I have been tagged by Sheks to tell the world five things that it does not know about me..so here goes

1. Whenever a particular flooring has square tiles i ALWAYS do the knight walk i.e three squares forward two squares right then three squares forward and two squares left so on and so forth(or the L shaped walk). i acquired this weird habit after learning to play chess and have been doing it ever since. it was an obsession a few years back but nowadays i try not to do it when i am in public places.

2. Whenever i am driving or in the bus or in general on road i have the habit of adding up the numbers on the registration plate of the vehicles stading before me or passing me. i started this because i used to get really bored waiting for the signal to change.Nowadays i am so obssessed that i sometimes do not notice the signal change to green and go on adding..:)

3. Whenever i travel alone in the train i always make it a point to take a P.G.Wodehouse or Bill Bryson or James Herriot or some other author who cracks me up because i love the look on the faces of fellow passengers which says "what the hell is she laughing about" when i read something and laugh.(Sometimes i also get a look which says "poor thing!!maybe she has lost it"..frankly, I dont care)!!

4. I have this absolutely weird habit of reading the last few pages of a mystery novel to find out who the culprit is and then start reading the book. i also love to hear how a particular film (whose end has been kept a suspense) ends before watching it.

5. Whenever i am studying, reading a book or thinking i pull out strands of my hair. This habit of mine irritates my mother and sister because like a cat i shed hair all over the house and as a result of this habit i also have very very few hairs left on my head!! :(:(.. But somehow i just cannot stop it.

I have many many other weird habits but since i have been asked for five i shall stop here. Now i get to tag someone(rubbing my hands in glee)..i tag Ragesh, Srikanth, Rahul, DD, Srinivasan, Sheikheeee and Padmashree!!

A lot of relatives have started reading my blog so I guess it is time for me to make some things clear.
Dear relatives,
I do not drink, I do not smoke, I do not have a boyfriend, I do not do drugs(which includes ganja,heroin,cocaine,opium,nicotine,weed,brown sugar etc.)..I know all these names because I read a lot of books and novels. I do not have AIDS. I do not play hooky from college (ok!!I do not play hooky from college that often).I do not spend hours talking on the phone to some member of the opposite sex. (crap!!Given the current pathetic condition of my phone I would say I don’t even have a phone. I can't make calls i can't send messages, and even if someone calls me i can't talk for more that ten minutes because the charge goes out!!sigh!!)...I have never lied at home to get extra money or tried to wheedle money out of my unsuspecting sister or grandmother (the fact that I am in a perennially impecunious state is a proof of this fact. oh by the way I am in such a state because the one vice which I DO have is food. I can’t resist good food. I spend crazy amounts of money on food).I do not wear tantra T-Shirts which say "certified bitch!!Have a problem??" or low hip jeans which leave nothing to imagination. I have never seen the insides of a discotheque, a pub or a bar (nor do I wish to).
I cannot think of anything else to confess but I am your typical girl next door who has her share of fun within her limits
Phew!!! That’s enough lies. Bring out the vodka and the cigars man!!!
Ok I am kidding!! I crack jokes sometimes and have a sense of humor!! :):)

TOUR!!!

The following are my tour experiences. What u are about to read is a very polished version of the rough journal i maintained during tour.

Day 1: 25/12/06
boarded Grand Trunk to leave for delhi at 7.15 pm..

I still have my doubts about what fuelled the train..whether it was coal or the infectious enthusiasm of 200 and odd 20 year olds(three departments ECE EEE and CSE boarded the same train same day).. Don't remember sleeping that night...whenever i tried i was woken up by someone singing, shrieking, shouting or squealing...

Day 2:26/12/06
Spent the whole day in the train playing cards singing songs catching up on college gossip sleeping (or trying to sleep actually)... Bought some oranges in Nagpur...Heavenly...Started getting cold in the night...

Day 3:27/12/06
Landed in Delhi at 7.00 in the morning. Extremely cold..expecially for us chennaiites who consider a temeperatue of 18-20(centigrade) as cold.. checked in a hotel called hotel sunshine..what a misnomer..it was situated in the dingiest corner of ka rol bagh where sunlight even if it wanted to wouldn't be able to penetrate..freshened up(took a bath..my bath no:1 during tour).

Had breakfast at saravana bhavan Karol bagh. Had a masala dosa worth 50 bucks plus 6 bucks of VAT. Phew!!!!i could have 5 plates of idly in Chennai for the same price..anyway was extremely hungry so gobbled up that too. Little did I know that this would be the only decent food i ate for days to come. : (: ( Then we went on a delhi tour..started with birla mandir..removed my shoes and socks to go inside the temple and the marble was so cold!!

Went to Qutub minar next..nice place..full of ruins..not one fully constructed structure there. Qutub minar was awesome.

Next stop was lotus temple/bahai temple. Reminded me of Sydney opera house(not that I have seen it but somehow bahai temple reminded me of it). Beautiful place. Lovely gardens. Very serene. A funny thing which happened there was that I went inside and sat on the rows and rows of seats waiting for someone to give a discourse or something. After spending 15 extremely confused minutes inside I came outside only to realize that I was supposed to meditate inside. Was laughed at mercilessly by my friends.

Quick stop at Gandhi's Samadhi. The Samadhi probably occupies only an area of about 50 feet by 30 feet but is surrounded by lush and beautiful gardens. Huge place.

Last stop was India gate.
This was at around 7.00 in the night. What a sight it is at night. Breathtaking
Due to lack of time the rest of delhi was shown only by bus. Parliament house, rashtrapati bhavan high court etc. didn't make any more stops. Ate dinner at a place called madras cafe. Absolute disgrace to madras. Disgusting place and horrible food. Wonder why they named it madras cafe. Ate an onion utthapam followed by a pudin hara as precaution Left for amritsar at 11.00 in the night. Spent the night in bus

Day 4: 28/12/06
Stopped at a dhaba at 8.00 in the morning and had some heavenly chai. Dint feel like trying the others things on the menu (the fact that there was no menu is not the point here) ;);) Reached amritsar at 11.00 am. Freshened up.(Bath no:2 during tour). Decently hot water was available. One of my aunts whose husband works in the army lives there and came to meet me. Left for jalianwala bagh and golden temple at 1.00.. Lunch was forgotten.

We went to jalianwala bagh by a ghoda gaadi(horse driven vehicle) and the 60 something driver called me "didi" (elder sister in hindi) sheesh!!! I was so embarrassed. Thankfully a lot of people around me dint know hindi!!

Jalianwala Bagh
The hair on my hair and neck rose and the cold wasn't the only reason . Dyer you bastard if only you were here before me today I would have torn u apart with my bare hands. Sigh!!!

Golden Temple
WoW!!! What a place..amazing..so beautiful and resplendent in gold. Due to time constraints couldn't go inside. Just took a tour of the temple and returned


Wagah border
Due to extra time spent in golden temple missed out first ten minutes of the parade. Some moron told us the parade starts at 5.00 but apparently during winters the time is 4.30. reached at 4.45 and pushed and shoved and kicked through the crowd to take some photographs.

I found it really funny actually. There is a particular time during the parade when the Pakistani and Indian soldier shake hands and I swear they would have looked friendlier had they shot at each other. Seriously man if that handshake is supposed to denote friendship I dread to think of how they are when they face each other in battle Went to my aunts place for dinner. Army quarters. Lovely palatial house. Had great heavenly yummy food after having absolutely no food the whole day(except for three cups of tea and a chaat) wasn't given permission to spend the night there. Had a miserable and stuck up professor with us. Anyway spent three hours at their place and came to the hotel. Spent the night at amritsar

Day 5: 29/12/06
Left for chandigarh early next morning. (Bath no: 3 during tour).reached chandigarh at around 2.00 in the afternoon. Stopped for breakfast. Had the only item on the menu. Aloo parantha. For the days to come this was the only food stuff I would have. Aloo aloo and more aloo..sigh!! how I longed for hot sambhar sadam and thayir sadam.

Anyway what a beautiful city chandigarh is.. such a neat place. What wide roads. The whole city is like a national highway. After seeing amritsar which is a really dirty place chandigarh felt like heaven. An extremely well planned city. The whole city is divided into sectors and each and every corner of the city is impeccable

Our first stop was rock garden. Totally built by a person called nek chand. Must have been one jobless guy.. just kidding. Amazing guy really. It is impossible to believe that he has built the whole place. What creativity. He has used bangles, old switches circuits etc and carved rock. Very nice place. Found "i love computer teacher"(see pic) written on a door inside rock garden. Must have been a real pervert..:D:D

Next we went to this lake and did nothing. Just ate and rested. Some others went boating. Next stop was pinjore gardens. All of us were damn tired so just took a tour of pinjore gardens in fifteen minutes and we were out. Left for manali at 10.

Day 6: 30/12/06
Since we hadn't had any dinner or lunch the previous day because the bus driver had promised to stop at a dhaba we were all extremely hungry. And the guy dint stop anywhere. Finally i(because I was the only person in the groups who spoke decent hindi which the driver could understand) begged and pleaded with the driver to stop at a dhaba at 2.45 am. Bought some really lousy bananas had some lovely chai(that is one thing about north. The tea is great everywhere. I think I survived solely on tea those 12 days)

Reached manali at 10.00 in the morning. It was GOD DAMNED cold..that was the first time I thought that maybe this is the wrong time to go visiting the north. Anyway 30th was a free rest day for us. We could do anything we wanted. Because we were really hungry we again went to a madras cafe(supposed to be the best eat out in manali.i dread to think of the others after I had my lunch there). Horrible food and the cold was extremely irritating. It feels disgusting to be bundled up in layers and layers of clothes and still feel cold.

Came back to the hotel and tried to sleep. It was impossible. I am the kind of person who moves around a LOT in my sleep but that was not possible because if u change position the new area of the bed will be freezing making it impossible to sleep till you warm that place and plus there were four of us(two of whom were sick) on bed meant for two people. Finally managed to sleep at 2.00 in the morning only to be rudely woken up at 6.30. I was later told that that night the temperature had gone to sub zero levels in manali.

Sathya disturbing my severe penance!!

Day 7: 31/12/06
Last day of the year. Went to all the places in and around manali. First went to this place called Ice point. Rented a fur coat worth 100 bucks. It was a waste. Manali is a very funny place. Ice point was full of snow and though u might not believe it I was sweating!!! It was so hot..finally got rid of the fur coat Had a great time at ice point being hurled down on a tyre from a height of 50 feet. Awesome!!! Spent a good three hours in ice point.

Next we went to manali hot water springs. Shit man!!! I was expecting some fissures in the earth from which hot water will be shooting up or something like that and finally they showed us a dirty gutter full of what seemed like sewage water and told us these were the hot water springs..what a disappointment.

Next stop was hadimba temple. For those of u who are blinking hadimba is bhima's(one of the five pandavas) wife. Nice temple..looks like a pagoda actually!!dressed up like of one of the locals and I looked really really silly. Went back to the hotel and called up everyone and wished them new year..

Had a blast in the night singing and dancing. Because I am a pathetic dancer formed a group called The Non Dancers, where it is not necessary to shake ur legs and minimum hand movement can be called dance!! ;);)..co-founders are sathya and swathi and guru is milinta. Thank you guys I owe u one!! :):). At the stroke of twelve we were the only people who were not tired because we had hardly moved our legs!! LOL!!..

Oh yeah by the way food was organized by the hotel and I swear I wished I were in hostel eating mess food..sheesh man!!!such unpalatable inedible and revolting food had my tastebuds crying bloody murder!!!thanks to pudin hara amoebiasis or some other dangerous stomach problem eluded me..

Day 8: 1/1/07
HAPPY NEW YEAR!! Had a blast till 2.00 in the morning and tried to sleep under three layers of bedsheets and four layers of clothing and still ended up feeling cold..cold sucks. Left for shimla at 10.00 Stopped for breakfast at a roadside dhaba. Had the same revolting aloo paranthas.. Stopped at a shawl factory and saw two really cute kids.
Reached Shimla at 1.00 in the night!! it was absolutely freezing. Must have been colder than manali I think. Slept really well

Day 9- 2/1/07
Left the hotel at 10.00 in the morning.(Bath no: 4 during tour. No bath in manali. Too damned cold) Went to a place called Kufri about 10 kms from shimla. The place is accessible only by horses. So I rented a horse called badal(cloud in hindi) to take me to kufri. A really gentle creature which very carefully took me up the steep hills

At an elevation of 18000 feet and surrounded by mysterious snow clad mountains which were some of the highest peaks in india the only thing we found interesting was the aloo tikki.. :):).. ate aloo tikki and maggi (the same maggi which I refuse at sea level I hogged like it was the last time I was ever going to eat) Came back to shimla on a horse called bijli(lightning in hindi). Not as friendly as badal

Next we were supposed to go to some dumb shopping malls in shimla but one of my classmates had been vomiting right from morning and was extremely de hydrated so we had to admit her in a hospital in shimla and she had to take three bottles of drips. Thanks Baekkie. Thanks to you I was able to avoid shopping. :):) Left for delhi at around 9.00

Day 10- 3/1/07
Delhi again. Again checked in at hotel sunshine at 7.00 and freshened up (Bath no: 5 during tour) After manali and shimla delhi actually seemed hot. Had lunch at a hotel sarvana bhavan and My god!! It was the best food I had had in ages..the photographs should be self explanatory!! ;);)..never before have I been so overjoyed to see sambhar, rasam and curd!! The whole day spent on shopping.
I of course did not do any shopping. Went inside a book bazaar and spent two hours and bought one book called "grandpa's bedtime stories " for my 7 yr old cousin.

BEFORE WE ATTACKED THE FOOD

AFTER WE WERE DONE!! :):)

That was the extent of my shopping. There were people who shopped for 3000 bucks. I shopped for 45 bucks. The only thing I enjoyed was traveling all around delhi in the local buses. Personally I think Chennai buses are much better in terms of service. Spent the night in delhi

Day 11- 4/1/07
Caught the Taj Express to go to Agra at 7.00 in the morning. Took Bath no: 6 during tour. The last bath of the tour. It is a three and a half hour train journey from delhi to agra. Reached agra at around 12. had lunch at a udipi hotel. Great food again..I Love Food man!!

Left for Agra fort at around 2.00. Nice place. Place where Shahjahan was imprisoned. Has a perfect view of taj mahal. Legend has it that shahjahan was planning to build a black taj mahal for mourning the death of mumtaz. I cant imagine what that would have looked like.

Anyway agra fort is awesome. Architecture is just mindblowing. I mean what tools would these people have had in the 16th century. The symmetry of each of these buildings is awe inspiring. I tried uploading a few pics. But uploading pics on blogger on a connection as lousy as mine is a pain.

Taj Mahal

No mobile phones or eatables or any other electronic items are allowed inside the Taj. I had my cell in my sweater and forgot about it. Even when I discovered I felt very lazy to go back to the bus and keep it. Like a smart ass I hid it further into my sweater and went inside. Security is very good. And I got caught and was literally thrown out of Taj. I am sure the guard thought I was a terrorist because when I came back I was asked to remove my shoes socks and sweater to prove to her that I was clean. Damn!!!

Anyway all that getting caught and embarrassment was worth it because let me tell you Taj Mahal is such a great place it is worth killing for. WOW!!! What a place. What beautiful paintings and work. I just couldn’t take my eyes off it. I seriously have no words to describe it. I cant even begin to imagine what great love Shahjahan must have felt for mumtaz to dedicate the Taj to her. Spent a good three hours in taj. Came out at 7.00.

Reached Agra station at 8.00
Train left at 10.00

Day 12- 5/01/07
Slept the whole day. god damned tired

Day 13-6/01/07
Reached Chennai..Chennai is the best place on earth any time any day. The more i see places in the north the more i wanna settle down in the south. I hate cold weather. I hate static electricity during the cold which strikes each time i touch metal. I hate chapatis. I hate being bundled up in layers and layers of clothes..In short I LOVE CHENNAI!!:):)

I have been having the time of my life for the past 15 days..it began on december 20th when all four of us(mom dad sis and me) set off to ooty to attend the 30th year 10th std school reunion of my mother..when i was first informed of the reunion i was like "yeah right..how much fun are 45 yr olds going to have "..i imagined few pot bellied men smoking a pipe and reminscing on the good old days probably leaving the seat only to refill their plates and glasses of vodka and the women wearing saris and lipsticks and refusing to get up lest the folds of their saris go out of place... The batchmates thirty years later with their teachers

i was in for a very very pleasant surprise..my god..the amount of energy and enthusiasm which was exuded those three days ABSOLUTELY blew my head off..i have never i repeat NEVER seen 45 yr olds let their hair down like this..u see such infectious enthusiasm only once in a lifetime..

some of the batchmates..mom in blue

now as a rule i never dance..i am a pathetic dancer..i have two left feet and the minute i take the dance floor ppl laugh their head off..That day I me Revathi Ramanan actually shook a leg..it was impossible not to actually..there were about 27 ppl 25 yrs older than me who were dancing without a care in the world without caring a damn about what ppl think about their dancing skills..it was awesome mindblowing astounding stupefying..actually i am running out of adjectives..before we left my mom told us that for three days she wasnt a wife and a mother but just a student and man i swear she relived 30 yrs in those 3 days..my mom is generally a very enthusiastic and jovial person but her enthu scaled new heights those three days..

singing the school song

And her batchmates..what can i say..such nice amazing ppl and most of them have done so well for themselves..what is most reassuring is that the ppl who were at the bottom of the class have become such big shots and are still so humble and nice..moral of the story: Studies is not important..;);)..jokes apart i have never met such nice absolutely down to earth elders..and i bonded really well with the children of all the batchmates too...overdose of nice ppl actually..

On the final night we kids had to organise some games for the students(they kept referring to each other as boys and girls so i shall refer to them as students)..we chose dumb charades and decided that we would give them really simple movies because it would be difficult for them to act..how wrong we were!!!how we wished later that we had given them tougher movies..they guessed each and every movie..movies like "fiddler on the roof" ,"hey dude!!!wheres my car","stop!!or my mom will shoot" were acted and guessed in record time..and then they danced and danced and danced like forever..my god..they just kept dancing..amazing energy really

shaking a leg..the 'students' are in the background

we came back onthe 24th and on the 25th i left on a 12 day trip to delhi,amritsar,chandigarh,kulu manali and shimla..another mind blowing trip to celevrate the last few months of college life..it deserves another blog actually..my tour experience shall be my next blog!!

the banner

Mention of the reunion in The Hindu

LIFE IS TOUGH...

Its tough being in a family of over- achievers...Its tough having parents who do 25 kms cycle trekking (at the age of 45 and 52 respectively) as a hobby...its tough having a mother who learns Vedic mathematics because it is "fun"...its tough having a sister who is a graduate of BITS-Pilani...its tough having cousins who think u r not fit to live if u haven’t studied in an IIT or an IIM...its tough having relatives who think if u write CAT u must get into an IIM...its tough having a grandmother who can multiply any two numbers given to her in her mind and give u the answer in 10 seconds...its tough having a great grand father who was a pioneer in the field of education and was a great mathematician and has a famous school in trichy named after him...all this can be really tough when u are the kind of person who thinks it is very very important to get at least 16 hours of sleep a day..a person who thinks exercise is important only when u go 20 kilos overweight, one who thinks that studying is a sin unless it is done just the night before the exam (and people studying just for "fun" should be institutionalized), one who is so pathetic in math that if asked to find the value of sin0 I would probably ask u for a calculator...sigh!!!
Life can be really tough sometimes...

Bliss, peace,happiness contentment..these are just some of the things i am feeling right now...yeah my exams got over today and i m so damned happy..there are some things which give u immense pleasure whenever they occur..some of them are,

1. The feeling u get after u finish ur last exam and rush to ur room in the hostel to pack ur bags and go home

2.The day after the exams get over and u accidently wake up at 7 AM and realise that u can go back to sleep till eternity instead of leaping sleepily out of bad,hastily brushing ur teeth and hitting ur books.

3.u feel hungry at 3.00 in the night after watching four movies back to back and then realise that u need not remain hungry because u are at home(not hostel) and mummy dearest has stacked the refrigerator with ur favorite dishes

4. on a weekday when u have to attend college and u set the alarm for 7.00 and u accidently wake up at 6.30 and get out of bed only to realise that u still have half an hour of sleep to go

5. When a professor forgets about a test he/she announced and u realise that u didn't waste time studying for it..

6.The feeling of completeness and bliss u experience when u walk on a tree lined road after it has rained heavily and the sky is still overcast

7. u got to the hostel mess to eat the crap the cook has dished out only to find that some friend's kind mother has sent enough food for the entire batch to feed on for a day.

8.When u have a craving for a particular book and by chance the next day either someone lends it to u or u find it in the library.

I could keep going on but i just finished my exams today and i m gonna go and hit the bed and rediscover sleep....zzzzzzzzzzz...

Late on Sunday evening one of the most loving and nicest human beings I have ever known passed away...Maami...a close relation of mine. I do not want to spoil the beauty of my relationship with maami by elucidating how she was related to me. Very few ppl would actually understand what my sister and I have shared with her.

For the past year (11 months to be precise) I have seen her fight a losing battle with blood cancer. I have seen the cancer slowly eat into her body in a slow tortuous way...In all these months I have seen her resolve break very rarely. even as I write this tears well up in my eyes as I think of the way maami was 11 months back, full of life, a zest to live and cheerful and a few weeks back when she was nothing but a bag of bones -some flesh here a muscle there. After watching the cancer eat away maami with vengeance I have come to the conclusion that death by any other means other than cancer is welcome.. the last four five months have been living hell for maami's family with each new medicine promising new hope and then failing miserably after maami's frail body refused to accept it...I think every well wishers prayer over the last few months has been a peaceful death for maami.

And for the people she leaves behind mourning for her...what can I say??? I have always maintained that it is the people that a dead person leaves behind who are to be pitied more than the person... She leaves behind a man who has been hopelessly dependent on her for the past 40 yrs for every small need of his. I really cannot imagine maama without his better half and needless to say he is devastated by her death

She leaves behind a son and a daughter (who come second and third in being the nicest ppl I know by the way) who have been hopelessly praying that a miracle just might cure their mother. I think the worst thing about the whole affair was that both the son and daughter are living in the US and hence were unable to be with her day and night in the last few months. I really can’t imagine what they must be going through because I can’t imagine just getting up one day and realising u don’t have a mother anymore. Even if u pay a million dollars u can never ever see her again, talk to her touch her. Reality bites and Death can be a cruel but efficient reminder of realities.

I can’t forget all those navratris when maami has called my sister and me to visit her house and would ALWAYS have some trinket for us when we left. How she cared for us like a grandmother, the way she genuinely blessed us to have great careers and a good life. I have never noticed anything false about this lady and that is saying something because I am a VERY cynical person and it takes me quite some time to like someone...I don’t think I can write anything more mainly because I cannot seem to type any further and also because I m not qualified enough to write anything more about her.

This is a tribute to a person who loved to live and lived to love...
May her soul rest in peace...

I wrote a paper called web technology today...this is becoming a routine u know. I write an exam and then I come in the afternoon and blog about my miserable performance. The worst part is that I studied so damned hard for this stupid paper..All in vain. I have been averaging 3 hrs sleep a day for the past four days and nothing NOTHING of what i studied came in the paper. I might as well have not studied anything. The paper was full of programs. Not that it wasn’t expected but it sure gave me a shock because hardly any programs had been asked in the previous years (yeah!!That’s how we study. We look at the past year question papers and decide what to study and what not to study)...well anyway it was a pathetic performance.

Realisation has just dawned me that I am NOT fit to be an engineer. I m probably the most useless engineer there ever was. I have zero technical knowledge, i am rubbish at programming and run miles when I hear about a technical seminar or symposium. suddenly after all these years I m being faced by the question "why engineering and what have I learnt in the four yrs of engineering”
Answering the first question is kind of tricky.

I think doing engineering was not a conscious decision on my part. I guess it was just assumed that I would do engineering. Other avenues were not even considered. One of the main reasons for this was the fact that I eleventh I set my mind on getting into BITS. Whatever I did for two years of secondary schooling I wanted to join BITS. In fact I was so hell bent on getting into BITS and was so sure that I would make it that I dint even feel the need to study hard for tnpcee or aieee.and I wanted to do engineering only if it was in BITS. I worked my ass out those two years and did all my exams pretty decently. Then came the last exam computer science. The exam was the day before the world cup India Australia match. i saw the whole match and wasted time.Time which i could have used to study.

OUTCOME??? Well I did almost as badly as India did in that match (maybe worse) and lost 14 valuable in comp sci.14 marks which cost me my precious dream place-BITS.

I think the only ever time in life when I was ABSOLUTELY broken and dejected and cried like I had lost everything in the world was June 30th 2003 when a cold and impersonal web page announced the fact that I had missed BITS by 1%...

After that I just wrote my SSN entrance exam like a zombie, was extremely disappointed when I got a seat in computer science of department of SSN. The top engineering college among 235 colleges, excellent placement record blah blah.....but it was not BITS. It has been four years and though I have had unbelievable fun in this place I think a part of me has still not recovered from that jolt of not getting into BITS.

Well anyway I am digressing. So engineering it was. I dint want to do engineering at all. Tried to give the exam for B.A. Journalism in MOP but everything was against me. registration for the test was over(I was so sure of getting into bits that I hadn’t even bothered to look up other colleges) and I was stuck with being an engineer...

Coming to the second part what have I learnt in four yrs of engineering have learnt many things about life. I have met some great people, made some really cool friends, few enemies too (read juniors),learnt a lot about people. Learnt that there is a hell a lot of difference between staying with people 24*7 in the hostel and spending some 6 hrs with them in college. I have learnt to laugh over my mistakes, get over my shortcomings,learnt to adjust with ppl, learnt to wash clothes(oh yeah!! my clothes are no longer multicolored because I left that bright red dress along with the pure white top and now both are a similar shade of red),organized events, had some serious fun and so many other things...

Now where does Computer Science and Engineering figure in this mess???U r right..It doesn’t figure anywhere. Which is why I m left wondering after every pathetic exam why the hell I m even doing engineering. Well I guess it is a little too late to ask this question when my graduation is only months away. Might as well sit back and enjoy what is left of it...but sometimes i do well i could have done something else much better with a lot more interest...Sigh!! Life would be so cool without the what if's!!!

THE MILLION DOLLAR QUESTION

Had a paper called Networks Protocols Security and Management today..I have done it so miserably that i m wondering if CTS and CSC will snatch their offer letters if i fail in this paper!! (Incidentally this is the million dollar question..Will he or Wont he snatch the offer letter)...

Only one thing keeps my hopes high..Maybe, just maybe they wont fail students in their penultimate semester..

Sigh!! lets see..till then i m going to keep my fingers crossed..please do drop in a prayer for me the next time u go to the temple..: ( : (

P.S: I knew it!! i knew that the job offers i had got from CTS and CSC were just too good to be true!!

A mail which was forwarded to me with a beautiful thought..Every word of it was true atleast for me.

P.S: and i dont want any comments about my ancientness!!i m just being nostalgic!!

When Gulli-Danda & Kanche (marbles) were more popular than cricket.

When we always had friends to play aais-paais (I Spy), chhepan-chhepai& pitthoo anytime...

When we desperately waited for 'Yeh Jo Hai Jindagi' (Doordarshan serial)

When chitrahaar, vikram-baitaal, Dada Daadi Ki Kahaniyaan were so fulfilling.

When there was just one Tv in every five houses and...

When Bisleris were not sold in the trains and we were worrying if papas will get back into the train in time or not when they were getting down at stations to fill up the water bottle ...

When we were going to bed by 9.00pm sharp except for the 'Yeh Jo Hai Jindagi' day ...

When Holis & Diwalis meant mostly hand-made pakwaans and sweets and moms seeking our help while preparing them ...

When Maths teachers were not worried of our Mummies and papas while slapping/beating us ...

When we were exchanging comics and stamps and Chacha-Chaudaris & Billus were our heroes ...

When we were in grandma's place every summer and loved flying kites and plucking and eating unripe mangoes and leechies ...

When one movie every Sunday evening on television was more than asked for and 'ek do teen chaar' and 'Rajani' inspired us ...

When 50 paisa meant at least 10 toffees ...

When left over pages of the last years notebooks were used for rough work or even fair work ...

When 'Chelpark' and 'Natraaj' were encouraged against 'Reynolds
& family' ...

When the first rain meant getting drenched and playing in water and mud and making 'kaagaj ki kishtis' ...

When there were no phones to tell friends that we will be at their homes at six in the evening ...

When our parents always had 15 paise blue colored 'Antardesis' and 5 paise machli wale stamps at home ...

When we remembered tens of jokes and were not finding 'ice-cream & papa' type jokes foolish enough to stop us from laughing ...

When we dint consider patakhes on Diwalis and gulaals on
Holis as air and noise polluting or allergic agents ...

The list can be endless ...

On the serious note I would like to summarize with ...
When we were using our hearts more than our brains, even for scientifically brainy activities like 'thinking' and 'deciding' ...

When we were crying and laughing more often, more openly and more sincerely ...

When we were enjoying our present more than worrying about our future ...

When being emotional was not synonymous to being weak ...

When sharing worries and happiness didn't mean getting vulnerable to the listener ...

When blacks and whites were the favorite colors instead of greys ...

When journeys also were important and not just the destinations ...

When life was a passenger's sleeper giving enough time and opportunity to enjoy the sceneries from its open and transparent glass windows instead of some
super fast's second ac with its curtained, closed and dark windows ...

THOSE were the days!!:):)

Finally i m done with CAT..after a whole year of not studying and complaining about it finally on november 19th i finished writing my CAT exam. About my CAT exam-The less i say about it better.the verbal part(the only part in which i usually dont get a negative score) was miserable with really wierd questions. we had to find out from a sentence if it was an inference judgement or fact.. unfortunately all sentences looked like inference judgement and fact to me.and i lost a lot of valuable marks in the guessing which i did in verbal.the Reading comprehension was equally bad.the passages as such werent very difficult but the options for the questions were miserable..all of them seemed to fit and all of them could be the answers.

Surprisingly the DI was very easy compared to the papers i wrote at my mock CAT.the quants part was also easy compared to the mock CAT papers but i was able to attempt only very few questions because of the lack of time(valuable time which i wasted trying to find out if some bloody sentence was a fact,inference or judgement).

well anyway CAT is over now and i dont want to go into all the dirty details.
Two days after my CAT exam my semester exams started.
I finished my ethics exam today. i wrote so many stories that i amazed myself. i wrote stuff like
"we as engineers need to be ethical because ethics in engineering is very important.we need to be honest intelligent diligent because honesty intelligence and diligence always pays and by following these virtues we do the best for our country,organization and community and doing the best for our country,organization and community is our duty" .
by the time i finished the answer even i wasnt very sure what ethics was all about.personally i feel studying etchics is stupid because according to the book which i followed i am the most unethical person on earth

1. The book said that taking photocopies of others notes was plagiarism. now i have never bought books.all i do is take the photocopy(more popularly known as xerox)of the relevant notes.
2. It said that i should not I should not use somebody's else's intellectual output. That is precisely what i have been doing for the past four years in my engineering life. some poor soul writes the programs and we just copy paste it and show the output.apparently i am stealing the recognition that the person gets or some nonsense like that.
and lots of other nonsense which i dont feel like going into. i just finished my ethics exam and i cant stand to write about it again.

and i was following a local author book(when u open ur books just before the exam there really is no time to go through all those fatuous foreign author books and waste time).now that guy himself had copied the foreign author word for word without any conscience by deleting all the necessary parts.and to top it all the book contained a copy right statement right on the first page which said "no part of this book shall be reproduced or copied in any form"..LOL.:D:D...

I just couldnt control my laughter.i think students would really appreciate it if such subjects were removed from the syllabus as they serve absolutely no purpose.not that all the subjects which i have studied till now have served any purpose but seriously this was the worst.

The next paper which i have is another silly subject.apparently we as engineers must take care of the environment and so we must know how to safeguard our environment. so we have this paper called Environmental science and engineering where we study how to protect the environment.

Sigh!!!I better brace myself to write stories again...

An incident which happened in the apartment complex where my sister lives set me thinking how much the times have changed. I mean I used to think I was the current generation- Gen X...But looking at the kids nowadays makes me think that I was mistaken..

I was sitting in a park reading a book and watching a couple of boys playing a game which at first looked like tag. After following the game I realized that it was a game which we as kids used to play.

When we were around 8-10 we played a game called "cut the cake"...There would be one person who was called the "catcher" and then there were the rest of us. The rest of us used to choose a particular color by which we were identified. And then one of us (usually me because i have voice which can be heard in four nearby villages: D: D) would shout out the names of all the colors to the catcher ("red yellow blue green. What do u choose") and then the catcher would choose a color and chase that particular kid. now when he is chasing, if someone else (one of the other colors/kids) cuts the way i.e. runs in between the catcher and the victim then he becomes the next victim..

It was a game which we enjoyed playing and the maximum variation which we had was that sometimes we used to choose animal names for ourselves("dog cat elephant pig. What do u choose?") instead of colors...

Coming back to that day when I saw a couple of boys playing I was quite taken aback to see them refer to themselves as typhoid chikgungunya malaria dengue...one of the kids said "typhoid chikgungunya malaria dengue. What do u choose”. And then the catcher screams dengue and runs behind a kid who squeals with delight at being called dengue and runs for dear life. I found it really amusing. I mean when I was 8-10 the only disease I knew was malaria and plague (because a plague epidemic had broken out in Surat when we lived there in 1994)...I had never heard of dengue, typhoid and certainly not heard of chikgungunya...

And then the other day one of my cousins while listening to Ramayana had a doubt which left me spell bound. She said that when Rama went to get the golden deer for sita and then the deer (actually mareech in disguise) screams out "oh laxmana help me” and sita orders laxmana to go and help rama why does laxmana leave her alone in the hut and go. He could have taken sita with him too if he was scared that something might happen to her...

I was dumb founded...I honestly did not know what to say. She had just prevented the whole sita kidnapping with her logical five yr old thinking

Her twin had another doubt. When i was narrating to her the story of Krishna she wanted to know that if kamsa knew that one of the children of devaki and vasudev was going to destroy him why did he put them both in the same cell

When I was narrated these stories as a kid I used to just listen and NEVER ask doubts. I loved mythological stories but such logical doubts never occurred to me!!!

And then the other day I got a forward which had a real conversation between a little girl and her grandfather. The little girl was sitting on her grandfather’s lap and this was the conversation which took place between them

Girl (touching her grandpa’s wrinkled cheek and asking): Grandpa did God make you??

Grandpa: Yes dear. But he made me a long time back...

Girl (touching her own smooth cheek): Grandpa did God make me too??

Grandpa: Yes dear but he made u only a little while ago

Girl (after thinking for some time)...Wow!!! He sure does a better job these days!! : D: D

Phew!!kids nowadays. They make me feel so ancient!!!

I wanted to blog about this incident which happened on my trip home about 4-5 months back..my sister and i had gone to jamnagar(where my parents live)..this was my sisters first trip home after marriage and we were strolling in the park when we met a lady who was a good friend of my mother's...now let me tell u something about this lady..She is one of those who is beautiful but is EXTREMELY dumb..if intellignece hit her right on the face she would probably take a kerchief and wipe it off and adjust her make up(u get the drift??)...

Well lets call her Miss.Dumb Aunty(DA)..well we met her and the following was the conversation which took place betewen my sister and her

DA: arey beta!!!when did u come?? how are u??

sis: i m fine aunty thank u..

DA:(looking at me): u must be doing engineering no??

me: yes aunty.
DA(addressing my sister): where is ur husband beta??has he come??

sis: no aunty..he couldnt make it so i came alone this trip

DA: oh ok..by the way what does ur husband do?

sis: Well he works for kotak securities..he is into portfolio management..

DA(obviously haveing missed out half of that)..ohhhh!!! that must be tough..

sis(thinks) : duh!!!!
but says nothing.just smiles politely

DA: he must be going to the border often nahi???is he at the border right now??

now i have a very very serious problem..if there one thing i cannot control it is laughter..if i find someone or something funny i HAVE to laugh right then otherwise i would die..so at this point of time i get what DA is trying to say and search for the nearest bush to hide my face and laugh..my sister had obviously not caught on and

sis:(absolutely flabbergasted) sorry aunty!!

DA: well he must be going to the border very often no if he is working for securities!!

sis(catching on and trying her best to keep a straight face..she is better at this i decide..had i been in her place i would have burst out laughing right at DA's face):no aunty actually he works for kotak securities which is a branch of kotak mahindra bank.

DA(obviously not understanding): oh..ok beta.tell mom that i asked about her..and do drop in at my place some time with ur husband

me(thinks).gosh!! i wonder how my brother in law(BIL) will react if he hears all this.

sis: oh definitely aunty...

DA leaves and sister dearest and I collapse on the nearest bench laughing our wits out..gosh!! some people can be sooooo dumb!!:D:D

NO MORE!!! :D:D

Phew!!! i m done..i m through...it feels so so great that i could just die out of happines...no more begging or pleading for marks i deserve, no more trying to pacify profs when what i actually want to do is punch them in their face!!! no more no more...

I m finished with them...i m done forever with my practical exams..no more record writing, no more taking stupid print outs, no more trying to memorise pages and pages of nonsensical code, no more cranky computers which refuse to give u the output just at the last moment, no more sweating at viva because u dont know the answer,no more grinning sheepishly at the external examiner for not knowing the answer to his questions!!!...

a major part of these four years of my engineering has been just practical exams labs and record writng...and before that i had practical exams in 9th,10th,11th and 12th..i totally and absolutely hate them from the bottom of my heart!!!

I M SO GLAD THEY ARE OVER!!!
a friend of mine once wrote a poetry in hindi about our state during practical exams..it goes lke this

Engineers marte nahi,
zinda dafnaye jaate hain.
har 6 mahino mein tadpaye jaate hain.
kabr khol ke dekho,
to wahan bhi record likhte paaye jaate hain!!

LOL!! :D:D

FILLE SANS COLLERETTE

One of my blogger friends suggested that after this post i should probably start an organization called "Fille Sans Collerette" which means girls without frills in French..

I have always felt that God has been very unfair in creating only two sexes..He should have made four..namely girls,girlswf(girls without frills),boys and boyswf..

Now i m not sure if there are many takers for the boyswf category but i m sure the girlswf category will become popular..

So me with the help of my blogger friend and a couple of other girlswf decided that we would start an organisation called FSC(fille sans collerette)...girlswf sounds extremely unsophisticated felt a few committe members

Well here i will lay down a few rules for the girlwf category

WARNING: Any girl who joins this community for fun or thinks that this is not serious stuff please stay away..we are very serious about our principles..:P:P..

1. Thou shalt consider only books pens watches and showpieces as good giifts...anything else like soft toys, flowers, earrings, jewels, chains, make up stuff, nailpolish etc should be looked down upon

2. Thou shalt pay attention ONLY to comfort...if u r comfortable in heels then fine but if u wear heels which break ur back and kill ur feet then kindly stay out..this community is obviously not for u.

2a. same goes for clothes too..jeans, salwars,skirts etc... anything is allowed as long as u are comfortable in it..the minute u start wondering if the right amount of skin is being shown, if the color of the fabric matches ur eyes etc kindly inform the chairman of FSC and ur membership with FSC will be terminated with no hard feelings

3. Thou shalt not sigh and gasp when u see john abraham take his shirt off or sqeal with ecstasy when u see a trouser clad homo sapien zoom past u in a pulsar..

P.S errr..exceptions can be made in movies like kaal and dhoom where NOT ogling at john abraham will be considered criminal ;);)

4. Thou shalt consider it a sin to do things like coloring ur hair, spiking it up etc...hair should either be suspended in a pony tail or neatly braided..any innovations like beads in hair, streaking trying out step cut etc and ur existence in the organisation will be considered detrimental to the prosperity of the organisation..

5.Shopping will merely be a need to do activity..thou shalt go and shop only when
a) u have no clothes to wear
b) ur family insists on u buying something for ur sister/brother's wedding etc(i still think jeans and t-shirts can be made legal to wear in weddings)
c) and festival times when u really dont have a choice..

Even better u can ask ur elder siblings(even younger will do), parents etc to do ur shopping while u sit in the comfort of ur homes and watch TV...

6. Thou shalt not expect any kind of help from the opposite sex and shalt not be dependent on them for opening doors, carrying shopping(if u r a part of the community this probability obviously does not arise), as means of conveyance etc...

7. Thou shalt dress up to look presentable and smart and NOT to attract the opposit sex..

8. Thou shalt speak up for ur rights in colleges, workplaces where u r discriminated against just beacuse u are a girl..thou shalt not remain silent..

We do not have many rules, but we are extremely strict about the rules which we have laid down..If u think u r qualified enough just drop in a comment in the comment box and ur application shall be considered..:):)

And one more thing..if u think we should include any more rules..please mention them to in the comment box..Ur co-operation is appreciated!!

Boring Boring Boring thought twelve yr old Salma...She would rather have sat in her math class...but now all the kids from class four to class twelve were being made to attend some lectures by some NGO...she had already attended many of these lectures on saving the environment, cleaning the city campaigns etc and they were so boring that she would have happily attended those speed math classes which she hated. But these lectures were forced on them. They would be made to sit on the ground under the hot sun. Well whatever. Now that she had come to school she just couldn’t avoid it. She decided she would sit in the last row and have fun with naina...the lecture started at eleven sharp and was conducted by a lady in a red saree..

"Children" she began "today I m going to deal with something really important and it is very important for u to know about this"...
Yeah right!! Thought salma...that’s what they all said...but a tiny voice inside her told her to listen to this lady...

Two hours later the lecture got over and Salma decided she just could not do it. How could she?? How could she tell her mom something which she knew her mom would obviously not believe? But she felt disgusted and used. She had to tell someone about it and preferably a woman the lady had said. Her own sister whom she was extremely close to was away at college and this wasn’t something salma wanted to discuss over phone. Salma closed her eyes tightly as if trying to shut away the memory but the more she tried the harder the tears flowed down her cheeks. Her own uncle...My God!! How could he. She had trusted Ahmed mama so much.he was so much fun, bought her so many goodies and she had loved him so much.he used to make her laugh by tickling her and playing games with her. It was only when she was seven that she began to feel uncomfortable around him. He touched her in ways which made her squirm. But she had brushed those apart. After all it was Ahmed mama. He definitely wouldn’t do anything that would make her feel uncomfortable. But she started to maintain her distance. It was only after the lecture in school that she realized that those advances by Ahmed mama were really serious. What was it that the kind aunty in a red saree who had come from that NGO in the city to deliver the lecture had called such men?? Pedophile!! Yes that was it...ahmed mama was a pedophile and she was a victim of child abuse...she had not clearly understood the lecture but apparently there were certain ppl who derived pleasure by touching small kids(both boys and girls the lady had said) in ways that made the children feel disgusted and uncomfortable. They preferred small children because kids did not exactly know what was happening and were the most submissive. And the most shocking thing was that in most of the cases children are abused by people whom they trust. In some cases even their own daddies salma had learnt...her mind was in turmoil...she had to tell someone about it. But how could she tell ammi that her own brother was a padeophile?ahmed mama was coming today and the very thought of having to face him with a smile on her face sent shivers down her spine and she was filled with repulsion towards him..

No Salma decided. She would not suffer anymore. She had had enough. Today she would tell ammi...Determined she got up washed her face and walked into ammi’s room…

The above story is a true story with names changed for obvious reasons. Child abuse is a very very serious issue in the world today. And the most shocking part is that the majority (78%) of maltreated children were maltreated by their birth parents. Birth parents were responsible for 62% of the abuse cases and 91% of the neglect cases. Some children are even abused by both parents...lets all unite and fight against child abuse…please light a candle here… I don't know if it will really help but we can try and do our bit…

Thanks

Death of Hindi

I just have to blog about the attempts(futile of course) of a friend of mine to speak Hindi...this blog will probably only be appreciated by people who know a decent level of Hindi and Tamil. having been exposed to the right mix of north (15 yrs) and south (5 yrs) I can manage both Hindi and Tamil quite well and one of my favorite pastimes is to tease ppl who murder(read strangle,stab,poison) Hindi Tamil etc..i do not disclose the name of my friend for the sole reason that she threatened to strangle me the way she strangled Hindi(and oh boy I sure don’t want to die such a cruel death)..I will just call her S for now :):)...

it all began on a day when S suddenly decided that she was going to practice speaking Hindi...the conversation went something like this..

S : hey I feel very inferior to u guys man..Ok from today I m going to make a serious attempt to talk in Hindi...Hey wait I will translate that into Hindi...

today se mein Hindi par baat kar

Now let me explain as to why she made this mistake. In Tamil sometimes the same word 'lu' is used for both on and in. so on the table would be table lu and in Hindi would also be Hindi lu...

so S decided that Hindi also used the same par for both...

after we explained this nuance of Hindi to her she said, “ok ok wait I will try to translate ,the fishes are swimming in water”

majliyon(spelling mistake intended. all spelling mistakes from now on intended ;)) paani par "thayirthi" hai...

god S sure had us in splits that day...

S was multitasking that day. she was trying to err...um master Hindi and also putting some mehendi on her hands. and she wanted to say "I put mehendi really well" which in Hindi became

"mein mehendi ajji tarah put karti hoon”

poor S...she just dint know the word for put in Hindi...

at this point I just couldn’t take it anymore and told her that I was surely going to blog about this
for that S got tensed and said

"tum ISS vishayathu par blog karna chakthi ho???kripaaaa kar aur blog mein exaggerate mat karna"..

Justifiably we were all laughing like crazy and S said

"mujhe rothi hoon...tu all boori log hai...ek ladki Hindi baat karne ko mushkil karthi to tu log uss par hass??"

roughly translated as "I m going to cry...u guys are really bad...if a girl attempts to talk in Hindi u will laugh at her eh??"

probably she realized that the sentence was not something that premchand would approve of so she asked us

"Hindi par "tum all" eppidi solluvanga"???

translated as "how do u say everyone in Hindi??"

we told her that the word for everyone was "tum sab log" and she dint get it so she said

"maafi..ek aur bar aao aao"..

which meant “sorry..?come again"..LOL!!!:D:D

and the best part is still to come..
apparently S has finished all levels of Hindi(prathmik,praveshika,rashtrabasha etc...) and was felicitated with a shawl for proficiency in Hindi in class 6!!!
and the last level had a viva round in which she had to talk in Hindi with the examiner and the examiner was so impressed(???) with her Hindi "speaking skills" that he gave her 75/100 for viva..

No..i don't want to hear any comments about the Indian Eduacation System not being upto mark!! ; ) ; )

The phrase anally retentive professors no longer remains a literal expression, after a very exasperated proffesor said in class,

"What is this noise coming from the backside of me??i dont like it"

LOL!! I have finished laughing..its ur turn now

SCHINDLER'S LIST

I watched Schindlers List today(yet again..this is the fifth time i am watching tht movie)..and i cried yet again..it is amazing how that movie makes me cry each and everytime i watch it..just for the record let me tell u that i NEVER EVER cry for movies..but somewhere in the middle of Schindlers List u forget that it is a movie and not real life..the characters are so real and so convincing u just cant stop the tears..Especially the last scene when Schindler points to his car and says "Ten more i could have got ten more for this car..why did i keep it"..He points to his Nazi pin and says "two more..this pin is gold..i could have got two more for this pin"...thats when i started bawling..uptil then i was just shedding tears..but that scene was just the limit..

I wonder how Steven Spielberg does it..i wonder where he gets the characters for his movie from..i mean each and every character in that movie was just made for that role..even the very small parts like the little girl,Danka Dresner or the little buy Olek leave an impression on u..i could just watch that movie ten more times and still have an appetite for it..u want to strangle Amon Goeth(ralph fiennes) when he metes out atrocities on the Jews, u want to shield the rabbi from the guns of the SS officers when they attempt to shoot him for not making enough hinges, u want to kiss Schindler when he gives his workers the weekend off and u want to hug Izhtak Stern when he gives Schindler the gold ring made by the workers.

Now that, is what i call a movie!!!

Namratha's birthaday on Saturday...went to Sathyam to watch a movie..but all the shows were booked till monday..we were kind of diappointed..but that dint dampen our spirits..went to spencers. got some gift for her and then went to planet yumm...ate like we had never seen food..intake of some really sinful calories in the form of cake,pizza,noodles and how can i forget the absolutely sexy chocolate from the chocolate fountain...sigh!!a whole week of working out in the gym doown the drain..why are the best things in life are either fattening or not available??who cares..:):)we did our level best to empty namratha's pockets..we almost succeeded..almost..left her enough money for bus fare home..so on the whole a productive day..went home and slept for 12 hours straight and geared up for mock CAT the next day..i stop my post right here..I dont want to talk about how i did my mock CAT!!