , every hostel has a space earmarked and you are not supposed to trespass or intrude in other territories. After some stupid lecture the culturals start . All you have to do is boo majorly , mouth choicest expletives at the guys (God save the girl who has mustered enough courage to sing on the stage there) and discourage the participants. Next , under the able supervision of your seniors you have to take turns to scold other hostel junta . It is a no-holds barred abusing session . Then form a chain and run around the SAC . If you are centred or cornered in any area , you get bumps .

The culturals invariably have a skit , a couple of dance numbers -most often some country max gult song , some mimicry session by talented guys and the usual singing sessions. What do you have in the skit ? Dialogues and jokes with only one meaning- double meaning and blatant ,explicit references to porn, sex, shag, etc. The first year courses are like CY 101 - Chemistry, PH-101 - Phy. In our first year the play was called PY 101 - Pondy , which is lingo for porn here. If you thought I enjoyed it then and decided to be preachy now , well I never enjoyed the freshie nights . As a matter of fact even the hostel night plays. People are much more sensible now , thankfully , and there have not been any such plays in the recent times. Most of us, me included, do enjoy double meaning jokes and stuff, as long as it is subtle and not crass. This certainly is not enjoyable. If you are obsessed with porn go and watch it in your room . Under the pretext of entertainment , do not spoil the atmosphere. And if you think I am dead against watching porn , ping me in person, my blog is too decent to answer that :P

Finally for the most important thing of the day - Mr and Miss Freshie . After the usual catwalk or whatever is the questions session. The so called oxymoronic "beauty and brains" . Do I need to give you a flavour of the questions ?

Will all this ensure peaceful integration of the freshers ? Will this ensure developing a great rapport with the seniors ? IIT s have always prided themselves in their irreverence to established tradition - the credit system , informal classes, facilities, quizzes, 3 months of summer hols etc are some of the things found exclusively in the IITs and to some extent other colleges. As my friend said , it is this irreverence that has taken us this far. I beg and plead the organisers to follow established tradition atleast on this front . You need not go to expensive pubs and book dance floors (Like every coll in Hyd does ), Whatever happened to innocuous intro sessions , leg pulling and decent fun sessions . In fact I prefer stuff like paper dance to this, not for the obvious reason of being close with females, atleast it is not disgusting .

All said and done , I would prefer doing away with this night . At any cost you are bound to get ragged and very soon will develop a great rapport with the seniors. our batch had a great rapport with the 4th yr junta in our 1st yar and most of us remember every 2nd, 3rd and 4th year guy even now. We didn't need any fussy nights for that . If a guy is talented in dance or singing , it will come to the fore in the hostel surely. You don't need to get booed by 500 guys for that . And how do you call curtains ?? Without a drop to drink ( I mean water) and without a morsel of food. They can't even think of having a dinner !! Don't even think of asking about departmnet freshers party . They are better , atleast we got tea and cakes and unfairly more than one !!!

This is the 3rd crib post about IIT after the Himalaya thing and the monkey menace. I always maintain that but for some of these things , not all of which are trivial , I have had the best stay of my life here .

President ,Poly-tricks and Issues

2007-08-06T19:07:00.000+05:30

Recently , July 20th to be precise , we had a woman taking oath as the President of India. There was a huge hue and cry over the fact that it would send a strong message to the world that India was committed to empowerment of women and that this would usher in a new revolution and mark the emancipation of women . This election was not without controversy and dirty politics .It was very well known that she wasn't the ruling Congress-Left alliance's first choice . The linguistic chauvinists - Shiv Sena refused to support their old friend's candidate Shekhawat on the grounds that Patil ji was a Maharashtrian and it would be a great honour for Maharashtra. Old timers would remember that the last time around they refused to support the candidature of Sushil Kumar Shinde ( I guess VP post), who was a Maharashtrian. Strange are the ways of these guys! The thing which interested me was the farce called UNPA or Third Front - an alliance of disgruntled regional opposition parties and discredited leaders. Notable among them were our very own Amma , Naidu garu ( Yeah, AP and TN are my own ) and ousted CM's like Mulayam etc . In a press conference Amma was at her belligerent best - "The boorish and churlish language used by the blah blah.... " . Our Naidu garu was nodding his head up and down , sticking out a finger here and there . It was pretty much like GD wherein all others were arguing and one man simply saying "Yeah . yeah.... No No... Errr.. But.. Yeah " . Eventually they ended up being the proverbial dhobi's dog ( Dhobi ka kutta . Na ghar ka na ghat ka - A dhobi's dog doesn't have a permanent dwelling. Neither a house nor the washing ghat ) . Coming back to the July 20th thing , Pratibha Patil seemed so frail and weak that she could very well be called Pratibha Paati . ( Paati = granny in Tamizh ) . At one instance Sonia madam was beside her . I couldn't help but wonder at the aptness of super star's dialogue . Sonia "pera kettale summa athurudhu la" ( Ok I agree. I am a plagiarist. This dialogue was seen in Baada's blog). Sonia even has Manmohan Thatha to dance to her tunes . Let's see what Sonia madam has in store for us , for she now has " Mere do anmol Ratan , Patil aur Manmohan" !

The run -up to the election was also pretty amusing . There was this Shekhawat vs Shekhawat contest. Apparently Patil's husband was a Shekhawat and the candidate contesting against her was our VP Bhairon Singh Shekhawat. At about the same time Bollywood super star Himesh Reshamiyya had roped in the scorching hot Mallika Sherawat for the remix version of the immortal Mehbooba Mehbooba. My friend remarked "Machi she shakes her assets very well da . She should be renamed Mallika Shake-a-wat ". We continued the discussion and felt that Mallika wouldn't be a bad choice for the Prez post. She is also a woman , she is also a Shake-a-wat , she is pretty bold , smart , sexy etc . In short she would be a sensational and sexational first citizen . By the way, what would Mallika be called if she were to be the Prez ? Rashtrapatni for sure!!!

Munnabhai has been sentenced to 6 yr imprisonment . He is housed in some Yerawada jail , in the same wing as his one time accomplice Abu Salem . The place is (in)famous for in-prison , inter gang fights. It reminds me of the jail scene in Lage Raho Munnabhai. Munna and circuit are put behind bars for a day . Munna says great leaders have been imprisoned and they have had roads and margs being named after them. Hats off to Sanju Baba's vision . He perfectly envisaged that he would be imprisoned sooner or later . Now, public sympathy is bound to embrace him . I wouldn't be surprised if there is a Munnanagar / Munna marg soon in Mumbai . For Kollywood actors embroiled in legal issues, this is your best chance. Pain some director to remake Lage Raho Munnabhai , put in hazaar jail scenes and Voila! You have the entire state vouching for your innocence . Pathiban Kanavu Srikanth , are you reading ?? ( His wife has filed some case .)

Will ponder on other issues sometime now .

GOD'S OWN COUNTRY - Trip of a lifetime

2007-07-16T14:26:00.001+05:30

Camp Fire ,Thekkady : Very happy

Munnar :Why are you staring at the cameraman ?

Munnar - Webshots

Veega Land, Kochi - What are you eating?

Veega Land, Kochi - Where are you??

Kokku Meena thinguma (or) Uppu Karuvadu (or) Sarakku Vechirken :P

Dil Chahta Hai ?

Allepey backwaters - Exposing eh ?

Jackass

Allepey backwaters - Trying a Neo in the boat

Periyar Sanctuary - You are blessed

Kalaripayattu Veeran - Don't mess with me

Veerans

Thekkady trek - Celebrating Life ( What is the guy fourth-from-right doing? )

Munnar - Unfortunately poor light

Munnar waterfall - The entire gumbal ( Who took the photo then)

Post drying - Towel boys

Munnar Lake - Polluting it eh ?

Munnar Lake - Heaven

Munnar rose garden

KUMBAKONAM-2

2007-05-30T00:49:00.000+05:30

Note : Sorry for the inordinate delay. ( As if you have been waiting eagerly ) I have been too tied up with movies, friends, roaming around etc.

We then proceeded to Mayiladuthurai to visit Parimala Ranganathar ( ThiruIndalur ) . Parimala Ranganathar was simply too amazing. Probably one can spend hours analyzing the Thirumugam , the pot belly , chatur bhujam, Thiruvadi etc. Surely one of the most beautiful idols I have seen so far. He is my new favourite .Infact all Ranganathar idols are awesome. Finally we went to the Saivite shrine of Vaideeshwaran Koil. My paati and mom totally avoid going to Saivite temples. She says if it is unavoidable go there and view Lord SrimanNarayana there. Vaideeshwaran Koil is famous for its healing and medicinal powers. ( Vaidya + eeshwaran ) . My Chitthi gave me a small lump of jaggery which was to be immersed in the Pushkarni. I assumed it was eating stuff and popped it into my mouth . Needless to say my cousins had a hearty laugh at my alacrity. As an aside Raghava Swamy at Thiruvallur , is also known for his curing abilities. Infact he is called Vaidya Veera Raghava Swamy.

Finally we returned totally exhausted at 10 pm and after dinner crashed immediately. The next day my Perimma and her sons came. That day was spent totally at home. All of us were together after 9 years. These guys keep meeting at the drop of a hat, I somehow don't get to go Kumbak regularly. When we all last met 9 years back,about 15 of us, we saw Jeans. The next 2 days were also spent at home and the temples. We got an opportunity of viewing Kodai Abhishekam at the Raamar Koil and a first row seat meant viewing without hassles. Back home there was a mini war among my cousins and myself for the Puliyodharai.The dumbass that I am, I wasted time segregating the molagai pieces while they cashed on the remaining part. A nice lesson learnt - females don't vittukuduthufy when it comes to food. The best part of the stay was my virtuoso Paati's heavenly food. My Perimma left that night and it was our turn to bid a sad adieu. Our bus was at 10 am the next day. The return journey was again a torture. I was in the aisle seat and my cousin in the window. It was a classic and literal case of "out of the frying pan,into the fire" when I swapped places for sometime. I didn't sleep a wink thanks to the heat,a modicum of normal conversation also not possible due to the movie.

We reached Chennai late in the afternoon . We went to Thiruneermalai ( 61), 7 kms from Pallavaram. Once again a very beautiful temple and a standard Kollywood temple scene shooting place. This temple has 4 sannidhis with Perumal in different postures - Ninran (stood) , Irundan (sat) , Kidandhan (slept) and Nadandhan (walked). Ninra Thirukolam is Neervanan , Irundan is Shantha Narasimhar (in the Praharam), Kidandhan is Ranganathar and Nadandhan is Thiru Vikraman. There are some legends associated with Sage Valmiki's penance and his insistence on viewing Lord as Neervanan and hence that form. Another legend is about Thirumangai Azhwar's dedication and pertinacity. There was a great deluge when Thirumangai Azhwar wanted to view Perumal in Thiruneermalai. The place was completely immersed in water.So, Azhwar waited there for some six months and then took Perumal’s darshan and the subsequent Mangalasasanam. It is said that we get the palan of visiting three Divya Kshetrams - Srirangam( Ranganathar), Thirupathi (Neervannan ) and third name has decided not to make it's abode in my brain, as a result of which I cannot recollect it here.

This marked the end of a sublime trip. God's own country was to be ravaged by 12 of us the following week. The pictures worth thousand words will be posted soon. Any attempt to describe the beauty of the place would be blasphemous as it is beyond my descriptional ability , due to which I have decided to resort to the easier way of posting pics, in this process ensuring that my esteemed readers and my blog don't miss out my adventures , thus entrenching a deep sense of satisfaction in me and giving me a chance to spurn any tag of "lazy, thus not blogging" !!!

KUMBAKONAM -1

2007-05-30T00:27:00.000+05:30

Note : This is my first attempt at spiritual and religious stuff . It surely is not my cup of tea. Kindly excuse me for any inadvertent mistakes that might have crept in. Many fundaes which I have acquired might seem trivial, nevertheless read on .All corrections, bouquets, brickbats are welcome :)

After infinite planning and confusion thanks to my cousin ,I was finally able to make it to the temple town of Kumbakonam with her . We left by a non AC, non deluxe , ear splitting and headache causing DVD coach day bus on Thursday (10th ) at 8am and reached at about 2-30 types. It was a total scorcher of a trip.The first few words of my paati left me sad for the rest of the day - Enna kanna thala mudi poye pochu , karuppa, olli aa irukke. Chennai varache evvalavu nanna vellaya busku busku nnu irunde . Paarka romba kashtama irukku. Looks like glamour enhancement has to be given some serious thought. After thulping awesome food and facing usual stuff like you are eating very less I crashed. My cousin and I set out to cover the local temples late in the evening. The Big Street has a Raaamar koil , Anjaneyar koil, Koorathazhwan Sannidhi, Udayavar Sannidhi and Chakrapani Koil ( Chakrathazhwar - who is an incarnation of Lord's Sudharshan Chakra. Btw learnt that all Azhwars are incarnations of weapons and accessories of Lord Vishnu ) . A small connecting street leads to Sarangapani Koil , which is one of the 108 Divyadesams (No 14 - Thirukudandhai). With the exception of Sarangapani koil we covered all . My Chitthi had just returned then from a week long south tour covering about 25 Divyadesams and we spent the rest of the time with my Chitthi and her daughters.

The following morning we started off with Suriyanar Koil near Kumbak and Uppiliappan Koil and NagaNathaswami in ThiruNageswaram ( 8 kms off Kumbak). Uppiliiappan Koil , another of 108 (No 16 - ThiruVinnagar), is probably one of the most important and famous temples for Vadagalai Iyengars . The Lord was decked in Thanga kavacham - total gold from top to bottom. It is a very rare privilege and my paati and mama who have been in Kumbak for more than 50 years have not been able to witness this grand spectacle. It was a sight to behold and I just could not think of praying anything at upon looking at the Lord. Btw Uppiliiappan Koil is also referred to as Tirupati of the South as He is known to protect every devotee and fulfill each of their desires. The prasadam here is given without salt ( Uppu illadha appan I suppose) and the saltless Puliyodharai was as divine as the ones in any other temple. NagaNathaswami Koil , which is just 5 mins away, has a Rahu Kshetram and is visited to ward off the doshams that are associated with the stars (Dosha Pariharam). Milk is poured over a black idol of Rahu during Rahukalam and is viewed in batches . It is said that the white milk turns blue on being poured. It did turn blue but I felt if white milk is viewed in a black blackground it will surely be seen as some other colour. No more fundaes either on colours and physics or on legends , the milk did appear blue, so I'd better shut up.

This was the first innings for the day. We went back home , thulped again , rested for a while and the second innings resumed at 2-45 types. My Chitthi wanted to go to Koothanoor which has a famous Saraswati Koil . My paati just then intervened and told us to go to Thirusirupulioor, (Divyadesam No 11), which was just 10 min away from Koothanoor. She remarked that the Lord there was so small in the sayanam form that one could easily carry the idol at the hip. The idol was really small but the state of the temple was in shambles. A typical description would be "ee kaka illa koil la" . There was no power either. The temple was small but very airy. The Moolavar is Arumakadalamudhan and the Utsavar is Kripasamudrar.In the Thiruveedi of Perumal, there is an idol of Puli Muni (His actual name is Vyakrapadar).Legend has it that Lord was pleased with his penance and granted him a boon to have the hands, legs and fingers of a Tiger which would enable Puli Muni to cover more Divya Desams .The sayanam is Bhujanga Sayanam.It’s the smallest Thiru Oruvam in Bhujanga Sayanam.The Azhwars felt that Perumal here was too small.So Perumal asked the Azhwars to view his Thiru Oravam in Thirukannamangai ( Divya Desam No 27.Moolavar is Bakthavastala Perumal. I heard it is one of the biggest Thiru Oravams - not very sure about this).

contd. in the next post

WEEKS- BEFORE AND AFTER

2007-05-20T11:56:00.000+05:30

May 6th-12th :

At granny's place in Kumbakonam. Cracking food , many cousins, hazaar temples, nice fundaes. A memorable trip

May 13-20th :

Chennai on 14th.
3 temples - Tiruneermalai, Ashta Lakshmi Koil, Tiruvallikeni
Middle finger to mess- did not even register and thulped outside daily.
Infinite movies, many revisions.
Infi hours of crash

May 20th-26th :

Board train today. Munnar, Kochi, Kumarakom, Allepey, Thekkady

May 27th-June 26th :

Hyd :D

June 27th ............. (till maybe I get placed :P)

Sit alone in room without my dosth, sitcoms, movies,books, mug for CAT, GRE, do MTP etc etc

Chennai Nagaram urangum neram thanimai adarnthathu
Veyil sooper aa kollardhu…
Nangu kannadi suvarkalukulle nanum mezhukuvathiyum…
Thanimai thanimaiyo… Kodumai kodumaiyo…

Roughly Translated as :

Its night in Chennai City..
Sun killing me in a sooper manner..
And Wind comes via Ship and its walking on the streets now..
But in my room now…its only me and some candles..
Oh .. its very lonely…and lonely is pain..

There is a logical error I know. How can you have sun in the night ! Just to morph that song and indicate that the summer is horrible right now :P Reminds you of that sardar who wanted to land on sun when a fellow Surd tells him to go in the night :P

TA RA RUM PUM

2007-05-18T17:13:00.000+05:30

Listen Rani! Please stop crying. We have had enough of it in Black , Paheli, Hum Tum , KANK . Give us a break.

UNNALE UNNALE

2007-05-04T19:51:00.000+05:30

Scene in the airport where heroine's parents do pooja etc : Straight lift from HUM TUM

Scene where the Sada tells the hero to decide between friends or her : Straight lift from DCH

Similar scene where Vinay's friend calls Sada and tells he wasn't there in his room : DCH

The final scenes of Day 1, Day 2 etc : KAL HO NAA HO

And hazaar other straight lifts. Jeeva says " it is a whiff of fresh air ". He was partially right . A whiff of air only - fart . Like Salman's hawa ka jhoka in Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam. Mark my words, stay away from the theatres. Kajol , please teach your sis Tanisha . Acting is not only showing cleavages. The only points worth mentioning are the neat ending, good picturization of June ponaal. The ULLAM KETKUME team has come a total cropper.

AAH SE AAHA TAK

2007-05-04T11:53:00.000+05:30

Phew!!! What a sem! Surely would have beat my peak JEE prep days . Yesterday was the last paper.The only things in my life were assignments, projects, models, reports, seminars .We had to shoot a video for the hostel night and wing junta got shit pained with my eternal absence . Incidentally there was zero mug and needless to say got screwed royally in the end sem. I don't remember having slept before 4 am for the last month or so. I am still not vetty. A classmate threw another bomb yesterday saying 3 lab reports were pending . Somehow garnered enthu and finished one yesterday. Actually thinking of packing the other 2 . I am already half dead , add a couple of lab reports and stuff and soon there will be a " Requiem for a Desi " level movie :P

It was the same with all Dual Deg students because most of the projects were group ones. At one point of time I was with 3 groups , the sets not being disjoint though. I literally had to "allot" times and dates!!! Add to this some weekly presentations etc. I am shit pained with this pres and ppt. I would have given some 10 this sem . The summer interns have been another futile affair so far - Infinite rejects and cupaxe interviews . The only ray of light is a Bangalore company TIMKEN , the results of which are pending. Apparently these guys are world leaders in bearings ( yeah the same ones which you encountered in Engineering Drawing ) . It will be out today. Of course there is no tension whatsoever , if not an intern will start the " In partial fulfillment of my Mtech Degree" Dual Degree Project ( DDP ) . Else the regulars are always there - CAT , GRE , Kumbak trip etc.

Amidst this energy sapping , limbs crying , brain dying, stretching me beyond me physilogical and psychological limits , I managed to catch up a few Tam flicks . Mozhi was a very nice movie . Prakash Raj's timing and Jyo's performances were the highlight. Jyo , I will miss you . Pachaikili Muthucharam had the typical Gautham touch - awesome first half , nice songs and background music by Harris, 'cut the crap' dialogue , dull and protracted endings . He seems to be a huge fan of Scorcese and wants to have the same language and gore in Tam. As Kesavan once said - He puts maajar fight for the first half and appears to finish the second half in one night out or so. I love his movies but for the last half hour or so. It has been the same with all his movies - Minnale , Vettaiyadu , Kaakha etc. Pachaikili is worth a watch certainly though. Harris is totally rocking these days. Apart from the aforesaid movies Unnale Unnale has a couple of very good songs ( June ponaal , Vaikasi nilave etc) and has given good numbers in a gult movie Munna (Prabhas and Ileana) also. Good stuff, but Rahman is way ahead. ( Please don't include Sivaji . Yucky music :P )

This sem was over in a jiffy and I think I can live in totaal bliss next year. The grades will not be relevant anymore after this sem . There are not many courses either - just 2 next sem . 4th year has been good. I have discovered the joys of sitting under the teacher's notes , nodding my head in the class , writing down notes , submitting assignments on time etc for one full year. The team projects were the best part . The usual misunderstandings and verbal duels aside , there haven't been any problems at all . I am pretty satisfied with myself and decent grades will only be the icing on the cake. Actually I am not bothered about it right now, my deep sense of satisfaction overshadowing the smallest thoughts about grades :P

Coming up soon- senti and parting

CAPTIONS FOR MECHANICAL ENGINEERING T-SHIRT

2007-04-27T09:53:00.000+05:30

Note : Some of you might find some parts of this post objectionable. Just read it and apreciate the creativity without dwelling much on it :P

In the mech forum here our guys were discussing the possible captions for our dept t-shirt. Some absolutely brilliant ones -

1) The cracker :

Elec T-shirt : Said God " Let there be light" and we took over.
Mech T-shirt : Said God "Let there be light" and we said "Lite ra mama"

2) I am a stud. I can screw from both sides. ( If you are bulbing , see what a stud is in images. Ensure that safe search is ON)

3) Where there is a drill , there is a way.

4) We're mechanical nuts. Screw the universe.

5) Since there are a huge number of U-shaped tubes in Thermal Power Engineering we shall call it "U-Tube - Sandcast Yourself!!!"

6) If you cant screw or you have gone nuts, God might have RGed you. Dont despair , come to us for better design.

7) From screwing to manufacturing , we do it all.

CRICKET,MOVIES,FOOD,BOOKS

2007-04-03T21:50:00.000+05:30

Very much mean life for me.Probably books not much.Still nothing wrong in claiming that as long as there is no one to test me on the same!
We had our inter hostel cricket match against Ganga last weekend at the lush green CCG i.e Chemplast . Ganga was a tough opposition with about 6 insti players. It was going to be very tough for us. We batted first and lost our thulper within no time.In fact the very first ball! It was like I was padding up and adjusting the thigh pad and hear "Desi jaa bey" in no time! The new ball was swinging and decided to see it off. Some studd max quality left-arm pace bowling saw me eternally defending and it was the right thing to do then. Unfortunately I continued in the same vein and couldn't accelerate later and got out for a paltry but solid 10 with no edges or misses :P. Thanks to some quality batting ended with a decent 143 off 25. Ganga chased it in a professional manner. Mayura came up with a wise crack - "Ganga is mightier than Jamuna da. So it was obvious that they would defeat you"!After a slow but solid start without losing wickets they shifted gears and scored it in 20 overs. It was a clinical performance and we were beaten comprehensively. The singles in the middle overs did all the damage and they always kept the scoreboard ticking - the essentials of cricket in the middle overs. This was something we failed to do. The atmosphere was glum and our Sports Sec started crying. We were answerable to about 200 guys back in the hostel but what about our players who are answerable to 1 billion! Can't imagine what they would have fet like. A pic in my Orkut album gives a feel of the same.It has been a memorable journey with the red cherry, willow, Chemplast and more importantly the team for the past 4 years. I might play in the coming year but will surely miss this team, many of whom are my wing mates. The "under-lights" tennis ball encounters at Sangam too will be missed sorely.Imagine a high-voltage chasing match under lights with the entire opposition hostel booing and baying for your blood and your team requiring 3 off 1 ball level stuff. Well I have been there and done that. Also received a gold medal last year without being in the playing 11 , so not many regrets now. ( Reminds you of Parthiv and Amby Valley?).

To forget the cricketing debacle we went to Bessie beach . I wanted to thulp Southie stuff and so we headed straight to Murugan Idli. It was a a huge letdown, given the hype surrounding it, the scores of people waiting outside etc. It is simply too costly for the stuff served (single idly 6 bucks). The chutney was the only saving grace. Somehow I dont find Saravana Bhavan too much to my liking. Quality is good but quantity is minimal. I can show hazaar cheaper restaurants in Hyd with almost the same quality. Beats me totally, given that Chennai is the hub of all these idli-sambhar stuff. Infact my classmate, who had a one year stint with BITS Ranchi remarked that the 5 bucks Masala Dosai in the canteen there was the best he has ever eaten!
Murugan Idli : Just about ok, nothing extraordinary

Finally saw Quentin Tarantino's cult movie Pulp Fiction. I was not at all impressed by Kill Bill and thought Tarantino was over-rated. However I wish to change my stance now. Pulp Fiction is simply too good and the choice of the actors like John Travolta, Bruce Willis, Samuel Jackson etc only made it better. I suppose Mani Ratnam's non-chronological way of portraying the events in Yuva was inspired by movies of this genre. Just can't wait to watch his first movie Reservoir Dogs which was Kaante in Hindi. A Tarantinoish description would be :It is fuckin awesome :P
Verdict : Strongly recommended. Hazaar gory and obscene,unparliamentary language.

This sem has squeezed me to the last drop literally. Just manged to read one book- Triple by Ken Follet. It is a classical espionage thriller revolving around Israel and its fights to acquire nuclear weapons. Totally engrossing and riveting stuff. Once again looking forward to reading Eye of the Needle. I think Fanaa had its inspiration from this. I am not sure though.

WEDNESDAY MORNING BLUES

2007-02-22T16:29:00.000+05:30

Before you jump to the conclusion that the title has been wrongly spelt , I would like to say that you have read it right. Matak life is peaceful in one regard - classes start only at 9 am. However this Wednesday is turning out to be a huge pain in the ..well many parts of the body. The only day which starts at 8 am ,for others that is. Ideally I should have been a part of the "others". Unideal that I am, I am still trying various means to enter that group. 21st Feb marked the 6th C-slot Mechatronics class bunked so far . Very much like the Aussies who have lost 6 matches, 5 of them on the trot,I too have bunked 5 on the trot, had an off on 14th Feb, and bunked again on 21st Feb. Once again if thoughts like some day ,which supposedly is celebrated by lovers and which coincidentally falls 9 months before Children's Day, forced me to smell the coffee well before 8 am, you are wrong. I had a quiz on 14th.

The usual methods like cell phone alarm etc have not resulted in any success. I tried an Anbuselvanish act of elundiri and also the self-pepping,self-talking acts of Sreesanth but to no avail. Can any of you kindly give me a wake up call on Wednesdays at the following times?

1) At 7 am (with a pleasing tone ) : Kindly wake up Dear Rajeev

2) At 7 - 15 am (a tinge of insolence) : Wake up you lazy bum.

3) At 7-30 am : free to use any of the words aimed at Anbuselvan by Pandya

The rates are negotiable. Half advance will be paid , the remainder depending on the success of the calling programme.

SAARANG...

2007-01-30T09:45:00.000+05:30

So yet another uneventful Saarang passes by - the usual suspects thulping maajarly , some new talented freshies being discovered, the Peter gumbal from the freshies ready with the informals vol- informals coord- spons/PR coord- PR core, and lazybums like me who have resigned themselves to "Saarang is not for me". Overheard some guy "Macha these quizzes and word games are a pain in the a** da. Anyway we can't win here, let us go to other college fests and crack puts". Totally agree with this. If you haven't understood it yet all this is a euphemism for "I am way below Saarang standards". There is a slight tinge of regret on not being able to participate in other ways like managing something or becoming coords, but by and large I don't even have the enthu to do something like that now (also I am over aged you see) , so in all probability I will be going home next year, if I get placed by then.

Saw the artists for the pro-show and I could think of only one thing, the two golden words of IITM lingo - Pack daa. Thanks to the herd mentality found myself attending Sukhwinder Singh's "unprofessional show". It was horrible,surely the worst in my 4 years. Junta came up with many wisecracks - Suckwinder singh, Dukhwinder singh ( dukh = sad), Thookwinder singh (thook = spit ) and the best Fu**winder singh. Kambakht Ishq was the best of the lot, Ramta jogi, O saki saki rey,Omkara, Bunty aur Babli were ok types. Some memorable quotes -

1) Put the light on the backside please. I want to see the audience.

2) Where you want me to come ( steps down and is with the crowd now). Please give me side.

3) Calls a female onto the stage . She breaks into an impromptu dance with our hero. Our hero insists " We are only acting. We are brother-sister. We are friend"

4) This takes the cake. For the last song of the night, which obviously had to be Chayya Chayya our guy says " Now I want small childs to dance with me".

Some other things which enlivened my drooping spirits were the awesome babes and the cricket match. Total eye-candy only, and unlike my previous post I do have good adjectives ;) . The experience at Chepauk was very good. We painted our faces , bought a couple of pee pees (It makes that sound) , bought a flag , band and drowned ourselves in saffron , bearing a striking similarity to RSS/VHP activists. Sachin was practicing near our stand before the start of the match and I just couldn't think of a better start. Saw three of the all time greats - Lara, Sachin and Dravid smash 50's and also saw Sachin in flesh and bones near our stand (Royal Sundaram B stand) and I couldn't ask for more. Lara simply rocked and the field placements sucked. I always maintain that and continue to do so - Dravid's field placing has never been good.There was a huge roar when Sachin was near us and the poor guy was pained because India was losing and the junta there were fully cheering Sachin. An Indian win would have been the icing on the cake. Nevertheless a very gratifying experience.

There are a couple of weddings in Chennai, my Dad and most of my close relatives from Hyd are here. Thanks to a severe bout of cold, cough, sore throat and what not, I haven't been able to attend the Monday one and don't think I will be attending today's either. I was looking forward to attending these , but luck decided otherwise. Surely missed out on a 2nd innings of eye-candy and good food. It's back to classes and the usual routine after a 6 day layoff.

DUNSTON CHECKS IN!

2007-01-19T12:26:00.000+05:30

IIT Madras is a residential institute with nearly 460 faculty, 4500 students and 1250 administrative & supporting staff and is a self-contained campus located in a beautiful wooded land of about 250 hectares.

Thus says the institute website. To an outsider the imposing campus would present a wonderful sight with the greenery,lower temperatures (they say it is 2-3 deg lower than the average temp of Chennai),the deers crossing the roads and the occasional glimpses of stags ,blackbucks etc.Any forest is incomplete without our forefeathers. Needless to say the campus is infested with monkeys. We have monkeys in all forms and sizes. To put it in the words of Maneka Gandhi or Manisha Koirala in Indian we have sweet little ones, naughty mid sized ones and huge papas and mamas.I certainly would like to change the adjectives describing them.Who wouldn't if he found monkey shit on opening his window and his clothes in the ground floor.

Monkeys have become a menace.These days they seem to be coming only in batches.Batch is an understatement,army would be better.They come in not less than 20-25 and wreak havoc in the wing.It seems like an F1 race .The first pitstop is the wing dustbin and peacefully dig the stuff ,throw out the unnecessary things like papers,refills etc and gorge on the banana peels,fruit left overs,pizza leftovers in the cartons etc. The race continues and the Alonsos ,Schumachers now head to the water dispenser or the wash basin.Ok fine,let them eat,throw everything,drink water etc.How the hell do we tell them not to shit in the wings esp near the water dispensers ?

Firstly this problem is due to the excessive concretisation of the open spaces in the institute over the last few months. We now have this huge Himalaya and four seven storied apartments masquerading as hostels. This pushes them to the green areas near our hostel which has hazaar green cover. Repeated complaints fall on deaf ears and the lips have only one standard answer - They have not occupied our place, we have intruded into their territory. This was coined by a Prof who is famous for her Ash type figure ( I repeat- only figure. Infact it is a favourite question during the ragging sessions.Ping me for details ) . One just cannot rest peace when the door is ajar because you never know when the army is going out to plunder the room.

Some probable (cant say if they are plausible ) solutions-

1) Leave them in the Snake Park/Cancer Institute/CLRI. Of course Anna Univ is also fine. I do believe in "Other students should not be left out. They too should experience IIT life"

2) Leave them in the houses of the proponents of animal rights. I would be eager to see how these guys react when they find monkey shit outside their windows.

3) Shift IIT . Proximity to any of Stella Mary's, Ethiraj , Queen Mary's etc is my first choice.

Things lost partially/entirely due to monkeys :

* Alarm clock, tablets in first sem.
* My roomie's mirror. They too are conscious of their looks , you see.
* Hazaar T-shirts which are hung outside in the wing. Some of them due to shit, some because the monkeys hang on them and throw them down. ( Reminds me of an old, superhit NTR song " Aaresuko poi paaresukunnanu ..". Can't translate)
* Hazaar vests and briefs. Somehow never found them wearing these. Will upload photos if I find them.

P.S : This movie was called Ek bandar hotel ke andar in Hindi. In my case it would be Hazaar bandar HOSTEL ke andar

@CROSSROADS

2007-01-16T22:50:00.000+05:30

15th January, at twenty twenty three,
X on his bed, his future shrouded in mystery

Pre-final year,pre-final year
How I wish you never appear!

Thinking about job,CAT,GRE (read greeee)
While his peers are on a movie watching spree

His friends shouted veni,vidi,vici
He could only think of veni,vidi,vetti

Software said one; finance, flaunted the other
8 am class he went,lab report said the professor

A CAT crossed his path, the mind struck a chord
Spake one :MBA without work ex? It does sound odd

Keep your options open, said mom
Write GRE, as goes the norm

5 years for Ph.d!Its too long a time
CAT is dicey and unreliable, said T.I.M.E

Its eleven now,time for some coffee
X jumps out,decides to be tension free

Confusion and dilemma still reign supreme
The conclusion will come soon, I scream!

P.S: Hazaar thanks to Gads, Naren and Sandy for proof reading and helping me out with the title.

GURU

2007-01-14T10:23:00.000+05:30

Warning : Spoiler alert, long post, many mistakes might have crept in, no enthu to rectify

Continuing from where I left in the previous post , we went to Mayajaal in ECR yesterday in pretty much the same manner described in the previous post for the late night show GURU at 10-45 pm. We managed to reach there just in time and got the 2nd row tickets . In my opinion Prasads multiplex in Hyd is much better than Mayajaal. Without digressing much , let me stick to the main motive of the post - review of the movie.

This flick traces the rags-to-riches story of the Reliance emperor Dhirubhai Ambani played by Jnr Bacchan with aplomb without much distortion. Thankfully Mani doesn't give him many dance numbers , which were an eyesore in Dhoom 2. The movie starts off with Guru telling us to dream high and addressing his employees in a stadium. Immediately it shifts to the 50's and shows a young Gurukant Desai leaving to Turkey , after failing in the 10th class. After a slow start showing Guru working for Shell it slowly gathers momentum when he returns to India to set up his own business. Guru is portrayed as an unrelenting and persuasive guy when it comes to money matters. Mani has always had stud cinematographers like P.C Sreeram,Rajiv Menon, Santosh Sivan ( remember Chayya chayya ) etc. Ash's intro scene - the barso rey song was beautifully picturized and full marks to Rajiv Menon ( the Minsaara Kanavu a.k.a Sapnay director) . But I felt Trisha's Nuvvostanante was one of the best intro songs of recent times. Shriya was nowhere close in Mazhai. Guru convinces Ash's brother , who is his close friend, and marries Ash and starts his business with the dowry . The movie is totally engrossing at this stage , showing the various strategies,many unethical adopted by Guru to expand his business. This is the best phase of the movie backed by some super sensational background by Rahman and power packed dialogues by Abhishek. In typical Mani style the confrontations between Guru and the rivals , ministers etc are shown without the loud dialogues and Rahman immediately changes the mood of the scene with a sudden burst of amazing beats. Total riveting stuff. The dialogues surely deserve a mention. Surprising how Mani uses one line to convey a host of emotions!

Mithun plays the Communist editor of a newspaper . He initially supports Guru and is instrumental in his initial success which throws light on the lisence and permit system prevailing then. Guru slowly builds his empire and ensures that he is in the good books of the political leaders. The busines-politics nexus is highlighted in one scene with a minister. Guru resorts to many unethical ways due to his obsession with money. His meteoric rise exploiting the loopholes in the law, golmaal in shares and debentures, fake exports etc do not have Mithun's approval. He pits Madhavan, his reporter against Guru. The more he exposes Guru, the higher he grows and more is the profit. Vidya Balan's role dilutes the intensity of the powerful scenes in the 2nd half which beautifully juxtapose Guru's continual profits and Madhavan's image maligning spree. Guru meanwhile starts his " saviour of the middle class " campaign. Thousands of middle class people invest their hard earned money in his SHAKTI CORPORATION. Guru's dream of building India's biggest company is shown by means of few group photographs with increasing people in the background and bigger factories and culminates in a stadium photograph showing thousands of employees. Surely a picture is worth a thousand words.

The final scenes are a huge letdown. Having taken us on a delectable ride thus far , Mani disappoints in the climax. There are chargesheets and commissions appointed for this case. Guru suffers a paralytic attack. In the final hearing he is given 5 mins to defend himself in full public. Guru says nothing was legal and ethical in his initial days of cloth trading and everything in India is flawed. Big B simply rocked in the scene. The dialogues found great acceptance as many applauded in the theatre.The comparison to Gandhi's freedom struggle was in bad taste. . As the one responsible for the upliftment of middle class he questions if the dream to make India's company a world leader is wrong. He finishes his speech in 4 1/2 mins and says " Yeh bijiness hai. Isme bhi maine 30 second ka munaafa paaya hain". He is surprisingly let off with just a fine of about 60 lakhs for tax evasion etc. This probably was meant to show the poor anti-corruption laws then. The next scene shows an older Big B jnr and a bigger crowd and a motivating speech and the titles.

The movie has its share of brilliant moments. Abhishek has greatly improved every aspect of his acting . Apparently he has taken hazaar cues from Al Pacino in Godfather ( friends said that) and apes his dad too in the final moments which remind us of SARKAR. Overall the combo of sensational acting, amazing music, superb dialogues and Mani's directorial abilities give us a winner , the poor climax notwithstanding. Go watch it for Mani's brilliance. I wouldnt mind a revision!

Rating: * * * 1/2 ( scale of 5)

NEW YEAR REVELRY

2007-01-05T21:49:00.000+05:30

Ideally this post should have been written 3-4 days back but thanks to wing fart sessions,visiting some relatives, some outings, sem starting works etc didn't materialize. I came to Chennai on 31st ,well in time for a new year bash with hostel junta.After hazaar dillydallying and beating around the bush we finally decided to do something at 8pm. A casual perusal of the New Year Special which had the "hot spots" in the city and the various parties around resulted in a mini heart attack. Firstly everything had the wretched word which brings loads of anger and disappointment on every single guy's face - couples only. Next the rates which never even came close to a 3-digit no. Finally we embarked on a wild-goose chase with just the name of the destination - Farm House on ECR and absolutely no idea about the conveyance,location,costs etc. 10 of us got ready and after some smsing and gtalking decided to go by share auto via Taramani. The usual haggling ensued and we reached the place in 2 groups.We had a small squabble with the manager regarding seat allocation. Ego and pride got the better of us and we moved out only to realize there was nothing nearby. Better senses prevailed now , Alfa and me decided to dole out a dose of Gandhigiri,went in with "vinamrata" and were told to wait for 10 mins and finally got a seat.

The ambience was amazing,very much like a farm house and the place was tastefully decorated.I had a slight inkling that this too would be hazaar costly and the mini heart attack resurfaced after seeing the menu card. Wodehouse would have said " I would have broken the record for the sitting high jump". Then was the time for some "strat putsing". 2 guys who got placed recently were coaxed and convinced to foot the bill . (Actually it was a part of the "hidden agenda" for the night ). The bill being taken care of , we ordered left,right and center. We veggies had no cribs, apparently the non veggie food wasn't that great. However I have to admit that the quality and the service were in no way commensurate with the rates. The inordinate delay left many of us fuming. Somehow finished everything without leaving a grain, watched some pyrotechnics at 12 and then dispersed.

We decided to do something out-of-the-box and went to the seashore sans people . The eerie road that led to the shore, dark and chilly night, barking dogs etc all added to the fun (and fright!) but somehow mustered enough courage to go the shore. We stopped at a point but Murali and Chenna went further upto the water. ( Mallika Sherawat would have said " These are men with balls " :P). Sea,Sand,night,no junta etc.What will guys do? Obviously take a leak! Having relieved ourselves we now set out to go to back to the city,first to Besant Nagar beach and then to IIT.

We walked a good distance greeting all the revellers along the road and finally found a share auto. Again the usual haggling, stuffed ourselves into the max-7-seater and then started the real fun. Throughout we morphed popular songs with a generous dose of expletives and sung at the top of our voices at a CelineDion level pitch. Surely any passerby would have thought we were drunk and totally out, which wasn't the case. Bessie beach was unusually crowded at 2-30 am. We got hold of an ice cream each and just sank into the sand.The guys with oodles of energy ventured out into the waters while the less enterprising just decided to "eat the air" and relax.After some farting and recollecting good old memories we just slept. The pic shows a natural pose,totally oblivious to the surroundings. It was already 3-30am. Finally we made a move fearing a lathi spanking from the policeguys who were shooing away junta and reached our hostel at 4 .We started off the new year in the hostel with football under lights. Scored a goal somehow and the aching legs finally told me to go and crash.

This was certainly a cracker of a night. One thing which I shall certainly miss next year is this bunch of friends and the wing camaraderie . Any time,any place be it cofee or mess or any outing one can find enough company. This will be sorely missed next year. Anyways many more placements/apping treats in the offing and hope to have a blast this sem. GRT,Chola,Park,Mayajaal etc are just some of the places which will soon be blessed by the
Sixth wing junta of Jamuna!

HOW NOT TO WASTE MONEY

2006-12-27T15:38:00.000+05:30

A look at some of the movies seen in the past month:

Dhoom 2: Abhishek Bacchan,on a high currently after Bunty aur not-bubbly,Bluffmaster etc and also seen in Banaras,Siddhivinayak temple with Aishwarya finally gets back to his deserving place of second lead.Hrithik simplY steals the show.He is amazing!The film disappoints after an exciting first half due to some extra hamming by Ash and a totally unnecessary love track between Hrithik-Ash and Uday "I apply lipstick.Do you know?See Neal n Nikki" Chopra and Bikini Basu.Worth watching once ( typical Hyderabadi) only for Hrithik and the first half.

Jaan-e-Mann: Salman in place of SRK.Akshay Kumar in place of Saif.Rest very very similar to Kal Ho Na Ho.Salman is as usual awesome.*He is still India's most handsome guy*.Btw today is his birtday.Happy Birthday Sallu bhai. Hope you do some hair-weaving,hope you stop being a
psycho,hope you get to work with the better directors and show the other two Khans that you are no less. (Your HAHK is the highest grosser in the history of Bollywood.Sholay and DDLJ come next).Akshay Kumar as the nerdy,geeky astronaut has done a great job.Otherwise nothing special. Arachu maavu only.

Babul: *Sad* Sallu bhai why the hell do you work with these directors? Absolute rotten,faecal matter.Hema Malini looks better than Rani!!Give it a miss peacefully.

Bhagam Bhag: Theatre se bhag jao.Once again Akshay Kumar is the only saving grace.

Casino Royale: Get a DVD.watch the first 20 min for some amazing chase sequences.Then pause it,learn the fundas of poker and get back.Else you will bulb royally like I did.Wasted 100
bucks.Could have watched Sallu twice in Jaan-e-Mann :P

Khatarnak(Telugu): Someone take a stick and spank me.How on earth could I have watched this shit!If I were to add the total amount spent on worst movies like this,it would have fetched me a Lee or Levis jeans.

Godfather: Ajith is simply superb in the second half.What could have been a great movie has been pushed down into the average slot thanks to the boisterous comedy by Ramesh Kanna,unnecessary songs etc.Rehman disappoints.Only "Innisai" stands out.After "Raa Raa" this is one of the best songs with a classical touch in commercial flicks.One can infact count the no of words spoken by Asin.Absolutely no role at all!Ajith is too good as the hazaar effeminate dancer.Otherwise nothing worth mentioning.

Heard:
1) Himesh Reshammiya is going to act in a film.God save Bollywood.
2) Kuch Kuch Hota Hai is going to be remade.As if one was not enough.Hold-your-breath its going to be an animated with dogs replacing humans.Karan Johar ,you please stick to
animation.Atleast we will be spared of KANK,K3G etc. All of you take an oath .
" Even if I get a free ticket for a Karan Johar movie,I wont watch it"

DON

2006-11-25T11:09:00.000+05:30

As the titles flashed by , I was transported to the good old school days when weekends meant checking out SONY MAX or ZEE CINEMA for some old Hindi classics . I became a huge fan of Big B after watching Deewar and Zanjeer and the fan became a devotee after Namak Halaal, Laawaris,Don,Sholay,Trishul etc. The timelessness of these were mainly due to Big B,cutting dialogues , R D Burman or Kalyanji Anandji- Kishore combo,masala story and pace of the movies.I would have watched DON,the 1978 blockbuster of Chandra Barot , completely atleast ten times and partially infinite times. Infact I even remember watching the Tamil remake BILLA starring superstar Rajni in Kumbakonam many summers ago and the gult remake YUGANDHAR with a disproportionate NTR . The gult version was horrible and left a bitter taste but the Tam one was pretty good. Thanks to LAN I watched yet another remake of one of my all time favs with the so called Baadshah of Bollywood teaming up with the suave, urbane, gen next director Farhan Akhtar.

SRK has done a great job, given his limitations like lover boy image, diferently abled talents like stammering etc. Though not very convincing as a top notch gangster, he has been able to carry the film on his shoulders well.Kareena in the item number is scorching hot!I wont say the same with respect to her other films though . However the choice of the side actors leaves much to be desired.Thankfully Farhan didn't commit the blunder of showing how martial arts can be learnt in ten days as done by the sexy Zeenat Aman in the original by showing an already trained Priyanka.Sadly the beautiful babe can't emote or dance.Seriously! And Arjun Rampal playing the role of a limping criminal, hell bent on taking revenge on the DCP (Boman Irani) was by far the worst choice. The master of the hamming code ,Pran had great dialogues in the original and made a huge impact. Some of the finest actors in Bollywood like Boman Irani and Om Puri (as the Interpol officer) have been wasted. Boman, though having decent footage doesnt get a chance to display his varied histrionic skills and was a little disappointing. These two chaps didnt get much roles in Lakshya too.

Like any Farhan movie this too has great locales, plush apartments,amazing gadgets, some sensational chase scenes and breathtaking photography which give a totally Hollywood look. The songs were a bit of a letdown but the rocking background music with electric guitar generously being thrown in compensated for the loss .Surprising that Indian directors have no qualms in blatantly copying famous scenes, promos etc.The green posters all over the town give a Matrix feel and the fights have been directly lifted from Bourne Identity. The chase and escape sequences , though well shot , are slightly out of the world though. Can you believe SRK escapes from a plane and fights in mid air for a parachute ?Oh yeah.He thulps his adversary , lands down and sings "Khaike paan banaras waala" after a few minutes !Or Priyanka snatching an injured Don from the cops in the first half by lifting the ambulance with a crane over a flyover when she could have easily lifted Don alone as the cops were already cornered by the gangsters and were unarmed :P. Some thought should have gone into these small aspects atleast.

The last few minutes offer some thrilling , edge-of-the-seat moments like Arjun walking across the Petronas Towers connecting bridge, Boman being made to run over high altitude cliffs and bridges etc ably supported by the stringing of the electric guitar and the camera work. The final scene will surely leave you bewildered and it is the trump card of the film! Farhan's talent comes to the fore in these scenes and one is bound to applaud them.

The bottomline is that first timers will fall in love with the flick , while others can only rue about the current acting talent , which is on the wane. Worth watching once mainly for the plus points mentioned above and to an extent for SRK. But one thing is for sure. SRK cant be Big B. As goes the trademark dialogue Yeh to mushkil nahi, namumkin hain!!!

FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE

2006-11-14T15:31:00.000+05:30

Note to self:

1) Mug probability,DI,integral and differential calculus like hell and become an expert by next November. After doing so,mention that you are one prob stud in your resume.The probability of being shortlisted in many companies is pretty high. You might atleast go the last round of Deutsche Bank - 125,000 $ p.a ,Lehmann Bros Tokyo - 110,00 $ p.a, Cap one - dont know, some other company offering 90,000 $ etc. Who knows if luck doesn't desert you,you might even end up grabbing some plum offer ;). Aiming high is not a crime

2) End sems from Nov 22nd. Mug for that. This is also essential for the extra dollars.

3) Watch The Departed,Dhoom 2,Godfather and Guru ASAP after Nov 31st.

4) If time permits watch the film with the same title. You can shout from rooftops that you know Clint Eastwood.

Orkut

2006-10-19T09:48:00.000+05:30

The word on everybody's lips seems to be orkut now.All my cousins in the vetti age (>18) are there and I have re-established ties with many of my long lost school friends .Infact thanks to orkut we were able to meet this summer.Ok,everybody knows this,so why an entire post extolling orkut and Orkut Buyukkokten?Well ,read on.Here are 2 interesting conversations.

Firstly my mom seems to be knowing about Orkut now.

Mom: Do you know about orkut?

Me: Yeah,its a social networking site (with the usual nonchalance)

Mom:So what exactly is it about?

Me: Well its open to all.You have to create a profile and then sign in.You can add new friends and also keep in touch with the old friends.

Mom:Is that all?

Me: Hmm there are many communities too.We can join them and participate in the interesting discussions.

(The million dollar question now)Mom:So what do you do?

Me: ( Tightlipped for 4 secs,A 1000w bulb.I cool down,come back to my senses and then shoot out) I keep in touch with my old friends.I participate in fruitful discussions in Iyengar community.I follow other communities which interest me like quizzing,Hindu crossword,Cricket etc.Thats it.

Mom: Ok I heard something called scraps.Dont waste your time scrapping everyone.Do it only if necessary. Also I have read some disturbing articles in the paper so be careful.

Me: Oh yeah sure.No tension.

We digress and that was the end of the convo. The "what do you do" was an interesting one. 339 friends,66 fans, 4669 scraps and 84 communities.That should speak for itself.The things which I do are the usual writing scraps,keeping in touch with friends,scrap book intrusion,etc.I read the scrap books of many of my close friends and follow the replies too. Of course,along with the replies some innocous babe watching. An interesting proof of what I do-

Guy(Some friend's friend) : hi XXX!..how is life going on...good to see u here in orkut....its always good to have good old friends back...so how has life been for so many years...... ("SO MANY YEARS" .rofl)

Girl: who's this?? I don't know u...

Guy: Hey I was your classmate in school.

Girl: Well i dont seem to remember.I really do not know you.

Guy: hi....that was just a way of getting a reply from u....sorry if it annoyed u......nyways....wanted friendship with u .....so what do u do....

Girl: better luck next time!! plzz i can't maintain so many friends... tk cr..

Girl (again) : hey! plzz don't feel bad!

Guy: simply amazing.....the way u denied it....hi funda... i mean i have never seen such a decent refusal.....that matches with ur pic....chalo it was nice talking to u.....as u say i wish i have a better luck next time.....hey dont worry nothing to feel bad about........chalo bye..take care.

Girl: Bye

I do not know either of them. Just felt like posting this,thats all. Anyway me off to Hyd for Diwali ,so advance wishes to all my beloved readers .

P.S : When is the probability of rain in Chennai 100%?

Ans 1) If the Indian team is in Chennai
Ans 2) 1 or 2 or 3 days before Diwali.

It has been raining incessantly since morning . Bunked the entire morning session.Well I would have become a "mamu" if I had donned a raincoat and put fight cycling all the way only to find the class cancelled.So did not take the risk.

I WANT TO...

2006-10-18T14:35:00.000+05:30

Tagged by Naren.This one seems to be easy. In fact no fight at all. One of my shortest and quickest posts-10min.Surprisingly I found ready answers to the questions and I am so happy for that.This is after spending so much time for every question in the now weekly affair called quizzes.

1) Read

The count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas and To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee.

2) Listen

All songs of Kishore Kumar, Mohd Rafi and A.R.Rehman.Hehe no pattern there.

3) Watch

The Usual Suspects,Pulp Fiction,Fight Club-all with subtitles.Tried watching them before but couldn't make out anything apart from four lettered words.I really want to watch these to know why they figure in the list of all time favourites of so many people.Btw I dont find Quentin Tarantino appealing at all.Kill Bill was crap to say the least.Captain/Balayya atleast provide some comic relief unlike Thurman.

4) Visit

Munnar. A few friends of mine went there recently and I fell in love with that place after seeing the pics.

5) Buy

Oh so many!!! Digi Cam,Pseude mobile,Swatch :D

I shall also brand my wants as "realistic" as that seems to be the buzzword now.

SALAAM NAMASTE

2006-09-28T00:24:00.000+05:30

Hi, Hello ,How do you do,Fine thank you!It has been a long,long time and I thought it would be fine to clear the cobwebs and dust my blog. It has been gathering dust for a month.Even my room generally breathes life once in 15 days. My body thankfully hasnt been subjected to an IITian form of life and I can proudly say that I take bath daily albeit at odd hours.Guess some of the guys who chat with me between 10-12pm would have known my erratic bathing timings.

The sem was damn painful initially mainly due to the long distances. Of course I dont mean travelling 1-2 hrs as most of the engg guys do. Any distance greater than Jamuna to MSB,which might be 1km is "long" for me.I have been fortunate enough in having my places of study quite closeby .The farthest I have encountered was my school which at the max would have been about 4 km . Actually I cant believe that I used to cycle down 4 kms then because I find cycling so painful now. Probably with advancing age things which seemed pleasurable once stop being so.

By an odd quirk of fate I suddenly find myself too busy.I have a quiz almost every alternate week and a spate of assignments to do. Assignments have been there every sem,only that this sem we cant copy most of them and some require original ideas. Of course original is a euphemism for googling or askjeeving on your own computer.Atleast this has provided the impetus to do something on my own and its surely time to rejoice as I have finished almost all the assignments on time.sadly laziness got the better of me and I am yet to submit two of them.A couple of assignments require some sort of a survey.And one of them is about FMCG etc.Surely we will be shown the out gate without any mercy whatsoever unless we hang our ID cards and produce them first like some FBI agents.What tragedy has befallen me! An engineer doing a salesman level job :P .Thanks to the turn of events in the past month I can now proudly claim that I am no longer vetti (=jobless, for those unacquainted with the word). I shall go a step further and announce that you will be offending me by calling so. Henceforth people are advised not to even inadvertently address me as a vetti,as its tantamount to insulting.

I have started playing football.Its interesting,only that more running is required.Cricket is so peaceful in that way.Of course I dont run much even in cricket.Let alone running, my footwork is also pathetic and after 15 odd years of batting I still cant get the cover drive right.Somehow my legs simply refuse to move when required despite my having a predilection towards cricket.Coming back to footer I am still in the learning process and have just learnt how to take a kick.I now play (I mean weekly once or twice)as a striker ,thereby masking my inability to run much and also in the process being able to play football. Dribbling ,hoodwinking etc will take time.All is fine with football,only that the term "beautiful game" somehow doesnt go well with me as I find it a tad "unbeautiful" and violent.

Btw if you haven't watched Salaam Namaste you haven't lost anything.Just check out Jaaved Jaffery's comedy track in that.Really hilarious. DON's audio has been released and the title song is really cool and sung beautifully as always by Shaan.The music is too good in that song.The rest are ok types.Udit Narayan,SRK and Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy have murdered "khaike paan banaras waala" with new beats,SRK chipping in with limericks and all crap.It will be interesting to see whether this Farhan-SRK combo can match one of Big B's biggest hits. Post KHNH only Swades was good. The rest sucked big time. Once again continuing the talk about movies sadly Chiru's Stale-in {Stalin} isn't doing well.The mega star seems to have lost his touch with 3 straight flops. JIllunu oru Kadhal has been dismissed as a worthless movie and even ARR didnt give his best. The biggest hits this season have been Bommarilu in Gult and Munnabhai in Hindi and haven't watched both of them. What about Hollywood? Bole tho??? :P

And finally posting this on a day after writing two quizzes on the same day,followed by preparing the ppt for the intern viva tomorrow.This is supposedly the break. Atleast now are you convinced that for a change I am really doing something??

FIRST ANNIVERSARY

2006-08-04T22:36:00.000+05:30

Firstly Happy Birthday to my blog.

Incidentally this blog's 1st birthday and my 1st day of M.tech fell on the same day.As always happens when you put maajar fight to attend a class {go walking from Jamuna to CAD lab -better put as Taramani to Velachery} we did not have any classes yesterday.Today's first hour had only 7 students from the dual degree stream.Out of the 5 courses I have,only 2 courses have the no. of students in double digits.Surely ,as I have already mentioned,proxies,sleeping in class,attendance % just equal to 75 have met with a premature death.Already two Profs know our names.The last hour was interesting.There were about 34 students.Needless to say,most of them are from JNTU,OU,AU -all in AP.More than 70% have been sponsored Mtech programmes from DRDO,ISRO,TVS and some have more than 5 years work experience!By a conservative estimate they would be atleast 27 years old.How can someone have the enthu to study Mtech at that age when they can as well do something "consistent with their age" ;).Surely one feels odd sitting with 25 yr olds all around.And finally there is an awesome female in my class,who is also in that sponsored programme,but sadly she is married.I obviously did not go down the bench to see her toes,she had the cliched "maang mein sindoor".Anyway everything is new and I feel like having entered some other college!Lets see how life is with the uncles.

AGAIN ARBIT MAXX

2006-07-08T12:28:00.000+05:30

I had to put a night out yesterday even to complete the project report.Procrastination kills.I would like to catch hold of the guy who taught me this art and shoot him from a point blank range.Am I playing the blame-game? Chill people,passing the buck is my birthright.

I am done with the summer internship and boarding the Hyd bound train on Saturday at 4pm. My mom has already packed my schedule till 8pm on Sunday.The doctor has agreed to look into various means of creating rifts with my best friends- running nose and sneezing at 10 am.

It seems some soul who is preparing for IIT-JEE came to know of his mom's colleague's son who is in IITM (read me), and is hell bent on spoiling my first evening at home .Our man wants to have some fundaes on cracking JEE. Welcome home my dear.I will bombard you with all the gibberish on earth. I will teach you the concept of night out.That should suffice for the time being.Proxies,sleeping in class will follow soon. Of course I will also ensure that you get ragged to death if you happen to come to IITM for spoiling my 1st evening as my dear friend
does wants this intellectual session as soon as possible and cant wait for a few days.

There have been clear cut and strict orders from my side to my mom. (1)She should not cook the wretched potato ,better known as aaloo atleast for a few days.If found doing so it will be mercilessly thrown into the gutter. I have been downing aaloo daily thrice-breakfast,lunch and dinner for the past 2 months.Solid spherical aloo,Aloo balls floating in a liquid,gelly type aaloo, aloo sandwich,chapati-aloo,poori-aloo,aloo in dal,aloo with beans,aloo with cabbage,aloo with kovakayi{dondakaya in gult.dont know the english equivalent) to name a few. Have missed out aloo raitha.No wonder I have become like aaloo now. Most of the boot-cut jeans have become skin tights now. Probably my mom can now narrate a story bordering on the lines of the fat pig Empress {in Pelican at Blandings} which refused the potato offered by its master Emsworth at Blandings. (2) She should not cook "Swathi saathumdhu". Swathi is my sister.She eats only if the saathumdhu (also called Rasam) resembles red coloured water without any other vital components like seasoning,coriander leaves etc.If found doing so it will be decolourised and used as water.{Filtering is not necessary as it does not have solid particles }.I am sure my sis will prevail after 3 days.Lets see.

This reminds me of the peculiar way of naming some of the food items in our family. Most of these dishes have a name as a prefix. For instance "Lambu Narayanan kuzhambu". Narayanan is a tall,famous Tam cook in Hyd and I love his kuzhambu or sambhar. So I can take credit for having coined that.The term in (2) has also been coined by me.I don't know with what dishes my name has been associated.I shall have to ask a couple of cousins for that.I only hope its not a "Rajeev aloo".

TV will not be there for another year.Thats ok,not at all a problem as I have new excuses up my sleeve for watching night shows and loitering about after dinner.Helmet is compulsory in the twin cities now thanks to that super lady cop Tejdeep Kaur and I do not have one .Hope the cops dont pull out much from me if caught without a helmet on a 2-wheeler.

Thats it for now.Hyderabad here I come!

GEN ARBIT UPDATE

2006-06-24T03:51:00.000+05:30

Imagine no net,no TV after 10,no newspaper,no cell phone during working hours {assuming I work that is},no people around your house.Come outside the quarters and see a full fledged village replete with cattle walking on roads ,vendors selling "aamblet and aaf boil ", fish markets,town bus,monthly fair etc.This has been my life for the past few weeks.Two more weeks and I will be done with this intern stuff.I am literally killing time thanks to the extended sleeping hours in the afternoon ,football matches before 10 pm,fart sessions with room mates,some good books etc.Actually absence of newspaper is a huge handicap as I am literally cut off from the world.I just cant think of any possible reason for the prohibition or absence or whatever of the newspapers.I have to depend on my mobile for every damn thing.This has resulted in the message counter showing 10500 sent messages right now as against 8000 odd on May 16th,the 1st day of interns. We finally got our swimming passes after
weeks of dillydallying and as ill luck would have it I ended up with severe cold after 2 days.The worst part is that I have been advised against using the pool.So my plans of being in the water have gone down the drain or shall I say have been watered away!

I suppose I have to get used to such a lifestyle as life after getting placed will in all probability be an extension of the same. Work on weekdays,wash clothes and press them on weekends and also travel long distances,going home only for a few days etc.I haven't bunked a single day inspite of waking up with totally zuk enthu on many days.Actually I have realized that I can attend 6 weeks without sleeping during the working hours.Yo man!Of course books and newspapers have been the main weapons in keeping sleep at bay but atleast I have the satisfaction of proclaiming from rooftops that I havent slept or bunked.I hope I dont squander away the momentum because next sem the class strength will not exceed 20 and will be as low as 9 in some courses. The lovely days of getting and sending smses at 7:55 AM with the golden words "Macha put proxy da" will be thrown into the coffin soon .The obvious replies "Macha I am already putting for 3 da.Ask XYZ" will also follow suit.I cant even sleep in the last bench with just 20 people and so its better to attend the remaining 2 weeks also without bunking and sleeping.I hope I am adequately geared for the personal attention by the Profs by the end of this summer intern.

The saddest part has been the quality of the food which has been detiorating.I surely can't imagine anyone having kachori-chana,chapathi-raitha or pav bhaji for breakfast.On second thoughts I guess only South Indians find this queer.Of course for a guy used to Himalayan food this should not be a problem.Lunch has been the only saving grace and continues to be fabulous.There is another thing which is supposedly very good but is of absolutely no significance for/to me.{Kindly let me know people.Do we use for or to there}It is the booze rates.Liqour is sold at half the rates thanks to the zero tax .If there are any takers for quality foreign booze at cheap rates let me know :P.

6 weeks have passed away.The first 2 weeks were very painful and irritating mainly due to boredom. Actually I fear loneliness and boredom, when they are together that is.Its one of my phobias apart from human anatomy.The advent of some books has killed the boredom to some extent.The best part is that my novel reading pace has increased a lot.The library here is awesome and boasts of quality literature and has many classics and best sellers in its shelves.I hope to cash in on this for the next 2 weeks.Otherwise there is nothing much to be written about the project.Eagerly looking forward to rushing through the next two weeks and getting back to Hyd on 9th for a 20 day vacation.

10 SIMPLE PLEASURES

2006-06-04T02:32:00.000+05:30

I was tagged by Asha.Its called some ten simple pleasures in life.I dont think I can post it in the order of preference.I guess I am one of the last guys to post this .Even that intro tag was posted by me last December ,a good 4-5 months after it was being tossed around in the blogosphere.So I think many things will be found else where too.Lemme give it a shot-

1) Sit on the Bessie beach after some 10 in the night without any worries in life {Till the police shoos me away at 12.It did happen on a couple of occasions }

2) Eat Paruppu Kuzhambu cooked by Mom,Vetha kuzhambu cooked by Dad,Maggi noodles by Sis and kesari by Paati.

3) Simply sit and chat with my Mom.

4) Watch Sachin Tendulkar in full form.A morbid passion is to see Abdur Razzak's face bleeding on being hit by Sachin's lofted drives :P

5) Watch some old Hindi or Tam movie starring Big B/Dev Anand/Dharamendra or MGR/Sivaji with my Dad and discuss the dialogues{Hindi} and songs {Tam}.I am a huge fan of Big B and he is a huge fan of MGR.

6) Visit the temples of Kumbakonam with cousins and take bath at a pump-set in the nearby fields.

7) A walk in my colony with friends after the rain has stopped and have pani puri (or) Go on a long drive with beshtu buddies in some car with myself behind the wheels.

8) Hum and sometimes loudly sing desi film songs.If I am taking bath and you are in the vicinity ,kindly plug your ears.

9) Sit in my room on a hot summer afternoon,switch on the AC,take out the photo album and look at my old photos.

10) Reading a good book in the night with gentle ,mellifluous music wafting.

Will add one more -11) Making faces,karaoke singing,aping the thalam {hand movements} and teasing sis and Mom when they are practicing Carnatic music.

Obviously this is not an exhaustive list.The ones that came to my mind readily have been posted.I dont wish to tag anyone because almost all my readers have finished theirs.

FIRST WEEK AT IAF

2006-05-26T17:03:00.001+05:30

I had plans of watching and ogling Bindi,Ghungroo,Payal,Kumud,Banno {typical northie names} back in March but then realised that I will have to settle down with sighting Thamilselvi,Kanimozhi,Muniamma when i learnt that Avadi wil be my place of interns.The first few days have evoked mixed reactions.4 of us-3 guys and one girl, were selected for the interns at IAF base in Avadi.1st jhatka-No aircrafts here as this place basically deals with not the aircrafts but with the supporting vehicles and some ground equipment like starters etc .The most fascinating equipment seen so far has been the arrester barrier.My project will in all probability deal with arrester barrier.{Google it for further details}.And as always I wont go into the details of tech stuff ,not because you might get bored,but mainly because I myself wont know what I will be blaberring then.

3 of us have been put up in a small 2 bedroom flat type quarters.The facilities are pretty good.Atleast I dont run the risk of being caught in the loo with air gushing out of the taps which is a very normal occurence in IITM.We get tea and newspaper in the morning and like I used to do in my school days have been spending more than necessary time flipping through the pages,berated by friends and consequently getting late.We have a Sumo to transport us from the house to the hangars at 8 am.We were told to get ready by 7-45 and the old habits of walking in late to the 8am class have embraced me and like a leech refuse to go away.After 2-3 warnings we did not yield,and our Sir no longer asks us about the delay and has accepted it.We,on our part have not been capitalising on the generosity and go only 10 mins late.But we have been very punctual in leaving on time.We pack the work by 1-45 and assemble outside the hangar for the Sumo which comes at 2.Food,something for which I live,and which has been denied to me in good manner thanks to the authorities here in college,has been awesome.Lunch has been particularly amazing with a proper 3 course meal being served.A bulged waistline surely in the offing.

We seem to be world-famous in IAF with almost everyone asking us "Ohh you are those 4 peepal from IIT naa?" .We chorus in unsion "Yes" .99% of the times the next question has been "IAF jaain karoge kya" and a chorus "No" has been the answer.They seem to be having wrong notions about our making a ground-breaking discovery there and so the non commensurate respect.The fox will soon show its true colours. A tea meeting with the Commanding officer {He is the Head of this place} was the high point of Day One.Tea seems to be flowing like a river here and has been following us wherever we go.Most of the technicians are Northies here .So the mechanism,parts etc were explained in Hindi mostly.I didn't have much of a prob and dont think will have it either unless he hurls bouncers like "vidyut chumbkeeya tarang"{ EM waves}.Of course the Biharis do chip in with their "vheri pphirst " and the Bongs have been explaining stuff like "taarbines".

One of the main difficulties in being with the fairer sex is the lack of freedom of speech.I have been forced to curtail,nah totally stop the usage of four lettered words,addressing the kith and kin etc and their corresponding translations in other vernacular languages.These actually are pasted on my lips thanks to my hostel life.On many occasions I have been uttering half the word,realizing the presence of females,being embarassed like a kid being jeered by his peers for peeing in the pants and wishing the earth opens up and swallows me.The other thing which beats me is the abysmally low amounts of food girls eat.I know the basic psychology is to stay slim {*and attract guys*} but that should not be at the cost of food.My co-intern has been having almost 1/3 rd of what I eat every session{or the other guys for that matter}.I shall devote an entire post towards this one as I cant do justice in one paragraph.

We have not had much work so far and boredom in the nights has been one of the few cribs.Having been accustomed to a life full of activity{read net},people all around ,etc this deserted and lonely quarters did disappoint me.I was teetering on the brink of madness in the first week not knowing what to do.Now Wodehouses,Forsyths{also Feminas,Womans Era etc :P} have provided some respite but still nothing rocks like free net.The weekend just flew away and its off to Central now to catch a train to Avadi.Hopefully next update after one week.

DONE WITH MY B.TECH

2006-05-15T07:33:00.000+05:30

Last last thursday I wrote the last exam of my B.tech in IITM.I wanted to blog about that since then but slow net at my cousin's place prevented me from doing so.So I am done with my B.tech for all practical purposes.Wait,my engineering is not yet over.I will be entering the world of uncles-M.tech in August and have two more years to go to get the coveted degree from a "premier" college.Somehow M.tech in IITs is not at all "kewl".I mean B.tech has a pretty good brand image whereas M.tech in IIT has been suffering from an identity crisis.M.techs are fondly referred to as mataks or matkas in IITM by us and are synonymous with uncle like guys and a stitched trouser that doesnt run through the entire length of the leg.I do not know what the mataks call us B.tech.If its a similar process of christening then i guess we all would be called bataks ,which rhymes with a part of the human body.Due to the aforementioned reasons I somehow donot want to be called M.tech.Probably calling myself a designer{no ,not the Manish Malhotra genre} is a better bet I guess as my M.tech is in Product Design.

Well I guess you all dont want to hear the same story about my exams so even I wont delve much into that.Anyway a few lines will do no harm.The first three were very painful with me sleeping only for max 2 hrs in the night.After that the rest weren't so difficult.One thing I have been practicing ever since my childhood is not sleeping in exams and I can proudly say that I have never slept in any of the exams here.We had a pass-fail course this sem and pretty obviously complacency creeped in as a result of which i was inadequately geared for the exam and finished the 3 hr paper in 45 mins.In order to keep up the record of not sleeping I started cleaning all parts of the cell phone and reassembled it and also cleaned my calci.I also played antakshari with myself by singing in 3 different languages.To the best of my knowledge the only exam in which i dozed off for a considerable amount of time was a totally crap exam called DA-IICT{Dhirubhai Ambani's Engg Coll at Gandhinagar} entrance exam.I had no enthu in that and after completing the easy questions I dozed off after 1.5 hours.I think many others also slept accross the country because I found my name in the 1st list of qualified candidates.

The vacations are on now and visited a few of my cousins in Chennai and Bangalore after totally lazing around in my room watching lots of movies.As I have already mentioned if you have no work to do then IITM LAN is a total heaven.You can choose from eng,tam,gult,hindi movies,videos,songs,cricket and footer clips,amazing documentaries,hazaar e-books etc {and of course "you-know-what"} and all this comes without any price tag attached to it.My summer internship was originally scheduled to be at the IAF base at Palam near New Delhi and the Dept office dropped a bomb a few weeks back saying it would be at Avadi near Chennai.New Delhi became No Delhi and Avadi became KLPD.I have to report on 14th and I hope to atleast catch a glimpse of the fighter jets and defence related stuff.Of course I have absolutely no idea what a mechie is going to do there.Updates about that will be given after a few weeks.

I am back after a 4 day trip to Bangalore.It was mainly to kill time {and blow up money as I have spent a lot}.I came to Chennai this morning and will be leaving to Avadi at about 9am.I am already a day late!The seniors have said that its a very good campus and that we get royal treatment there.One thing for sure is that there will be no net there.I guess i will be posting sporadically this summer on the days when I get back to my room.I do hope to get back to my room on weekends and catch up with a few hostel mates,orkutting,chatting,movies etc.Will blog about Bangy trip soon.Now all set to leave.All you guys enjoy your summer and get roasted and fried like me.Ciao folks.

WHAT THE F***

2006-04-08T18:02:00.001+05:30

The idlis they say are mighty fine
Until one fell down and crushed the toe of mine

This pretty much gives an indication of the latest insane thing that has come up in the campus.On April 1st a gigantic,gargantuan,mammoth mess was declared open-The Himalaya or better still Shitalaya.This mess,constructed at a whopping cost of 9 crores{What a waste!} will surely be bigger than some of the colleges in Hyd!I was slisha apprehensive about the day of inaugration {April 1st -All Fools Day} but later realized that it was a perfect launch because they have been succesful in fooling more than 2500 students.Wow! Sensational timing by the authorities I should say.It couldn't have started on a better day.It is a huge 3 storeyed building with a posh facade and green lawns in front of it.But it's total nonsense inside .A perfect way of describing it would be "Good from far but far from good".

For non iitians i shall give a brief intro.All these days we had our food in the hostel mess.The Dean decided that the students of one of the premier engineering colleges of the country needed better food and came up with this horrible idea called "Giga Mess" wherein all the students in the hostel zone will be going to a single place for their food.This Mess has 3 different caterers {RR,CR and SHAKTI} each serving two different cuisines called C1-Predominantly Northie and C2- Southie food.We later realised that C2=C1 + Sambhar.We were asked to exercise our vote on the caterer and C1 or C2.RR caterer had the reputation of being the best of the bad lot and so we all voted for that with the hope that atleast now things would get better.Alas the food is at an all-time worst now.

First of all the very fact that we have to walk so much for food acts as a deterrent.This Himalaya is just beside that Gurunath and evening coffee is non -existent.RR invariably has a mile long queue at any time of the day thanks to the huge turnout.Each floor is assigned a different caterer and the capacity is 720 in each floor.About 1600 students have registered for RR,some 500 for CR and about the same for Shakti.Needless to say there is absolutely no rush in CR and Shakti while we all fight it out in the queues in RR.The concept as such is bad,food worse and the queue "worshtest".We have to walk back the entire distance even for a spoon of rice.The scene in the lunch time is literally like a refugee camp with people pushing and jostling each other.This is mainly due to the 1pm class.I seriously feel lunch time has to be increased because we can never predict when we will be done with this stupid ordeal.

All of us were issued cards for entry into the mess and it says we cant go to the other caterer.It is a simple yellow card which would cost no more than 5 bucks.Loss of mess card means a fine of RS. 500 {REALLY} and coupons for extras will be issued in multiples of Rs.300.For all of us who experienced hunger pangs in the night Dhaba provided some respite with the ok types food.Now Dhaba also has been closed and we see a new outlet called Tifanys above Mega Mess.This Mega Mess is just beside Gajendra Circle and it closes by 10pm thanks to its proximity to the girls hostel.Infact its sandwiched between the 2 girl's hostels.Firstly why the **** was it opened there?And what's the problem in guys coming near the hostel after 10?? Anyway there are hajaar couples who roam till 3-4am and n hajaar couples just outside the girls hostel who keep talking till some 3-4am.The Dean has no problems with that and has cribs about guys coming near the girls hostels for food. *Evil Grin *-I am sure girls dont mind guys coming :P.

The Govt mess in our 1st year was pretty good and the hostel messes were privatised in the 2nd year and the food has been deteriorating ever since.How I wish our students enact a Rang De Basanti{hmm maybe without killing} or some Medha Patkar comes and starts Himalaya Hatao Andolan.Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizb-ul guys,if you really want to target an educational institution you are most welcome.Do come here and demolish Himalaya without leaving a brick instead of targetting harmless profs in IIsc.

P.S. : The rebellion has started.Be a rebel
http://www.orkut.com/Community.aspx?cmm=11116736

THE BEST MATCH EVER?

2006-03-13T13:16:00.000+05:30

2 years ago Pakistan scored around 344 and was 5 runs short of victory over India in the first ODI at Karachi.This was the match where Kaif took that awesome catch jumping over Badani.That was the highest chasing total till yesterday,although it wasn't a winning one.A few months back NZ prevailed over AUS in a high profile chase and won, chasing a total of 330 odd and till yesterday that was the record for the highest winning chase.Few other memorable 300+ chases have been the Natwest final at Lord's ;the 316 at Dhaka vs Pak {Kanitkar scores a boundary off saqlain},;SL chasing 333 set by WI at Sharjah ,Tillakaratne scores an amazing century but the team falls short by 3 runs.Move over guys! 300 is passe.400 is the in thing now.If a team scoring 434 in the 1st innings is out-of-the-world then what can you say about the team which has chased 434 at 8.7 RPO.GOD LEVEL!!!!!!!!!!

I cant imagine with what mindset Gibbs went in to bat! Chasing 434 is surreal.How could he even think that his team could go for a win?His lofted cover drives,pulls,straight hits to the fence were an absolute treat to watch.Never did he get bogged down and the best part of his innings was that he tried to score off every ball.In his 80 odd runs partnership with De villiers the latter scored just 14. Gibbs totally bludgeoned,hammered,pummelled the ball and I cant come up with more words. He never lost sight of his goal even when wickets fell and the way he accelerated after his century was too too too much! The age old adage "Fortune favours the brave" was seen yesterday .Without taking away any credit, Gibbs had a reprieve at mid-off.A couple of edges also flew to the third man boundary and there was a missed run out chance. Every ball he tried some innovation -coming down the track,creating room on the off,chipping it over short fine leg etc. But the way he threw away his wicket was slisha disappointing.He had already scored two sixes and a lofted drive without the power or timing towards long off with a fielder there was unwarranted.He could have taken a single or hit a full blooded shot.Anyways i think he was tired.All said and done this was one of the best innings' i have ever seen and I dont think anyone can emulate Gibbs atleast for the next few years. "Wonder"wath was also wonderful! And full marks to Boucher for having kept his cool.He kept the scoreboard ticking and ensured that 6 an over was always coming. Imagine a tailender like Ntini facing one of the fastest bowlers with 2 needed off 3,this being the series clincher,SA on the verge of creating history.Phew!He aptly took a single.Well done boy .Boucher deserved the winning shot and his boundary over long on brought the roof down in the room and we all were dancing,shouting,embracing each other as if it were an Indian win!Such was the tide against the Aussies.

Almost all the guys in the TV room were baying for Aussies blood barring one or two . Every boundary was greeted with rapturous applause and we all were left red-handed after clapping so much.The atmoshpere was totally electric with about 150 people and this is something i wont forget for a few years to come.

Ponting's captaincy has left a few open questions.Even you and me know that Gibbs is extremely strong in the cover region.Why didn't he have a sweeper when he was repeatedly hitting it over the covers? Secondly Lee was the best bet with such such an inexperienced attack.So why didn't he complete his quota and why that Lewis was given 10 overs after giving away 90 in 9?Lewis might be a great bowler in the death but after being hammered for 90 runs it was an unwise decision to hand over the ball to him.Anyways I am happy he did that because I don't want the Kangaroos to win every series.But I am pretty sure that they will fight back hard.After every defeat they have had comprehensive victories.They swept the Super Series 3-0 and defeated WI,SA,SL back home after their Ashes debacle and the previous ignominious loss to Bangladesh.So a good fight is on the anvil.

The Ashes victory saw a surge in the popularity of cricket in England.Lets hope the same thing happens in SA .I would like to see SA attain the levels it had reached in 1996-99 and regain its lost glory.

Bottomline: Any target can be achieved if you are determined and put your mind and heart into it.Will sum up with one of my favourite quotes - "Champions aren't made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them-a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have last-minute stamina, they have to be a little faster, they have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill." - Mohammad Ali.And Gibbs,Smith,Boucher are champions. ^:)^

TIME IS FLYING AWAY

2006-03-06T20:53:00.000+05:30

I am half way through the sem and have not yet described how it has shaped up.This is mainly due to an extremely busy schedule which for a change included mugging ,playing cricket and of course the usual time wasters like chatting,movie watching etc.As usual the Profs are not great barring two profs.One prof teaches well but slighly on the slower side.His class is somewhat like HIndi commentary on DD -1."Mohammad Kaif"..wait for 10 seconds.."shandaar shot"..10 more seconds.. ""kharab ball".Surpise-I have a Bradmanesque attendance average of 90+ so far in his class and have jotted down awesome notes.Infact i am pretty proud of a unique achievement.For the first time in my 3 years i studied for the quiz from my own notes.Of course it did have the usual glitches as i didn't copy a few graphs and the "sieve theorem" came into effect once again.Probably can be termed Beginner's Luck.As some golfer said "My luck is so bad that if i bought a cemetery people would stop dying"!The other prof is a total god.Infact he is going to be the next HOD and for the first time i seem to be enjoying classes.But he sent me out once as i went in 3 min late for his 8 am class.Grrrr.

The labs and the associated reports have been the most painful part eating away precious Sundays.Of all the things I dont think anyone would want to spend his Sundays writing lab reports and drawing graphs.In the previous sems too we had labs but I used to blatanly carbon copy the reports.This sem there were specific instructions not to copy from our batch mates.Certainly that dint deter me from copying ,the fact that i was dependent on others provided the impetus to write reports on my own.I still don't write it completely on my own.Thats obvious because Habits Die Hard.Thursdays and Fridays are the best days as the afty's are free.They are spent in the best way possible-sleeping.Even though I have been writng down notes in a few classes religiously I am absolutely not able to cope up with them and in most cases its blindly writing down what the prof has been telling.Sometimes when LB sits beside me we both have a small competition on who writes down more notes.Though I won on one particular day, after going through the notes I found out that what I had written was totally insignificant and irrelevant.The prof was using some analogies and like a fool I wrote down that without writing the subject matter.Phew!The simple things in life like writing notes in class is so tough man!Hats off to all you people who maintain notes.

This sem also saw the advent of GD's in our wing {6 guys} mainly in order to improve our debating skills.It has done everything except that.Mainly it has resulted in each of us taking turns to rape the other guy and pain him to the core.In most of the cases the guy getting tortured has had no support and its like 5:1 attack.But those sessions were total fun and I was also the victim many times.If I am not wrong I was the one who started these sessions and the cliched getting a taste of my own medicine.Hope to have one of those sessions this weekend.I am pretty sure the guys passing through our wing are convinced that these 6 guys have no other work apart from farting {aimless chat sessions in IIT lingo}.

I had put on weight in my December holidays and started running in our stadium in order to reduce it.Sadly i dont seem to have lost much inspite of running a good 5*400m these days.My main aim is to reduce my waist line so that i can flaunt my brand new Lee jeans by tucking the shirt in . :P.I hope to tuck in my shirt atleast by the end of this sem.Btw all you doubting Thomases,I am not that fat,just 65 kgs :P

This has been a total bits and pieces post.But what to do I dont get many ideas to blog about :(. Life is just going on peacefully these days.First quiz was just about ok.Hope there is no "sieve theorem" in the 2nd quiz!!!

P.S : For first timers sieve theorem --> Whatever i leave will surely appear in the exam.100%.For further details contact LB.

THIS FARE IS NOT LOVELY

2006-02-21T23:24:00.000+05:30

Superstar Rajni waxed eloquent about this tribe in one of his superhit flicks.He goes about extolling the virtues of the autokkaran of Chennai.His cronies dance with wild abandon and sing along with him , probably shouting for an encore.In fact in his first few lines he claims to be a good singer.I dont second his views and I am pretty sure many of you will assist me in directing a stream of invective towards these guys.I do agree that they are good singers.They seem to be huge fans of Eminem as our guys also can sing rap songs{or crap songs?} with generous amounts of swear words thrown in.

I have been fleeced royally almost every time I took an auto here.I am particularly sad at my inability to reach at a favourable price even after minutes of haggling with the autowala.They are adept at using the choicest of Tamil expletives,obviously aimed at your immediate kith and kin.I dare not scold him in return as I am aware of the fraternity and camaraderie existing among them.The Hyd autowala is also equally adept at usage of expletives which often revolve around parts of the human anatomy below the abdomen,both posterior and anterior without any bias.Dont be surprised if you hear many of your relatives being called names in different languages.Poor guy,spits and wastes his 5 bucks worth paan just to tell you few of your body parts.But still the Hyd guy is better than the Chennai guy,atleast he sticks to the meter.

My experiences in Chennai with the autokarrans have been horrible to say the least.What would have costed me 15 bucks in Hyd costs me something around 30 if I catch a moving auto and 40 if I hire a stationary auto outside the IIT gate.He does take you on a ride!Cant understand why these static guys demand more.Invariably he demands 5 rs extra on reaching the destination.It is somewhat like "You wanted me to take you to Y on X road,this place is Z which is quite a distance from Y".This "quite a distance" is generally about 200-300 metres.There is also a worst case scenario- Z does not figure on X road at all and its 10 Rs extra.Any hour of the day apart from 10am-11am and 6pm-8pm is "untime saar" for our guy.He uses this word pretty often.Another handy crib is that the petrol prices were raised just a few days back.He predicts a traffic snarl on every main road through which we'll be passing .Is this guy any VIP with a convoy and Z plus security???

I do not wish to restrict myself to the autokkaran alone.His baap,the taximan surely deserves atleast few lines here.The biggest pain in life is when i disembark from the Chennai express which arrives at around 6 am,which is obviously "untime saar" for the taximan.Even at 6 am you can see our man very fresh,vermilion and sacred ash smeared along the forehead and the divine aroma of incense sticks in the auto/taxi.Dont get carried away people,beyond the saintly God-fearing exterior is a pertinacious guy who can extract any amount he wants despite stiff resistance from your side.He never pulls back even if you are in numbers of three or four.Hats off to your determination machi! I always arrive the day classes start and since we have to reach by 7-30 there is no time for the haggling .We pay him an outrageous figure which is delta less than what he demanded,he asks 25 more for the luggage,hostel security guard intervenes,usual expletives follow {there is one particular word used for the 1st few customers of the day who crib a lot and dont pay},we end up paying that extra 25 bucks,he elated,we fuming,the end.

All said and done this autowala certainly is an integral part of our lives,especially for me in Chennai as i do not have a vehicle here and my cycle wont take me beyond the gates.Read that as-I am too lazy {also a bit afraid}to ride a bicycle on the busy Adyar road and so take an auto even for short distances like Shakes and Creams.We just cant do without him and we are at his mercy.I will be happy if he atleast reduces this blatant exploitation of the weaker sections of the society{Yeah in this case we are weak}.Any tips from experienced customers on how not to get fleeced are welcome.In the meantime let me think of cheaper alternatives.

EK HAZAAR :)

2006-02-18T20:19:00.000+05:30

Yipee!!! The counter says 999 and since this is my blog i wanted to be the 1000 th visitor.A refresh would have done so but i thought writing a small post would be better. :)
I thank all the readers for this .Surely for a novice churning out sub standard stuff having so many visits is an achievement.Thanks a lot people .Do read and voice your opinions.

PJ-- A woman saw her daughter-in-law at a restaurant with another man.She was shocked on seeing this.She saw the same pair again another day holding hands and eating ice cream from the same bowl.But she chose to keep quiet.Why??

"KYON KI SAAS BHI KABHI BAHU THI" !

IN THE LAND OF BIRYANI-RELOADED

2006-01-07T19:11:00.000+05:30

After spending about 10 days "studying" for GATE in the hostel it was back to Hyderagood.Those 10 odd days were absolutely awesome!I had absolutely nothing to do.The very fact that I did not have to attend classes at 8 am inspite of being in hostel was the icing on the cake.I purposefully set the alarm at 7-45 am.On blaring ,I switched it off,pulled over the blanket,uttered a few expletives directed towards to the alarm piece,showed it my back and peacefully slept.I seemed to derive some great pleasure in that.Anyways left for Hyd on 14th for a 17 day holiday and should say it was pretty decent.

A new 5 storeyed apartment has come up exactly opposite ours with the balconies of all the flats facing our entrance ,cutting down the sunlight.I hope the balconies offers some other " colourful light" in the colony which has been quite "dark" for 20 years ;).Reminds me of the title song in that 7/G flick.There seems to be a marriage whenever I am in Hyd and this time it was my friends sisters wedding the day i landed and the entire iitm gumbal was there.We had a great time there.The first few days were spent in the usual fashion -meeting old pals etc,eating out ,returning home after 11pm ,scoldings from mom ,promising her not to repeat it and doing the same after 2 days.

Visits to the movie theatres in my holidays seem to be ritualistic .The count has been increasing in some arithmetic progression.It was 3 in the winter and 7 in summer in 1st yr.4 in winter and 13 in summer the next year.This winter it has been 5.The Hindi flick "Bluffmaster" was the pick of the season.Wanted to watch "Aaru" only for Trisha but could not do so due to lack of company.Later heard that it was pathetic ,so no regrets.

I had about 4-5 novels with me and have not completed any of them as i was very busy eating,sleeping,watching TV,roaming etc.There was a new Honda Activa and so there are 3 non-geared vehicles in my house now,one for each of the permanent members.I too have a non-geared vehicle though,my Hercules AXN bicycle.Activa seems pretty good,much better than Kinetic and except for a poorly designed rear view mirror{I use this mirror only for seeing the vehicles behind and not for any other purpose} it was quite good,esp the pick up which is lacking in kinetic and most of my roaming was done on Activa.Dad seemed to be in a pretty good mood as he allowed me to take out the car{Not some posh Lancer or Mercedes,a chota Maruti} on more than a couple of occasions.In return I had to wash it the next day and I accepted the offer gleefully.

It was pretty cold in Hyd,esp for someone who has been in Chennai.The mercury dipped to 9-10 degrees in the last week and my best friend "cold" had already embraced me by then.Cold is my trusted life partner,it will surely never ditch me or leave me under any circumstances.I hope someone creates a rift in this friendship.31st night was also spent with the same old best friend,a hanky and flipping channels till 3 am.A few relatives of my best friend also visited me the next day namely fever and headache.They were so kind,they accompanied me on the train to madras and slowly left 2-3 days back.

It is a new year and a new sem and I dont have any resolutions.The subjects seem to be better than the previous sem,only hope the grades are also better.

DO YOU KNOW ME?

2005-12-08T11:23:00.001+05:30

So you people still do not know me completely.Here I come to post the "about me".It was the flavour of the season a few months ago.I know I am quite late in this aspect,however better late than never.I was in fact waiting for someone to tag me so that I could come up with mine.My first experience with tagging was horrible,which was reflected in that god-damn-awful short story and I have tried not to goof it up this time.I was tagged by Naren.I will slightly deviate from his "about me".Lets start the journey-

Three names i go by-
Rajeev
Desi {My nick in IITM which i acquired during the ragging session}
Raj {Most of my cousins/family members call me }
MoBo meaning Mottai Boss {Orkut gumbal calls me that}

Three screen names-
rajeevhere
rajeev_raghu
iamrajeev85

Three names i was given-
Badrinarayanan {Pseude name.. I like that}
Rajeeva Lochanan{dont like that. yuck:P}
Rajeev {I am not a fool to say i dont like this name}

Three phsyical things i like about myself-
My smile {Giving Shah Rukh and Preity Zinta competition for dimples}
Decently built{Yaa self-proclaimed}
Chubby cheeks {:P}

Three physical things i hate-
Obviously my height {Shortie..may be one of the reasons why i like Sachin}
Capricious nose which sends out hurricanes by the dozens. {Guess its sinus problem or some cold related stuff.Have to consult the doc.}
If the above thing does not qualify as a "physical thing" i will say -Not so strong legs.Fluffy types.
My hair is a mess

Three parts of my heritage-
Kumbakonam{Born there,my granny lives there}
Hyderabad {Brought up there.. spent a major chunk of my life. close to 18 yrs}
Chennai {doing engineering here}

Three things that scare me-
Street dogs.. Bloody dawgs {Had a tough time during my pre JEE days when i had classes at 5 am and had to encounter many barking dogs which chased me like a cop running behind a thief.. its better now out in Hyd.. }
Exams used to scare me but not any more as I have got used to getting screwed.Still failure in exams does worry me.
Human anatomy {Just cant imagine how medicos cut and examine}

Three things about opposite sex that appeal to me-
Nice colour,need not be snow white.{Ok now dont start things like due to morons like u the multi lakh "Fair and Lovely" industry is thriving}
Good conversationalist and a decent sense of humour{She need not evoke wide guffaws but i Just cant tolerate senti}
Chubby but not obese{mebbe like jyotika but not mumtaz/shakila :P} and obly not so tall

Three things i want in a relationship-
Mutual respect
Freedom to do what i want
Love {obviously}

Three places i want go for vacation-
New Zealand {LOTR effect.Wish I could go to all the places where that movie was shot}
Badrinath,Kedarnath and surrounding places around Ganga{had been to those temples.. more of a pleasure trip than a pilgrimage}
England {sit back and enjoy cricket at Lords}

Three all time favorite movies-
This is very difficult.I cannot answer this question.. so pass

Three of my everyday essentials-
Internet
Watch and cell phone
Shower

Three things i am wearing right now-
A gold chain
Imported shorts gifted by cousin,Sparkling white Crocodile vest{Ping me if you want further details :P}
Titan fast-track Watch {Passionate about watches.Will surely blow up a fortune on them once i start earning.}

Three things i want to do before i die-
Have a good collection of best-sellers and read all of them
Watch either Sachin tendulkar or AR Rehman live in action
Learn my mother-tongue Thamizh well and be able to read/write and speak fluently {Though i know tam reading and writing my tam sucks... of all the 4 languages i know i am least proficient in tamil.I am not at all proud of this thing}

Three reasons why i am posting this-
Naren tagged me
My blog lacks an intro
Naren tagged me

Three things i wish to change about myself-
Do away with the "lazy" tag
A care free I-care-a-damn attitude and have a direction/goal and make my life more organised
Improve my communication skills.

Three favorite foods-
This is a very difficult one for gourmands/gourmets like me.I will increase it to 5 as i dont want to do injustice to food.
All varieties of kuzhambu or sambhar with rice,spicy curry and papad.{I get to eat that only during the vacations.My life partner will surely have to excel at sambhar making}
The South Indian b.fast menu-vada,pongal,dosa etc {hate idlis though}
Many N.Indian gravies with a generous amount of paneer thrown in with Butter Naan
Another all time favorite is "chaat" in those ubiquitous push-cart stalls better known as "bandis" in Hyd.
Pizzas and pastries will occupy the next slot.

Three big time regrets-
Not continuing cricket and chess after 6-7th standard {He he.. India missed out on another Sachin or V.Anand you see .. NTPK}
Never learnt the art of attentively listening the classes.{Habits die hard.Was a back-bencher types candidate right from 4-5th}
Having studied in a boy's school {:((}

Three things i want to badly do now-
Go home {Its vacation time now and i am still sitting in IITM}
Party night long
Writing "Finish this post" is too tempting.Will change the 3rd thing to -Finish the books at hand namely-Ramayana by Rajaji,Naked Face by Sheldon,Day of the jackal by Forsyth

I have gone through many "know me" posts and its pretty obvious that some of the points have been found else where.I have tried not to use the usual cliches but could not help it on 2-3 occasions.

I hereby declare that all the above facts are true to the best of my knowledge and if found false I am liable to be banished from the blogging world and/or a fine of posting 100 totally humourous/entertaining/captivating posts.:P

Thanks for this long journey and this is an open tag to all the newcomers to post an intro.I grant all newcomers permission to use my name saying "Rajeev tagged me"!!!!!!!!!
Cheers

IN THE LAND OF BIRYANI-2

2005-11-14T17:43:00.000+05:30

I wanted to have a short nap after that helluva journey and headed to what I used to proudly call "my room" .It was defaced without an inch being spared and I was shocked to see that.A few months back SRK,Madhavan,Harry Potter,Brett Lee,Backstreet Boys etc used to stare at me and now my sister probably decided that I needed some change and decorated it with teddy bears,greeting cards and also some radium stickers!I no longer call it my room lest people have wrong notions about my interests and sexual orientation.So my room in my house is practically dead.

Picture this-You are sitting in a jewellery shop with only women around on a Sunday and the saleswoman eager to show out variety stuff and the customer doubly eager to try it out.Add a heavy lunch to the above scenario!Boredom,ennui,irritation and sleep!There was no one to even "put sight" and I had a tough time keeping sleep at bay.This shopping affair was after a distant relative's marriage which i attended for the obvious things-food,meeting cousins and you-know-what!The purpose of attending it was fully served in all senses and I was yapping non stop with my cousin.I made sure I went in early in order to have both breakfast and lunch.The rest of the day was spent in catching up with a few old friends.

Diwali,for which I had gone home, was simply great.After the traditional oil bath and bursting crackers before dawn we went to a temple and I followed it up with a visit to another friend's house.Then it was the usual wishing,meeting relatives,lunch,sleep etc .I spent the entire night bursting crackers with friends and family after a gap of 5 yrs.Bursting after 10 pm is illegal but who cares!Parents being with banks does help on the sweets count as we get many complimentary festive season sweet boxes.I devoured the sweets and savouries and I am surely going to have an extra inch of flab around my tummy.

My train to Chennai, which was on Wednesday was cancelled due to the floods and I decided to peacefully return on Sunday.I watched almost every ball of the Ind-SL matches which were being played that week and it has been a while since I had done that.My mom,needless to say,cooked some of my favourite dishes and stuff which i dont get to eat back in hostel.I hogged every bit of it.I also downed piping hot filter coffee daily{Yaa the Tam that I am,I love coffee} which is awful in our mess.I checked out a stupid sidey Hindi flick and a "once watchable" Telugu movie called Chatrapati with the "countriest" of crowds possible and IMO this is the way a movie ought to be watched.

It was a nice break from the monotonous life and homecoming was a kinda rejuvenation camp.The brief sojourn ended as I returned to Chennai on Sunday by bus.Guess what!It was raining cats and dogs when I landed in Chennai.Rain was my constant companion everywhere and if there is a drought anywhere now you know what to do!!!!!

IN THE LAND OF BIRYANI-1

2005-11-11T00:47:00.000+05:30

Prologue:
It was slightly dark in the evening and there was a chill in the air.A phone call at 4 pm brought about a lump in the throat.He hurriedly scampered out of his room to inform his friends about the shattering message he received.Their plans were in jeopardy.The chilly atmosphere and wet weather could not prevent sweat droplets on the brow.Then followed a spate of phone calls and the 3 guys set out, braving the rain and the abominable weather.With a prayer on the lips,hope in the hearts and anxiety writ large on the faces they entered the place which was swarming with over thousand people.A small enquiry generated smiles on the faces and the 3 guys were elated and it was normal again.

Wondering what this is all about? OK i give it away.The phone call was from the Call Taxi bastard,supposed to come at 4pm, who called up at 3.55pm to say that his taxi brokedown and told us to look out for alternate means.The place-Chennai Central.Most of the trains were cancelled that day and the small enquiry with the help desk said that our train to Hyd was leaving on time and hence the happiness!

The train journey was not comfortable.The train pulled out of the station on time.The start was full of jerks akin to what you experience if you release the clutch lever in an instant after applying the first gear in a vehicle.Every time the train slowed down,it generated huge no. of jerks.Only after 2 hours or so did the train pick up full speed but with infinite no of stops at every arbit station.The only consolation was that it was a new bogie and so the berths,seats,lights etc were good.There were also a couple of good looking females but had to crane the necks and change the seat for a better view to watch them and so i gave up.5 of us in 3 seats did not help either!

It was 9 pm and we began to experience those hunger pangs.Little did we know that food would be the biggest problem in a train journey.I hog every small bit of junk that comes my way in the train but this time much to everybody's chagrin there were no vendors and thus began the vendor hunt.All the people looked out eagerly with high hopes at every station for the food outlets but the incessant rain all along the journey led to their closure.We survived on biscuits,chips and cool drinks that night.

I was immersed in Deception Point and thanks to Dan Brown the night passed away quickly ,which would have been a nightmare otherwise.The next morning was also similar and there was a huge clamour for breakfast at every station.It was exactly like a refugee camp where people jostled and pushed aside others for food packets thrown from helicopters!We got our first taste of proper food at 11am and inspite of the small quanitity it was one of the most satisfying meals in the recent times .Our train got delayed due to floods along coastal Andhra and reached Hyderabad after a cool 8 hours delay at 3pm.

I was greeted by rains once again in Hyd .That day was marred by accidents and destruction.In a few hours we got the news that shook the nation-the Delhi blasts and the train accident in Nalgonda which left more than 130 dead.The accident was one of the reasons for the delay and i thanked God profusely for being fortunate enough to escape such disasters as I myself was travelling through a rain ravaged route.

SHAASTRA AND DUSSEHRA

2005-10-13T08:34:00.000+05:30

Shaastra is our tech fest.This time it coincided with Navrathri as a result of which i got 4 full days.Else it would have only been a single day off on Vijayadasami.I utilized the first two holidays in the best possible way- eating,sleeping,music and watching movies.I never slept so peacefully for two consecutive days in the recent past.Actually i went out to see what shaastra was all about at around 12 on the 2nd day and found out that the registration for all the events was over.So i decided to wake up early the next day, which was a Saturday.I did wake up at around 8 and was in time for a few events.I participated in "Make things Work" and the prelims was a written test which covered the fundas and basics of engineering in daily life.I teamed up with an elec friend of mine and started solving the paper.We answered a few non mech/elec questions.After hazaar brain scratching and recalling and putting pseude in the paper by writing Bernoulli's eqns i realised later that it was wrong. We gave the paper and i did not even bother to find out whether we qualified for the next round.

Last year we did quite well-We almost qualified for the finals after clearing 2 rounds but our thing was rejected and we seriously suspected some foul play then.Last year i also solved many questions in the daily puzzle championship .This year it was too tough.There were a few lectures by eminent professors but the topics did not seem interesting.Once again a good excuse for avoiding.Only one interesting event was left-automobile workshop and i found out that the registration for that was over long ago!I did a few innovative things though- went to the daily quiz,took the paper,came to my room and started googling.Some of the events {physics quiz} started before time ,totally redefining IST- Indian Shrinkable Time.I fully participated in only one event- movie on Saturday.So another tech fest has passed away.

Coming to what i did for Dussehra.Well we had a holiday on Wednesday and i still do not know the exact dates of Saraswati Puja{i think it falls on the same day as ayudha puja} and Vijayadasami.My mom just called up and said for "us" vijayadasami is on Thursday!We are told not to study on Saraswati Puja-this thing totally beats me.Wednesday was like any other day.The only consolation-I took bath in the morning.In fact Vinayaka Chaturthi and Janmashtami were also like any other holidays.The only ritual which i still follow perfectly is the changing of poonal{the sacred thread} and the Gayatri Japam on Avani Avittam.This time I want to go home for Diwali as i have not spent Diwali with my parents and friends since 2000. '01 and '02 my parents were out of town and i was also supposedly studying for JEE .In '03 and '04 i was in Chennai where i combed the entire hostel to find a few bijili crackers{single red bombs}.The ultimate thrill lies in throwing the red bomb in the air after lighting it.

Other developments - 1)Acquired a good Altec Lansing 2.1 speaker which is awesome compared to my dabba mercury speakers.Actually my friend from Hyd who was here for shaastra purchased it in Richie Street here at a throwaway price and has left it in my room.I may have to return it in December,but will enjoy blasting music and pain my neighbours till that time!MORAL- It pays to be in touch with your old friends!2)Bought GATE form.The exam is in February and i have absolutely no idea as to when i am going to prepare for that.
Wishing you all HAPPY DUSSEHRA!

TAGGED

2005-10-02T14:10:00.000+05:30

Oh my gosh!I have realized this startling and shocking fact that i am kinda addicted to messenger when i was not able to log in on Friday and Saturday.One of my friends said that he had two wives -messenger and the bed!OK no double meaning and offense intended here.It is only for some light hearted humour and i am not interested in polygamy either!! So my old yahoo id is trapped inside a firewall thanks to the institute's whims and fancies.They keep toying with the proxies and people like me become bakras in a totally hitherto unknown manner.So what happened was that i was using GAIM {another form of messenger} and chatting away to glory when out of the blue got disconnected on Friday.It simply refused to connect inspite of trying out various permutations and combinations of the proxies and port numbers.Since i did not sign off i am now seen online for eternity!Thanks to this even yahoo refuses to sign me in saying "you have been signed off as you have logged into a different device" or some stuff like that! I was forced to create a new one as i was getting many sms's and scraps saying "Why are you not responding?".Anyways i never knew there were so many out there keen on talking to me :P{NTPK}.I was forced to create a new one and have to use this for the time-being.Ok no more flying off on a tangent.I am actually hitting the keyboard to write a short story[in 55 words :(] as i was tagged by Kesavan and let me see what i can cook up.It does not seem peaceful.Here it goes-

She was so damn good-looking,milky white and cute, befitting an angel.My eyes were fixed upon her and she too was watching me.Suddenly a young man descended from nowhere and she went away with him.She was not a kiddo,as you might have anticipated,but a 20 something and i was single again.

I know its pathetic but had to write some story or the other to save my skin!Else i run the risk of being called a non-sport!A bad story is better than a bad nick-name. If i were to rate this attempt i would give it 3/10.Inflicting pain is contagious.So i am tagging ASHA and VAISHNAVI.. I am sure it wint be as pathetic as this!! Write it at ur leisure...

NTPK- An acronym for a Tam saying which has attained cult status thanks to its extensive usage by Kesavan which means -If you think too much of yourself it will lead to self destruction.And kesava next time gimme something easy dude..

ODI TOURNEY AND TESTS

2005-09-20T23:27:00.000+05:30

ODI-One Day International
This is not another ubiquitous post on cricket or the ASHES which have been flogged to death in most of the sports sites.After completing ,and of course performing poorly in most of them, yet another set of internals{called quiz here..1st QUIZ} i found it quite similar to cricket,which till recently was my passion.The passion has fizzled out thanks to the incompetent performances of INDIA over the past 2 years.

Well i play an ODI on the eve of a test!The batting is done throughout the night with the primary intention of saving the test.The innings starts somewhere around the break of dusk where the notes are procured and photocopied {Hazaar thanks to the guy who invented that}. The next 30 min are spent going through the notes and trying to find out the corresponding pages in the text-book.Probably this could be called the warm-up session.The batting starts with great enthusiasm and verve.Obviously a well begun job is half done and soon its time for some "well left" which i call the SIEVE THEOREM!! Somehow i just cannot fathom/digest the fact that whatever is "well-left" by me surely appears in the exam.So much so that at around 2 am many of my friends gather in my room to find out what is left by me.Then there is the inevitable drinks break.It is coffee for me to rejuvenate my drooping eye lids and get ready for the post drinks session(or post tea session).It is quite surprising that i am able 2 cram so much into my head on the night before the exam.The lurking fear of a Gangulyish score provides the necessary impetus i guess.Of course i end up getting one,but that's a different story of epic proportions altogether.

The perfect example of "inductive effect" is witnessed at around 2 am where a single yawn by a sleepyhead spawns multiple yawns among the neighbours .Coffee is not available at that time and i dance to the tunes of the capricious sleep without any control.Generally i manage to complete the portion by around 4am,albeit with many parts being "well left",which stare at me in the question paper like a menacing fast bowler the next morning.In the 1st QUIZ the irony was that i did well in the tests with minimal effort,which included conf and orkut, while i totally spoilt the test for which i even did "net practice" apart from batting throughout the night.This has deeply entrenched some nonsense in my head regarding exam preparation.

The papers will be given some time this week when it will be time for some introspection again.As of now i have plans of playing a test-studying atleast 5 days for each exam,for the 2nd QUIZ.I am quite sure that this will soon fade out.But still NEVER GIVE UP!Like September for March flunkers there is 2nd QUIZ for 1st QUIZ flunkers.There is an end sem also to revive the sagging fortunes.Lets see what this sem has in store for me!!

OBSOLETE BLACKBOARD

2005-09-12T14:34:00.000+05:30

Firstly let me clarify a few things before i go about cribbing in what is one of the few meaningful posts by yours truly.I am not the typical first bencher in class with a never ending urge to park himslef right under the nose of the teacher and I dont listen to most of the classes.I pay attention only to certain professors,few classes etc which is fn(enthu,hrs of sleep the previous night,the guy who sits beside me).

My first point is the usage of power point presentation in the classes.It is not bad to use it to assist the teacher but it certainly gets on my nerves when the teacher uses only ppt.The poor, old blackboard is relegated to the 2nd position.This is an explicit case of technology misuse or abuse.The primary drawback is that we dont get enough time to write down notes.The prof in most cases just reads out what is there on the slide.If by mistake the prof says "I shall give slides" thats it.It is assumed that we have the notes with us and so he can proceed at his will, oblivious to the fact that class notes are quite important.I have personally faced many problems in the FEW classes where i jot down notes.The teacher is the only one who is benefitted by the ppt.I have also heard of "computerised teachers" or "robotic teachers" or some crap like that where the talking is also done by the comp.It is absolute gibberish/nonsense.The age old method of using the blackboard and the dusty,white chalk is the best in my opinion.I might sound like an octagenarian or a primitive man who is against technology invasion but i do have a valid point here.I am not against ppt per se but i am pained because it is ruling the roost in every classroom these days.It is incumbent now to use ppt and hi tech gadgets at the cost of the blackboard even in kindergarten.I have been and will be a proponent of 'CHALK AND TALK' always.No qualms about it.We did not have these ppts in school and some of my best teachers have used the blackboard with far more superior effect and most of them will vouch for the fact that it cannot be replaced.

In my opinion 'chalk and talk', with usage of ppt to lay emphasis on the finer points or to depict complex diagrams,graphs etc would be the best way of teaching.Let not technology take away the joys of listening in the class,the screeching sound of the chalk on the board,the duster etc which are integral parts of the student life and let it be used in a better manner.My dear readers,if any of you wanna take up teaching as your profession please follow the age old teaching practice.This is my only request.

PIECE AND SLICE

2005-09-04T20:24:00.000+05:30

I love "chat".If the thing that strikes you on hearing that word is 'yahoo messenger' then good.I am a chatter-box and a 'mouse potato'{akin 2 couch potato!}If it reminds you of those unhygienic stalls doling out lip smacking fare then all the more better. But if you think 'chat' means licking{In hindi} then i am sorry.Not a day passed off without me indulging in chat,but that was in my good old school days in Hyd.Ok digress. I was reminded of an incident which took place long ago-2 yrs to be precise.The fact that it has been evoking wide guffaws ever since bears testimony to the timelessness of that!

I dont remember exactly when and where it happened,but this is a true story.I was with this group and we were newbies to Chennai.I had been to Chennai before but was confined to my relatives' places and did not roam around much so i was as good as a newbie,albeit with the knowledge of the local language.We decided to have chaat in some store{it was already 25 days without chat then}.My friends were apprehensive after seeing the shop and the uncouth surroundings but i always advocate this policy "dingier the better"!I have had some of the best food in joints which were much more smaller and unhygienic and came out unscathed,so i felt this wont do any harm and took the plunge.It was a small fast food joint and i thought of having some concrete food first and ordered "pease barota masala"-- note down the spelling.I thought it was "barota"-which is similar to a "paratha" with a side dish which had "peas" {or "mutter" in Hindi} with some masala would be the gravy.After the usual banter to kill the hunger our item arrived.I was shell shocked to say the least.It was like mini idly-hazaar "barotas" in a plate.I could not fathom that.Also there were no "peas" around.I called the waiter and asked him what it was and he said the same.Later i realized that it was "piece barota masala" wherein that barota was butchered to hazaar pieces,some reddish paste{that was masala for u} smeared on them and served.Phew! Needless to say i ate just 2-3 pieces and discarded it.Probably "pee"se barota masala would have been a better name.I just wanted to have some cool drink and escape as soon as possible when my friend told me to wait.He was already in splits seeing the food{that dawg was not hungry} and decided to order another dish just to have a good laugh.We ordered "pani puri" {it is one of my fav}. I was shocked again when i saw that!There was "puri" in it-once again smashed to a thousand pieces,akin to a glass window being smashed by a cricket ball and pieces strewn all over the place. OK there was "puri" but no "pani" in it.It was a concoction of smashed puri and "channa".It was baffling,i mean no water in pani puri!Did someone say water shortage in Chennai? Well i never knew that the situation was so grave.Huh! I was afraid even to order a cool drink.Probably he might have given us glass-which is a super cooled liquid in its liquid form and say cool drink!Or maybe smash it,which is his forte,powder it,put it in cool water and say "cool drink". My friend ,needless to say ,was having the time of his life while we were fuming.The only thing which was decent was the bill.I should have torn the bill to "pieces" after paying it.It was cheap and for once my policy of "dingier the better" failed and i had to bear the non stop rebuke of my friends as it was my suggestion to go to that place.Mea Culpa!

Fortunately i have never faced this "piece" thing again.Peace!That bad experience dissuaded me from going to such small joints,but only for a few months.The stomach ruled over the brain again in a few days and i was happily back to square one munching and downing 'pani puris' at the same rate and in equally uncouth,inadequately furnished joints .I have dined in many star restaurants but stuff from a push-cart vendor gives me the ultimate thrill even to this day.I also ended up puking and singing LM{scratch ur brains and find out whats that} many times,took a resolution- not to eat in those joints and invariably found myself downing junk the very next week!!And what will i do if i have a stomachache again-Well i dont have it now so deferred to another date!Till then enjoy ... Anyone willing to accompany this gourmet,gourmand,glutton and connoiseur???

'TRAIN'ING ON A WEEKEND

2005-08-28T18:53:00.000+05:30

My last post was on Independence Day which of course had nothing to do with that day .There has been a brief lull mainly due to nil activity out here and also due 2 lack of topics.So u might have guessed it that this is going 2 b a totally aimless one and irrelevant,with the only aim being updating my blog!Shall start off with a round up of the weekend.We r supposed 2 have free noons on friday but as tuff luck wud have it v had an Industrial lecture,that too 2 of them.The timings were 2 to 3-15pm and 3-30 to 5 . I shud say i was pretty happy.Inspite of it being the peak siesta time i managed 2 listen to a prof from Malaysia.Probably the word 'Malaysia' brought about a renewed interest.But the irony was that i peacefuly slept throughout the next one inspite of downing a coffee at 3-30!Evening i just whiled away time and chatted with a couple of frnds.

The title comes into picture now.At around 10-30 my friend got a call frm Hyd saying his granny had expired and so he had 2 rush home.3 of us chumma embarked on a wild-goose chase to the Central without knowing wat v were doing.There are hazaar travels lined up near the Chennai Central and like a 'black' ticket in a theatre 15 min before the show v got a black ticket for a train 2 Warangal @ 11-15,obviously at a premium that too 100%, and 11-30 was its departure time.The next few minutes v were simply running on the road like thieves being chased by cops at 11-20pm and a bag with one of us{Gabbar Singh} made the picture perfect! Also v were boarding a train and it looked like a straight lift from a Bollywood 70's flick.Gabbar and his 2 assistants{we},totally drenched in sweat, entered the train with the booty bag{i mean his clothes bag} and the co-passengers needless 2 say had some kinda unknown expressions on their faces.We heard the announcement and jumped out of the train and Gabbar went away peacefully 2 warangal {and later caught a train 2 Hyd}.It was 11-30 pm and now v had 2 go back to IIT. We decided 2 save some dough and go in the electric train,which had its last train at about 12-30.Also it being late in the night the frequency was quite low and bad luck embraced us once again as the train pulled out jus as v bought the ticket.We had 2 wait for another 30 mins
for the next train and the mosquitoes had a field day{rather night} feeding on our blood and the sweaty environs only made things worse.Add 2 that non stop smsing by a crack pot friend of mine asking "wat happpened... whr r u" etc.We reached IIT at about 1 am and had 2 cycle all the way from gate 2 hostel which is about 4 kms.I was totally drained out and exhausted by the time i reached but i had this sense of triumph having been able 2 help a friend in distress,that too when no solution seemed possible at that hour.I patted myself and said "Good work da Rajeeva!!!" and crashed.

Saturday was bad-vheri vheri bad because net was down{I know u did not expect that reason} till 7 pm.The good thing was that i completed a decent portion of "Tell me ur dreams" which would have been impossible otherwise.Had some insipid food as usual and came back.I was elated when i found out that net was back.Kewl! As usual replied 2 my scraps and was on duty non stop.Ob u know wat duty means-chatting,orkutting,music,movies.Now dont say vacation means studies as vacation is for enjoyment and studies-well no comments.I chatted with a few close friends till about 3-30 am and crashed.

On Sunday again i was on duty.I thought of taking a break{studies} but work pressure{:D} was too high and so no break till evening.Later I completed that novel and did something which was related to engg for about an hour.I wud not like 2 dwell much on Mech fundaes,not because u might not understand it, but i myself will not know wat i am writing if i do so!

Hmmm.... so yet another topic highlighting my joblessness and guess i am going overboard.But relax guys!I shall try 2 post something decent next time.We have an Industrial visit lined up this weekend and i seriously have 2 dust my books if i entertain any hopes of getting something into my head.Shall try 2 post about that next time. In the meantime i shall try 2 review some books which i have read recently.

WEEKEND-COUSINS AND NOSTALGIA

2005-08-15T19:22:00.000+05:30

Isn't it quite surprising that the tears of yesteryears bring about laughs while on the contrary those laughters bring about tears today?I felt the same this weekend.My uncle called me up on saturday saying granny and a cousin had come down to their place and told me to come there.I spent the noon watching a movie ,chatting with a couple of friends and then left for their place in the evening.

I was meeting a couple of cousins-one after a few months and the other after a few years.They were F-20 and F-18 respectively.{Of course if it were M i would not have mentioned}.After spending some time with my granny one of them called me and thus started a long chat session.Initially i did the usual leg pulling but after a few minutes i was no match 2 their wits.2 females completely outmatched a male and on many occasions i was left speechless and also fuming.Probably "Revenge of the sis"!They also managed to convince me 2 take them to "Mangal Pandey" and/or lunch the next day .Frankly i feel girls have mastered that art{no offense intended plz}.Then we recalled our childhood days . I have a great bunch of cousins ,both paternal and maternal, and in summer it was only destination Kumbakonam{Thanjavur district,TN} for all of us from the maternal side.It is a huge,ancestral,century old building with wooden balconies and a green courtyard which houses many trees.We continued the discussion till about 9,gorged on granny's goodies and resumed our session which went on till abt 2 am!

The next morning granny treated us to a sumptuous breakfast.After a futile visit to the theatre i was in no mood to dine out and we returned back.We resumed our "bheegi bheegi yaadein" - Kumbakonam. We also had great neighbours there and they being of our age added to our joys.For boys it used to be 24*7 cricket while the girls used to sit indoors playing carroms or watching TV. Lunch/dinner was the meeting time and it used 2 b chaotic and commotion all around,with the boys teasing the girls and getting blows from the elders.We had a jumbo sized wooden swing and boys and girls used to fight for it daily and invariably someone had to intervene to solve the dispute!Each of us had a tale to tell and it was sheer ecstasy when we recalled those moments.We recalled our visit to Kodaikanal{1995} and a visit 2 the theatre to watch 'jeans' {1998}.We also talked about each others' school crushes,college life etc.It was evening by then and one of them suggested calling up a few cousins.We revived some of those memories when we called our cousins in Banagalore{2 sooper kewl guys},Thanjavur{3 robust naughty guys},Surat{2 sweety sisters} etc.We decided to meet atleast once evry year and this time most of them have confirmed their participation in december at Kumbaks.Granny left on Sunday night and one of my cousins also had 2 leave.The other cousin had some meeting in college the next morning and so i returned 2 my room on Monday at 11 am.

It was an amazing weekend for me with great memories which i will cherish throughout my life.They called me up and wished me all the best and i too followed suit.I am now lying in a pensive mood in my cot.Wordsworth{in Daffodils} came to my mind- "those memories change my solitude to bliss".My eyes are already moist now and i do not wish to wet my cheeks with tears{it has not happened for the past 5-6 years} so i will be putting a full stop now.I have only one crib-I should have taken my sweety sisters out to lunch.
KOI LAUTAA DE MERE BEETHE HUE DIN.....

FIRST DAY OF 3RD YEAR

2005-08-08T22:48:00.000+05:30

MONDAY MORNING BLUES

Aaargh...Yawn.. The alarm was screaming at 7 am and i peacefully shut it down and dozed back. At abt 7-45 i realised that i had not yet done my "boni"-attending classes so far this yr.Tom Sawyer's invention of "ills" came 2 my mind but here i was my own master and all i needed was "determination"! Classes officially started on Friday but for lazy bums like me it had not yet started and i did not want 2 procrastinate the "boni". I jumped out of my bed and completed all the daily chores{minus of course taking a bath} and managed 2 reach jus 5 min late for the 8 am class. As expected it was half empty{for proponents of optimism well -half full}.I was happy that i belonged to the better half of the class.

1st hr- The prof let us in with a warning saying "First time xcused". No sooner did i park myself than i found myself being drawn into the whirlpool called sleep. I tried 2 take help frm my neighbour but he was already down by then.The classroom seems 2 b having soporific properties embedded in it-thats wat i feel. After trying few things 2 keep sleep at bay i gave up and thankfully went unnoticed.

2nd hr- A young man with a crumpled T-shirt entered in and i thot that some M.Tech or Ph.D muggu came in 2 assist the prof . To my surpise he turned out 2 b the prof. He started off with a world map showing where he grew,studied and stuff . Probably he found it amusing or interesting but v thot it was stupidity. He gave us a gift and dropped a bomb too. Gift:-no attendance-- I beamed like a child who was given an unexpected toy;Bomb:- No reference book,no notes,only classroom... -- I was as angry as a child whose chocolate was snatched away!! Started something vague which was overhead transmission-OHT.

3rd hr- I was determined 2 atleast scribble something. Managed 2 scribble a decent amt.I wish 2 emphasise-decent by my standards.I felt on top of the world.

4th hr- Due to my misfortune entered late so had 2 sit in the 1st bench beside a "My-day-incomplete-without-teacher-licking" guy. He ,hold ur breath,had a pencil,red pen,blue pen and a scale.Phew! I did not have that even in my school where neat notes mattered a lot. Again that hr was OHT and time was ticking away at a snail's pace . I managed to stay awake but ob was not listening. Once someone asked Dharmaraj "Wat travels faster than light" and he said "the mind" . It was quite true as my mind had encompassed the entire universe in that hr except the classroom!

Back 2 hostel. Had something seemingly similar 2 the aloo,sambar,dal shown in the train in 'ANNIYAN' . I had a surprise in store as there was no 5th hr and i had a short nap. I was ecstatic when i found that there was no lab in the noon and the very thot of a free noon on the 1st day lifted up my spirits.Wow!!

I attended 2 some small jobs only because orkut was not functioning. Evening passed away slowly bereft of any activity.It was time 2 dig into some food. A few freshers were sitting with us in our table in the dining hall and suddenly i saw a worried lookin guy with a bag running around here and there. He came 2 our table and asked the freshers "hey did u write down chemistry notes" and at the other end few guys were talking of something called vector product. I was immediately transported 2 the days wen i used 2 religiously write down notes ,and it seemed some years away. Me and my frnds jus shook it off with a toothy grin and came back 2 our "bindaas" days which is something i am not at all truimphant about.It is something like law of dimishing "interest". If u draw a graph of my "acads enthu and interest" vs age it wud b a perfect sinusoidal curve with the peak being my 11th and 12th class days.I am one of the few "celebs" who gave up studies in the very 1st yr but the situation is better these days.

My only aim as of now is 2 be in time for Tuesday's classes and i have taken a resolution 2 listen 2 the prof's lectures and make notes atleast for 1 full day. I am jus hoping and praying it does happen........

CHENNAI vs HYDERABAD

2005-08-05T09:58:00.000+05:30

CHENNAI vs HYDERABAD: A candid assessment of the 2 cities

3rd post in 3 days..jump start 2 my blog!
I jus cannot fathom y most of the Hyderabadis call it "hydra-bad" ,which they claim is the anglicised version as in "calcutta- kolkata" or "bombay-mumbai" , with the bad part being pronounced in the same way as the antonym of good-"bad". The other "bad"s do not suffer this ignominy namely Ahmedabad,Ghaziabad etc. If it were 2 b a purely posh,Anglicised name I wud have rechristened hyd as "Hydra good". Okie i wont go abt extolling the greatness of Hyd now.

I grew up in the wonderful,laidback,Nawabi city Hyd. My stay in Chennai -where "barota","bajji" and "sundal" stalls r as ubiquitous as "chaat bandis" in Hyd, is {and will certainly be}relatively very short compared 2 that of Hyd but enuff for this blog. Also innumerable visits in my childhood do supplement the comparison.

The first thing that strikes u on landing at the Chennai Central is the unbearable stench emanating from the umpteen gunny backs filled 2 the brim with fishes. Ppl say "singara chennai" but i feel "Stink aara Chennai" wud b better .The other thing is the perfect discipline which the coolies diligently follow. They never enter the train unlike their hyderabadi counterparts where a plethora of coolies simply barge into the train oblivious 2 the troubles of the disembarking passengers and the air full of "maa ki.." and "behen ki .." stuff!!. Of course the coolies do charge exorbitant rates and that is their forte. The modus operandi is 2 pick out the bakras-non tams, frm the trains and convince them in a smooth,genteel manner in a "khichdish" lang infested with tam wrds and a few gult words being thrown in here and thr. For eg. he will offer 2 carry ur baggage till the auto stand and quote an outrageous,out-of-the-world 3 digit figure which will leave u shell-shocked. More shocks at the taxi stand where the guy will quote exactly the double of the prev 3 digit and triple if u have a comp which is a kinda ' white elephant' . If ur a tam, well all u can do is a bit of bargaining and reduce it slightly but u do run the risk of being rebuked in the choicest of tam expletives wen u have reached ur destination, on not complying to his demands! The autowallahs also deserve a mention here . The state-of-the-art digitalised meters in the autos will surely catch ur eye but wait, they r purely for decorative purposes and agreeing 2 a pre-fixed flat rate will not burn that big a hole in ur purse as against metered fares. I do not recall any instance of entering an auto or taxi with equanimity in Chennai.

The N.Indian stuff in the restaurants will leave u fuming and leaves a lot 2 b desired. Very few hotels dish out quality stuff and it is beyond the reach of students. Did someone say "Be Roman while in Rome"?? Well the "roman" stuff or "chennai" stuff namely idly,vada etc er quite good in the eateries . Regarding entertainment the theatres r not at all good and this is very disappointing for movie buffs like me. On many occasions i have seen movies in black with many empty seats indicating a tie -up. I badly miss the 35Rs ticket in Hyd!!

After all the flogging-to-death time for goody stuff akin 2 my first post. The traffic sense is amazing and a hyderabadi driver will never find it easy here. The theatre{drama} circuit is quite bright and the reverence of Chennaites towards religion and God is well known. The city is up by 6 am with evrbody sporting "vibhuti" unlike the laidback attitude of hyd.The hyd attitude of "chalta hain" or procrastination has caught up with me big time and i am one of the innumerable victims of that attitude. An evening near the beach will rejuvenate ur spirits and the tides have washed away my worries many a time. The transport network is xlnt and the local trains have an amazing frequency at a very cheap rate. So i do not loathe Chennai too but do have certain points against it.

Hmmmm yet another exhaustive post. Bears testimony 2 my "vettiness"..
.
So which is better?Without an iota of doubt PHIR BHI DIL HAIN HYDERABADI

VACATION MUSINGS

2005-08-04T11:34:00.000+05:30

A 3 month vacation exists only in dreams for any engg student and even i was quite surprised{and elated too!}when i heard of it. But now its part of my life. Like any other vacation even this time my parents had audacious plans ,only that it saw light for the 1st time in many yrs. V planned a trip 2 N.India with granny and few rels but i did not even have the slightest idea that it was gonna b a purely pilgrimage trip though i shud have envisaged that coz with granny around it is given. I was done with my 2nd yr eggjams on may 11 and had 2 park myself at a diff place daily in chennai{ i mean have hazaar rels so daily a different house} till 20th.Then began a long and ardous train journey 2 delhi.After scanning the entire compartment i found out that there was no F 18-22 so all the more boring!But i managed to complete "Da vinci code" {ya a bit late } during the journey.
Delhi was soooper.Evry house boasted of 4-5 cars and it was quite evident that they led quite a flamboyant lifestyle.Replete with sparkling roads, sensational gals,sprawling malls etc Delhi did not seem like the India v know.For a while i thot i shud have opted for IIT DELHI!!! After the usual sight seeing in Delhi{double meaning also 2 b added} and stuff v started off 2 Haridwar.It was a kinda package tour with 100 ppl in 4 buses and much 2 my displeasure it was full of 60+ "mamis" and naamam sporting "mamas". I never knew it was gonna b an out and out iyengar trip. I had great hopes of finding some good company for "kadalai" but all my hopes came down crashing and i had 2 bear the non stop pestering of those oldies. For the next 7 days or so it was only "Hare Rama Hare Krishna" , Carnatic music and other typical iyengarish activities.I thougt my walkman wud save me frm that but my sis who is an ardent music buff brought in the same things saving a few non carnatic cassettes which lightened up the scene somewat.Even the food was jus abt ok but i pardoned the organisers after i learnt how difficult it was 2 go to Badrinath.
Comin to the trip it was amazing 2 say the least. Those serpentine ghatroads with the Ganges flowing deep down in the valley was breathtaking .My heart was filled with child like joy {donno y!!} when i saw real snow for the 1st time and it was an exhilarating experience.The badrinath temple amidst snow clad peaks was awesome and i was thankful 2 my parents as it turned out 2 b a "pilgrimage cum pleasure " trip.The Ganga was biting cold even in the peak summer .After purifying my body and soul with innumerable ganga snaans at Haridwar ,Rishikesh ,Devaprayag etc v went back 2 Delhi. I was hell bent on visiting the Taj but my granny was dead against! Her take was that it was a "tulaka samadhi"{muslim's grave} and the devout Hindu that she is ,she refused 2 budge an inch frm her stance and i lost out another opportunity. The irony is that this was my 3rd tip 2 Delhi without a glimpse of Taj :(. V went to Mathura,Brundavan,Gokul {again "dhaarmik sthaan"!} and came 2 the fag end of our trip.
It was back 2 Hyd on jun 3rd after a memorable trip and my only crib was not goin 2 agra and kedarnath,{which is a non vishnu temple and ob my granny was against}. I was ready for a fresh foray into the big bad world and i was a total "aawara" in hyd. I watched, hold ur breath ,13 movies and my mom obviously was quite indignant and had 2 face her wrath after umpteen untold visits 2 the theatre! Visiting the net cafe became an almost daily affair and at one point of time i ran out of dough due 2 my lifestyle! But it was good 2 b at home enjoyin mom's delicacies and catching up with frnds and stuff. I did miss lunch and dinner on many occassions and was severely reprimanded for that. Also my sis was preparing for JEE so cud not watch much TV at home and that kept me outdoors for most of the time. The only positive outcome was the reading habit which i restarted after a 3 yr hiatus.I did manage 2 read 3-4 books which is quite decent by my standards as I am quite infamous for my reading pace!
All said and done it was a good 3 months . Now it is back 2 sq one in my hostel and i had 2 do a lot of cleaning and stuff yest. Classes will commence in full swing by 5th and it will b a good 4 months before i go back 2 "home sweet home". I do miss HYDERABAD !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HOSTEL LIFE

2005-08-03T20:07:00.000+05:30

In my 9th and 10th classes like any other young teenager even I was very eager 2 enter college and have a posh bike,a great gang of frnds and a hep lifestyle. Little did I know that I was 2 enter a world where the vroom of a bike and the smoke that it gives out wud rusticate u frm college!! Of course rusticate is 2 big a word , powered vehicles are banned in our campus and v r fined heavily for riding one. All I have is a solitary cycle now which seems 2 crib often these days and is always in danger of being stolen !! I hope it is safe now as I have not seen it for the past 3 months.
A typical day starts at 8 am { how I envy u guys whose classes start at 9-30 or 10} and I am certain that not more than 5-10% of the students wake up before 7-30 and I do not fall in that category. A visit 2 any of the hostels at that time will surely have u in splits. The cacophonic sound of ‘n’ no of alarms blaring out is the first thing which one will notice. A glance towards the wash basins will show sleepy faces inching their way in and out and cursing the long queue!. Chennai is infamous for its water prob and our campus is no exception. You will have a super sensational start 2 ur day wen u discover that there is no water that morning and find only air rushing out of the tap! Freshers religiously take bath in the morning and v have 2 put fight 2 dig the fact into their heads that doin so will leave the late risers with no water and so the 1st thing one does in the ragging sessions is 2 take a word from him saying he wont take bath in the morning.I pity the guys who r caught in the loo in such horrible situations. Fortunately I was not a victim so far and hope not 2 be one in the future!!! Other idiosyncrasies which all the guys follow religiously are- taking bath only in the evenings; generously applying deo and wearing crumpled,battered,wo