its my life

THE GREAT INDIAN CURSE

2012-02-04T13:45:00.001+05:30

Over the past few years, the most important thing I’ve learnt is that being good at everything is a disadvantage. A CURSE rather.

March 2007. Having finished my class 12 exams, I had a rather clear path fixed in my mind. Join an ARTS college, get a degree in 3 years and focus on cricket. Had that plan worked out well, I would have been doing my PG in SRM UNIVERSITY right now.

Unfortunately though, it didn’t work that way.

Why?

Because the South Indian society has this strange habit of placing engineers and doctors on a pedestal and looking down on everyone else. Never mind if the engineering/medical seat was BOUGHT and not EARNED. Who cares. DR.KARTHIK or ER. KARTHIK looks better on the wedding invitation than say, a S.KARTHIK(B.COM)

So yes, a victim of this system I became.

2 years at veltech and now 3 years at SRM later, I’d still say, I regret having taken up that decision

I wouldn’t really say I hate engineering. Engineering does have its perks. Especially if it is done at INDIA’S NO 1 PRIVATE UNIVERSITY. Ac buses, hi tech class rooms (though strictly for 1^st sem only ;D), beautiful girls(again, 1^st sem only if you are a mech/automobile engineer :D), a non alcoholic pub right in the campus and hmm, an opportunity to learn how things work (with a disclaimer warning of course :D).

Now tell me, which arts college would offer all this.

But then the 5 years have really taken a toll on me, both physically and mentally. Not many people would understand this but doing engineering while you are trying to make a mark in cricket is actually tough. VERY VERY tough.

Until now, it was just the academic part that worried me. The matches would appear right during the cycle/model tests and we would have to miss them. If the staff is considerate enough, you would get a retest or an assignment (god bless those souls!) but if they were a pleasure starved necrophiliac, the only thing we would get to do after we get back to college is to make trips between the classrooms and their cabins asking for a retest. Without any success of course.

As if this wasn’t enough, after having gone around campus begging the staff for retests/assignments, squeezing in a couple of tests on the days we do attend college and finally managing to secure an above average grade, some A-hole with a self confessed sense of humor decides to pop in and say “unnaku enna machi, sports quota dhaana, avangalae mark poturpaanga.” Oh how I feel like slapping each and every one of them.

But then, even this is fine when compared to how things are panning out at the moment. The college cricket team has been underperforming of late and as a counter active measure, the university’s sports department has gotten stricter. No ODs, no permissions and a letter asking us to pay the entire 4 years tuition fee if we decide to go for a league/state game instead of a college match. Which comes to approximately 8 lakhs. For someone who has been unsuccessfully trying to complete a 4 yr engineering course for the last 5 years, even a bank loan is impossible at the moment. So college match it is. WITH NO EFFING CHOICE.

Ideally, that wouldn’t have been a problem. But what has happened now is that my league team hasn’t taken a liking to it. I’ve been missing out on a lot of opportunities in my league team because some bucking fasterd with no knowledge of the TNCA cricketing schedule decides to conduct a college tournament at exactly the same time a TNCA match is scheduled. Believe me, I am missing out on a LOT.

So yes, this is my situation now. With one more year to go, I might have to miss out on a lot more.

Which brings me to the GREAT INDIAN CURSE. Too many complications, too many sacrifices. All for a stupid ER symbol in front of your name. if ever I had a chance to change the system, this would be no.1 on my list.

Until next time,

ADIOS!

MY TRADITIONAL NEW YEAR’S EVE POST

2011-12-31T20:10:00.001+05:30

Like I’ve maintained all along, 2011 has been a mixed year for me. So many moments, so many emotions- happiness, pain, dejection, love, support, motivation and friendship, I’ve truly been on both sides of the spectrum this 2011.

Life until now hasn’t really been easy for me, but the friends I’ve made over the years and the experience I’ve gained from my failures have only made me stronger. My friends who’ve been with me throughout, thank you guys, if I am still sane( well, am i? :P) it is definitely because of you. As for those who demotivated me and/or tried to pull me down, thank you even more. It is because of you all that I put in that extra bit of effort every day.

A special thanks also to this year’s bunch of juniors. Every single one of you. You people have been amazing. :)

So yes, never before have I ended a year with such a vibrant smile on my face. Let’s just hope 2012 brings in more joy, not only for me but to every single one of you reading this post.

I’ll sign off with this short story I found out on the internet.

The Story of the Butterfly

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly.
One day a small opening appeared.
He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours
as it struggled to squeeze its body through the tiny hole.
Then it stopped, as if it couldn't go further.

So the man decided to help the butterfly.
He took a pair of scissors and
snipped off the remaining bits of cocoon.
The butterfly emerged easily but
it had a swollen body and shriveled wings.

The man continued to watch it,
expecting that any minute the wings would enlarge
and expand enough to support the body,
Neither happened!
In fact the butterfly spent the rest of its life
crawling around.
It was never able to fly.

What the man in his kindness
and haste did not understand:
The restricting cocoon and the struggle
required by the butterfly to get through the opening
was a way of forcing the fluid from the body
into the wings so that it would be ready
for flight once that was achieved.

Sometimes struggles are exactly
what we need in our lives.
Going through life with no obstacles would cripple us.
We will not be as strong as we could have been
and we would never fly.

So next time you fail in something (@ezhil arasan, I am NOT referring to failing in an exam btw :P) remember about the butterfly. Struggles are what make us fly higher.

Have a wonderful 2012 everyone.

Until next time,

Adios!

MATCHES, MIRCH AND MASTI part 2

2011-12-31T10:57:00.003+05:30

HUNDI BIRIYANIS, HANGOVER BUDDIES AND THE KOLAVERI BHAIYYA

Pardon me for the gap between the previous post and this one, the semester has begun and I am finding it particularly hard to adjust between doing-nothing-at-home to doing-nothing-in-college. B)

Getting on with the post, part 2 of ‘MATCHES, MIRCH AND MASTI’ will deal predominantly with food. And um, beverages.

AN OVERDOSE OF CHICKEN

Now if you are a die hard biriyani fan, you will most certainly know that Hyderabad is THE place to go to for authentic Moghul biriyani. We were not disappointed. The GOLD BAWARCHE RESTAURANT that was a 5 minute walk from the pigeon hole we were put up in served some amazingly good biriyani at dirt cheap rates. Now having grown up in a city that charges exorbitant amounts for relatively small plates, when we saw a hundi biriyani priced there at 140 rs, we thought “well ok, 140 rs, that could serve one person.” But the damned thing came in a container so huge, 3 people could have eaten from it. comfortably! Not only the hundi( pronounced as hun-di) biryanis but almost everything they served at the GBR was insanely good and amazingly cheap. Being a die hard non vegetarian, such good food at such an affordable price spelt only one thing. P-A-R-A-D-I-S-E.

MACHI OPEN THE BOTTLE!

Victory and celebration are something that are synonymous with cricket tours. Now each guy has a different way of celebrating. But one form of celebration that is universally accepted and followed is “machi, OPEN THE BOTTLLEEEE!” this tour had enough rest days in between matches and the guys decided to, um celebrate. Now being someone who doesn’t drink definitely has its perks. Like sitting there watching them making an ass of themselves. And with the right amount of prodding it can be entertainment guaranteed. A few moments from the tour are classic. Buddy’s back stretch, praga’s antics, panch-o going for a jog the next morning with half boil stuck in his beard and PT banging shoulder first into the wall while trying to lie down to sleep. Truly hilarious moments! Both on and off the field, this is probably the best team I’ve been part of. Extremely talented and obscenely funny. It was truly an honour to be one among you. Love you guys. :)

WHY THIS KOLAVERI?

Just a few weeks before this tour, sony music released a song from 3, a tamil movie directed by rajnikanth’s daughter and starring his son in law. A couple of days later, the song went viral registering page hits and downloads like nothing ever seen before!

Before leaving for Hyderabad, I was quite skeptical about this entire VIRAL thing. Agreed, a song can become so popular it is played in all sports events irrespective of the language or the context. Like say a ‘chak de’ or a ‘ringa ringa’. But only after reaching Hyderabad did I truly realize the gigantic proportions this song had snowballed into. It was everywhere. Literally!

Juice shops, shopping malls, chat kiosks, breakfast vendors, everyone kept playing the damned song over and over again! And if they came to know that you were tamil, they had only question for you. “COLA-VERI ka meaning kya hai?”

Now listening to a song almost all the time is something but having it played every morning precisely at 7 is another. Suprabhadam, yes I can understand but why this kolaver di, definitely NO! Our breakfast vendor would arrive at our room at exactly 7am and start playing the song. The worst part, he would put it on loop! So every time the song ended, dhanush would start off again in a few seconds with “yo boys, I am sing a song!” the first few days it was fine, but after the third morning it became too much to bear. What was the meaning of kolaveri you asked, you should have come seen the look in our eyes between 7 and 7.30 am every morning. ;) but then, the man was genuinely good and so were his idlis, dosas and mysore bondas. So we decided to spare his life, affectionately calling him the KOLAVERI BHAIYYA. At the end of the meal, he would make calculations in his head and tell us the total amount. At 10 rs a plate (4 idlis/2 dosas/4 bondas, same rate) we never really bothered to check. C’mon this was our very own kolaveri bhaiyya, he would do us no harm! The last day though, we did. And we realized that he had charged us an additional 40 rupees that day alone! Either he had looted us from day one or he was very bad at math, we would never really know. we decided to leave it at that.

A couple of days later, we were safely back home, the train journey surprisingly being largely uneventful. ;) In hindsight though, this tour has been one among the best. We played hard and we partied harder. It was a shame though that we lost. But then failure is just an opportunity to start over again knowing what to do and what not to. SRMite and proud!

Until next time,

Adios!

MATCHES, MIRCH AND MASTI part 1

2011-12-19T10:01:00.000+05:30

Though people might say that I wasted 2 yrs by discontinuing from veltech and joining srm, I’d still say that it was possibly the best decision I’ve taken in the recent past. Yes, it is quite uncomfortable to be explaining to my classmates from school who are now either working or doing their higher studies as to why I am still in the 3^rd year of college but then, the fun I’ve had ever since I’ve joined srm tends to overshadow the disappointment.

College cricket tours were something I wouldn’t have ever dreamt off had I continued at veltech. Because, well, the damned college didn’t really have a cricket team. But ever since joining srm, I spend more time on the field than in class.

This particular blog post is about my recent trip to Hyderabad for, you guessed it right, matches! :D

We spent 10 days there in all and had amazing fun, so much fun that it would be impossible to put it all up in a single post. So 2 parts it will be.

Part 1 of this trip, I’d like to call “CLEAN ROOMS, WATERLESS TOILETS AND A DIRTY PICTURE”

Now the bad thing about college sports tours is that we get to put up with pathetic accommodation. Storerooms in hostels, empty classrooms converted into temporary dorms and haunted faculty quarters; we’ve seen it all. During this stay in OSMANIA UNIVERSITY, the FIFTEEN of us were put up in an independent house with ONE fan, ONE toilet and ONE bathroom! Though frankly speaking, the only reason we ever switched on the fan was to keep away mosquitoes. It was unbelievably cold there.

The rooms though were clean; not as in the ‘hotel room’ clean but as in the ‘inhabitable’ clean. The only problem however was that the following morning there was no water in the overhead tank, which translated into no water in the toilets! Perfect start to the day I would say. Just what you would want a couple of hours before the match. :/

The match was a breeze though and we ended up winning by a little under 200 runs.

And fortunately for us, unlike in IIT KANPUR, our room here was very very close to basic civic amenities; like good (in fact very good) hotels, a cinema theatre and a BIG BAZAAR family store. B)

THE DIRTY PICTURE was playing in the theatre along the road; now vidya balan in any role would draw crowds but vidya balan as silk smitha was sure to, even more. Prime example- almost our entire team flocked to the theatre irrespective of whether they understood hindi or not. ;)

Vidya balan was cute, pretty and hot all in one. But apart from the raunchy dance routines and the barely there costumes and a few genuinely good scenes and well written dialogues, there was nothing much in the movie worth a mention. Truth be told, it was the comments from our gang that kept us in the theatre through the entire duration of the movie. Ok, That and the couple behind us who seemed to believe that me and the others in the theatre were actually watching the movie and not the more interesting romance scene playing behind us. ;D

The movie did end but vidya stayed on in our hearts. B)

Apart from this, we also played cricket in the backyard, bought clothes lines, immersion rod heaters and other basic stuff you might need to survive in the house, ate amazingly good food, christened our breakfast vendor as KOLAVERI BHAIYYA and made friends with the pineapple vendor in campus.

Oh ya, we even asked a few people there for directions to kattankulathur, urapakkam and vandalur! :D

All these and much much more. But to know all that you’ll have to wait for part 2.

So until next time,

Adios!

CONTESTS, EXAMS AND THE CURSE OF THE INTERNET

2011-11-27T07:47:00.007+05:30

Between my last post and this one, its been approximately 2 weeks. 2 weeks in which dhanush has gone international, with his ‘WHY THIS KOLAVERI’ song becoming viral. Talks are on that if mayawati does manage to make UTTAR PRADESH a separate country ( you can never fathom the shallowness of the human mind) she has plans to make WHY THIS KOLAVERI the national anthem. This will go down well with the citizens of U.S.U.P.( United States of Uttar Pradesh) because it will be a reflection of their feelings towards mayawati- why this kolaveri di? But assuming the chances of this becoming a possibility are as slim as T.R. getting an Oscar for his performance in Veerasamy, we’ll move on with this post.

If this is the first time you are here on my blog, my last post was an entry for the Surf excel- Indiblogger GET SMART BLOGGER contest. The voting is still ON so if you want to read the post, you can find it H E R E.

The contest was a great experience because apart from having my blog viewed and commented upon by fellow bloggers, I also had an opportunity to visit their blogs. The level of professionalism and creativity in a few really inspired me, egging me on to if not be better than them, at least be on par with them. Following this I decided to change a few things about my blog, a few of which you can already see and others, you will understand now.

For those of you who are colour blind and haven’t quite noticed this quite-obvious-in-your-face change, yes, I have opted for a new colour scheme. The blog has now gone from boring brown to bright blue.

I’ve shuffled the widgets/gadgets a bit, removing a few, adding quite a lot. You can now find the BLOGADDA gadget(clicking on which will take you to the BLOGADDA site) and the BLOGADDA RATER where you can choose to give anything between 1 to 5 stars for my blog, though knowing how sweet all of you are, I know you would give me nothing short of a 5! B)

If you liked my post and want others to read it, you can now SHARE it on FACEBOOK, TWITTER OR GOOGLE+ by clicking on the share icons at the end of the post above the comments tab. and for those of you who actually are eagerly waiting for my updates( I know there aren’t many but I like to say it, just because it makes me sound important. :P) you can now get updates on my blog through email. All you have to do is enter your email id in the FOLLOW THROUGH EMAIL tab that appears on the left of the page and you automatically get alerts as and when I put up something new here. This would actually do you a world of good because instead of wasting your time on facebook and other social networking sites, you can now waste your time reading this. B)

At the end of each blogpost, you’ll find 3 options under the title REACTIONS, wherein as the name suggests, you rate that particular blog post on what your reactions where after reading the post. If you thought my post was good, you can click COOL; if you thought my post deserved nothing short of a booker prize nomination, you can click on KICKASS. People clicking KICKASS are of course entitled to endless goodies, treats and special prizes from the author (of course, CONDITIONS APPLY :P) but if you plan on getting your heads ripped apart by my bare hands, you can click on PHYSICS WAS MORE INTERESTING! Now if you are smart, I know you wouldn’t choose option 3. B)

And since this is about the competition, I’d like to thank naren, usaid, shals, ms. P, ms. N and everyone else who felt my blog was good and decided to promote it. The blog went on to get approximately 850 page views in the last two weeks and my entry earned 23 official indiblogger votes. Both of which are personal highs. Thanks a ton for that guys, it really means a lot.

As the title suggests, its exam time right now at srm, which literally translates into MIND FUCK. Exams on alternate days with one day in between to allow us to revise the portions(though in my case, it translated into one day to study what I was supposed to study in the past 3 months) leaves the mind gasping for breathing space. True to word, after a couple of exams, I couldn’t take it anymore. I desperately needed a break from the routine and the Chennai rains definitely weren’t helping. On the ‘STUDY LEAVE’ days in between, I managed to sneak in a couple of movies and a book.

Movie no 1 was RA.ONE. Now if you haven’t already watched it and are planning to do so now, I’d advice you not to. If I had a chance to choose between dying and watching RA.ONE, I would most gladly prefer option 1. Yes, the movie was utter bull shit. The silver lining on the cloud though was kareena kapoor. Hot. And pretty. I’ve never really been a fan of her but man was she great in this!

To eliminate from my mind the notion that srk probably sucked when it came to superhero movies, I decided to watch another SRK flick. CHAK DE INDIA. Easily one of the best sports movies to have come out in bollywood(DIL BOLE HADIPA and PATIALA HOUSE? No they dont even count as sports movies!), this eliminated any little doubt in my mind why this guy is called KING KHAN. Brilliant acting complimenting an amazing storyline make this movie an evergreen hit. I decided to forgive him for the debacle that was ra.one

And the book I managed to read was REVOLUTION 2020. Chetan bhagat has this knack of turning incidents in other people’s (and his own) lives into best sellers. Though the book was definitely not anywhere close to 2 STATES, it was definitely good. My favourite line from the book still remains the last line on page 159:

“Life is a bitch when the only woman you can think of belongs to someone else.”

So true. So damn true. Rot in hell siddarth maalya! :/

If movies and novels weren’t enough to screw me already, in case my grades drop this semester, I’ll have the internet to blame. The reason I abstained from blogging was because I wanted to concentrate on my exams. But I managed to do everything other than that in these 2 weeks- downloading movies, downloading songs, watching stand up comedy acts, watching movie video songs, workouts and everything else I wouldn’t have even bothered to if it were during the holidays. But damn that was what happened. Two more exams to go now and by typing this post and uploading it, I don’t really seem to be doing myself any good as far as the exams are concerned. Guess I’ll have to resort to what doctors say after an operation- “ini elaam andha aandavan kai la dhaan iruku!” which is loosely translated into hindi as “ab sab bhagwan ke haath mae.” ;D

Signing out on that note,

Keep smiling,

Adios!

P.S. naren was contemplating on an idea of opening a fb page for the blog. Your opinions are most welcome regarding this, all you have to do is leave a comment on this page (you can comment using your gmail account or as an ANONYMOUS USER). Criticism, both positive and negative are most welcome. However if you want to continue looking good, you would not want to choose the latter. So think smart. Act wise. ;P

THOSE EXTRA TWO HOURS

2011-11-12T09:14:00.013+05:30

The following blog post is my submission for the GET SMART BLOGGER contest organized by Indiblogger.in, a society for bloggers. The contest is powered by SURF EXCEL MATIC.

The topic: what would you do if you had two extra hours a day?

Now before all of you self-made-Stephen-hawking-fanatics start off on how astronomically, astro-physically and geo dimensionally it is impossible to get 2 extra hours a day, let me assure you that IT IS quite possible. How you ask? Well the guys at HUL have done just that. Their latest product, SURF EXCEL MATIC is so fast and efficient, it saves you 2 hours a day by getting rid of stains while your clothes are inside your washing machine, so you don't have to spend your precious time doing it separately. So let the detergent do the washing, while you get 2 extra hours everyday.

Now that the problem of how we got the 2 extra hours has been sorted out, let’s get down to figuring out ways to spend those two hours.

To be very frank, when I first read that mail, I thought “wow, easy topic, the iPAD 2 is mine.” But when I actually sat down to type this post, I realized that I really had no idea as to what I would do if I had those extra 2 hours. So I decided to get some help, cos what do you know, har ek friend zaroori hota hai. ;)

Text messages were sent out to a select few in my contacts list. 80% said they would spend those extra 2 hrs sleeping. The remaining 20 didn’t bother to reply. Considering we live in a nation where 32% of the population is reluctant to vote, I had to admit, I wasn’t really surprised at being cold shouldered by the 20%.

80% said sleep! Astounding. The reason I figured out later had to do with the age group I had surveyed. 17-25. Engineering students or b school graduates working their butts off on projects in college or at work(miss p, you aren’t part of either group but you still chose to sleep. Hmmm, we need to talk on that. :P)

What was my opinion you ask? Well not sleep definitely. I mean, look at me. Whenever I do go to college (which is quite rare), I spend a lot of time sleeping- Sleeping on the bus, sleeping during lecture hours, sleeping again on the bus back home. So on an average, I already spend 2 extra hours a day sleeping. Which is quite bad because I am not really a sleep-a-holic. So I thought I’d use my 2 extra hours on something more purposeful.

I decided to put my grey cells to constructive use ( After all, they have to be used once in a while. ;) ) and I came up with a list of things that I could put those 2 extra hours into. Which are:

FIGHT CRIME, you know, the BATMAN way. Or going by current trend, the VELAYUDHAM way. :D because frankly speaking, I think there is too much corruption in the country and I feel Anna Hazare is nothing more than a publicity stunt to debase the current government.

Oh ya, that’s my equivalent of the BATMOBILE and behind me is my able sidekick CHUBBY(name changed in accordance with the TERMS AND CONDITIONS of being a superhero). ;D
PREDICT THE END OF THE WORLD. It isn’t tough actually, predict a random date, submit conclusive evidence (which more often than not doesn’t conclude anything), mind fuck people and once doomsday has passed without so much as a tremor, say global warming prevented it. You could be a hit with the corporate sector because now they can claim that they were actually releasing toxic waste into the atmosphere ‘for the GREATER GOOD’. Instant fame and no death threats from the industries. 2 birds in 1 stone. I’d say that is genius! :D
WATCH T.RAJENDAR MOVIES. Though it is something I wouldn’t recommend for the weak hearted.
TRY AND GET 50 FOLLOWERS ON MY BLOG. Which I’ve realized over the 2 years that my blog has been active as being quite IMPOSSIBLE. I’ve tried everything; bribing people, begging people, blackmailing people at gun point. The only option left right now is a sex change operation. I guess that’ll do the trick.
TRY AND CONVINCE SRK that tamilians don’t pronounce “konjam” as CONDOM, don’t say “AYYO” at every possible opportunity and most certainly don’t eat noodles with curd. As for being brainy and having hot girlfriends/wives, I think you got that one right shahrukh. B) :P
TRY MY HAND AT COOKING. Because like the saying goes, the fastest way to the MODERN woman’s heart is through her stomach. Well I can already cook a bit, if you are a big fan of chicken fry, then I am already half way through to your heart. But making open cheese sandwiches using a microwave oven seems to be one thing I need to master. Mom, who was force fed that sandwich yesterday would certainly agree. ;D

Yes people, two extra hours a day can mean a lot of opportunities at doing something you would have never imagined. All you need to do is summon your grey cells to use. My list is ready, what is gonna be yours?

Keep thinking

Until next time,

Adios!

P.S.. if you like this post, you can vote for me by clicking on the picture below.

voting can be done using your facebook or twitter accounts also.

Attempts, revelations and a man called TR

2011-11-05T17:43:00.007+05:30

My blogger dashboard says that my last blog post was on October 12, 2011. Today is the 5^th of November, so that is roughly 25 days since I wrote. Now by my terms, that is quite a hiatus. So to all those who missed me, I am back. As to why I took so long, well you have the exams at INDIA’S NO 1 PRIVATE UNIVERSITY to blame.

To be very frank, I am quite an obsessive blogger. Yes monali jain, you were right about that back in FRUIT SHOP. ;D My parents keep nagging me saying I turn extra interested in the internet only during my exams. So this time when they saw me studying on my laptop they were more than shocked. They decided to leave me alone. Oh ya smriti anand, that is one more reason why you should get a laptop and not a DSLR, you can always log into fb while you are pretending to study and your parents would never really know. ;D

Having been a part of both an Anna university affiliated college and Srm university, I’d say studying in SRM is fun. In capital letters. The rapport we share with the staff, the amazing channa samosa in the main campus canteen, awesome bus rides and of course, the ample sight seeing opportunities all make SRM something I’d like to call “GOD’S OWN COLLEGE” ;) but one thing about srm that I hate is the total nonchalance with which they treat the timing of the exams and record submissions. 2 and a half months, they let us have fun. 15 days to go for the sem exams, they load us with observation correction, record submission and model exams. I mean, what is a poor kid who has just attended 2 out of 10 lab sessions the entire semester to do? But man, being in this kind of situation for the last 2 yrs, I’ve learnt to plan more effectively. Yes, the records have been completed and the exam preparation is underway. Well don’t get me wrong, when your exam is on the next day, the exam preparation should have begun. B)

On a completely different note, if you plan on helping the above mentioned poor kid with his record and/or observation work, you can reach him HERE. B) :P

2011 has been quite a strange year. I’ve found myself in bizarre situations, some intentional, some not. Take this hibernation period of mine for example. During these 20 odd days, I’ve done a hell of a lot of things that wouldn’t quite occur to the sane mind. :D Considering this is the exam season, I’ll start with my exam preparations.

Now normally I am an ‘early to bed, early to rise’ type. This time, I decided to stay up late and prepare. I planned to study from 10.30pm to 2 am. I eventually fell asleep at 12.30 and got screwed in my exams the next day. Considering this attempt didn’t quite work out, I reverted back to my ‘early to bed, early to rise’ technique. I planned to go to bed by 9.30 and get back by 2am and finish the portions. I did go to bed at 9.30 and I did wake up early the next day even before my alarm went off. “Wow, today is my lucky day!” I thought. The time was 1:47 am. Ha 13 more minutes to 2 am. Let me get back to bed, no harm in it. Now there’s a reason they say 13 is an unlucky number. 13 more mins I thought. When I did wake up again, it was 5 am. Screwed again!

That is 4 exams gone with 2 more to go. Being the eternal optimist, I’d say that it is now two more attempts at planning. Let’s just hope its third time lucky for me. ;D

Academics apart, I’ve also tried my hand at strange stuff in these 20 days. Post diwali, I decided to grow a beard, no not the half-french beard type that I sport normally but a fully grown one like my idol, Mr. T.RAJENDRAN. :D one week into the attempt, I decided to quit because I realized that I didn’t quite look like the rich kid who travels to his college in an ac bus. Not that I am rich, but I do travel to college in an ac bus. So that counts. :P The half-french beard look is back now. And so is the realization that try as much as you can, you just CANNOT emulate the great TR. :D

And yes, quite contrary to what my parents think, I HAVE definitely been active on the internet. I’ve already planned my schedule for the month long semester vacations. These include workout schedules, diet charts, practice timings and approximately 30 odd movies that are being downloaded as I type this post. As the modern saying goes, “A movie a day, keeps boredom away” ;D

That’s about it for now.

Until next time,

ADIOS!

TODAY'S DOSE OF POSITIVITY

2011-10-12T22:55:00.003+05:30

Given below is a story that I posted on my blog roughly around a year back.

still remains one of the best inspirational stuff i've come across.

read on.

One day I decided to quit...To quit my job, my relationship, my spirituality. ...I went to the woods to have one last talk with God.

"God", I said. "Can you give me one good reason not to quit?"

His answer surprised me..."Look around", He said.

"Do you see the fern and the bamboo?""Yes", I replied.

When I planted the fern and the bamboo seeds, I took very good care of them.I gave them light. I gave them water.The fern quickly grew from the earth.Its brilliant green covered the floor.Yet nothing came from the bamboo seed.But I did not quit on the bamboo.In the second year the Fern grew more vibrant and plentiful.And again, nothing came from the bamboo seed.But I did not quit on the bamboo. He said."In the third year, there was still nothing from the bamboo seed. But I would not quit. In the fourth year, again, there was nothing from the bamboo seed. "I would not quit." He said. "Then in the fifth year a tiny sprout emerged from the earth.Compared to the fern it was seemingly small and insignificant. ... But just 6 months later the bamboo rose to over 100 feet tall.It had spent the five years growing roots.Those roots made it strong and gave it what it needed to survive. I would not give any of my creations a challenge it could not handle."He said to me.

"Did you know, my child, that all this time you have been struggling, you have actually been growing roots.""I would not quit on the bamboo. I will never quit on you. " Don't compare yourself to others .." He said.

" The bamboo had a different purpose than the fern ... Yet, they both make the forest beautiful."Your time will come, " God said to me. " You will rise high! "How high should I rise?" I asked.How high will the bamboo rise?" He asked in return."As high as it can? " I questioned." Yes. " He said, "Give me glory by rising as high as you can. "I left the forest and bring back this story. I hope these words can help you see that God will never give up on you.He will never give up on you. So you Never give up on yourself.

so believe in yourself, come what may.

keep working, keep growing and success will be yours.

until next time,

adios!!!!!

TRAINS, TIME DELAYS AND THE PLATFORMS OF JHANSI

2011-09-28T13:50:00.002+05:30

In hindsight, this tour can be categorized as ‘WORST’ in more ways than one, be it the train timings that left us on the platforms of Jhansi or the pathetic organization of events at IIT Kanpur or the 70 different species of bugs and insects that kept running/crawling/flying over us in the store rooms where we were put up. So, plainly speaking, this tour had more negatives to it than you can ever imagine.

It has become a practice now for me to blog about a tour I’ve been part of. So when I sat down today to type out my blog post, one thing was clear- considering what all transpired during the tour, there was no dearth of ideas. But all cannot be put down. So I decided to take out 3 main things from the tour that kept coming back to haunt us- TRAINS, TIME DELAYS and THE PLATFORMS OF JHANSI.

TRAINS:

The Chennai-kanpur part of the journey was difficult we thought, considering we had to get down at Jhansi at 1 am and switch trains in a couple of hours in order to get to Kanpur. Agreed, that was the first time I had to wait on a railway platform so early in the morning but considering we had company and the local attention seeker who kept us entertained( in this case, the early morning alcoholic who sat down for a sip in the middle of the platform), time just happened to fly.

The iit bus picked us up from the station at the correct time and if memory serves me right, that was probably the only time during the entire trip that they didn’t screw up. Why I say this is because on reaching the campus, we were asked to immediately report at the ground for our first match, the reason? The team that was scheduled to play that game hadn’t arrived yet! Never before have we gone to the ground with our luggage and oh ya, half the team didn’t brush before the game! No breakfast was provided and the water that was left for us was also below par. The only good thing that happened the whole day was our relatively easy win over our opponents. The next day was an off! Talk about lame scheduling! :/

Next came the stay. 30 of us put up in a small 2 room flat with ONE toilet and ONE bathroom. After 1 full day of fighting and complaining with the organizers, the cricket team(14 of us) got moved to a new room which was no better. But atleast the toilets were good so we shifted. Not that we had a choice really.

TIME DELAYS:

Once again, the organization of events was so poor, the semi finals that were supposed to begin by 8 eventually began by 10. Stupid rules were proposed. Again we had to fight with the umpires and the organizers. Eventually, we lost.

The time delay came back to haunt us. Our bus from iit to the station was scheduled to arrive at 7. I asked them to make it 8 pm considering our train wasn’t until 9.45. They refused and said they had strict rules to follow and that we had to report at the gates by 6.45 and not a minute later. Strict rules they said. When the bus eventually arrived, it was 7.55 and jam-packed. We decided to let it pass but not before letting the organizers know how badly organized the tour was. They didn’t quite understand the sarcasm in my statement! Iit Kanpur! The future engineers of the country I thought!

The train from Kanpur to Jhansi was again hell. Only 6 of the 11 tickets were confirmed, we ended up sleeping in abnormal positions and after 3 hours of that, we landed in Jhansi.

THE PLATFORMS OF JHANSI

The fother muckers in Andhra who call themselves the TELANGANA decided to hold up trains as a show of protest. Our train that was scheduled to leave from Jhansi at 7 am eventually left at 2 pm, the 11 of us having spent a total of 14 hours sleeping/lying down/charging our mobiles/fighting for breathing space with creepy looking insects on the platform outside the waiting room of JHANSI station.

14 hours is a long time and we did happen to come across a lot of interesting characters, Be it the ‘swarna akka’ who kept demanding money every time we stepped into the bathroom area for something as simple as a face wash or the ‘wannabe hero’ I ended up chatting to who’s sole aim was to become a kollywood hero. Some more loose talk later I found out that he had an engineering degree in electronics and instrumentation and was currently on his way to attend his SUB-INSPECTOR interview! :D

The NEW DELHI-PONDICHERRY EXPRESS eventually arrived a few mins past 2. 1 hour into the journey, we realized why that was one of the worst maintained trains in the Indian railways. majority of the toilets didn’t have pipe lines and the few that did didn’t have locks on the doors! The train didn’t have a pantry car and because it was running late, it decided to reduce the halting time at stations. Since we were travelling in a group, we were able to manage with the limited food and water supplies because we were able to split the tasks of buying food and water at the stations. ;) as for the others on the train, god knows how they managed the 28 hours journey! :S

At half past 6, the train reached egmore. We said our good byes and went our separate ways. Within an hour of reaching home sweet home, this blog post happened. Truth be told, whatever I’ve said here wouldn’t quite do justice to the hell like treatment we faced through this entire trip.

If you are wondering as to why this blog post even showed up, I want people out there to know that just because we sportspeople study here on a scholarship doesn’t mean we get everything put out to us on a platter. We do go through things you cant even imagine. And ya we do live on to tell the tale.

SPORTS QUOTA STUDENT AND PROUD OF IT! :D

Oh ya, my laptop arrived home a couple of mins before our train chugged into Chennai. But unfortunately, it was of a different colour than what I had ordered. So it has been returned. The next post would hopefully be from my new lap.

Until next time,

Keep smiling,

Adios!

WHY FALLING SICK IS BETTER THAN FALLING IN LOVE

2011-09-20T10:22:00.001+05:30

Medication does strange things to you. Whether it is because of the light headedness that follows after taking a pill or because of the fact that there is ample time for you to reflect on things (which is otherwise impossible considering we are all part of the rat race), one would never really know. But the point is, when we fall sick, take drugs(recommended by your doctor/pharmacist and not weed mind you :P) and go into this light headed trance, we come up with strange questions and theories.

“WHY FALLING SICK IS BETTER THAN FALLING IN LOVE.” this particular one arose when I went down with fever a couple of days back. I haven’t fully recovered yet but I’ve just mustered up enough energy to blog about it.

Read on.

One thing I’ve always been amazed at is the influence movies have on people. So much so that now it has almost become a fashion statement to say that you are in a relationship. Agreed, I’ve met a few really sincere, ‘young but mature’ couples and I am happy for them but then, like I said, it is just a FEW. The rest, well grow up guys. Its not just about the branded clothes, the rs 6 lakhs car, the iMac or your perfect 10 gpa, it is about how you’ve managed to strike a balance between listening to your brain and following your heart. Because once you’ve done that, you wouldn’t confuse infatuation with love, get into a relationship, roam around for 6 months and then break up and start afresh with a new person.

As for me, because I happen to have an amazing spiritual guru/personal psychiatrist, I’ve learnt to do just that. Yes, I do like(love would be a better word B) :D) getting into conversations with girls because there is always something uniquely scintillating about them but then, I always make it a point to never cross the line. Not that I don’t believe in love an al but too me, on a personal view front, now is not the right time. And oh ya, in case you wondered, the spiritual guru/personal psychiatrist I was talking about, she biologically happens to be my mom. :)

One more thing I realized during this period of illness was how much love my parents have for me (of course, being an only child does have its benefits ;D :P). but on a serious note, they were fantastic. It was then that I realized how selfish I have been. Towards dad in particular. Dad is a banker. A really good one at that(when someone gets a good name in gossip, he must be GOOD). But the downside is, he sucks at technology. Computers mainly. So he keeps asking questions, which by today’s standards is elementary. And it irks me because right then I would have been doing something important. Well not exactly but if chatting with someone on fb counts as being important, then ya, I was doing something important. :D so like the self centred, spoilt brat that I sometimes am, I tend to part-answer the questions or at times ignore them. It hurts now because now I realize how selfish I have been. Had a friend of mine in college asked the same doubt, I would have taken time out to explain it to them but my own father asks and I don’t! the modern, self centred youth!

And in case you happen to follow me on twitter(@kihtrak112), you would have noted that I tend to retweet a lot of inspirational stuff. Off late I’ve started posting them on fb too because love it or hate it, fb is too BIG to ignore. The reason? Well, an overdose of medication can lead to an overdose of positivity. ;) on a slightly more serious note, I’ve learned to take things in my stride. I will keep hitting the gym, I will keep sweating under the sun but I will not fret when I fail. Because i've learnt now that Success, like love will happen only when one is not too desperate for it. :)

So friends, think before you act. As for the few who aren’t already into a relationship, don’t be too desperate. Love is beautiful. But it is meant to and WILL happen naturally. Until then, keep loving your parents.

And always remember, money can buy you the best of clothes. But true beauty comes out only when you wear a smile on your face.

So keep smiling,

Until next time

Adios!

THAT FOUR LETTER WORD!

2011-09-13T22:01:00.006+05:30

I have always believed that the fairer sex has had it easy. Take even the parliament for example; you have a petition going on for a 33% reservation for women. The Indian society doesn’t really require a girl go to a job and run a family. Am not saying that they don’t, but if it is done, it is seen as an achievement. But the same case for an average Indian male is considered run of the mill. BIASED! BIASED I TELL YOU!

The best example in the current age are social networking sites. This is probably gender discrimination at its worst! Check out this pic for example.

So naturally, when a boy tries to hit on a girl, it isn’t easy. The problem is,

Nice girls are not good looking.

Good looking girls are not nice.

Good looking and nice girls are not single.

Good looking, nice and single girls have strong brothers.

Good looking, nice and single girls who don’t have strong brothers have heavy competition. ;)

And if by any chance, you happen to brave past the competition and do all you can to get to the top of the line, those ‘good looking, nice and single girls who don’t have strong brothers’ come up to you and say “hi ANNA, nice shirt!”

Anna?!?!??!? :S alrite, GAME OVER! :@ ;D

A word of advice to all my testosterone charged mates, if ever you happen to notice a cute girl walking by, always remember , its always better

to “SAY NO TO ANNA!” ;D

Keep smiling,

Until next time,

Adios!

FALLS, STRIKES AND BUTTER CHICKEN.

2011-09-11T17:39:00.002+05:30

People living in and around purasaiwalkam, Chennai must be familiar with MOTCHAM THEATRE. A theatre that you would wanna go to if you’d like to see Jackie chan, will smith and Angelina jolie among others conversing on screen in tamil. In simpler words, they play tamil dubbed versions of the latest Hollywood movies. How do I know you ask? Well I’ve been to one of them. No no don’t look at me like that, I had no idea before going in that it was a dubbed version! :D so ya, this place has been around for quite a while now. And you would most definitely not associate it with a group of smartly dressed kids in branded clothes and funky sneakers.

So naturally, when the 15 of us assembled there at MOTCHAM at 7.30 that morning, the passers by were in for a shock. But don’t worry, we weren’t actually gonna go in. What we had planned for was MANKATHA in ESCAPE CINEMAS at 8.15. Getting there was easy. The difficult part was actually watching the movie. With a crowd that seemed reluctant to shout/hoot/whistle or atleast clap with us, it was no fun really. The movie was probably the only sore point of the day.

Second stop: FUN CITY. True to its name, this place was fun. Apart from the trouble we had in finding the girls who seemed to have disappeared halfway through the movie( me and Deepak even considered searching the showrooms to check if you people had slipped out to shop :P), there was not much delay. The hammer strike was fun but the best was the MINI TAGADA. It was funny while the first batch was at it but when the girls went in it went from funny to over the top hilarious. Smriti flew. Monali flew. As for radhika, even her slipper flew! ;D btw, nipun jain, you were one lucky ass! B) ;D

Photos were clicked, games were played without swiping the card, the girls danced on a machine(I put this up specifically because I want the guys to realize that u danced on a frigging machine and not at the restaurant when we asked you to! :O :D) and eventually, after we had managed to build ourselves quite a fan following there, we left.

Next stop was DOWN UNDER. Govind and his group played like pros. Umar top scored in our group. Smriti kept knocking down all pins but one. Me, mohan and naren turned photographers, Deepak broke a plate posing for a pic and radhika had her balls kicked. As to how that is even remotely possible, you’ll have to ask her. B) :D

A pretty long photo session followed and because I was sharp enough to notice the ‘hold them by the hair and pull out their heads’ look on the managers face, we managed to leave before he decided to kick us out. :D

Final stop: FAAZ RESTO LOUNGE. Umar and abu’s new restaurant. I had already been to this place once during the construction phase and to see it completed now was most heartening. The salt and pepper boxes looked cute, the fish tank was grand, the sofas were comfy and the food was yumm! As for the KD IYER in our group, his/her’s(anonymity maintained to save the person’s ass :D) only concern was that there wasn’t enough chicken in her briyani. But if you’d ask me and Deepak who were sitting with that person, we would say that they managed to clean up half of the chicken served that day. B) :P

Another round of photos followed. By the time we left, one thing was for sure. The 9/11 might have been famous till then but to this group of 23, 10/11 is what would stay on. ;)

Love you all!

Keep smiling,

And until next time,

Adios!

CAMPUS DIARIES: SASTRA UNIVERSITY valam, thanjavur.

2011-09-10T23:17:00.002+05:30

There’s a certain charm to college cricket tours. Whether it’s the competitive spirit going around or the chance to rub shoulders(not literally though B) :P) with pretty girls from other colleges, there is something definitely special about these tours.

This particular post is about my recent tour to SASTRA UNIVERSITY, tanjore. The COLOSSEUM which is their sports fest has always happened to be lucky for me as far as cricket goes. But this post is not gonna be about cricket. It is gonna be about all other things other than it.

The COLOSSEUM has ALSO been a very memorable sports fest. The first year I went, I remember sitting under the makeshift tents in the cricket ground and chatting with a couple of friends well past midnight. Never, I repeat never before had I done something like that. The last year was also unique. The whole team had left to chennai after winning with only me and my friend staying back to collect the trophy. As fate would have it, a murder had occurred that very day and by the time we left the campus, the campus that had been quiet until then was suddenly a bee hive of activity. truly, that was one incident that I will find hard to forget.

Well this year was much much more. A new friend, new places to eat and new memories to cherish. As always, the matches were a breeze. It was the things we did after these games that is worth putting down here. :D

DAY 1

After the first game, me and a few of my friends set off along the highway for dinner @ APPU MESS. A small little eatery but something that had mightily impressed my friends. The walk along the dark highway with nothing but the stars for company was something I had never experienced before. It was scary, dangerous and enthralling at the same time. Scary because there were speeding cars racing towards and past you , dangerous because of the potholes along the sides of the road( the big ones could leave you fighting for life and the small ones would leave you with a sprained ankle if you ever happened to step into them) and enthralling because the night sky was such a beautiful sight that particular evening. After a total of 15 halfboils(take my word, they were the best I’ve tasted in the country) between the 5 of us, we set off back to our rooms.

DAY 2

After the semifinals, me, senti and SRK[ Shiva Rama Krishnan to be more accurate :P B)] set out to tanjore city. FOR LUNCH! :D after a round of the best limited non veg meals I’ve had in this part of tamilnadu, we set out to shop for SRK’s big interview. The dresses were brought but the trousers had to be altered. The shopkeeper gave us directions to a reid&taylor’s showroom somewhere near the bus stand. As to how the reid&taylor showroom would agree to alter a vanhuesen pant, we never knew. But since there was no other option, we set out. Only to realize that it was not reid&taylor but this place!

Talk about innovative marketing!

Dinner was again, great! But as much as one loves food, when it isn’t light on your stomach, it can have nasty consequences. Like a growling stomach and lack of sleep. But then, when u’ve got a friend you can text and still be confident of getting a reply well past midnight, it really helps. Oh I almost forgot, amidst all this, I also happened to go searching for the switch that could turn off the corridor light that happened to be flashing straight at our particular room, going all the way till the end of the corridor only to realize that the switch had in fact been right outside our room! and ya, did I tell you that our room was actually a classroom(the desks had been moved aside and blankets had been put up in their place. Of course, NO pillows! B) :/) and where 15 of us were put up? One of those few unique things about college sports fests. :D

DAY 3

The finals were done with. After winning the game hands down, we got lost in our discussion. A discussion that had been carried over from the previous day. Something that included a wide array of topics. A few as complicated as life. And girls. I mean, we can atleast understand the concept of life. But girls, nope too difficult! B) the details I wouldn’t wanna divulge here but it was most illuminating!

We happened to stay a night more than the other teams because our train wasn’t scheduled to leave until the next day. But then classes were supposed to begin the morrow so we were shifted that night into one of the hostels. Since the hostels were also full, what we got was a long oddly shaped room that could have been best used as a store room. We later came to know that the people accused of the murder the previous year had been temporarily locked up in that very room. Oh ya, WE SLEPT WELL THAT DAY. B) ;D

DAY 4

I am normally a very early riser. But that day, I decided to give myself a break considering our train wasn’t until 2 pm. After a leisurely breakfast we got back to our rooms only to find it locked. We were supposed to leave by 11 and the guys who actually had the keys didn’t arrive until 10.30. but then, being guys, all we needed was 45 mins to pack and get ready.

A small fight later as to who was to carry the trophy and a few tender coconuts and a bus ride later, we were on our train(a train that was unnaturally slow!) from trichy, heading back to home sweet home.

Like I said, the COLOSSEUM was truly special. :)

And ya, we also happened to successfully break the trophy while getting back to Chennai! B) when we went to meet the DIRECTOR, SRM UNIVERSITY a couple of days after reaching college, the trophy had one out of three stars missing. Well, they’ve promised to repair it by the time we meet the VICE CHANCELLOR. But that is another story. :D

Until next time,

ADIOS!

10 DAY YOU CHALLENGE #10- ONE FAVOURITE PIC OF YOURSELF

2011-09-06T07:10:00.005+05:30

Ha, its finally over!
the 10 DAY YOU challenge was great to begin with but as the days went by, it got increasingly boring to write. TRUE STORY.
anyways, here's one pic, a very recent one at that, that i've really admired. it was taken just a couple of days back at a family function. the reason? it was the first time i was wearing a veshti. :D

But ya, this being MY BLOG, i went ahead and added one more pic. so enjoy. :D

until next time,

keep smiling,

adios!

1O DAY YOU CHALLENGE #9 2 SONGS

2011-08-30T20:56:00.004+05:30

well, gotta admit, the 10 DAY CHALLENGE has really lost its lustre. what is the reason you ask? well, in my point of view, it has to do with the decrease in the size of the posts as the days go on. after a point of time, the posts come down to a mere 2 or 3 lines. and there isn't really much you can do in 3 lines of text.

in fact, i happened to type the above para just to add size to the text. the lack of interest will be seen from the fact that i happened to type this post directly on BLOGGER and not in MS WORD like i normally do. and i didn't proof read this as well. so in case you find any mistakes, pls bear with me. B)

2 SONGS

#1 HEY SOUL SISTER-TRAIN

scintillating music, simple lyrics. best piece of music i've listened to in a while.

#2 MADAI THIRANDU- NIZHALGAL

One of ilayaraja's best pieces. but a forgettable video. i recommend switching off your monitor and then listening to the song :D

until next time,

adios!

10 DAY YOU CHALLENGE #8- 3 MOVIES

2011-08-24T19:21:00.002+05:30

Nearing the end of this challenge, I just realized how easy the topics are becoming. I mean, 4 books, 3 movies but 10 secrets?! Wth :O

Anyways, here is a line up of my 3 favourite movies.

1. THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS
starring Will Smith as Chris Gardener, this movie was all about a man’s struggle to break even. Aided by brilliant screenplay and soulful acting. Certainly will remain on the top of my list for a long time to come.

2. MARLEY AND ME
goofy, hilarious and sentimentally touching all at the same time, this was one dog movie that really touched a chord.

3. ANBE SIVAM
whether or not this was an original movie, we would never know but what the cast happened to give us was a movie steeped in human emotions with a sensible climax. Brilliant acting from Kamal Hassan.

Until next time,

Adios!

10 DAY YOU CHALLENGE #7- 4 BOOKS

2011-08-21T22:33:00.000+05:30

I don’t know if it was because of my parents or because I was an only child that I happened to read a lot of books. Reading is something I enjoy so give me a book and that would be the last you would see of me till I finish the book. Such is the vigour with which I involve myself into it. :D

Btw, don’t confuse reading with studying. the latter doesn’t really amuse me as much. ;D

Anyways, here’s my list.

4 BOOKS

1. ANGELS AND DEMONS- Dan Brown

This best seller from Dan Brown was a whole new experience for me. A brilliant mix of fact and fiction, this book had everything I could ask for. Science, symbology, suspense, romance and that 3-letter-word-that-should-not-be-named (:D). Robert Langdon, or rather Dan Brown had me spell bound and I ended up reading all of his books after that. But nothing could match the master piece that was ANGELS AND DEMONS. Definitely one of my favourites.

2. A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS- Khaled Hosseini

I wasn’t expecting much from this book when I happened to pick it up and to be very frank, i knew nothing about this book except for the fact that it was written by the man who authored THE KITE RUNNER, an international best seller. I should add here that I hadn’t actually read THE KITE RUNNER before picking up this book, just heard that it was very popular. But omfg, what a book it was! A myriad of human emotions set in war torn Afghanistan, the author had me spell bound. Definitely a MUST READ.

3. 2 STATES- Chetan Bhagat

Not really being the lover boy type, this was also a book I had put much thought into before buying. But man, was it totally worth every rupee I paid for it. When I went through the cover/back page, I knew I had to buy this book.

Love marriages around the world are simple:

Boy loves girl. Girl loves boy. They get married.

In India, there are a few more steps:

Boy loves girl. Girl loves boy.

Girl’s family has to love boy. Boy’s family has to love girl.

Girl’s family has to love boy’s family. Boy’s family has to love girl’s family.

Girl and boy still love each ther. They get married.

Simple language, amazing flow and adorable characters made this book a NEVER POSSIBLE TO PUT DOWN one.

4. THE KITE RUNNER- Khaled Hosseini

Khaled Hosseini. Again. Man, this guy is a MASTER. He knows just how to capture human emotions and play around it. Set predominantly in war torn Afghanistan, this book talks about the relationship between two boys who grow up in Afghanistan. Circumstances, The Taliban and the unrest that ensues separates them. How the main characters meet again is handled brilliantly. Saying anything more would be taking too much out of the suspense element. I definitely put this down as a MUST READ.

That’s my top 4 books. But in all fairness, had I written this post about a year back, the HARRY POTTER series would have definitely been right up there on that list. But unfortunately, am a grown man now(B) :D). And Ms. Rowling, though I hugely enjoyed them, they still don’t make it into the top 4.

Until next time,

ADIOS!

10 DAY YOU CHALLENGE #6- 5 FOODS

2011-08-21T07:04:00.006+05:30

5 foods. Now this should be easy considering my love for food. :D

But to restrict it to just 5 is cruel! But wth, only 5 it will be.

5 FOODS

1. pani puri. I am a pani puri-holic big time and I make it a point to have pani puri in every city I happen to set foot upon. :D the top 3 cities to have pani puris you ask? well that will have to be:

1.kolkata

2.jaipur

3.chennai

2. briyani/birayani/biriyani/however else the damned word is spelt (as long as it tastes good, I don’t care about the name or the spelling :D) from KARIM MESS.

3.french fries from Mc D, Chocolate chip cookies from SUBWAY and plain DAIRY MILK chocolates..

4. popcorn chicken from KFC and tangri kabab from HOTEL DECCAN that me and my brother love to visit every now and then. ;)

5. water melon juice from anywhere in the world and banana lassi from a shop near the railway station in pune.

I also must add that the food I had on ramzan at my friend’s place was simply superb as well. The flavours of the briyani/birayani/biriyani/however else the damned word is spelt(oh, there I go again! :D), fish, chicken and a sweet they served after that still linger in my mouth. Thanks for the food irfan. :D

But whatever said and done, nothing beats the food mom makes. Be it a 5 star hotel, 3 star hotel, HSB, fast food joint, roadside dhaba or anything else, nothing beats the food mom conjures up at home sweet home. The recipe u ask? Its just the right amount of sugar, spice and everything nice. ;)

Until next time,

ADIOS!

10 DAY YOU CHALLENGE- #5- 6 PLACES

2011-08-20T08:47:00.001+05:30

Sorry for the delay guys, just been busy breaking my back over assignments in college.

To be frank, another reason this post has taken so long to get uploaded is because its been going through several stages of editing. One thing I’ve realized over the years Is that Blogging is a lot like cooking. Be it salt or sugar, the food would taste good only if it is used properly. Its the same with blogging, you overdo the humor element and you end up destroying the readability of the post.

So Ms.P, I’ve heeded to your request/order(:P) and I’ve done up a serious(albeit, my style) version of the post. Read on. :D

6 PLACES

1. Theni, for its pleasant weather and scenic locales.

2. Spain, for the scuba diving, the ‘jumping off the airplane’, the ‘bull race’ and everything else they happened to show on ZINDAGI NA MILEGI DOBARA. B) :P

3. Greece, for my immense interest and love for greek mythology and architecture.

4. Seychelles. Again for the water. Well you cant really keep a Piscean away from water can you. :D

5. South Africa. For its adventure sports and wildlife parks. For a wannabe wildlife photographer, south Africa is paradise!

6. Mount Everest’s peak. Just to find out what it is like to be ON TOP OF THE WORLD. As to whether I would take a plane to get there or go trekking risking my life is something I might wanna consider. :D

Until next time though,

ADIOS!

10 DAY YOU CHALLENGE- #4- 7 WANTS

2011-08-15T21:22:00.002+05:30

*SPOILER ALERT* lots of surprises and OMG! Moments in store

Read on. :D

7 WANTS

1. TWINS! B) agreed, it is a strange WANT. But I’ve always been fascinated by twins. So that would be WANT #1.

2. To move out of sowcarpet. Ya ya I will miss the pani puris and cheese puff from here but I’d rather prefer a civilized and clean living space than the chat shops.

3. I’ve always wanted to have special powers. a mutant perhaps. Like those in the Xmen series. My favourite mutant? Hmm, it will have to be a fight between wolverine, nightcrawler and magneto. Cool powers I say. :D

4. To own a HARLEY DAVIDSON.

5. To be able to comment on blogs without having to go to through the WORD VERIFICATION procedure. :P

6. To be able to buy branded items at reasonable prices. :P

7. To die a happy man, loved by all, family and friends and respected by the society.

7 wants. Agreed, there are more. But I’ll keep it down to just 7 here.

Until next time,

Adios!

POST #100

2011-08-15T08:02:00.003+05:30

Yup, not bluffing. I just checked, this truly is post #100!

And it also happens to fall on our INDEPENDENCE DAY. What a lucky coincidence. So what do I write about in this post? Should I keep it simple, just mention about this being post #100 and sign out or do I write about something else. Well something else it is.

Read on.

15^th august. A day we hoist flags, distribute sweets and watch new movies on tv. A day we celebrate to commemorate our independence from british rule(ya ya, you can find the exact words on Wikipedia. I know it by heart, I was helping out my 2 yr old cousin with his assignment at playschool a couple of days back. Note the point, PLAYSCHOOL! :O) But one thing that irks me is that everyone keeps complaining about india not being independent yet from corruption. Guys take some time to think over it. We don’t vote, the few of us who vote don’t care after our fingers have been marked and the rest try to discourage the few ppl who do care and try to contribute. So tell me, isn’t this all our fault? Don’t blame the politicians, we only have ourselves to blame. Try stopping at red lights, try to not get yourself out of a sticky situation by bribing, try not to buy yourself an engineering or medical seat, try paying your taxes properly and most important of all, learn to accept your mistakes. Only then will we have an independent nation.

Talk less. Work more.

Well as for me, india is the best. so what song do i post here? vande matram? jana gana mana? no no, i decided on something different. composed and sung by the maestro and performed by the man who immortalised red shirts, yellow pants and the concept of milking a cow on screen. here it is! :D

JAI HIND!

10 DAY YOU CHALLENGE- #3- 8 FEARS

2011-08-14T21:52:00.001+05:30

Well to be frank, this particular post was even more difficult that 10 SECRETS. Well not that I don’t fear anything an al but its just that I don’t really feel they are worth putting down.

Sounds complicated? Well it is. But I’ll try breaking it down for you.

My friend suggested I write about my fear of crowds and strangers.(believe me, she does know a lot abt me. :D) But then I realized that it wasn’t really fear, just an inhibition. Yup agreed, I don’t exactly get into a crowd like a fish takes to water but ya I kinda manage to pull myself together in a while. So ya, I guess that doesn’t count as a FEAR.

I thought about writing about my fear of watching horror movies. But then, having watched 7 in the past 1 month(the power of the internet ;)), I guess that wouldn’t count either.

Option 3 was to write about my fear of certain people. But then I realized that it was not fear but respect towards them that made me stay away from them. So that didn’t count either.

Option 4 was of course the fear of god. I would agree on that one though. Yup I am religious. But not to the point where I demolish mosques and build a temple in its place(Or was it the other way round? Whatever. Who cares if it was the chicken or the egg that came first! :/) anyways, getting back to the point, yup I am religious. And like a true Indian, I am secular. Secular? Well ya, I love going to temples, I did about three fourths(probably even more) of my schooling in Christian institutions and I love mouthing ‘insha allah’(break your shackles man, there is so much meaning in that word!), I live in sowcarpet where Jainism is prominent(is that even a separate religion btw? o.O who cares, there are so many religions in india that is hard to keep track :/) well taking all these into account, I guess that would officially be fear no 1. *LOUD APPLAUSE*

Option 5: oh ya, I got stuck when thinking about this one. So ya, I tried to take inspiration from the movies. (The internet is a boon I tell you! :D) so I thought ok, do I fear dogs? No. cats? No. snakes? No. spiders? No. coacroaches? No. bats? No. white bellied sea eagle(o.O)? No. the basilisk? Probably ya but mr.potter already took care of it so what the heck. That wouldn’t count too.

Option 6: elevators. Well it is a closed space and I do feel uncomfortable while being in a closed space. And ya I do prefer taking the steps rather than the elevator. But after much thought, I realized that wasnt a fear too. Its just that I cant stand in one place for a long time. I keep fidgeting around and THAT is probably what makes me look and feel uncomfortable. So ya, that makes two things clear. 1. Chances are more for someone to bump into me on the stairs rather than on an elevator. And 2. That didn’t count as a fear either.

Option 7: mom and dad! No no just kidding. Its more love than fear that keeps me grounded. So ya, that doesn’t count either. :D

Finally, option 8: being alone at home. Nah, I got over that when I got into srm. That’s when I learnt to put the internet to constructive use and that’s probably when I added a few more dishes to my repertoire(and miss psycho, that doesn’t include maggi ok. :D :P). so ya, that doesn’t count either.

So ya, 8 options there were and if you happened to be good at English and math, you would realize that there was only one thing I feared. GOD. Well, for a simple man who yearns to live his dreams, guess that is all he has to fear.

Until next time,

Adios!

10 DAY YOU CHALLENGE #2- 9 LOVES

2011-08-13T06:56:00.005+05:30

Post no 2 and I must admit, it was great typing the first one. Though must say, this one is relatively easy.

Here it goes.

9 LOVES

1. Pani puri. Well this would come as no surprise to people who know me. :D A love affair that started in the city of joy way back in 1997 and something that keeps going strong even after moving back to sowcarpet in namma Chennai.

2. Deepika padukone! B) am sorry Sid Mallya, but I saw her first!

3. Mom’s food. I’ve got to tell you, she is simply the best. what makes it so special you ask? Well I guess because it’s a mix of sugar, spice and everything nice. :)

4. The cool breeze against your face and that smell you get before/during/after it rains.

5. Yup( for the 2^nd time in 2 days), I love looking at myself in the mirror. :D

6. Driving with no hands on the steering wheel. B) ya ya, I am a bit of a show off. :P and I also love to caraoke. That’s karaoke done in a car btw. :D

7. Reading. Everything, from comics to novels. I am one big read-aholic. :D

8. French fries. Chocolate truffle cake. Double chocolate chip cookies from SUBWAY. Plain CADBURY’S Dairy Milk. Sundal and raw mango at MARINA BEACH, briyani from KARIM MESS. cheese puff from KESHAV CHATS. chicken tikka frankie from the FRANKIE MAN kiosk outside nilgiris and bananas and watermelon.

9. Damn! How could I forget! Jennifer aniston, Jessica alba, Natalie portman, priyanka chopra. Amala paul. Priya anand. Vedika. Asin and many, MANY more. oh btw, Sorry for cheating on you deepika! B)

Until next time,

Adios!

10 DAY YOU CHALLENGE #1- 10 SECRETS

2011-08-12T19:54:00.005+05:30

Well, this one is tough. Very tough as a matter of fact. I mean, 10 secrets? Duh! Its supposed to be a secret! Silly me, I should have thought about this before accepting the challenge! :/ but then.

Well, here goes nothing.

10 things you didn’t know about me. Until now:

1. I love looking at myself in the mirror.

2. I get shouted at by mom for doing 1.

3. I get uncomfortable around strangers/ in crowded places.

4. I get sick while travelling on a bus. But since I need to travel by BUS 45 kms every day TO(fro would be another 45 kms), I prefer to plug my headphones in, play some loud music(by my standards, it is loud. But to people used to death metal, it would be barely audible) and go off to sleep.

5. I have very sensitive skin. Pinch/hit and I would literally die from the pain. But Rub gently, I would fall asleep. :D

6. I have had 4 stitches on my right eye brow, 7 stitches in my lower jaw, my nose is out of shape and I guess my left and right ring fingers are too.

7. I always prefer a yellow grip on my cricket bats.

8. I have travelled in a lorry from college to the railway station. All to watch a movie. :D This happened when I was studying in veltech engg. college

9. I used to sketch when I was young. I have got a framed line sketch of a cheetah and its cub which i completed on the 2oth of april 2006, hanging in our hall.

10. The only time I ever failed was when I was in my 4^th standard. It was in hindi. I was so scared that I hid the paper. Mom eventually found out. She also found a bamboo stick by its side. Half an hour later, there were two bamboo sticks. B) well, that was the last time mom hit me. I’ve never let that happen again.
p.s. well there were a few times when I did push my mom to the edge, but she kinda managaed to hold back. So ya, as a collective effort, we never let it happen again. B)

Well to be very frank, I didn’t really let out too many secrets , you know, my deep dark ones. But ya, I think what I did reveal were interesting enough. ;D

Until next time,

Keep smiling,

Adios!

the 10 DAYS YOU challenge

2011-08-11T22:06:00.004+05:30

The past one month has been quite hectic. So much so that all i could do after getting back home was eat and hit the bed. But then inspite of all this, i managed to sneak in a blog post. But now, reflecting back, I guess I have not quite given my readers[the few that do follow my blog i.e. B)] enough.

So here's a surprise. Starting tomorrow(i first thought of starting today but then the procastinator that i am, I eventually put it off until tomorrow :D) i will be coming up with a series of posts, 10 in all in accordance with the 10 day you challenge that i stumbled upon on a friend's friend's friend's friend's(B)) Blog while blog hopping. :D
And as a special bonus(:P), here are the 10 topics that i will be blogging about.

Well If you wanna get to know me better, keep coming back to this space. ;)

Until tomorrow(or next time),

Adios!

P.S. i will be racing against time the following week as well so the blog posts will not exactly be updated every day. but i promise that the 10 posts WILL happen. so long. :)

TRAINING TRAVAILS

2011-08-06T07:57:00.000+05:30

Considering that the majority of my readers are/were commerce students, I guess I’ll have to do the honours of introducing the NOVEL concept of INPLANT TRAINING. Well, at INDIA’S NO 1 PRIVATE UNIVERSITY we are advised (‘forced’ rather) to finish 2 weeks each of inplant(or is it implant? O.O) training(or in their words, HANDS ON INDUSTRIAL EXPERIENCE) before the commencement of the 3^rd and 4^th years.

As far as the workers in the company are concerned, the last thing they would want when they are trying to finish making 2000 jobs a day is a bunch of over enthusiastic students pestering you with questions. So what do they do, they ask us to OBSERVE. Which, actually means “go sit in that corner and pls, for heaven’s sake, leave us alone!” so 7 hours a day, u go and sit there in a corner of the factory ‘observing’ what is going on.

If you are lucky, you get to go for 4 or 5 days but still get the 15 days certificate required. But when lady luck isn’t exactly on your side, you get to travel 2 hrs to a factory just to sit for an additional 7 hours on all 15 days in a factory.

Now at SRM, we aren’t required to maintain a record of day to day training. So what normally happens is that people enjoy for 13 days, attend 2 days of training and submit the report. Which is quite sufficient because truth be told, 45 mins is enough to understand the entire working of the factory. But Veltech Dr. RR and SR technical institute have this custom of torturing people with useless paper work. I was a victim once. And I just got screwed by the same people again.

The company me and my friends went to had these old dilapidated buildings housing offices on one side and the factory with huge, I mean HUGE machines on the other. It was a reputed company having once supplied parts to DAIMLER-CHRYSLER (Mercedes to the common folk) but then the people running the company never bothered to upgrade the machinery and hence the orders started declining. But that’s another story.

About the people in the company, well we had no trouble with them really. All of them seemed to be pretty happy to let us wander about on the company’s huge green campus, only requiring us to report to them once in a while. All but ONE. We decided to call him ANNIYAN THATHA cos with his glasses on he was strict, mean and always shouting. But without his glasses, he would literally like cajole and spoonfeed us! Very ANNIYAN like, so ya the name kind of stuck on. But the only problem was that whenever we happened to meet him for something important, he always had his glasses ON! :S we weren’t spared even on the day we went to collect our ‘completion of training’ certificates!

As for me, life was hell there. But I’ve become so accustomed to the difficulties of a cricketer pursuing engineering that it seemed like a walk in the park for me, albeit a long and difficult one. B) wake up at 5.30. get to the ground at 6.30. team practice till. 10. Get back home by 10.15. shower and eat. Get to the company by 10.45. go there get shouted at by anniyan thatha for coming late daily. Report to our allotted section incharge at 11. While away time till 4 pm. And ya, since this was a manufacturing plant and not an IT company, we didn’t really have a place to sit also! :S

Anyways, this continued for 15 days. Eventually, we decided to cut short the time we spent in the factory. I got permission from the DGM, HR about my practice timing woes and thus didn’t have to get scolded by thatha everyday. The others decided to reach just before thatha arrived (which was usually 1 hr after the usual company timings, very punctual on his part :/) just as to look punctual. We would leave for lunch early and get back late. And towards the end of the training, we would normally leave the place by 2.30 itself.

The 15 days kind of sped by. We took turns bunking, we got caught by anniyan thatha on occasions more than one. We took pics in the factory and uploaded them on fb. We had the worst canteen food anyone could ever think of. We broke rules. We became friends with the junior engineers there. And to some extent, we did learn a thing or two as well. But eventually, when we did walk out of the factory with our certificates in hand though, we had only one thing in mind. Even if it was the last thing on earth, we resolved never to come back to this factory. Be it for training or for work! :D

Until next time,

Keep smiling,

ADIOS!

SMS PICK OF THE WEEK

2011-07-12T22:25:00.001+05:30

The longer you wait for something,
the more you appreciate it when you get.
bcoz anything worth having
is definitely worth waiting for.