Dai Sottai!

Now wait this is not directed at all sottai people..Just those who act like douchebags and instill the urge to kill in even the most demure student..

Today was one of the most trying days ever.I had my semester practical exam and with the amount of preparation I had done and this lab being one of my favorites I was pretty confident that I could finish off within an hour so and walk away happily.So did it happen?NO..I was left all huffy and puffy and my mind was filled with so many expletives that if I had let even one slip that would have been the end.

Anna University has this wonderful habit of updating its syllabus every decade or so.This is one of the reasons I have never been taught a program in the lab more difficult than addition of nos or fibonacci series.While we are on that my college has this again wonderful habit of giving the programs ready made and its surprising how most of them follow this practise unquestioningly.Probably because of the fact that it is the easier way.And most of the externals who sit lethargically eating sojji-bajji does not open any door for development either.

But there is one particular thing that I have never understood.The examiner literally tortures the very few people who make an attempt to answer.Now this can be viewed from a positive angle that they want you to learn more.Wrong! The way they ask you question after question and then some more questions and after what seems like eternity finally say "Ennama!Idhu kood therila!"..Dude! I am human not a humanoid ...My mind can work till maximum the 10 th question thrown at me.And the way you watch my lips move fast trying to comprehend what I say is not helping either and neither does you butler english.

So I hear this guy trying to ask me to do something..He speaks English like he is been transferred to Chennai recently from a place where English is even unheard of(He thought he spoke like a Brit but well to each his own) .So I tell him"I am sorry sir but I am not able to understand what you expect".Next thing I know he says the same thing like a broken record.Word and word with nearly 5 seconds gap between each.Dude!You think I am a cave woman or what?

The worse part was that he asked me to make nearly some 15 changes and after catering all those whims and fancies I finally had enough.The 16th change completely pissed me off and when he kept chuckling it was evident that he was trying to break me.This was not a competition.It was a game that he was playing at my expense.This mark is on my permanent record and he couldnt care less.Finally though I got both the outputs he refused to verify even one because apparently it was not the format he wanted.Loser!

After all this there came the viva.In a time interval of 5 minutes he shot nearly 12 questions at me and I was able to manage some 8 or so.Impressive?No it earned me 5 marks!And then I was told that a lot of them got zero on their viva!

I literally threw the paper when it was being collected and was so glad when it was my chance to leave.

Efforts are being made to trace the Sottai.

P.S-The sottai had an amazing "Gadothgajan" lunch and tortured the afternoon batch with an even greater vigor.

Sottai,I sincerely hope your lips seal shut forever.

25! a.k.a The beginning or the end.

Its been almost 10 months since I started blogging and I am down to a quarter century.Impressive? Definitely not! Am I getting better?That is left for you all to decide.

So what do I write about?But before that let me give you a good reason for the irregularity in posting.I have been held up lately with the application process for my Masters and hence am left with almost no time for even regular gossip( :O)

And apologies for I have nothing remotely fun to write about.It has been a really long time since I posted and I just felt I had to get back.

Okay..let me write about how I sacrificed a first day first show of "Enthiran" for a trip to Rameshwaram.Now,now hold the "ayooo ippove kaasi,rameshwaram nu poriyaa?" thoughts..(yes yes I am only 20) .Far from being a bhakthi trip it was an amazing one as I travelled from north of TamilNadu to an end point of India.

So as I did near one point and it suddenly struck me that I was just an hour away from an end point(Dhanushkodi) I was left wondering the same thing that I did when I was at Kanyakumari(that actual end point) .It was something very simple.So I turn to face the sea and I am walking towards the end(Oh,Common! not the literal end..Its not like I am going to walk into the sea ).But if I just turn around I am walking towards the beginning of a nation.Its just one weird feeling.

Its the same point.But it is the beginning and the end.It all came down to the side you face.So was it the beginning or the end?In the end what struck me was even if you walk towards the end,you'll have to turn right around and face the beginning.The end is always there but so is the the beginning a turn away.It all comes down to the choices you make that decides which side of life you want to see:The optimistic one or the pessimistic one.

All right,all right I'll come up with something better next time :)

My Security Blanket

Realization dawned on me akin to the smell of Sundal announcing the arrival of Navarathri. It has been nearly 6 months since I got my license ,yet,I cannot drive without the L board on my car.It has been in many ways some thing that protected me.

Now I've had some really bad experiences when I started to drive and hence it was put on suspend mode for nearly 2 years.It was under Dad's insistence and the lure of my i10 that I resumed driving.Like Sridevi dancing around Rajinikanth I drove around the same street for nearly a million times until I got my left and right turn right.(That goes without saying that half of those million times my dad's preaching was heard over my panicky-breaths).Of course you do understand how important the L board was during those"stressful"times.

Around February of this year I was allowed to drive alone in and around Anna nagar.The fear did slowly start evaporating but still I needed the L board for reassurance.

There were times when I almost ran into someone and they came to me,looked at my L board and quietly passed me.The countless times when I looked at my rear view mirror and saw

cars standing at a safe distance from me were always accompanied by a sense of reassurance.

As Feb dissolved into march which gave way to April,May,June etc I grew more confident and my radius slowly widened to areas like Nungambakkam,Aminijikarai,Halls road and such.The L board was still there.I was bidding my time thinking"Let it be there for a few more days".

July ,August and mid Sept were pretty busy months and I rarely was seen outside the house let alone the car.

I finally resolved that the day I took my car to Satyam alone I'd get the L board off.

Final Update:I drove to satyam and infact a bit further than that to Express Avenue with the car full of a bunch of noisy friends,blaring music and blinding flash lights but still the L board didn't come off.

It has infact become a part of my car right from the day my driving was graded as "When Gayathri has to drive the road has to be cleared to avoid any casualties " to "Oh!Okay she can drive till Kilpauk in the peak hours".I just hope some day I'll be ready to part with.

Not now maybe but some day I know I can get out of my safety net for sure.Until then Oh!My L board you are my saving grace :)

Until the next one,

Gaya :)

Update:As of 10/10/10 10:10 A.M the 'L' Board has officially come off.No more heads up for the death cab or wait the death i 10..No,wait that sounds lame.

Daddy's little girl

All right guys,before we move further "senti" alert:This post has some waah-waah moments and is not completely random.That clarified,lets get a move on.

Now,dedications.To all the daughters in the world who on the outside are hard headed and independent but on the inside are sissys who still want to be fussed over by their dad.

I recently had to be at Bangalore.I had to travel alone since my parents were caught up with some work here.It was arranged that I stayed with my dad's cousin.I put on my "oh-I-am-so-well-behaved" face helping them out around the house and such.A completely "un-brattish " behavior if you will.I must have overdone it since my aunt called up my mom soon after with a few well chosen words " Chitra,un ponna nanna valathruke.She is so well behaved and quiet.She helps around the house too.I am very pleased to have her here".My mom goofed up by laughing out loud adding an "Yaaru avala?Gayathri patthiya solre?". Aunty was of course surprised.As of me I wasn't but still I was mad at her for giving my game away.

Well why exactly was mom surprised?

Fact 1:I cannot go for more than 2 seconds without speaking.

Fact 2:I speak so fast and so much that asking me to shut up thrice won't do the trick.

Fact 3:I don't lift a finger around the house.

Fact 4:I use the best of tricks to coerce my dad into getting my own way.

Right from when I was little,I have always looked up to my dad and craved his approval.I do get it all the time.I literally swell up with pride every time someone tells me I take after my dad.I do have the guilty pleasure of throwing a lot of tantrums when mom is not around so that dad will let me have my own way.Everytime dad tells me that he is proud of me my feet are lifted a couple of centimeters above the ground in fact.

Dad has always been very patient.He did not care about grades ever.I do remember when I was in primary school when we went for shopping to the biggest supermarket in my area then:Yeses Super market. Me and my sister loved board games.Mom never allowed us to buy them since we already had a lot of games and rarely used them for more than a week.It was an unwritten agreement between us sisters.One had to lure mom away on some pretext and meanwhile the other had to lead dad to those games and get whatever was necessary for both of us.This kept on going until we were caught red handed.Mom was glowering at us until finally dad said " ippo vilayadama eppo vilayada poraa?" which earned few well-chosen swea words from mom and of course a bad dinner.

Whenever I fought with my sister I used to go hide behind dad because he deflected her away.If it were mom she would have slapped me hard first before handing me over to my sister for further slaps.

He loves his work and more than that :cars.The showcase at home is stacked with various miniatures and every navarathri he fights to have a car display with me.Oh wait,I forgot to mention that I am officially incharge of the golu at home.Last year when I put my foot down and refused that random cars here and there do not go with the tone of the golu,he made it a point to make cross roads and told me it was a traffic jam(scroll up for the picture).I had to give in.Every year also sees a display of his cable car zooming up and down which pisses me off to no end.But nothing gives him more pleasure than to work it up and down as all the kids gape with an open-mouth.I remember all those years when he made all my art-projects and I finally ended up scoring full marks when I actually know enough only not to glue my fingers with the fevicol.

He always has chocolates no matter what.I remember going to school with a box full of imported chocolates and all my fighting over who gets how much.The tradition continues till now.My fridge is never devoid of chocolates or Minute Maid. And while we are on food ,he cooks really well and makes sure even after a tiring day at the office,he makes whatever I ask him to.He makes it a point to take us all out for dinner atleast once a week.

He has a wonderful sense of humor.We love the nicknames like (Penang para mundam abb to PPM)he comes up with .Let me give you one example that happened on our Sunday morning drive.

Appa:Car otta kathukardu computer kathukre maari dhan.Evlo nondaromo avlo kathukalam

Me:Epdi solre?Car Innum kashtam pa.Difference iruku.

Appa:Enna di difference? Adula thappu aachu na hang aaydum.Idhula hang pannuvan avlo dhan.

It was not the words but the casual attitude that made me laugh :)

I never did come to the tantrum part did I?I often am a diva and to get my way I do throw a lot of tantrums.And every one of them are directed at dad since I am aware that he is the only one who gives in to my ludicrous demands.It may be something small like something I'd want done or bought to demanding him to say sorry for something he had said by mistake.Being called a wall,hard headed,impassive by my friends all take a back seat as I make it a point to cry at the slight sign of frustration shown by dad.Its just that I have always wanted to not disappoint him.

Anyways why am I reminiscing? Mom and dad have already started talking about me leaving next year and making loads of phone calls to relatives to take care of me and I am not even in the acceptance phase yet.I have never lived alone and I don't know if it'd be good,okay or bad.I haven't even traveled alone until recently.I have never been financially independently.I never thought that the time to say goodbye would come so soon.I always imagined that I'd be ready by that time.I don't think I am yet.

I don't know if I ever will be.

P.S-I gotta run.Dad is making more-appams and the smell is wafting all the way over to my room .Smells like a mini Saravana bhavan heaven.

Until the next one,

Gaya. :)

A Tryst with Destiny

Oh how I love those words!

Do I sound a bit like a character dropped straight out of an Enid Blyton or perhaps a Jane Austen novel?Oh so be it!But wait just for a minute.Weren't they too one of "those"who we fought against for decades before we could reclaim what was rightfully ours?

History was one subject that always ranked #1 in my list of favorite subjects,occasionally losing out to English.Not because I loved remembering dates and names but because the finer shades of it fascinated me.The quirky nature of various rulers always had me thinking about how much damage/good a momentary change of mind could have done.How you ask?Let me illustrate.What if the apology demanded by Austria was probably let go in the interest of many?Oh but no!They had to fight.And there was no reason for the others to join them.But they did.For their own benefits and in all this hustle and bustle thousands of lives were lost.It was quoted as "towards development".Hell yeah!You splurge our tax money on such unnecessary things and finally ask us the only thing we have left for ourselves-our heartbeats.And lo! it was termed World War I and was a mark in history.And I do not even plan to go into detail about World War II.

Hold on!We digress again.Yeah Independence. Protests,deaths,marches,injuries,insults and what not?The story of Independence is not what I plan to go into in detail.I am sure almost all of you would know that from the 80 page illustrated text books of the 6th and 7th grade.

What I am asking you to do now is to do an introspection.What according to you is freedom?Do you think our country is travelling in the right path?Do you think that so many years of labour and sacrifice are in vain due to the vested interests of a few,who we have the misfortune of ruling us?

Keep thinking.Let me know.

Until the next one,

Gaya. :)

Permutations and Combinations.

Now please dont get the wrong idea that this is some kind of maths tutorial.Trust me when I tell you that Maths is one of those subjects I absolutely loathe.Strange coming from a person who has never scored below 70 in math.But it is not necessary that you'll have to love almost every little thing that you do or then again there is no hard and fast rule that only if you have the passion for something you'll be able to get on with.If that was the case I'd be happily doing psychology by now in some corner of the nation and not be sitting with pillow sized textbooks titled "Database Management" or "Network Management" while trying to maintain a balance in my sanity-meter.

But ,as always is the case ,we digress.The title is about one of the most unpredictable things.How about a few rounds of guessing?Okay?

Oil prices?

World Economy?

Next World War?

Is Kalmadi insane?

The next general Election?

Tomorrow's dinner menu?

NO.

This post is about the story of a passport.The story behind how a perfectly i-toe-the-line citizen was made to rush from one end of the state to another before he could obtain a passport.And all because of his name.One of my earlier posts,What's in a name? had a reference to this.(The second paragraph)

(For those who feel the soberithanam to navigate I Ctrl+C,Ctrl+V it here)

It appears that if you have multiple names+multiple surnames+You native place's name annexed to your name it is not very easy guessing what name and what combination will actually turn up in your passport.

Now I should not be the one to talk.Because thankfully my whole lineage has had single names.And my passport was attached to mom's when I was barely 1 year old wherein there was not much that I could offer for proof than a bokka-vaai smile and a goo-gooo-gaaa(Roughly translated to : Sotta maama I have done my part.Please hand over that chocolate before I forget my niceties and grab it myself)sound which due to lack of technology was not recorded for voice recognition and sadly I cant do that goo-gooo-gaaa anymore.I can voice my thoughts though which will prove much more disastrous of course.

That said,this particular guy(Shyam Anand) had the misfortune of carrying two names and in addition a family name and his dad's name.The family name ,as like in most Telugu families,was his native place's.

So the full name as per his school records is T.G.Shyam Anand.

Now there was a reason for the urgency.He wanted to write his GRE exam soon and a passport is mandatory as the validation proof for the exam.The name you give while booking cannot be changed and must be found alphabet-by-alphabet in your passport.Else out of Everonnn systems you get.

That said the usual procedures of filling out applications were gone through and a bonafide was received from the college.

Now here entered the villian.It appears that they got his name was spelt wrong on the ration card.Since his certificates and bonafide held the correct spelling.So his passport application was daar-daara kilichified and hurled royally into Chennai's Thames Koovam.

However,unfazed by all this he tried to apply again.Now began the cat and mouse game.He was supposed to show his birth certificate as the proof(For the name).

Problem 1:His birth certificate did not have his name.

Consequence:He had to run to the gazetted officer to get a signature.

Problem 1.a:He was born in coimbatore so he had to run there.

Problem 1.a.a:The database crashed for the babies born on that particular month of 89.

Problem 1.a.a.:They could not do anything because of Tamil-Maanadu preparations.

Poor guy almost died running from end to end.Finally after around 3 or 4 months the passport appeared and it was neither one of the combinations we had guessed.It was....Oh wait a minute I never told you our guesses did I?

Guess 1 : First Name :Shyam

Last Name :Anand

Guess2: First Name :Shyam Anand

Last Name :GopiKrishnan

Guess 3: First Name :T.G

Last Name :Shyam Anand

Guess 4: First Name :Shyam Anand

Last Name :T.G

Guess 5: First Name :Shyam

Last Name :Anand Gopikrishnan

Guess 6: First Name :Gopikrishnan

Last Name :Shyam Anand

The Final name:Thota Gopikrishnan Shyam Anand

Result:University applications did not have enough boxes to fill his name :)

P.S-Getting passports is like gambling.You have luck you get it.Else in Coimbatore you stay :)

Until the next one,

Gaya :)

"Classical" tales of an aam aadmi.

I have often been criticized for my choice of books.They are well-uh often very masala. Noe come on, don't act all surprised.I am sure you would have read at least a few of my posts(or so I hope!) and definitely noticed the masala-ness(!) in them.Yet I was content until sometime ago when I saw almost everyone raving about one "Master piece" or other.Not the one to be left out I jumped in the bandwagon too.

My first tryst with a classic can be summarized in two words:Epic Fail.The saddest part was that it was an abridged version."Vanity Fair".Disaster spelled in two words would be an acute description.For someone who had religiously read school non-detailed versions of Shakespearean plays,the Harry potter series,Enid Blyton's books and all of Sheldon's books it was a completely different experience as there it involved no murder/theft and chasing around the culprit around the globe and the detective finally falling in love with the to-be-convicted.Emotions were given importance and it was required that I understand all the nuances.It was NOT a page-turner.Realization dawned a bit too late off course.And around 10 pages later I decided Wikipedia can give me more information than I possibly can and would ever gather from the book myself.

The next tryst was with "A tale of two cities".Now this time the description and two pages later there I was turning faithfully to my Wiki.

That said I had stayed away from them for long and with good reasons too.And recently I received some gift vouchers from college for having won some competitions and well Landmark was the place we had to abuse them in.So we started picking up books by the dozen and I noticed this Jane Austen complete collections.Now I know that these novels have had filmi-adaptations as in here,here,here.But I did want to give a classic at least a shot.

Experiment:Finishing at least Sense And Sensibility within the next month(I am a bit hard-pressed for time now actually and the fine print isn't helping either :( )

Probability=0.25

Update 1:Done with the 1st chapter.

More updates soon.Lets see if I can do this.

Until the next one,

Gaya :)