tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-68412398405871331112024-02-29T07:41:52.276+08:00My experiments with my LifeJK's BlogJKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17504915258073113778noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6841239840587133111.post-85440148083146399552017-08-29T06:38:00.000+08:002020-05-26T11:06:06.359+08:00Technology as we know it<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My speech on technology at Toastmasters humorous speech contest.</span><br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span id="docs-internal-guid-b15256f2-2afe-564d-575b-b31503148e8c"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span id="docs-internal-guid-b15256f2-2afe-564d-575b-b31503148e8c"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Today, I wanna talk about technology. In particular I wanna talk abt this fine piece of technology - the mobile phones. We probably don’t appreciate this luxury enough. This is the epitome of technology as we know it. If we culminate all of human effort spanning the last 300,000 years into one technology, it is this - the mobile phone. </span></span></div>
</blockquote>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/Mffc35PH77Dq7USrHb4qNm-1200-80.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="720" height="225" src="https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/Mffc35PH77Dq7USrHb4qNm-1200-80.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span id="docs-internal-guid-b15256f2-2afe-564d-575b-b31503148e8c"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">
</span></span>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span id="docs-internal-guid-b15256f2-2afe-564d-575b-b31503148e8c"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Let’s pause here for a second and go back some thirty years back to see how life was without a mobile phone. I wasn’t born 30 years back, but probably... </span></span></div>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-b15256f2-2afe-564d-575b-b31503148e8c">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I was in the process of being created.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Anyways, this story is about my friend’s dad. He is on a visit here. He’s from India and he used to work in the OIl Industry in the middle east, in Dubai. Shell Oil Company. But there was a time when he was staying away from his wife for about an year. So every time he had to communicate to his wife, he used, what we call now as snail mail. It worked like this. Whenever he wanted to communicate something to his wife (my friend’s mom), he took a piece of white paper, wrote whatever he wanted to write, found an envelope, affixed a stamp on it, and drove to a post office, posted it and waited. His wife receives the letter after four days. And even if she decides to reply to that the same day, it takes another four days for it to reach him. So, it actually takes 8 days for you to get a reply for something he asked, and this applied the other way too. His wife received a response after 8 long days for something she asked.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This got me thinking, </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“If I didn’t reply to my girlfriend for 8 days……</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She would have broken up with me 800 times”.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Forget 8 days, the rule of thumb is if I didn’t reply to her within 8 seconds of seeing her message, then something bad is going to happen. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But the real question is how does she know that I saw her message?</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> This is due to the evil most invention of this millennia known as “Whatsapp”. It’s not whatsapp which is evil, it's just a small feature in whatsapp that is evil. It’s called ….. the double tick. I don’t know who invented this, but whoever did this, he didn’t have a girlfriend.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Or if it was a girl who invented, she definitely did have a boyfriend.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But my girlfriend is cool, you know. She’s not around here, but still she gets to know almost everything I say or do. So she’s awesome. If any of you guys didn’t understand my references to whatsapp or this double tick feature, you have something what i call as - uh a life. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But technology is awesome, you know. My dad used to end up in different town driving without knowing the direction. He drove off to meet a relative in a different city and he ended up meeting some other relative in some other city because he took the wrong direction. I am his son. And I don’t want to make the same mistakes. So I have used Google Maps to drive to Hacker dojo every single time for the past six months. My good friend Anish, his iPhone got blank one fine morning just this past week. It refused to charge up. He was out of clue. He was expecting his mom's call that evening, and he had to inform his mom that his phone doesn’t work. But the bad part is, he doesn’t remember her number. He didn’t have to. He tried to login to iCloud to retrieve the contacts, but to login to iCloud, you need to enter a two factor verification. First you have to get your Apple ID password correct, then you will have to enter the passcode sent to your Iphone; the ipHone which is no longer working. And there was another option to retrieve the contact, but basically, you have to walk a tightrope across Niagra to get your own contacts. So Anish wanted to buy a new phone the same day. I suggested Anish, to buy a cheap phone temporarily until he makes up his mind which smartphone to buy. So we went to Fry’s Electronics and found a 30 dollar phone. It was a nice flip-flop phone for just 30 dollars. Anish gave a look of disapproval saying that it doesn’t have maps. It’s a 30 dollar phone; of course it doesn’t support maps. And he’s good at directions, unlike me. He doesn’t actually need maps to go everywhere, but he can’t imagine the concept of a phone without maps. I mean, it good to use these mapping technologies, in fact i’m a big proponent of it. I work as a Geospatial Data Scientist and my field of work involves creating these mapping technologies for different apps. So, we need to use these mapping technologies more and more. For the greater good. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And for my job security.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">;</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Technology bridges cultural gaps. I grew up in a multicultural society. This might be surprising to some of you. You might think that everyone in India speak and understand the same language. But it is not true. Every state in INdia speaks their own language. And by language, I do not mean a different dialect. They have their own script and grammar. You still don’t believe me ? Let me speak to Siddhartha here in my language and see if he understands that… “Oonu kazhicho Siddhartha?” See he had no clue what I talked about. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But you know what? The translate app can do this for me. It can translate to and from my language and convert it into his language. So technology is the best language to communicate. It evens out cultural differences. Imagine a world without this translate app. how confusing it would have been. I think that's why British left India so soon. They just stayed here for….. 400 years…</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But the thing I always wonder is why the British left US as we know it, in less than 50 years. What did Americans do that Indians didn't?</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Oh I know what u guys did… The British couldn't tolerate this stupidity known as American Unit system.. The American Unit system doesn't make sense to me.. it doesn't align with the decimal system. Decimal system is units expressed in multiples of 10 or fraction of 10. But American units doesn't believe in that. You wanna dispute me? If so, pls answer what's 5.353 miles in feet? No.answer? No.answer?.. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But if u ask me what's 5.353 kilometers in meters, I can immediately say it's 5,353 meters. U want it in millimeters; it's 5,353,000 mm. U want it in nanometers, I can probably answer it in 5 seconds, without the pen or computer. But you guys confused the British with pounds and ounces and fahrenheit and inches and yards and miles. That the British couldn't take it.anymore… </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But you know what… there's someone in this room, who can answer my previous question about mile.conversion. u wanna know who that is… “Ok Google, what's 5.353 miles in kilometers”... (Google replies.. ) “28.3k… feet” … see Technology can not just bridge cultural differences, but can also bridge American stupidity. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Technology, as we know it is awesome guys. We do have an obligation to use it responsibly, but it is making human lives better and more productive, it's bridging cultural gaps and democratising knowledge. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thank you guys. That's my time… </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: "merriweather"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
</span></blockquote>
</div>
JKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17504915258073113778noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6841239840587133111.post-76827445544305206702016-05-08T02:17:00.001+08:002020-05-26T11:06:06.609+08:00The day I became JK<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">This happened 13 years ago. Jayakrishnan
was an eighth grader in a school in the nice South Indian city called Trichy. During
his seventh grade, he had a cat – a lovely, fluffy cute cat. He loved it. And his
proclivity towards the cat caused him a fungal infection called “polyps” which
led to tissue growth in the nose almost blocking his entire right nose. It
seemed he was allergic to cat fur. His dad’s homeopathy doctor friend assured
he could cure this. After 6 months, the tissue growth only seemed to grow more,
effectively blocking his right nose and partially affecting his hearing. This
meant, he struggled with his class lessons. He was at his academic low. His
teachers had a condescending look for him every time the test papers were
distributed. Friends, if any, were few. They called him “Jaya”. Of late,
someone pointed out that “Jaya” is a feminine name. (It’s one of those thing
with the Indian names; when combined with a male name – “Krishna” it becomes a
male name in totality) He thought he was better off with the name his dad
christened him initially – Vivek Rasdan, after a then Indian cricket player. “Jayakrishnan”
was the name that his Astrologer-cum-Sanskrit scholar granddad christened him,
based out of astrology and also half his name, which was Ramakrishnan. Some
bullies caught upon the feminine part of his name. Scared, he tried to avoid
schools on any possible occasion. On lonely days when he bunked schools, he
used to solve crossword puzzles in the Young World paper which comes on
Saturdays. He also maintained a dairy, where he noted down his observations, witty
cartoons by Keshav in the Hindu, pictures of fast trains and the German
landscape from the German News magazine which his dad had subscribed. He particularly loved the cover stories on
LTTE and other major national events which were illustrated creatively in the
WEEK magazine. He used to wonder why India Today magazine always wrote articles
supporting a major national party a.k.a BJP. He never spoke about these to
anyone except to his dairy. His dairy was his only true friend. His dairy was
the only one who would know what that boy was and what went through him. He was
an introvert, at best. The only good thing that happened to him that year was
that his parents decided to go with allopathic surgery to remove the fungal
growth in his nose. And this put him on wheels of normalcy. Yet his introverted
character remained the same. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">He entered the eighth grade. He had chosen
Hindi as a second language earlier when he was in sixth grade. But Hindi
students were a minority. So were Catholic Christian students in his school.
The school decided to put these two groups together in a same class for reasons
best known to them. This was where he first saw Nancy Perira. She was a legend
in that school. He had heard stories about her from his friends. She always
gets the first rank; she has never known what a second rank is, in her entire
life – that was her legend. She had a fierce competitive look in her eyes. And
she was damn smart- the speed with which she talked made her seem extra smart. He
looked at her with an awe and felt like a lowly being when she walked past him.
Once, he was standing near the classroom door, unknowingly blocking her path.
She said, “Hey, stupid, move away!” He felt bad for a moment, but gave her way
immediately. He conceded to the adjective, the smartest girl in the school just
gave him, because he thought it was his fault. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Arockyasamy, his social sciences teacher
was his class teacher. Arockyasamy seemed different in his approach of teaching.
He too had a legend – he normalized the social science marks of his students to
90%. The rest 10 marks would come from the Social Science notes that he asked
his students to maintain. And legend has it that no one ever got those 10
marks; students who get 2.5 consider themselves lucky. This was because, the
notes he asked his students to maintain was not book based. It was like, an
entire chapter in Geography should be summarized in just 2 pages with any fact about
the chapter NOT presented in the text book – all the extra details one can lay
their hands upon. And he substituted Civics sections with GK sections and
solicited newspaper articles for the Civics part. History chapters should be
substituted with in-depth historic event analysis. Civics section carried 5
marks, History and Geography 5 together. He actually started teaching us at the
end of first mid-term only. But he implemented his system no sooner. Nancy was
even asking Arockyasamy on ways to get the full 10 marks.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The First mid-term exams were just
conducted. Jayakrishnan got the 7<sup>th</sup> rank. This was the highest rank
he could imagine getting in a long time. Of course, Nancy got the first. But
before the ranks were computed, it was time for evaluation of the social
science notes by Arockyasamy. Nancy got 2.5 on her coverage on Historic
analysis. Arockyasamy called Jayakrishnan out. He said, “Good work. You’re the
first person to get 7.5 marks in the Social Science notes”. He got the full 5
in GK section and 2.5 on Geography. The GK section he covered was on a crucial judgment
the Supreme Court had passed on the Ayodhya issue. Many students had the
newspaper clipping of that judgment pasted in the GK section. But Jaya drew a
timeline across two pages, demarcating the important events that led to the
current judgment. A separate section was delineated at two different corners
listing the key parties involved in the conflict. The other two corners listing
the rationale and basis of the conflict as submitted by the conflicting
parties. As far as the Geography section was concerned, he pasted a single
stamp of the country that was being dealt, that he got through a philatelic
exchange with some his friends the previous year. He explained the cost of the
stamp. And a small box on the local currency and how it compares with the rupee
and the dollar and Yen. He then explained the person on the stamp, the first
prime minister after independence. A small box shows political system followed
by the country and the current leaders. And two other boxes on the climate,
it’s geopolitical influence on its neighbors and how it influences its economy.
He felt so happy that day. He looked though his notes the whole evening and the
words, “V.Good.. 7.5/10” embellishing the page. He wondered why Nancy gave a
hateful look at him when returned with his note to his bench.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">After that, Jaya was the one to answer the
GK questions and current affairs questions posed by Arockyasamy to his class. It
felt nice for him. And he made no mistake the second time. He got the full 10
marks in Social Science notes section, breaking his own record. He improved his
rank by securing the 3<sup>rd</sup> rank. But at the same time, he was being
hated by Nancy like never before. Now, she knows him by name. But nevertheless,
she found new situations just to call him “stupid”. He didn’t know how to react
to that. Because every time, it was someway his fault. She was the ‘class
monitor’. Persons who get the first rank get to become the monitor and she was
the monitor by default, always. She wrote the name “Jaya” every other day on
the board which lists the students who misbehaved during the absence of
teachers. This ensured that Jayakrishnan got punished for a crime he grasped
hard to understand when he committed. But it must have been his mistake; he
never defended himself for any of that, because he was still scared to speak
out to his teachers. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The school conducted an assembly every
week. And every week, one class must host the assembly. And during each
assembly, there’s a small speech on a topic. It was his class’ turn to host the
assembly. The topic for speech was ‘The Crown and Glory of Life is character’. Arockyasamy,
chose his favorite student, Jayakrishnan, to give the speech. Jayakrishnan was
scared to death. He didn’t even dare to speak a complete sentence to his
teachers. His dad penned his speech. Arockyasamy decided to conduct a mock
trial in front of the class. Jayakrishnan never looked at any of the students
while he spoke. He spoke looking down. And he couldn’t complete three sentences
properly. Nancy was smiling at the sorry figure he cut for himself. He was
sweating profusely. He gave a pleading look at his class teacher and cried, “I can’t..
I’m sorry”… He said, “It’s okay, we’ll do another session in two days”. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Two complete days of speaking with the
mirror and his sister, he probably realized he could make it. The second time,
he completed the speech with occasional stammering, but he barely looked at the
audience. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Arockyasamy called him aside and gave a
great piece of advice. “You’re doing well, but no one will listen to you if you
don’t speak TO them. If you’re scared about looking at the audience, don’t
really look at them. Just sway her head at all the audience constantly.”
Jayakrishnan took the advice and during the third trial, he did exactly the
same. It turned out well. But speaking before 60 students and before 2000
students is different. Jayakrishnan knew that. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">On the day of speech, Jayakrishnan was
standing behind the stage, wishing that the Master of Ceremonies would pace out
their introductions; he literally prayed for each delayed second. Finally they
called out, “Now Jayakrishnan from 8-A will deliver a speech on the topic, ‘The
Crown and Glory of Life Is character”. Jayakrishnan waited for five seconds
after he was called for. He realized that the entire school was ready to laugh
at his folly. He wanted to run away from the place. At that time, he felt a
hand on his shoulder. He looked back at the tall figure of Arockyasamy smiling
at him. He said, “The school is waiting to hear your great speech”. This
brought a wide smile on his face. He decided, come what may, he is not letting
this man down. He tread the stage towards the mike for the first time in his
life. His first word was over amplified; someone came running to push the mike
a bit away from his mouth. IN this process, he forgot his customary salutations
which should invariably begin with “Revered Principal,…” Instead, he started
with a line, he never rehearsed to speak about.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“When I was given this topic, I didn’t
even understand what it meant. In fact, it was my dad who wrote this speech”.
The whole school burst into laughter. After the laughter subsided, he
continued, “But I’m here just for one thing, or rather for one person –
Mr.Arockyasamy, my class teacher and guide who believed in me to deliver this
to this august audience. So here I am to speak about the topic, which I now
feel is so meaningful”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">When the speech was over, the 4000 pairs
of hands clapped – all the sound directed at one person that was overwhelming
for him. Arockyasamy patted his back. He smiled back at him. Back in the class,
Arockyasamy distributed the Half-yearly rank cards. When Jayakrishnan’s roll
number came, he called out, “Mr.JK…” (Jayakrishnan wondered that this is the
first time someone called him JK, but it certainly felt nice), “You get the
first rank this time. And that was a good speech by the way, I forgot to
mention..”, he smiled as he handed him the rank card. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The whole class clapped except for the one
girl. But then, at that moment, he realized, it’s not always his fault. And that
he’s not a stupid. That day Nancy didn’t write down his name on the board even
though he was talking happily with all his friends in the ‘absence of the
teacher’ which was categorized as misbehavior during many such earlier
instances. Just then he realized that he is the monitor from the next day.
Remember, persons who get the first rank get to become the monitor. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">That was the day Jayakrishnan became JK.
Till this day, he carried that name as a remembrance of his first mentor. He
became the monitor. No names on the board ever as long as he was the monitor. From
then on, he grabbed any and every opportunity to give a public speech. Won some
state level speech competitions. Be it Independence Day or Republic day, JK is
solicited to give his passionate patriotic speech. And of course, participated
in many quiz competitions and won some. He replaced Nancy as the person who
never knew what the second rank was. Nancy tried to insult me by accusing him
in front of the class he got the first rank by using ‘bit’ in exams. He still couldn’t
defend himself or shout back at her. But he didn’t feel sorry. He was able to
smile back at her. But none of that was important than the fact that none of
this would have happened if Arockyasamy never believed in him. One person
changed a boy's life. And that person was able to changed his outlook. By just believing in the other person. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">JK is still secretly an introvert.
But when occasion arises, he can be the best extrovert around. </span><span style="font-family: 'times new roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">And when the bullies tried to call him
"Jaya" the next time, he retorted back,
"There's no space between Jaya and Krishnan, you ignorant fuck…"</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">~~~~~~<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Dedicated to all genuine teachers who are
transforming young lives for the better…</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">~~~~~~~<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
</div>
</div>
JKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17504915258073113778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6841239840587133111.post-35414098494953931502016-04-22T06:51:00.001+08:002020-05-26T11:06:06.713+08:00MY OLD PUBLISHED WRITINGS :: NOSTALGIA<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 99%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 99%;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 99%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 99%;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 99%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 99%;">THE
HINDU YOUNG WORD – VII Std (2002) (MY FIRST PUBLISHED WRITING)</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 99%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 99%;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 99%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 99%;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTilIthsk-Dw03S1pnuReChRQfoNDq638ilZEL0Pk4r9ZLWdB9RJBP3ApwWMLquYAY6JEYMQnd_3Vmtev2TY9f9UH1dTtKjngVG0eCkfOOiISlTHapoVAwmzXRdwifXT54Is3W7TYvlUo0/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="505" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTilIthsk-Dw03S1pnuReChRQfoNDq638ilZEL0Pk4r9ZLWdB9RJBP3ApwWMLquYAY6JEYMQnd_3Vmtev2TY9f9UH1dTtKjngVG0eCkfOOiISlTHapoVAwmzXRdwifXT54Is3W7TYvlUo0/s640/1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="WordSection1">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 99%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 99%;">THE
HINDU METRO PLUS MADURAI EDITION (2004)</span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 99%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br clear="all" style="mso-break-type: section-break; page-break-before: always;" />
</span>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 3.05pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 92%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; punctuation-wrap: simple; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .25in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 92%;">"VOICE YOUR VIEWS COLUMN" – IX STD TITLE : PROBLEMS IN POWER DISTRIBUTION</span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 92%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO8d2JL7ys-wpiqHId-jo6cwx01LV3UlpIMqh3c1uHLuNscwDDTKyHCK9tvEGwBCGlv_LwPKXUndg3jO5k0QQH-0Nqa0Mk0JSV5sY045iZe_nsGnLYcbVmN-b-3AHPQ4m5uQLj7EhsqUYo/s1600/2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO8d2JL7ys-wpiqHId-jo6cwx01LV3UlpIMqh3c1uHLuNscwDDTKyHCK9tvEGwBCGlv_LwPKXUndg3jO5k0QQH-0Nqa0Mk0JSV5sY045iZe_nsGnLYcbVmN-b-3AHPQ4m5uQLj7EhsqUYo/s640/2.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<b style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<b style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<b style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">SCHOOL MAGAZINE – IX STD (2004)</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: .1pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 29pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> “RELEVANCE OF GANHISM IN MODERN
WORLD”</span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijfTJ8XgAUPXI7LWebbpRdO_KSfXnayjPLf6gjz8gigssTU4bLzqnFSla-XBtX1CPF55Hp8CZWObxV7EYI2msZU7CZJBsja5AfyqHP2Jjpov52X75DQz5ckuGMBaRgNaNhqPCnKeBoH1EB/s1600/3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="528" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijfTJ8XgAUPXI7LWebbpRdO_KSfXnayjPLf6gjz8gigssTU4bLzqnFSla-XBtX1CPF55Hp8CZWObxV7EYI2msZU7CZJBsja5AfyqHP2Jjpov52X75DQz5ckuGMBaRgNaNhqPCnKeBoH1EB/s640/3.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="WordSection1">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 99%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 21.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 99%;">THE HINDU METRO PLUS
CHENNAI EDITION</span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 99%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 99%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 86.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 99%;">VOICE YOUR VIEWS COLUMN (2007)</span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 99%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.25pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 13pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“CHOOSING PROFESSIONAL COURSES - IS
IT TRUE CHOICE?”</span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 3.15pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">It is a fact that TamilNadu is having sufficient number of engineering colleges to satiate the demand. However, in medical field it seems to be limited. And regarding non-professional courses the situation is satisfactory. When it comes to specific branches in professional courses the availability is not satisfactory since it is not decided by the choice of students but by extraneous factors like management perceptions, parents’ ambitions and the current job market demands. This will neither help the students nor the nation. Also the choice factor must be weighed with cost factor to decide true availability.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><br /></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 3.25pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 92%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 289.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; punctuation-wrap: simple; text-align: right; text-autospace: none;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 92%;">JayaKrishnan,V I Yr. B.E.
(Geoinformatics), CEG,Anna University.</span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 92%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 92%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 289.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; punctuation-wrap: simple; text-align: right; text-autospace: none;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 92%;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 62pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 62pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">THE HINDU METRO PLUS CHENNAI
EDITION</span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 98%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 127.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 98%;">VOICE YOUR VIEWS COLUMN</span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 98%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 97%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 105.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 97%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Meltdown and the changing job scene</span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 97%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 116%; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 2pt;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 116%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Some economists had
foreseen and predicted the economic meltdown in the western countries and the
‘bursting of the bubble’ in the financial and the IT sectors. This meltdown
will help to bring a balanced view in career selection. It is better that we
turn our attention to jobs related to our own country. Let us consider this
meltdown as an ‘Oorvasi Shaba’ which will ultimately bring good to our country
by </span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 116%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">bringing
sanity in the youth. Let us hope that the government services will attract more
talented and innovative people in future.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 116%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.1pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">II year, B.E. (Geoinformatics) (2008)</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 99%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 99%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 99%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 99%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 62pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">THE HINDU METRO PLUS CHENNAI
EDITION</span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 98%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 127.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 98%;">VOICE YOUR VIEWS COLUMN</span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 98%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.85pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 5pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">HAS TIME TAKEN A TOLL ON TRADITIONAL
FESTIVITIES</span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.45pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="line-height: 21.9333px;">Festivals to life are like lubrication between moving parts of machines to avoid friction, heat and wear outs. The grinding schedules of our work, the location of the work place and educational centers, travails of travel etc forbid us from festivities. The nuclear families in place of the traditional families, alienation from the native society and the general degeneration of youth who are in mad chase of material and monetary gains are some other reasons. Where is the simple man with his roots intact keeping his sensitivities and aesthetic mind ruminating the nostalgic feelings about our traditional festivities?</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 15.52px; text-align: justify;">2nd year, CEG (2008)</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 81pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="line-height: 15.52px;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 81pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="line-height: 15.52px;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 62pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">THE HINDU METRO PLUS CHENNAI
EDITION</span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: .1pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 127pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">VOICE YOUR VIEWS COLUMN</span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 6pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">DISABLED CHILDREN MUST BE ADMITTED IN
MAINSTREAM SCHOOLS</span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 97%; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 4pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 97%;">There
are no legal hurdles in admitting disabled children in mainstream schools. The
mentally retarded, blind and deaf may not be admitted because of the inherent
difficulties. In all other cases there need not be a problem for such children
to be a part of the mainstream. Only thing required is a little amount of
compassion and special arrangements for the seats, vehicles, etc. Instead of
looking at them with sympathy they should be treated as equals and the school
authorities and teachers must imbibe these qualities amongst the students. They
are not ‘disabled’ but ‘differently abled’.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 97%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.5pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 99%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 99%;">II
yr., CEG (2008)</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 99%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 99%;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 62pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">THE HINDU METRO PLUS CHENNAI
EDITION</span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 98%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 127.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 98%;">VOICE YOUR VIEWS COLUMN</span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 98%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 99%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 173.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 99%;">ROAD SAFETY</span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 99%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 2.8pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 97%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; punctuation-wrap: simple; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 97%;">The
roads are one of the important infrastructures of a country. It belongs to all
like air and water. The concept that roads are engines for economic growth and
the stress is on speedier vehicular traffic. The roads must be useful to
pedestrians and cycles riders. Very often it is the elite and educated class
with their private vehicles who are defying the traffic rules with impunity.
The traffic regulators keep a Nelson’s eye towards such violations. A lot of
students, many of them minors, drive motor vehicles recklessly. The system of
issuing driving licences itself is riddled with corruption.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 97%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 62pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">II yr., CEG (2008)</span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 99%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 99%;"><br /></span></b></div>
</div>
JKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17504915258073113778noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6841239840587133111.post-79267064601432466692016-04-18T17:29:00.001+08:002020-05-26T11:06:06.815+08:00What's up with your life? Nothing Much...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
When someone asks you, "What's up with your life?" or just, "How's your day?", have you ever tried telling the truth assuming the person asking the question really wants to know about you? We are much comfortable giving a meaningless answer such as "I'm doing fine" or "Nothing much", but is that really what your life and day is all about? I feel we take things for granted. There must be a hundred awesome things around us for any person at any given time.<br />
<div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Try to wiggle your toes just as you wake up and feel the minute electric impulse running down your spine. </li>
<li>Try to brush your teeth using your other hand and give yourself an extra wide smile after doing that.</li>
<li>Try to bathe in extra cold water and shiver a bit by turning on the fan - when your dry yourself; you'll feel extra comfy - the cold bath is worth it. </li>
<li>Try feeling the fabric of your cloth before wearing it. (Woah! the smell of the fresh detergent on the old linen shirt I'm wearing right now - ecstatic!). </li>
<li>Try to add a lil ginger in your tea or may be palm sugar in your coffee and try to deliberately savour the difference. </li>
<li>Try to read a quote by some dreamy poet before setting out to work. </li>
<li>Notice the first flower or patch of green. </li>
<li>Use a pencil and paper to write down the task list for the day; the bolder the pencil lead, the better. </li>
<li>Run your fingers over your keyboard and feel it before you fire up your laptop. </li>
<li>Smile at your co-workers like they told you a happy news, every day. </li>
<li>Lunch with your friends; change the location every other day. </li>
<li>You may have a car, yet try to use your bike(bicycle) often for smaller distances. </li>
<li>When calling your mom, start with, "Hey gorgeous..."</li>
<li>When your junior calls you, ask them about their work, and say, "I'm proud of you!". And of course, mean it. </li>
<li>Endeavour to learn something new every day. Anything is fine. And log it somewhere. </li>
<li>Endeavour to cook your meal, at least once a day; eventually you'll get better at it even if you don't know to cook. </li>
<li>Plan for an awesome life-time vacation and learn everything about that place. </li>
<li>Install the Duolingo app and start learning foreign language - it's so intuitive. </li>
<li>Track your sleep; aspire for a good sleep and be happy in the morning if you got a good nigh't sleep. </li>
<li>Prepare a map of all the places you've visited and annotate it. Pin this at your work desk. </li>
<li>Step on a lush green grass barefoot wherever you're allowed to. </li>
<li>Celebrate the lil successes of your team members. </li>
</ul>
<div>
Your life is awesome. Start noticing it. And the next time someone asks you, "How was your day?", surprise them with your answer. </div>
</div>
</div>
JKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17504915258073113778noreply@blogger.com3Richmond, VA, USA37.5407246 -77.436048137.338143599999995 -77.76014459999999 37.7433056 -77.1119516tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6841239840587133111.post-49203280785472954332014-01-05T21:58:00.000+08:002020-05-26T11:06:07.012+08:0010 reasons y 2013 is a serendipitous year for me<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<ol style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mumbai Meri Jaan</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> in Jan </span></span></div>
</li>
</ol>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A few days after Bal Thackeray deprived us of his company, I was a month old resident of one of the greatest cities in the world named Mumbai during the new year day of 2013. In my earlier blog, I’ve described Mumbai as the the city of life coz Mumbai is where you can see life in action. This is a city which teaches you that ‘life moves on’ despite the terrorist attacks, despite the excruciating traffic, and despite the pervasive chaos. Also, I loved the breeze-laden moderately sunny climate of Mumbai. But there’s one more thing that I reminisce about the city. This makes me nostalgic about the city. I was working as GIS Consultant for Reliance Infotel and the office starts at 10.30 (I read it as 11.30). And that was convenient for me as a chronic late riser. All my roommates would have left by the time I’d wake up. And you know the thing that wakes me up - the pigeons at Shree Ganesh Housing Society. On the first day, it was a bit scary. If you’ve heard the cooing of the pigeons, you’ll probably understand that. But soon, it became the music which woke me up in the morning. There was a pigeon which gave birth to cute little squab in the small verandah just outside my bedroom window. My morning ritual involved in watching the mother take care of it’s kid, rain or shine. I used to feed it a little since the mother never flew out for almost two months. Those mornings when I heard only the a gentle sea breeze fluttering my window panes along with the cooing of a pigeons would haunt me as well as make me nostalgic. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><b id="docs-internal-guid-186f1bba-4e49-3221-de66-0e52d55d6a61" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span>
<br />
<ol start="2" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the Garden City of Bengaluru</span></span></div>
</li>
</ol>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Though I stayed in Bengaluru for more than 3 months, I’ve never visited Lalbagh to praise it as the ‘Garden City’. But the lush green spaces at the ‘Silicon Valley enclave’ in the Electronic City Phase II of Bengaluru, where I stayed with my bff Delvin and five other awesome guys made up for all that. The climate was adorable and salubriously cool. Among the metros I’ve been (Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru), I’d vouch, Bengaluru has the best climate. I miss jogging around the the enclave through the parks with Pitchumani, my then roommate and an electrical engineer from my college, now working at Robert Bosch. The only difference was that, whenever Pitchu jogged, he made a 10 kilometer stretch, whereas my target was just 20% of that. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span>
<br />
<ol start="3" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Met the Girl Next Desk</span></span></div>
</li>
</ol>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In my earlier <a href="http://jkgi.blogspot.sg/2013/05/the-girl-next-desk.html">blog</a>, I’ve written about the Girl Next Desk and about the things that made her incredible. But the</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">big take away for this year was that we were arch enemies turned awesome friends. Recently she visited our Singapore office on an official visit. She has a way with work - it’s simple, elegant as well as robust. Lately, I saw a macro developed by her which pops out at the end of the day to record her timesheet activities to an excel sheet, which is normally a painful process to fill up at the end of the month. It was simple, yet impressive. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span>
<br />
<ol start="4" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At the Queen of Hill Stations with family</span></span></div>
</li>
</ol>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Taking out your innocent glib tongued mom and the unconventional genius dad for an holiday vacation is a perfect retreat and a really memorable moment. And you know the best part - you realize that your mom isn’t as naive as you might think. She actually explained how clouds can form below the cliffs without using jargons like precipitation and stratospheric condensation. </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><img height="468px;" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/zCC8kELoEwiM4BJqqsOT1TDVcOSmJ-QPxyz22ZPYFDJIkdOlZRN62DgpQwvATlP6Ronxl7sNniG6P5e_0Qb6H-GF6tDWOgsH59n0dd1cRauJkuL2yyXVqgOYvg" width="624px;" /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span>
<br />
<ol start="5" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><span style="text-indent: 48px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Yeh Dosti Hum Nahin Todenge</b></span></span></div>
</li>
</ol>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For all the stupid things we did, for all the fun we had, for all the awesome moments you gave, for all the meal we shared, for all the path we tread, you guys will always make up the best moments of any year. </span></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><img height="414px;" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/SLQ2EMS6uu-4h5cZQWsPWE_axqUuFkwa4g35MDv-zg4BjLUbq2s0irfUchL6RfWAc9cSpxIIPeUUlDTa3NE3euc4mKslsFjtD3_yyoiy01c3ay5l3UFWyoxy8w" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="554px;" /></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;">From Right to Left: Sathyesh, Ashok, Damodaran, me, Bharath, Sambath, Delvin</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thanks Ashok, Bharath, Damo, Delvin, Kabil, Manoj, Sambath, Saravana, Gopi, Petchi, Deepa, Queen, Archana, Dhivya, Revathy, Vijaya, Arun, Pitchu, Subashini, Ganapathy and Ashwini. “Yeh Dosti Hum Nahin Todenge”. Promise. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span>
<br />
<ol start="6" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the Lion City </span></span></div>
</li>
</ol>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">By the second half of 2013, I reached the ‘</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lion city</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">’, Singapore. The city nation impressed me in many ways. It was nation where crass commercialization never gave way for the environmental degradation. The city is abound with parks and lakes and nicely maintained with boulevards. Walkways and cycle paths have as much importance as the vehicular roads. This is a city which encourages public transportation than private transportation. They encourage it to the point where a metro ride into the Central Business district at peak hours is made free. And buying a private car is one of the most expensive things to do in Singapore. The license to own a car is almost five times the price of the car in many cases! I also like the hundreds of air bridges across the roads, which connects apartments from either sides of the roads. Apart from the things usually noticed about this city, I have three things that make up my nicest moments here: </span></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhicPYdjC6GcixihL627It3QpQGbA_iPcfYQ9zQ9-dBC38QM7Hu-VUDELU0qPiO3FFB9KYQcZphTRgTYvJL9xT7l-hdkKgYEJjakJL8vWJRSMHearkKb4KLSC5Ivkyqq9v05mUy6gAKlnKB/s1600/DSC_1712_edited.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhicPYdjC6GcixihL627It3QpQGbA_iPcfYQ9zQ9-dBC38QM7Hu-VUDELU0qPiO3FFB9KYQcZphTRgTYvJL9xT7l-hdkKgYEJjakJL8vWJRSMHearkKb4KLSC5Ivkyqq9v05mUy6gAKlnKB/s200/DSC_1712_edited.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5oqFEbjckdgtedmPIsKa2O657KU3nN_Z9U-uUC7hxpFcXk3vA9MRFyPmziL0wD80rmzj05rpm4wQqH7OspDx0BAXGaRqFesODdzZndYa4nwyOv_YiwiODPbmCqXQjdQJ1zov_8Mw0hZCo/s1600/DSC_1727.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5oqFEbjckdgtedmPIsKa2O657KU3nN_Z9U-uUC7hxpFcXk3vA9MRFyPmziL0wD80rmzj05rpm4wQqH7OspDx0BAXGaRqFesODdzZndYa4nwyOv_YiwiODPbmCqXQjdQJ1zov_8Mw0hZCo/s200/DSC_1727.JPG" height="150" width="200" /></a></span></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSAQAaqOaE_UlRNssoaOfaIIkKvSRrX7sc8XTjuNu53PO9BLYa6Iy6G0xRNn3eFm98gFbhm6DoP3oE_lg8RMhsQlAc4ZGIBRpIgmx2OTbkzvBpr33QHZUpXghGDRjgxNz4n99awAnU2gRt/s1600/DSC_1723.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSAQAaqOaE_UlRNssoaOfaIIkKvSRrX7sc8XTjuNu53PO9BLYa6Iy6G0xRNn3eFm98gFbhm6DoP3oE_lg8RMhsQlAc4ZGIBRpIgmx2OTbkzvBpr33QHZUpXghGDRjgxNz4n99awAnU2gRt/s200/DSC_1723.JPG" height="150" width="200" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;">Marina Bay Sands</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3oI7u-Skmc_2hFLotjlbFi6YmKMZf0lXTBUkTQwmpxWQxRlXEdLZn3eBkyPxXkokCyDxi9_-PvKq81qZBUrYR4K3Vpliba7XH6CjOGAUwhbYA9L8jtan805ASFalMKLzbmw89K7DZqCFU/s1600/996679_3664764113365_2141739752_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3oI7u-Skmc_2hFLotjlbFi6YmKMZf0lXTBUkTQwmpxWQxRlXEdLZn3eBkyPxXkokCyDxi9_-PvKq81qZBUrYR4K3Vpliba7XH6CjOGAUwhbYA9L8jtan805ASFalMKLzbmw89K7DZqCFU/s320/996679_3664764113365_2141739752_n.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Bedok Reservoir</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - 500m away from my apartment is a serene park surrounding a lake with small water activities, jogging tracks, eatouts, and lots of green landscape. A refreshing place, whether you go there out with a buddy or alone. </span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibp0VEIK-VXu-svODRNh0QadWSikJZdBETLE-M98Sco8SraG1qdGHeCXluCWnnWj1x7a7D-lQ4v9e12kU6kmwH5ECFRUw-Hru79Ptx-ekxr5e7sHfrpphkeLDKPntGhkSoqJWuWsOZokQu/s1600/DSC_1778.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibp0VEIK-VXu-svODRNh0QadWSikJZdBETLE-M98Sco8SraG1qdGHeCXluCWnnWj1x7a7D-lQ4v9e12kU6kmwH5ECFRUw-Hru79Ptx-ekxr5e7sHfrpphkeLDKPntGhkSoqJWuWsOZokQu/s200/DSC_1778.JPG" height="200" width="150" /></a><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The paper windmill outside my house</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Once I step outside my house, I see these rainbow colored paper windmill stuck to pot plants. This sight invariably reminds me of how colorful the day is. </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The wide windows in the hall: </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gives an awesome view of the Pan Island Expressway as well as a steady inflow of breeze. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span>
<br />
<ol start="7" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Story of Mr. And Mrs.Udhay</span></span></div>
</li>
</ol>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipszEpM2quFaFDQh9rP8NIupMs7xsVNNry0o2acg7qqjx308d7m6UaygXLTGXgpGdHcJpWJIrwwsvmWtW_tXYts7ZvQi9aF7WW5OUKIqqqgLAeUyRHLeEsqidMj_oqL88ewPSFFWpmomTT/s1600/945760_555414057848410_988071497_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipszEpM2quFaFDQh9rP8NIupMs7xsVNNry0o2acg7qqjx308d7m6UaygXLTGXgpGdHcJpWJIrwwsvmWtW_tXYts7ZvQi9aF7WW5OUKIqqqgLAeUyRHLeEsqidMj_oqL88ewPSFFWpmomTT/s320/945760_555414057848410_988071497_n.jpg" height="225" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Udhay is known as the Rajinikanth of our office. He’s so gregarious and keeps any group engaged. But behind all his gregariousness, is a melancholic story of strife to win his love, Revathy. I can’t do justice to that story writing it in this blog. Long story short. His love story is 8 years long and faced all kinds of problems imaginable. He was chased for days together for trying to marry his love. He had to handle the police, immigration, corrupt registrars, thugs, communally fanatic relatives, all within a span of few days. But he received help from unexpected quarters. Friends of friends, who barely knew him, bet their lives, money and brains to get them married.</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now they’re happily married and blessed with an angel named </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Amizhthini </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(one who is like ambrosia). Udhay still faces a lot of problems due to factors he has no control over. But that never makes him less cheerful anyday. And that doesn’t make Udhay and Revathy any less than the best couple I’ve ever seen. Not surprisingly, I and Santhosh celebrated the new year night at Udhay’s place along with </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">anni </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(sister-in-law) and </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">kutti devathai </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(little angel). </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span>
<br />
<ol start="8" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Met the Queen of Singapore</span></span></div>
</li>
</ol>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It was always a pleasure meeting the Queen, my classmate, friend and now a PhD researcher at NTU, Singapore. She’s fantastic for various reasons. One, she’s gonna be a doctorate by the age of 25. She’s a hassle-free organizer. She assumes a leadership position, wherever it is, be it in CEG or NTU </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">WITHOUT </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">throwing around much weight. She’s a girl who learns the Indian classical instrument, Veena in a foreign country and she’s already made a stage show here. Above all that she’s an awesome friend. Her parents named her so right. She is a Queen, wherever she is. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span>
<br />
<ol start="9" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Travelled to Indonesia </span></span></div>
</li>
</ol>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Four crazy guys went to the equatorial indonesian island of Bintan this year. Thanks Jyoti, Anwesh and Sathish for the awesome moments. </span></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbE62uqU7AXv_e4kEX0m8CjhP_WxjGLNcffzDFZFtbyejI19MF69RHAT8FGFsl1ySB8540M34HUZ3jyR7KDsaUPhVX0CQYDpFozDbC6cLasYZq6vUQnLmepG-bu3Zm3RCGlSp_fCPEZ53F/s1600/Pic6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbE62uqU7AXv_e4kEX0m8CjhP_WxjGLNcffzDFZFtbyejI19MF69RHAT8FGFsl1ySB8540M34HUZ3jyR7KDsaUPhVX0CQYDpFozDbC6cLasYZq6vUQnLmepG-bu3Zm3RCGlSp_fCPEZ53F/s320/Pic6.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;">From Left: Sathish, Jyoti, Anwesh and me</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdd81bdWGJDrCRDXFLBtCR3UoH7MNdR64XMxODLVZ3SoL8pyOGL3aQ3JezrYcC6j9tfYjfcIjjmOW7sO11AO-G4MwtGuLxIryGBUsqHsLMvwfHBqNIe0U3oDo8VwwWOGe-W4csZ859OuAR/s1600/Pic15.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdd81bdWGJDrCRDXFLBtCR3UoH7MNdR64XMxODLVZ3SoL8pyOGL3aQ3JezrYcC6j9tfYjfcIjjmOW7sO11AO-G4MwtGuLxIryGBUsqHsLMvwfHBqNIe0U3oDo8VwwWOGe-W4csZ859OuAR/s320/Pic15.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>
<ol start="10" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lohith says hello to Planet Earth</span></span></div>
</li>
</ol>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On the 27th of August, 2013, Lohith receives the first rays of sun and says hello to the Planet Earth. I wanted my newborn nephew to be named like me. Any name with ‘krishna’ within it was my demand. It was granted and he was christened ‘Lohith Krishna’ soon. But soon after, I began to call him ‘KunniKuru’ rather than calling him by the name I wanted for him. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Kunnikuru </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">is a bright small waxy red seeds with beautiful black-dot in it and is considered to be auspicious in Kerala. His little tender body and his bright inquisitive eyes reminds me of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">kunnikuru</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB_oH4lJ0j1FcMXClEQjbAs-RYMSSoMQcCES4TmOgCFSzbMS0MxOefXvYW1Pc25BZg9tSKuDF9d6iZ7rkQjj0-t0njMG1GZT-0McUiXeux5ylhhq79fVQ38Z55yvnijtwxPyKb4r9M_UaK/s1600/2468831458_7647ff4cf1_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB_oH4lJ0j1FcMXClEQjbAs-RYMSSoMQcCES4TmOgCFSzbMS0MxOefXvYW1Pc25BZg9tSKuDF9d6iZ7rkQjj0-t0njMG1GZT-0McUiXeux5ylhhq79fVQ38Z55yvnijtwxPyKb4r9M_UaK/s320/2468831458_7647ff4cf1_o.jpg" height="214" width="320" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;">Kunnikuru</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He’s a green lover. Anything green catches his attention. Be it coconut leaves or the mango tree, the hibiscus or the palm leaf, he stretches out his head in the intention of making friendship with the green soon. And he cries only for one reason. Food. He needs to be fed at the right time, not a second before, not a second after. German made pacifiers won’t do the trick. He needs to be fed on time. Period. And then he’s a sweetheart once he’s fed. And you better should read the language of his eyes when he’s not wearing a diaper. He gives a fair notice with eyes before he pees. And he’s gonna be a gregarious dude and an explorer (like me :P). If you think that you’re gonna have a tough time controlling his crying in a crowded place like a mall, he proves you wrong. He’s more curious in carefully studying the anthropological traits of the people around him and gives an occasional smile to the ones who strike a chord with him. And there are certain problems he has to face from his creative mom, who happens to be my sister. Everyday, he is made to wear a fancy costume - some self stitched, some altered and some bought. One day he’s the Krishna, the other day an emperor; a priest one day and a Santa yet another day; a cowboy one day and a Parisian the other. Once he was adorned with a big moustache and then recently he turn into a girl! It’s too much for a acquiescent four month old. Spiderman and other superheroes are on cards. </span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7veXqz8KiLSpIi0lJ32ZNeG4oqumRuMYXqw8H7cjM_F7wbPaCBfJI5DdNfu2FsBUD9azmfz_j-UV0T3_VzcuhzoOiJ2kyFxK32mIIJETSjBCTJejGXPC6L2PTJS0quYyjrBdzxDonqN5T/s1600/2014-01-05" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7veXqz8KiLSpIi0lJ32ZNeG4oqumRuMYXqw8H7cjM_F7wbPaCBfJI5DdNfu2FsBUD9azmfz_j-UV0T3_VzcuhzoOiJ2kyFxK32mIIJETSjBCTJejGXPC6L2PTJS0quYyjrBdzxDonqN5T/s320/2014-01-05" height="240" width="320" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibTvFxr9HjR7nklqDMVStcBmU-DWvU3EwMJUXr16X_KlVGcVu2q19G-JD6CC6oCL_dCd221y5xgsi25C0wHOxkm2NsEjmOr10W_V-hJRW5szOMSi4OGvU5WvuIatDVSxwki0s3UFdI2jz2/s1600/2014-01-05" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibTvFxr9HjR7nklqDMVStcBmU-DWvU3EwMJUXr16X_KlVGcVu2q19G-JD6CC6oCL_dCd221y5xgsi25C0wHOxkm2NsEjmOr10W_V-hJRW5szOMSi4OGvU5WvuIatDVSxwki0s3UFdI2jz2/s200/2014-01-05" height="200" width="150" /></a></span><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiidDRToJSupZPbDKZNJ3y6cfZT9eB6J_eXkP_ypoVXKi6jKeY8_ugdp4Wgls3JVeIlyV1wAnQsiA8ikhMncC9ddrfw1PNIXfkEZdharoYbC7COSgbCdFDs33DX5kCxkYW8ADxbIMalcCh7/s1600/2014-01-05" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiidDRToJSupZPbDKZNJ3y6cfZT9eB6J_eXkP_ypoVXKi6jKeY8_ugdp4Wgls3JVeIlyV1wAnQsiA8ikhMncC9ddrfw1PNIXfkEZdharoYbC7COSgbCdFDs33DX5kCxkYW8ADxbIMalcCh7/s200/2014-01-05" height="200" width="150" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<br /></div>
JKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17504915258073113778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6841239840587133111.post-14875221285983241232013-05-28T04:44:00.000+08:002020-05-26T11:06:07.116+08:00WHY CHENNAI SUBURBAN TRAINS SCORES A FEW BROWNIE POINTS OVER THE DELHI METRO<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: large; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Why am I
even comparing the world class Delhi metro trains with the conventional Chennai
suburban train system? Well, for one, I was recently in Chennai, the place
where my parents are staying for the past five years. And so I had an
opportunity to revive my memories of travelling in the Chennai suburban Electrical
Motor Unit (that’s the actual name for it) daily from my house to the college
during my undergraduate engineering years. Still what kind of comparison I am
trying to make here? I mean the Delhi metro system is one of the most modern
and efficient engineering metro rail projects in the world. The security system
is intact, the safety during travel is ensured by auto closure of doors, the
ticketing system is automated (and hence avoiding ticketless travel as well as
the Ticket Checking Inspectors) and the compartments are air conditioned. And
when it comes to cleanliness, it’s on par with the best maintained airports in
India. In each compartment, the next station is conspicuously displayed on a
digital board along with an orange LED glowing over the route map; plus a
recorded voice announcement makes sure the relevant information is available
without the necessity to enquire your fellow passenger (this is a feature I
adore since I need not nag the fellow passenger nor I need to peek through the
windows or doors in a crowded train during each stop to know whether my
destination has arrived or not,). The metro is handicap-friendly and the
passenger convenience is enhanced by the use of elevators, lifts and sleek over-bridges
at appropriate places. The train frequency is adequate and is ‘unquestionably’
punctual.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: large; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">So I don’t
want to sound like a Luddite by trying to find flaws in the Delhi metro system
and establish the banes of a modern technological system. No, that’s not my
point. In fact, I adore the Delhi metro and would rate 9.5/10. The reduction of
0.5 points is to only to encourage non-complacency (as if the DMRC care about
my ratings). Any comparison of the Delhi metro with the Chennai suburban metro
against the features that I mentioned would be grossly imbalanced. Right in the
first line of this blog post, I’ve used an adjective, ‘conventional’ to
describe the Chennai metro system. It’s my belief that, anything ‘conventional’
or ‘traditional’ would carry an inherent intangible value to it. And so, I’m
just trying to explore those values that it offers. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Cost:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">
I don’t want to put the cost as the first parameter of comparison, but yet, it
matters. A roundtrip travel of 25km each (say, a travel between the terminal
stations in the same route) could cost up to Rs.50 in the Delhi metro, whereas
it wouldn’t cost more than Rs.14 in the Chennai metro. And if you’re a season
ticket holder, you can make the same travel within almost Rs.3. But, there’s no
such thing as the season ticket or the free pass in the Delhi metro. I myself
was a ‘First Class Scholar pass’ holder till the completion of my studies
thanks to my dad who works in railways. Whereas the only discount the Delhi
metro system offers you is a 10% discount on each travel if you opt for the use
of prepaid metro card instead of the token. Even if Delhi metro offers a
totally worthy ride for the ticket cost, it still would burn the pocket of an
individual with limited means. And ironically enough, these people are the ones
who have the most frequent travel needs. So Delhi metro seems to be prohibitive
as a travel option for such people. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Time of operation:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> I’d like to put the time of operation as my
second parameter. Though the Delhi metro is adequately frequent, the time of
operation is just between 0600 hrs and 2300 hrs, whereas the first service of
Chennai suburban metro system would start at 0400 hrs and the last service
extends till 0030 hrs in the midnight. In my first year of engineering, while
my parents hadn’t yet moved to Chennai, I used to visit them, and while
returning, I would reach Chennai (Egmore station) in the wee hours of the
morning, around 4 A.M. And guess what, I had a metro train waiting for me at
that time to drop me at college. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Schedule: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Delhi
metro doesn’t publish a time schedule for their services, but Chennai metro
does. This is really a hazy comparison, because, even though Delhi metro doesn’t
have a published time table, the trains are frequent and I’ve not waited for
any train more than 10 minutes at any time. But the published time table of the
Chennai metro did help me more than once to plan some emergency travel
requirements where a minute or two would matter the most. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Time of stoppage: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Though the time of stoppage is almost
comparable in both the cases, (20 sec for Delhi metro and almost 30 sec. for
Chennai metro), in practice, the time you get to entrain/detrain is more in the
case of Chennai metro. I mean, I really don’t want to put this as a point, but
the fact is you can entrain/detrain a Chennai metro train even while the train
has started moving (mostly while it has started to accelerate). It’s definitely
not safe to do that, but surely you can’t say that you missed a train by a
‘fraction of a second’. This happened to me more than once in the Delhi metro,
wherein my companion who was one feet ahead of me got in, but I didn’t, just
because I was a fraction of a second behind him. This could never have happened
in Chennai metro. You could get into the compartment even upto 15-20 seconds
after the train has started moving. It’s unsafe and unadvisable to do that, yet
the adrenaline rush felt good when I had to do that a half-dozen times to catch
the train. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The local charm factor: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Though air-conditioned trains are a boon for
the Delhi climate, but I prefer the open natural air and light you get while
travelling in the Chennai metro. This is particularly suitable only in Chennai
since the Chennai climate isn’t as extreme as Delhi. There’s a charm to
experience the surroundings through the open windows and doors rather than
experiencing it behind enclosed glasses. I mean, it’s not the ‘heritage Ooty
train’ or the ‘magical Darjeeling toy train’ kind of charm, but yet, there’s
this local charm; you can feel the dampness of the air during the monsoon, the
cool breeze during the winters, the sweat during the summer, the blaring sounds
from the temples and political propagandas during all the seasons, and maybe
the smell from the local coffee shop or <i>biriyaani</i>
stall (not to mention the notorious malodour from the famous ‘Coovum’). <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Delhi
metro may soon be upgrading to unmanned robotic drivers and Chennai may soon be
developing its own replica of the Delhi metro system. While I’m looking forward
for such technological improvisations for the betterment of the public
transportation infrastructure, I’ll fondly miss the suburban trains I once
travelled through. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
JKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17504915258073113778noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6841239840587133111.post-10388844354700793592013-05-25T16:58:00.000+08:002020-05-26T11:06:07.217+08:00THE GIRL NEXT DESK<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Prelude:</span></b></h3>
<h2 style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></h2>
<div class="MsoSubtitle">
<i><span style="font-size: large;">Most of you guys might have a girl next desk in your
office. But how much does she influence your daily routine? </span></i></div>
<div class="MsoSubtitle">
<i><span style="font-size: large;"><br />Tomorrow (the 26<sup>th</sup> of May 2013), some of my
friends would be giving their Civil Services examinations. The protagonist of this
story (The girl next desk) as also one of my closest friends named Deepa and my
buddy Damodaran (who already had tasted success in one stage of this prestigious
examination) are some of them giving it this time. I know you have it in you to
crack it. My sincere wishes for you guys.</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
Another friend and classmate of mine was successful in
securing an $80000 p.a. internship at Shell as a Geoinformation Analyst which
sounds super cool than a normal IT job offer in the US. I derive this vicarious
joy of the success, because when I say to someone that “GIS has an incredible
scope”, I know it’s true. </span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
I congratulate all my classmates who are graduating this year from prestigious universities like University of Arizona, Texas A&M University, University of Michigan Ann Arbor and Nagoya Institute of Technology (Japan). In particular, I'd like to congratulate Aishwarya, who has started her PhD work too. </span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-size: large;"><br />Also my heartful wishes to Balachander, Vijaya and Sambath
for cracking the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) Exams and for entering
into the exciting career of becoming financial managers. </span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-size: large;"><br />And another of my classmate is entering the IIMs. Of course,
that comes as no surprise. I prophesied that she would, at least three years
ago.<br />Kudos to you all guys! Really proud of you.</span></i></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;">
The Story:</span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Delhi is five times as far
from Chennai as it is from China; the Euclidean distance to the nearest Chinese
border from Delhi is just above 360 km. So you could understand how a <i>Madrasi</i>
(as a ‘South Indian’ is popularly known as elsewhere in India) like me; that
too a proper <i>Madrasi </i>with his house at Madras (present Chennai) would
feel like, staying in the national capital for more than one year. I survived a
2 degree low winter and a 47 degree Celsius hot summer there. Not to mention
that I was deprived of staple food items such as Idli, Dosa or coconut chutney
(added with fried curry leaves and mustard). If not for the cherubic Subashini
(or ‘Suba akka’ as I would call her), my life would have been drab at Delhi. </span><span style="line-height: 115%;"><br />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br />
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">But this didn’t go on for
long. During the summer of 2012, I was transferred to Mumbai. Again, Chennai
was farther from Mumbai than Karachi was from it. My only point about dragging
Karachi and China into the picture is to show that the Mumbai transfer didn’t
make much of a difference in terms of travelling time to my home. I still had to
eke out my half-month salary to make an urgent round trip from Mumbai to home.
Also my first day in Mumbai was legendary – the day I landed in Mumbai, Bal
Thackeray was no more. For those who didn’t know B.Thackeray, he was like the
Vito Corleone of Mumbai. And thanks to his demise; anything that had wheels did
not run. Anything which had doors was not open. But some things got better as I
came to Mumbai. One thing is that my dark complexion didn’t render me a <i>Madrasi
</i>by default. I can be a <i>Marathi </i>too<i>, </i>if I chose to shut
my mouth. Also, even in December, the average daytime temperature was 30 (plus
or minus 1 deg C), which was in no way indicative of the winters. But a
breeze-laden moderately sunny 30 degrees is perfectly fine for a <i>Madrasi. </i> And
God! A plate of <i>Medhu vada </i>soaked in the delicious <i>sambaar </i>topped
with coconut <i>chutney (</i>yeah, added with fried curry leaves and mustard!)
cost me just Rs.10 almost anywhere in Mumbai. Not that the <i>Aloo Tikki </i>from
Delhi is anything less tasty, but man, you got to bow down to the <i>Medhu
Vada- Sambar-Thenga chutney</i> combo.</span><span style="line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Mumbai has many epithets –
the financial capital of India, the city of dreams, the Bollywood city, among
others and more recently (and increasingly) - the terrorists’ target city. But
I prefer to choose an epithet – the city of life. Coz Mumbai’s where you can
see life in action. This is a city which teaches you that <i>‘life moves on’</i>
despite the terrorist attacks, despite the excruciating traffic, and despite
the pervasive chaos. It’s said that life moves fast in Mumbai – such that years
roll like days. Hardly had I stayed there for four months, when I got my next
transfer to Bangalore (or Bengaluru). That was too short time for feeling
nostalgic about Mumbai. So this post isn’t about how I miss Mumbai, rather
about my next work location – Bengaluru. Of course I miss the Vada Pav and the
wonderful people I met there, especially my brother, Shankara Raja; Ashwini,
the person who provided me lunch on the day when Bal Thackeray died (even the
hotel where I stayed denied me food that day); and awesome friends like Poonam
(who by a very young age, completed her masters and went on to do a PhD at
IISc, but returned to professional workforce after an year and gained 2+ years
of experience; and she’s just about my age). </span><span style="line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">And things fell in place when I finally settled
down at Bangalore. My closest buddy from college, Delvin stays here. I get to
stay with him in a duplex in the adorable ambience of Silicon Concorde Valley
in Electronic City. Our enclave has lush green spaces, gymnasiums and cricket
courts. And more remarkably, we have a cook to cook us food and a washing
machine to dump my dirty apparels. (God, how I hated washing clothes with hand)
My present office is just a 15 minute ride in a point-to-point bus. And the
funny part is my direct manager doesn’t sit here. He is sitting in his
Singapore office and my delivery head at the Delhi office. After the first day
introductions at office, it was time to get introduced to the girl next desk.
Actually we didn’t need introductions. Because she’s my undergrad classmate,
colleague, and presently, the <i>girl next desk</i>.</span><span style="line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"></span><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">I didn’t inform her of my
transfer to B’lore, as I doubted whether she might apply for a transfer if she
knew about my arrival. But the fact is that she got the news through our common
friends. I’m happy that, she still chose to stay at B’lore despite the piece of
intelligence she received. After briefing me about the </span><b style="line-height: 115%;">TO-DOs </b><span style="line-height: 115%;">and the</span><b style="line-height: 115%;">
DON NOT DOs</b><span style="line-height: 115%;"> of the Bangalore office (things like you can’t bring coffee to
your desk and things like how many weeks I’ve to wait before getting required
software installed), we went to work. At coffee break, she introduced me to
other Tamil friends in the office like </span><i style="line-height: 115%;">Deva</i><span style="line-height: 115%;"> (I used to reckon him as </span><i style="line-height: 115%;">Devasura</i><span style="line-height: 115%;">
meaning God-Demon) and </span><i style="line-height: 115%;">Ajey</i><span style="line-height: 115%;">. Devasura was a cool handsome guy from a
Geological background and Ajay is a humorous and intelligent dude from Civil
Engineering background. Commensurate with the bro-code, Devasura pointed out
the desk-locations and spelled out the names of the pretty ones among the young
ladies in the ODC. But he also added that almost all of them are engaged,
married or taken, making the previous piece of info unusable. So our recent
discussions deviated to things like amalgamation of GIS with Geology for 3D
subsurface exploration mapping and such stuff.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">
</span>
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">After the coffee, we would
return to our desks. The girl next desk was browsing some current affairs
website for about 10 minutes before starting to code for the 4G project from
Singapore as well for the Karnataka Forest web application.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"></span><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">“Hey, you know one thing.
Y.V. Reddy is set to head the 14th Finance Commission”, she alerted me.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">
</span>
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">We both were giving an exam
in the banking sector in two weeks from then. And we had hardly started
preparing for it.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"></span><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">“There’s a pattern to the
kind of questions they ask.” she added. “If you see the last three sets of
question paper there are 12-13 questions from economics, 12 from Current
affairs, 13 plus or minus 1 question from Computers/IT and 13 from Marketing in
the General Awareness section alone.” Saying this, she opened a website and
said, “This website gives a detailed blueprint of the questions asked over
years, categorizing it into the respective field and citing materials from
which the portion could be studied.”</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">
</span>
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I was like “Wow! With this
kind of blueprint, you can easily crack the exam with one-month prep”. I too
have googled two months ago for similar material and then dropped my effort. So
I was wondering how she perfectly stumbled across the right material from a
deluge of dump out there in the internet.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">
</span>
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">“It seems to be very useful for anyone giving
the exam”, I said. </span><span style="line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">“In that case, we can put
these links in a Google Drive folder and share the file to whoever needs it”. </span><span style="line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">And so a Google Drive
folder replete with resources for any competitive exam evolved with 85%
contribution from the <i>girl next desk</i> alone. And we shared it with at
least 10 others. </span><span style="line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">So every other day, she’d
come up with filtered little comprehensible bits of info on the budget, 5 year
plans, economy, markets, beauty pageant winners, F1 winners, etc.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">
</span>
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">During lunch, we would join
Ramya if Devasura is not in office. Ramya was married recently and one could
expect some familial trivia from her. Sometimes, the stories of the Mainframe
programmer gets interesting as she reveals her little scuffles with her hubby. </span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="line-height: 115%;">Her hubby also possesses this awesome talent of
downloading the latest movies within 24-hours of its release, from Torrents. I
mean I appreciate that, since I’m bad at doing. Even when I need to see a movie
badly, I still rely upon YouTube or my roommates. So I have this great
opportunity to listen to all those stories of the newly released movies from
Ramya.</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">
</span>
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Oh, I forgot to explain the
geographic advantage of being in Bangalore. It’s equidistant, from my hometown,
which is Palakkad and as well as from my home, which is at Chennai; it’s just a
5-6 hour drive to both the places. And a round trip journey to Chennai in a
sleeper class train </span><span style="line-height: 21px;">doesn't</span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> cost me even a half-day salary. And guess who my
travel consultant would be? A frequent traveller, she would give prompt
consultation on which mode of transport to choose and the most efficient and
hassle-free way to get a ticket booked to travel from Bangalore to Chennai and
vice-versa. If you need a train ticket for Friday evening, she knew that the
best time to book it would be exactly at 11 o'clock the previous day morning
(taking into account the unreachable IRCTC server during the one hour window
after 10 o'clock when </span><i style="line-height: 115%;">Tatkal </i><span style="line-height: 115%;">quota ticket booking opens). She knew that
a GKWL (General waiting list) < 20 is equivalent to a confirmed ticket. She
knows the advantage of boarding a train at Yeshwantpur railway station rather
than from the Bangalore Junction sometimes. She knows that a waiting list of 30
in a point-to point train is better than a waiting list of 20 in Guwahati
Express. And if cost is your priority, she’d suggest you to take a ride to
Hosur and then board a bus from there to Chennai, which could easily save you
100 rupees. Karnataka State Road Transport Corp (KSRTC) buses are more
comfortable, but a wee bit costly and be prepared to settle down for the last
row seats if you book late in it. Whereas Tamil Nadu State Transport Corp
(TNSTC) buses are cheaper, but you’ve to put up with the immovable window
panes. She also warned that a long bus trip such as to Mumbai, even in the
KSRTC’s semi-sleeper Multi-axle VOLVO bus would cause a 24 hour inflammation to
the legs for a person like me who’s not used to bus travel. And yeah, I walked
with inflammatory legs for a day. And if everything else fails, she would
suggest that a Rs. 1000 air-ticket to Chennai would still be fine bet.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="font-weight: bold;"><i><span style="line-height: 115%;">“Have you seen awesome this
movie?” </span></i></b><span style="line-height: 115%;">or </span><i style="font-weight: bold; line-height: 115%;">“Did you happen to
read that novel?” </i><span style="line-height: 115%;">would be the regular format of our conversation
during the 4.45p.m coffee break. Wait, a minute. Why is she taking just half a
cup of whatever beverage she is taking? Be it black tea, or filter coffee or
milked tea, 70 ml is her measure. I used to wonder why, but I never asked.
Surely, there’s no reason she’d be following a diet plan; coz she’s already
lean, though not much, but yeah she is. So during one such coffee time, I was
querying whether she’s watched some 4 particular English movies that </span><span style="line-height: 18px;">I've</span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> watched. I got a negative response for each. Then just to give a climactic
punch, I asked with surprise, “You haven’t watched any of these!?” in a tone
which meant something like, “You missed it dude :(.” Calm, unruffled, she
replied, “</span><span style="line-height: 18px;"> You've</span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> not watched ‘Dead poets Society’, have you?” in a tone which
sounded like, “You missed something more, bozo!” I knew the story of ‘Dead
Poets Society’. It was adapted into a Malayalam movie without distorting the
beauty of the original story much, I believe. But I’m yet to watch the original
movie in English which is said to be a classic.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">“An android phone without
an internet connection! Can you believe that?” I sighed. I got an AIRCEL SIM in
Bangalore and topped it up for a 3G internet net package. I got a confirmation
message for the same. I got my mobile configured for the new internet settings.
Even after two days of doing these, I still couldn’t access internet or any
applications running with an internet connection. After five calls to the
customer care proved fruitless, I made the above statement. I was even
considering buying a new SIM. The girl next desk asked me what the problem and I
explained her. Listening to me, she turned towards her screen. Seems, she was
working on a deadline, so didn’t bother her further telling my stupid problem
with net connectivity. Within a minute, she showed a </span><span style="line-height: 18px;">Google</span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> search page
detailing the Aircel proxy name to be set in case of a problem with AIRCEL
connectivity. I thought to myself, “As if changing the proxy name could solve a
problem which even the AIRCEL customer care executives </span><span style="line-height: 18px;">couldn't</span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> fix.” At the
same time, I did change the proxy name to see if it made a damn difference. For
a millisecond nothing happened. I looked up to the ceiling in despair.
Suddenly, I heard the Whatsapp message tone. Then came the next tone indicating
the net connection has been restored in my mobile. With wide open eyes, I
looked at her. I saw a momentary halo around her head.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">With a restrained smile,
she quipped, “It’s the first search result on Google.”</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">
</span>
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">She’s sometimes my
socialist guide. I remember she once saying,</span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">
</span>
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">“We should only earn enough
to satisfy our basic needs; but we should make sure we’re pursuing our passion,
where money would take a backstage.” Her socialist bent of mind is well evident
from her recent display of interest in starting a e-magazine highlighting the
social causes using geospatial technology, such as using ‘deprivation
maps’ or a ‘geopolitics-poverty regression map’ to portray a bigger
picture. It seems that Sainath, a socialist writer from ‘The Hindu’ is her
inspiration. Nevertheless, her pedigree has its own influence on her. Her
brother quit a plum job in corporate sector to study Master of Philosophy in
Political Science. And her family had been sheltering and taking care of a person
for the past 40 years (I guess), who had run away from his home in his late
teens. But the way she put it was that the person took care of her and her
family for all these years. I thought that that kind of attitude is just noble
and something to be cultivated. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">She’s not a great fan of my
crazy creative designs, I guess. Our cafeteria wall is full of paintings by
small children of our company staff. So when I got two color wall marker pens,
I went near the coffee vending machine and drew something like this. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shapetype
id="_x0000_t75" coordsize="21600,21600" o:spt="75" o:preferrelative="t"
path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" filled="f" stroked="f">
<v:stroke joinstyle="miter"/>
<v:formulas>
<v:f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"/>
<v:f eqn="sum @0 1 0"/>
<v:f eqn="sum 0 0 @1"/>
<v:f eqn="prod @2 1 2"/>
<v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth"/>
<v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight"/>
<v:f eqn="sum @0 0 1"/>
<v:f eqn="prod @6 1 2"/>
<v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth"/>
<v:f eqn="sum @8 21600 0"/>
<v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight"/>
<v:f eqn="sum @10 21600 0"/>
</v:formulas>
<v:path o:extrusionok="f" gradientshapeok="t" o:connecttype="rect"/>
<o:lock v:ext="edit" aspectratio="t"/>
</v:shapetype><v:shape id="Picture_x0020_1" o:spid="_x0000_i1025" type="#_x0000_t75"
alt="CoffeORTea.jpg" style='width:468pt;height:340.5pt;visibility:visible;
mso-wrap-style:square'>
<v:imagedata src="file:///C:\Users\JK\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image001.jpg"
o:title="CoffeORTea"/>
</v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--></span><span style="line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGiBoAuQ8I5UX5a467raOdIGbC3IEuxwk3wHn-Mp_sBqGXc8O3rmcFE1-SIqxAXI5AwGDXy0qa1r_EJ06y6fEVGHIKrJCUH04TWcFLfq0nL-WUPKPOJuepxIlWXE4KREaUUASilIglqYWW/s1600/CoffeORTea.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="464" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGiBoAuQ8I5UX5a467raOdIGbC3IEuxwk3wHn-Mp_sBqGXc8O3rmcFE1-SIqxAXI5AwGDXy0qa1r_EJ06y6fEVGHIKrJCUH04TWcFLfq0nL-WUPKPOJuepxIlWXE4KREaUUASilIglqYWW/s640/CoffeORTea.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">After seeing it for two
days during the coffee break, she said <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">“<i>Yaarum paakala” (No one’s seeing that). <o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">A 15 minute coffee break is
not enough to come to conclusion like that, but she’s statistics major during
her higher secondary; so she might be right about taking 15 minutes as the representative
sample interval which could be used to estimate the total value. But my point
is that I don’t create such things so that others would like it or see any
value in it. Of course, I’m just an amateur in creative art and in writing. There’s
no assurance that it would be great. I just do it for the joy of creation. </span></span><br />
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">But for a true artist, the
major take-away in creating something is the joy of creation itself. The other things
such as recognition and appreciation are secondary. And monetary benefits are sometimes
but annihilators. I believe every human being should express themselves to the
fullest, in whatever form he chooses. I’m not that great at spoken word as I
don’t possess a glib tongue; but I’m fairly good at the written word and
sometimes at the expressing abstract ideas as art designs and sometimes as maps.
So expressing oneself </span><span style="line-height: 21px;">shouldn't</span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> considered as ‘not being modest’ unless it hits
someone else’s ego. I believe that it’s perfectly great to say that, “I’m
getting better at this stuff” but it’s flagrantly bad to say, “I’m getting
better than him”. Nevertheless, I have a lesson or two to learn in humility from
the girl-next-desk. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">On the day of the bank
exam, I opened the cover; went directly to the dreaded General awareness
section. Question #2 was,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">“Who is the chairman of the 14<sup>th</sup> finance commission?”<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Thank you Archana, for letting
me know that Y.V. Reddy is the answer for the above question. I also owe you
for getting me familiar with at least twenty-five other questions that appeared
in the General Awareness Section in that question paper that day. I also owe
you for being my socialist and humility guide, for restoring my mobile
internet, for being my colleague, coffee-friend and sometimes my </span><span style="line-height: 21px;">lunch-mate</span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> for
being my Bangalore-Chennai travel consultant, for sharing the same passion for
GIS as I do, for being the co-editor of our upcoming magazine, and most of all
for being THE GIRL NEXT DESK. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; line-height: 21px;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-size: large;">
<br />
</span>
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br />
<!--[endif]--></span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
JKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17504915258073113778noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6841239840587133111.post-29442329183391242262012-07-10T14:28:00.001+08:002020-05-26T11:06:07.323+08:00MONSOON IS HERE, WHERE ARE YOU??<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Dark rainy clouds lurking above me, the smell of damp soil titillating my olfactory senses, the cool breeze laden with moisture - all evokes nostalgic feelings of experiencing the monsoons in Kerala itself. Now, I know why I fell in love with this city when I reached here last year around this time of the year. Delhi, a city of extremes is embracing monsoons adoringly. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">So what are you waiting for?? Go out, enjoy the occasional sunshine, experience the cool breeze, get drenched in rain, splash the semisolid mud, eat the grilled maize on your way home, dry yourself with a towel, turn the fan on and shiver a little more. Now take that old pair of Jean and cotton shirt from beneath your pile of clothes in the rack; wear it and feel the warmth, prepare a cup of coffee, goto the verandah and make a call to that special someone while sipping your coffee. After that, turn on the T.V. and watch some cartoon shows dubbed in a regional language (it's insanely fun, I say). If you haven't done the workout for the day, do it now and get heated up. Get a shower after that. Now, it's study time. Study hard until you get the call from your gastric organs. I prefer the soft spongy dosa to the paper roast. And some coconut chutney mixed with mustard fried in coconut oil - it's a perfect combo. After your dinner, call your mom (because she'll always be happy to hear that you have had your food just then), discuss about your plans to dad and then poke your sister. By now, it's probably bedtime - time for Robert Frost or Rabindranath Tagore for the poetically inclined. Read a bunch of poems, wonder how beautiful the word is, in their eyes. Now I'm feeling sleepy.<br />
<i>Miles to go before I sleep</i>??<br />
Nah.. Chuck that... I'll cover that extra mile tomorrow.. Sweet monsoon dreaamzz...</span></div>
</div>
JKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17504915258073113778noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6841239840587133111.post-30549117914173476022012-03-01T01:13:00.002+08:002020-05-26T11:06:07.456+08:00A SMALL G-DAY STORY<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">"Goibibo and ICICI bank Republic day discount of Rs. 800 on one domestic flight journey valid till 31st Jan only!!”<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Usually, I used to ignore such promotional ads. Rather, I got interested this time.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">I blocked six days of leave for dates which fell a month later, in the company's leave application portal. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">After reaching the hostel room, I started downloading "En frienda pola yaaru machan" song from the movie named ‘Nanban’.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">After hearing it three times, the song becomes my facebook and gchat status.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">If you haven't got it yet, these were indications that I was getting ready for the graduation day to be held a month later. My thought train began to fill with the faces of cherished friends, revival of the 'Happy days' and such nostalgic feelings that I need not elaborate upon; because I'm sure you all might have gone through these.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">But after all these, if you had reached home after six months, especially after shedding a few extra pounds, your mom starts seeing you like a malnourished Sub-Saharan kid. I don't blame that, coz the pampering that follows, is kind of warm; right from those extra dishes (invariably containing either coconut milk or coconut oil) to the voluntary application of a lukewarm Ayurvedic oil smelling raw camphor onto the scalp just before the hot water bath. I tried to reciprocate it by trying to make <i>rasam, </i>the only culinary expertise I gained during the 15 day stay from the recently moved-in apartment. Though my mom and sister appreciated it profusely, I was humbled by her week-long preparation of <i>Ada-Pradaman </i>(a better neighbor of <i>Payasam</i> or <i>Kheer</i>) and what-not foods of Kerala. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">After spending three lazy days at home, I decided to trek to my alma mater on the fourth day of my arrival, to be greeted by the warm, ever friendly smiles of Deepa, Sambath, Nandhini and of course, some of my nicest juniors like Rajkishan, Kavitha, Dhivya, Padma, Subha, Sasi, Kowshik and Gomathi. Dhivya wasn't entirely nice, coz she played a lot of pranks on me. Luckily, Kabil joined us in between and the pranks turned on him. Oh, and my project 'nanban' Kabil was flaunting his latest acquisition of an high end Motorola Android phone, replete with graphic intensive games and some geeky apps - One app gave the local EMU train timings from any metro station. In the evening, he proposed to develop the same as a graphic application which would show the train positions also, based on the timings. Once again, I was happy to see the spark in the eyes of my future partner of the company, which we'd planned to start years ago. Later I suggested how to turn it into a fully fledged android mapping application. For those of you, who think I'm going overboard, please don't be surprised to read about one of the most innovative GIS solution providers in the whole of known universe a few years later (just kidding. It’s just that such conversation keeps our spirits alive, amidst a career which tends to rot such spirits). <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">On the first day of my visit, I was also able to see our dear ‘Dhyan Chand’ Sujan also. And I guessed it right – he was heading to the Sports Complex, probably to play our national game one more time. I came the second day just to get a letter from our Director and to help Deepa out in creating a tool to do some map automation task. But that was the last time I saw my dear friend Deepa during my recent visit – she told she’d not be able to attend the graduation day as she’s leaving for her home town due to an unavoidable reason.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">There are two souls, who volunteered to be bonded to the bounds of the legendary red building and to the 27 acre it sits on. I met both of them - Revathy and Nambi. When I saw Nambi, he was paying rapt attention to Mr. Velappan's class. I still have no clue as to how he managed to remember a geodesic formula, two years ago, which had the length of five phone numbers, written back to back with occasional dots and exponents. Revathy was kind of happy that she and the persons, who care for her, are ensconced in the same city. I understood the significance of esri's tagline - "Geography matters". Geographic distances do matter, sometimes adversely, when it's as far as 1000 miles. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">On the G-day, my German intern companion, Petchi and my second future partner, Bharath had arrived Chennai early in the morning along with their colleague-cum-classmates (that's a wonderful combo btw). By noon, most of the guys had reached the epicenter, a.k.a. IRS. I actually can't recollect what happened when I met them all. But it involved dozens of hugs, squeezes, blows and name-callings. The collective friendship wave is always overwhelming. The charming Delvin, the animated Ashok, my DON Saravana, the blasting Sambath, 'The 10 hour maestro' Bharath, the geeky Kabil, the pacifist-terminator Sathyesh and the pranky Gopi were all there. The Czars team was joined by the ‘dude’ Manoj. Within the wink of an eye, a gang of our girl classmates appeared before us. The Murphy fan Jayashree was accompanied by a serene Sathya and a cheerful Sharanya. The ever sparkling Shirly was also there, accompanied by her friend who had a name phonetically akin to that of hers. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">By that time, it was around two in the afternoon. A boy, as an individual can withstand hours without food on any normal day; but when a sense of plurality arises, they can never withstand the call from the gastric organs. So the Czars unit proceeded to the ‘Hot Chips’, where the same girls-gang, we met before, were waiting for their turn to get a table. As their five minute’s wait didn’t yield a response from the Hot Chips staff, the girls left for the neighboring ‘Sea Rocks’. But our patience was rewarded with a ten-seated-table, twenty minutes later. As usual, when the bill pad arrived, we played volley ball with it until when it landed onto the hands of some poor soul, who had to organize the collection and consolidation of monetary units for the devoured food.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Back at college, we entered through the Kottur gate, as someone hinted that those who wore casuals weren’t allowed inside. Our passage through the library and RCC evoked nostalgic feelings among Bharath and Kabil respectively. The graduand crowd began to fill the arterial road of the campus, many of them already flocking with those yellow robes. It took us more than an hour to traverse from RCC to the point where the yellow robes where being rented, as we bumped into scores of our old hostel mates, NSS/NCC/YRC comrades and other casual and close acquaintances, we earned during the four years. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">A girl with decorated rose dress and flattened hair flashed a smile at me near the ATM. At the first instance, I couldn’t say she was the Nacchammai from our class. She had to confirm her identity herself by answering, “Yes, I am”, to my bewildered look which seemed to ask, “Isn’t it you, Nacchammai?” Very soon, we guys realized a stark fact at the ATM– We need to pay Rs. 250 advance for buying the loose, used yellow robe on rent. Each one of us began to come up with thought provoking questions like “Why can’t they construct more than 2 ATMS in our college?” to “Should we attend the convocation?” But the real question was, “Who is going to give their ATM card to pay for everyone else’s robe?”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">We finally got our robes. Most of the robes were a misfit and we actually didn’t know what the other medal-like-ribbon thing was for. Sathyesh posed like an arm-fractured patient using the ribbon as the arm-support. Not being able to come to a conclusion about the orientation of the ribbon, I folded the ribbon into 8 and kept it in the back pocket of my jean. I forgot this so soon that I began to search for the same ribbon minutes later as I mightn’t get the Rs.200 refund if I lost it. Soon I found a ribbon lying on the ground near a gang of girls. I wasn’t sure it was mine, but when you lose a hundred rupee note and then find a hundred rupee note lying at your foot a little later, the kind of assumption you make is condonable. I went near the girls’ gang and sought an excuse from them. When I pointed to the ribbon and picked it up, I heard two or three thanking remarks from them. I wondered why they are thanking me for picking up ‘my ribbon’. When I was about to move away, the thankful expression turned into a stern “Hello”. When I turned back, they claimed that it belonged to a girl in their gang. A ribbon less girl was standing there indeed. There was a greater probability that it belonged to her than to me. So I handed it over to her and scanned the ground in quick succession and got away from them. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Later I got a call from the Queen of Singapore, who informed me that she has descended over here from the ‘Lion City’ (from the Sanskrit word <i>Singapura)</i> to attend the G-day. It was not difficult to find her amidst the crowd with her dazzling attire and wonderful smile. She briefly narrated her experiences about her doctoral studies and about her new classmates. We also found our GIS analyst friend Sangeetha there. We were longing to hear a word or two mixed with her unique slang. She did fulfill our expectations very soon. The nice thing about Vijaya is that no one except Askok who could be as cheery as Vijaya, which might be due to that ever sparkling eyes or the cheerful expression she makes with her cheeks. Whatever it is, it was a cheer booster to see her anytime. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Whoa! Who’s that arriving late? Of course, the hero arrives only on time. Bala is now a bit leaner but his eyes were sparkling due to the grasping of the entire Civil Service syllabus all these days. His old typical expressions were substituted by formal expressions like, “Dude” and “How’s it going da?” Meanwhile Jayashree introduced us to her dad, who was a very cool man and a CEGian himself. When I was introduced to him, he remarked that my earlier literary work, a.k.a ‘The Classroom Chemistry’ was good. I wanted to ask, “Did you really read that book?”, but I wasn’t surprised as an old CEGian like him could easily relate the story too.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">I also met Archana, my colleague working in our Bengaluru office. We began to discuss about work related stuff. But soon there were a few growls and warnings from her friends indicating that we had to stop discussing about that. I had promised to visit her new home the next day, but I only had an apology to give as I was leaving for Dindigul the same night to attend to an important family affair. Reeta was also standing there, busy chatting with her friends. I managed to greet her with a traditional ‘Vanakkam’. Fortunately, she responded back and enquired about me. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">There were two persons I met during the graduation day, to whom I never went and said even a ‘Hi’, though I wanted to. And for good reasons. They were Sivani and Sakthimari. It’s not that I didn’t have the balls to face Sivani, but that when I looked at her, she was looking down at her new slippers which were sturdier than ever before; so I retraced my steps. I also want to say that she looked horrible this time and that her dress was an eyesore, but as a writer, I’ve to tell you the truth – things weren’t that way with her. And, sorry Sakthimari, it’s the ‘Law of proximity’ that kept me away from you – I mean, your proximity to a person, I decided not to tread near. So no issues; here’s a virtual ‘HI’ to both of you, which I believe, is more effective than the vocal ones, in the sense that it transcends thousands of miles across Google and Facebook servers to finally reach you.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">When the graduation ceremony started, Prof. Murugasan directed us to some fixed positions. So Jayashree and Delvin were by my side by virtue of our roll numbers. Soon the degree certificates were handed over to us by our professor. (I have never attended a class under him, except for an assessment test, so I could hardly call him my professor). Many were expecting it to be handed over on stage. But I wasn’t surprised as I had attended my sister’s graduation day last year. Only gold medalists and rank holders had the privilege of trotting the dais and being honored by the chief guest of the ceremony. I knew 38 of my classmates, including me would be lost as a collective noun – a Bachelor of engineering graduate in Geoinformatics. Not a bad title after all. Only that it would have been better if they’d have read out the names of all graduates in quick succession. That would have been an additional 1 hour 40 minutes though, just to read the names of 3000 graduates, but surely, a better option than conducting a rehearsal of the ceremony. Among my classmates, Shruthi (who’s busy getting perfect 4.0/4.0 in TAMU) and Monica had that privilege. My sister had the privilege the last year. For this, I even forbade my parents to attend the ceremony. Luckily, neither my parents nor my sister was the compare-you-with-everything type; they were happy about me and so am I. By the way, my hearty congratulations to Shruthi and Monica for their phenomenal accomplishments, which I hope, they will continue to display throughout. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Meanwhile, Jayashree took a snap of me, Delvin, Bharath, Ashok and Nambi in it and handed over the camera (which weighed a few grams less than a kilogram) to me. This meant that I’d have to do the same with her holding the non-tearable, waterproof, thermal-sensitive paper in her hand. We were having fun comparing the first-year photos of us, which were printed on the certificates with that of the present appearance. Bharath is no longer the innocent looking tonsured guy with that little holy ash applied onto his forehead; he’s smart and is easily the next chocolate boy from our batch even surpassing Delvin. There was this cute, leeeeean girl named Lavanya, sitting beside Kabil. I high-fived to her. And she did the same. Her next question to me was, “Are you still doing documentation works?” My Team Leader assigned me such tasks for a week during the initial months after my joining, when she didn’t exactly like me (Doesn’t mean we have a perfectly harmonious relationship now). I had expressed my disappointment to one of my girl classmate then (I don’t remember who it was exactly). But sure, the news has spread and has helped Lavanya judge my nature of work now. Amidst the commotion, I had to shout back, “Uh, not exactly”. “Then what exactly do you work on?” she shouted back. “I work on the whims and fancies of my supervisors”, I replied. She didn’t get it. She shouted back, “Whaaat?” “Uh... Nothing, ArcGIS Web and mobile APIs, like uh.. JavaScript, Flex, so-so”, I remade my earlier comment. She said, “Oh...”, and then smiled and sat back erectly. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">There were much more fun happening on at the stage. There was a rehearsal for the ceremony which all the graduands were forced to witness and there was usage of words like “Solomon” instead of ‘solemn’ and many other malapropisms. At around 8 P.M, my mom called to know about my whereabouts as I had a train to catch at 9.30 at Tambaram railway station. I bid adieu to my friends and prepared to leave. Like a good graduate true to his oath, I approached Prof. Murugasan to let me go. His only reply to all my pleadings was a cool constant, “I am instructed not to allow anyone until the end of the ceremony”. If there is one thing that I lose my temper to, it’s irrationality. He seemed like a programmed Robot to me, doing only what he was ‘instructed’. His next programmed, but somewhat contextual response was, “The function will be over in 10 minutes. You’ve to wait till then”. The 10 minutes translated to 20 minutes, or 1200 long ticking seconds, when my mind went blank. So did my mobile phone, which ran out of charge, true to Jayashree’s accusation of me being a perfect proof for Murphy’s laws. The Czars unit set into motion to help me out. Kabil used his app to find the EMU train timings to reach Tambaram by at least 9.20. “The train at 8.42 is your last chance to catch the train”, Kabil concluded. He also got me the distance from the parking lot to the Guindy railway station, which was 3.9 km. That would need a ride at 30 kmph in peak traffic if we manage to start the bike at 8.34. Shravanesh lent his bike keys and Sathyesh offered to ride it. The ceremony was declared over at 8.26. Delvin ran out along with me from the ground to the mini gallery as I had no mobile to be contacted with. Sathyesh met us at the mini gallery at 8.30. From there it was flat half-kilometre run by both of us to the parking lot. We started the bike a little before 8.34. During the trip, I peeked at the digital speedometer; Sathyesh, known to be a non-rash driver was speeding at 50kmph. Suffice it to say that, I reached perfectly on time, went home, even had a small dinner and caught the Pandian Express in one piece.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">From second-hand sources I came to know that, just after the ceremony, there was a group photo session. Obviously I missed it like some of our other classmates like Prabhu, Maddy, Damu, </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Aishwarya, </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Viji, gold medallist Shruthi, Roshni, Sandhya and Deepa, understandably due to unavoidable reasons. Thing is, each one of them were remembered, talked about and missed by all of us – that’s more important. </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">A special "REALLY MISSED YOU" to Prabhu, Damu and Madhav from the CZARS. </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Monica had also invited most of the classmates (except expendables like me) for a treat the very next day for getting the rank. I think this is the first time, an absolute majority of the class gathered together outside the bounds of the college, thanks to Monica. This was among my cherished dream years ago; only that I wasn’t there to witness it when it finally happened. I leave it to those who were present there to share those wonderful moments, rather than I giving a second-hand narration.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">I reached Chennai on Sunday night. I should be leaving Chennai on Monday evening. Kabil and Sathyesh came to my house on Monday afternoon. Bharath had gone to his hometown on Sunday after the graduation day. He too came to my house directly on Monday afternoon. We had the lunch at our house and spent a wonderful afternoon together. Bharath’s train to Hyderabad was at six and my flight at half past seven. We parted ways soon. Only that, Bharath still had the company of a classmate during his train journey and even after that. I had none, from the point where my cabin-baggage check-in began. The lady who issued me boarding pass offered me a window seat near the emergency escape exit, where I could also stretch my legs better. The view of Chennai at night during the take-off was breath-taking with the lightings appearing like sparkling gemstones in the background of the night. But that too didn’t last long. Precious moments like the reunion of friends don’t last long too. It’s ephemeral, yet those moments are preserved eternally; thanks to Facebook, Picassa web albums and a bloody blog writer like me. <o:p></o:p></span></div></div>JKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17504915258073113778noreply@blogger.com8CEG Sports Ground, Anna University, Ranjith Rd, Guindy, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India13.0115032 80.23805629999992613.0105047 80.236288299999927 13.0125017 80.239824299999924tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6841239840587133111.post-60158029105838237922011-08-28T20:52:00.002+08:002020-05-26T11:06:07.530+08:00The Classroom Chemistry<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Classroom Chemistry </b>is finally out</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">What was supposed to be a blog post last December during the winter survey camp, turned out to be book now. Not that the book is complete now, but that I'm too lazy to add any more than 200 pages to it. So here I am with my first book. Happy reading!!</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVIZQlYLj4IdL5auupGlb2h10pmy_Z_aiNhH8akJJ6_hpVT71rISzDY6MkGVR29ftHBNz32MU1ktZfX9M00W0QBFdNhDpXl905_dUakKOapPzePZlMmWkiH8iGFd9HfuU9Vb1jhysNYdQO/s1600/CRC1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVIZQlYLj4IdL5auupGlb2h10pmy_Z_aiNhH8akJJ6_hpVT71rISzDY6MkGVR29ftHBNz32MU1ktZfX9M00W0QBFdNhDpXl905_dUakKOapPzePZlMmWkiH8iGFd9HfuU9Vb1jhysNYdQO/s320/CRC1.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLe7TDXFItv6Xp229PXChzkWLqEyntHFsuO2R9-cte-iSLXeMf9WtIIJhyRQpLJD9r0hXo0SC_WK9m_aYz1t9ONl2AY_tZSuUd8gLXOi_Vj_lRVRoDBa5nF-8zEJ5HgDWCwR6074s-CKHX/s1600/CRC2.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLe7TDXFItv6Xp229PXChzkWLqEyntHFsuO2R9-cte-iSLXeMf9WtIIJhyRQpLJD9r0hXo0SC_WK9m_aYz1t9ONl2AY_tZSuUd8gLXOi_Vj_lRVRoDBa5nF-8zEJ5HgDWCwR6074s-CKHX/s320/CRC2.PNG" width="320" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR5GqvIaDTYgG8rPy2aVhpNxdsSxqd0E-_xe92CveD63ShiZCMVMmWM03Dk4ecULhga7uTY_Bo009plGBbeaYX73bshvqscxoXd-D_ZnLhTtjyNySMdCb42gJ1DDgrAt1jL9IiNB3N6ost/s1600/CRC3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR5GqvIaDTYgG8rPy2aVhpNxdsSxqd0E-_xe92CveD63ShiZCMVMmWM03Dk4ecULhga7uTY_Bo009plGBbeaYX73bshvqscxoXd-D_ZnLhTtjyNySMdCb42gJ1DDgrAt1jL9IiNB3N6ost/s320/CRC3.jpg" width="223" /></span></a></div>
</div>
JKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17504915258073113778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6841239840587133111.post-14084256575066805232011-02-22T15:27:00.001+08:002020-05-26T11:06:07.628+08:00A WALK TO REMEMBER<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large; line-height: 115%;">My dad woke me up today early morning, as promised. I had a meteorology assignment to prepare. After half an hour of copy–paste business (that’s all what assignment is all about; more of information gathering rather than knowledge assimilation), the power went off. My UPS wasn’t working and zap went off my computer. I was a little disappointed as I’ve not saved my 18-page work. Actually, to call it my work would be a lie. It was the work of millions of people who contributed to Wikipedia, thousands of scientists at NOAA and IMD. So I was staring at the computer, hoping that the last saved version of the document would contain most of the editing already done. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large; line-height: 115%;">Suddenly my dad asked me to accompany him to the backyard, where I’ve not frequented much. As I’d nothing to do, I considered it as a good idea in the morning mist. He has grown a lot of plants over the last few months. Pumpkins, bananas, snake gourd, bitter gourd, onions, pineapple, mango, coconut, jackfruit, and many other local spices. After the morning drizzle, the ambiance was indeed heavenly. A bunch of pumpkins was already hanging from the tender plant supported by a few sticks that my father had erected there. Their tendril grasped those sticks beautifully and was growing with its full might to give its fruits soon. A few orange colored insects were flying around the plant. My dad began to catch and kill them individually. I also followed suit. “This treatment is enough for a small garden like this, my dad remarked. Then suddenly, he cleared the question in my mind by saying “When this gets bigger, we can try spraying ground neem leaves mixed with water” “Never ever go for chemical pesticides in your life. They’ll spoil us”. Saying so, he tied some soft clothes around the young pumpkins to protect it from insects and weather. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large; line-height: 115%;">After that, he showed me sprouting onion plants and young unripe jackfruits. Then he went on to the bananas. He named the varieties of the bananas, Sevvazhai, poovan, nenthran, palayamkodan (most of them are Malayalam names) just by seeing the leaf pattern. Pointing to a particular plantain, he remarked, “He is Kathali, you can't get him in the market. He will not grow long and won’t yield more than 60 bananas. But, he has a lot of medicinal properties. And I don't know whether you remember, but it was you who planted it a few months ago". I never realized that I was part of such a wonderful creation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large; line-height: 115%;"><br />
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: large;">It was time to get ready for college. I had a really nice time having a stroll in our organic farm. Just then, the power came. I realized that the world appears much more beautiful when there is no electricity, isn’t it?</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
JKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17504915258073113778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6841239840587133111.post-57378513761487295502010-05-14T17:57:00.000+08:002020-05-26T11:06:07.727+08:00Fear can hold you prisoner. Hope can Set You free<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: center;">
Beautiful lines about HOPE from the film <b>The Shawshank Redemption</b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b><br />
</b></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://richardrglover.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/shawshank.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="112" src="http://richardrglover.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/shawshank.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Andy:</b> There are......places......in the world that aren't made out of stone. There’s something......inside......that they can't get to......that they can't touch. That's yours.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Red: </b>What are you talking about?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Andy: </b>Hope.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Red:</b> Hope??</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Let me tell you something, my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hope can drive a man insane. It’s got no use on the inside.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Red: </b>Hope is a good thing...Maybe the best of things.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And no good thing ever dies.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Red: </b>I hope I can make it across the border.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I hope to see my friend and shake his hand.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I hope….</div>
</div>
JKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17504915258073113778noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6841239840587133111.post-31054949746732258352010-05-13T00:52:00.003+08:002021-10-25T10:16:53.911+08:00THE LIGHT HOUSE KEEPER<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0wX4UKNX28VT6hWHLkPREy1cX1pNlufiPWAMav_l7vzQ8-ixydBTtQcwR8Eh-QmcoJ2uDG9ezTkSBqhOQpw2wO7ncyhCxdzbHVhLQwr0jwlRiMKCXru-laeb4NiWY3mo5dK883aJUL6F0/s1600/The+lighthouse+keeper1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="410" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0wX4UKNX28VT6hWHLkPREy1cX1pNlufiPWAMav_l7vzQ8-ixydBTtQcwR8Eh-QmcoJ2uDG9ezTkSBqhOQpw2wO7ncyhCxdzbHVhLQwr0jwlRiMKCXru-laeb4NiWY3mo5dK883aJUL6F0/w640-h410/The+lighthouse+keeper1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">I drew this in 10th grade. Hav a story for it.. A story I developed..</span></div>
JKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17504915258073113778noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6841239840587133111.post-76920684526955231172010-04-25T15:29:00.000+08:002020-05-26T11:06:08.024+08:00A Midsummer’s night dream<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: red; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS';"> </span></b><b><span style="color: #cc99ff; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">A Midsummer’s night dream <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: #cc99ff; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: #cc99ff;"> </span></b><b><span style="color: #cc99ff;">The stars to winkle <o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: #cc99ff; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> its eyes in dizziness,<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cc99ff; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><u><br />
</u></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<b><span style="color: #cc99ff; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> The silvery moon to Grace the occasion;</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<b><span style="color: #cc99ff;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="color: #cc99ff; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> and to spread its aroma around.</span></b></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 2.0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: #cc99ff; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> The sporadic cool breeze <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: #cc99ff; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> to whisper its secrets in melody;</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: #cc99ff;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="color: #cc99ff;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="color: #cc99ff;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="color: #cc99ff;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="color: #cc99ff; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span></b></span></o:p></span></b></span></o:p></span></b></span></o:p></span></b></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: #cc99ff;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="color: #cc99ff;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="color: #cc99ff;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="color: #cc99ff;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="color: #cc99ff; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> The misty air which seems like</span></b></span></o:p></span></b></span></o:p></span></b></span></o:p></span></b></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: #cc99ff;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="color: #cc99ff;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="color: #cc99ff;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="color: #cc99ff;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="color: #cc99ff;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="color: #cc99ff; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> celestial damsel spreading her drape.</span></b></span></span></b></span></o:p></span></b></span></o:p></span></b></span></o:p></span></b></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: #cc99ff;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="color: #cc99ff;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="color: #cc99ff;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="color: #cc99ff;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="color: #cc99ff;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="color: #cc99ff;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="color: #cc99ff;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="color: #cc99ff;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="color: #cc99ff;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="color: #cc99ff; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span></b></span></o:p></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></o:p></span></b></span></o:p></span></b></span></o:p></span></b></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: #cc99ff;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="color: #cc99ff;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="color: #cc99ff;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="color: #cc99ff;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="color: #cc99ff;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="color: #cc99ff;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="color: #cc99ff;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="color: #cc99ff;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="color: #cc99ff;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="color: #cc99ff; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> Silently I moved the curtain veils off;</span></b></span></o:p></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></o:p></span></b></span></o:p></span></b></span></o:p></span></b></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: #cc99ff; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> Enjoyed it till the dawn.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: #cc99ff;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="color: #cc99ff;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="color: #cc99ff; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> My sleep, I guess, the damsel stole;</span></b></span></o:p></span></b></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: #cc99ff;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="color: #cc99ff;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="color: #cc99ff;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="color: #cc99ff; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> Until she lifted herself up towards <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-weight: normal;"><b><span style="color: #cc99ff;">the heaven.</span></b></span></span></b></span></span></b></span></o:p></span></b></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 135.0pt; text-indent: -.25in;">
<b><span style="color: #cc99ff; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span></b><b><span style="color: magenta;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
</div>
JKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17504915258073113778noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6841239840587133111.post-22024518380277512632010-04-25T15:11:00.000+08:002020-05-26T11:06:08.124+08:00India, a garden<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple;">India</span></span></i></b></st1:place></st1:country-region><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple;"> is a garden,<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Hundred crores are laden.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Different regions and different religions,<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Different castes and different colors;<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">All like the colors of the garden,<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">All like the flowers of the garden.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Gandhi, Buddha, born in this land,<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">And I’m proud to live in this sand.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">And I have a vision,<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">A vision with a passion;<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">About the country’s might<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">To the Everest’s height <o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">And in this garden let us bloom<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">To move away the world’s gloom;<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple;">And spread our eternal fragrance</span></span></i></b><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple;">...<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>
JKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17504915258073113778noreply@blogger.com0