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.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Monday, February 08, 2010
CHENNAI 4/20- THE TWIN ATTACK
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"
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"
Tuesday, November 03, 2009
LONG TIME NO SEE
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....
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....
Monday, June 23, 2008
BUT PAPPU CAN'T DANCE SAALA
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 !
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
AH ! BLISS
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 !
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 !
Friday, May 30, 2008
THAT'S IT FOLKS
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
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
Saturday, May 17, 2008
GOODBYE, IITM
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.
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