Music.Life.Blog.Enjoy

Overdose

2011-02-01T10:47:00.000-08:00

Been going through an overdose of nostalgia these days. What do you do when a stage comes in your life when the memories weigh you down. I've always been someone who tried to find inspiration out of my good memories. At the same time remembering them gives you a feeling of loss, the harder you try to grasp. Life moves on. The nostalgia catches up with you as and when you slow down to stop and think by yourself. It's addictive in a way.

At last, there are two options before you with all the memories you have. One is to relive and refresh them in some way. Second is to let them go. It's harder when you are forced to do the second in some cases. The two songs I'm hearing aren't helping either. Here's to all the memories I've got to let go:
Owl City - Vanilla Twilight
As many times as I blink I'll think of you... tonight.
I'll think of you tonight.

Manichithrathazhu - Varuvanillarumee
വരുമെന്ന് ചൊല്ലി പിരിഞ്ഞു പോയില്ലാരും
അറിയാം അതെന്നാലുമെന്നും
പതിവായി ഞാനെന്‍റെ പടിവാതിലെന്തിനോ
പകുതിയേ ചാരാരുള്ലെല്ലോ
പ്രിയമുല്ലോരാളാരോ വരുമെന്ന് ഞാനെന്നും
വെറുതെ മോഹിക്കുമെല്ലോ

The Bell Jar - A short note

2010-12-17T08:22:00.000-08:00

I've started off with 3 different sentences for this post and am still not able to begin. Maybe it's the writer's block or the sheer absurdity of writing about the book. Let me start off with some history.
Back in Std 10, we had to study a poem called Tulips. It is my favourite in the collection of poems. I've never been a huge fan of poems, but this particular one appealed to the 'little spark of madness' (quoting Robin Williams) given to me. Never knew that would influence me to buy her only novel, The Bell Jar.

A bell jar is a piece of laboratory equipment similar in shape to a bell. It can be manufactured out of a variety of materials, ranging from glass to different types of metals. A bell jar is placed on a base which is vented to a hose fitting, which can be connected via a hose to a vacuum pump. By pumping the air out of the bell jar, a vacuum is formed. (source Wiki).

The name is a very apt one for narrating the story of Esther who's trapped in the Bell Jar of life and every gulp of air is being sucked out. You cannot use beautifully written, interesting plot, thrilling or any of the normal adjectives given to a good book for this one. The biggest word of praise would be she's crazy and I believe that is exactly what Sylvia Plath wanted people to say. She's not asking anyone to think like her, she's just saying to the world how she sees it. No one can deny that it's not her autobiography because she actually went ahead and committed suicide few weeks after publishing it. The novel could have been her last try at saying to the world she and her mind doesn't belong here. The book left me one unanswered question - Madness, is it a disease or just a way the world says 'You're different'?

Couldn't resist posting the poem Tulips:

Sylvia Plath - Tulips

The tulips are too excitable, it is winter here.
Look how white everything is, how quiet, how snowed-in
I am learning peacefulness, lying by myself quietly
As the light lies on these white walls, this bed, these hands.
I am nobody; I have nothing to do with explosions.
I have given my name and my day-clothes up to the nurses
And my history to the anaesthetist and my body to surgeons.

They have propped my head between the pillow and the sheet-cuff
Like an eye between two white lids that will not shut.
Stupid pupil, it has to take everything in.
The nurses pass and pass, they are no trouble,
They pass the way gulls pass inland in their white caps,
Doing things with their hands, one just the same as another,
So it is impossible to tell how many there are.

My body is a pebble to them, they tend it as water
Tends to the pebbles it must run over, smoothing them gently.
They bring me numbness in their bright needles, they bring me sleep.
Now I have lost myself I am sick of baggage ----
My patent leather overnight case like a black pillbox,
My husband and child smiling out of the family photo;
Their smiles catch onto my skin, little smiling hooks.

I have let things slip, a thirty-year-old cargo boat
Stubbornly hanging on to my name and address.
They have swabbed me clear of my loving associations.
Scared and bare on the green plastic-pillowed trolley
I watched my teaset, my bureaus of linen, my books
Sink out of sight, and the water went over my head.
I am a nun now, I have never been so pure.

I didn't want any flowers, I only wanted
To lie with my hands turned up and be utterly empty.
How free it is, you have no idea how free ----
The peacefulness is so big it dazes you,
And it asks nothing, a name tag, a few trinkets.
It is what the dead close on, finally; I imagine them
Shutting their mouths on it, like a Communion tablet.

The tulips are too red in the first place, they hurt me.
Even through the gift paper I could hear them breathe
Lightly, through their white swaddlings, like an awful baby.
Their redness talks to my wound, it corresponds.
They are subtle: they seem to float, though they weigh me down,
Upsetting me with their sudden tongues and their colour,
A dozen red lead sinkers round my neck.

Nobody watched me before, now I am watched.
The tulips turn to me, and the window behind me
Where once a day the light slowly widens and slowly thins,
And I see myself, flat, ridiculous, a cut-paper shadow
Between the eye of the sun and the eyes of the tulips,
And I hve no face, I have wanted to efface myself.
The vivid tulips eat my oxygen.

Before they came the air was calm enough,
Coming and going, breath by breath, without any fuss.
Then the tulips filled it up like a loud noise.
Now the air snags and eddies round them the way a river
Snags and eddies round a sunken rust-red engine.
They concentrate my attention, that was happy
Playing and resting without committing itself.

The walls, also, seem to be warming themselves.
The tulips should be behind bars like dangerous animals;
They are opening like the mouth of some great African cat,
And I am aware of my heart: it opens and closes
Its bowl of red blooms out of sheer love of me.
The water I taste is warm and salt, like the sea,
And comes from a country far away as health.

World Cup through my ages

2010-07-09T02:29:00.000-07:00

"Mone nokku Maradona", said an elder (Look son, Maradona)
"Hee he.. dona dona maradona.. dona dona maradona", I danced around in my er..
Yeah I guess that counts as being a 2 year old Argentine supporter at the 1990 World Cup. The earliest name I heard in the footballing world was that of Maradona, even before I knew it's rules. Argentina went on to make the final that year, losing to Germany (erstwhile West Germany). It was the beginning of the fall of Maradona too.

I was supporting Spain in 1994. Why Spain? No idea. I even didn't know a bit about how the Spanish played. But Spain was my favourite country then. I still don't have a clue why. One day I looked up on the globe and said Me encanta España! Those days I had even made a personal record sleeping just 3 hours to wake up and watch a match. I slept off 10-20 mins into the match though, leaving Dad to watch the rest. Spain did make it to the quarter-finals but ended up losing to Italy. The final was a tight one. I still have vague memories of that spectacular moment when Roberto Baggio missing the final penalty, thus losing the match and Cup to Brazil.

I've always had this love-hate relationship with Brazil. In 1998, they were the best team around. Ronaldo was at his peak and I couldn't resist the temptation supporting a team that I believed would go all the way. They did reach the final in a breeze and looked unbeatable. Then there was controversy before the match as Ronaldo was said to be unwell. And that's when Zizu zoomed into the picture to spoil my party. Brazil ended up losing 3-0.

World cup was being hosted by Asian countries for the first time. EPL frenzy had caught up in school and the English superstars were a hot commodity. With Beckham as captain we all believed in our hearts that this could be the year for England. I joined the big fan club. I remember delivering a speech about the World Cup in our school assembly just before it began. The English team didn't looked as good as the hype, but got till the quarter-final when Ronaldinho exposed their weakness. A long shot left the goalkeeper wishing he was a real sea-man. Fast forwarding to the final, I was willing to support any team other than Brazil. Ze Germans couldn't do much about the mighty Brazilians who won the match 2-0, both scored by Ronaldo.

I was back to my first love this time. Argentina played great football through the group stage scoring lots of goals, most of them beautifully. Germany was the spoilsport this time in quarter-finals. It was heartbreaking to see them going out in penalties. Devastated, I looked around for any other team to support. Someone was playing the best football of his life in French shirt. Zizu, who missed out on 2002 WC was at his best for his country at the age of 34. He single-handedly dragged the French team into the final against Italy. He was spectacular in the final, until the sad headbutting incident. I was almost in tears. Often wondered whether France would've won it otherwise. Zidane in WC2006 is the best I've seen any player in a World Cup. Truly one of the greats.

Now to the present. This time it was a toss up between Argentina and Spain. One was being coached by my first football hero and the other perennial underachievers were finally finding their feet winning the Euro 2008. I went with Argentina and the group stages didn't disappoint me, full points. Again the quarter-final and again Germans. The Germans outplayed the Albicelestes, end of story. Spain on the other hand defeated the Germans (who are a very impressive team) in semi. So the final awaits. Some work of fate has it that the country I support in the final has never won. Fingers crossed.. Will my favourite country (still?!) bring home the Cup of Joy?

PS. Logos courtesy Wikipedia.

Update from Home

2010-07-08T07:42:00.000-07:00

Almost a week home now. These days I'm not getting anything to write about. Most of the days were spend doing nothing. After the first few days you find out how boring internet could be if you get to sit in front of it for more than 4-5 hours a day. The great world of television has never quite caught up with me. Don't find anything interesting there other than the occasional Star World. (Btw iceman, the tour de france has started. Contador's the best bet.)

Moved on to movies and TV-series. Reached 3rd season of "How I met your mother". Not as entertaining as "Friends" or "Scrubs". Still it's pretty entertaining and good time pass. In movies over the past few weeks,

Rebecca - 7.5/10. ya I'm watching the Hitchcock classic only now. Good movie. Very good buildup.

Remember Me - 8/10. A touching story, I felt the characters were potrayed in an intense way. RobPat shows he's much more than a romancing vampire.

The spy next door - 7/10. Entertaining and funny. For Jackie Chan fans.

Shutter Island - 8.5/10. Psycho.. real psycho. No more words.

Vinodayatra - 7/10. Feel good movie. Could've cut down on the preaching though.

Agnisakshi - 9/10. Watched it the second time after about 10 years. Timeless story, brilliantly taken.

Vinnaithandi Varuvaaya - 8/10. Lots of mixed reviews on this one but I personally liked it. The feel of this one stays with you for long. Very beautifully taken especially Trisha.

Raavanan - 7/10. Though I missed out on majority of the dialogues due to language problem, I felt the plot was ok to good. The camera work is one of the best I've seen in Indian movies. But disappointing as a Mani Ratnam movie. Could've been better.

Kites - 5.5/10. There wasn't much right about this. Didn't expect much. Ended up laughing through some of the supposedly serious scenes. :-D

Disaster Movie - 0/10. Truly disastrous. Horribly Boring. Left me wondering what happened to the Scary Movies era when movie spoofs were as good as original.

On to other stuff, I've started reading the classic "Little Women". I'm not finding it much entertaining. Am still ruing the fact that I forgot to take the book I was reading (The Chamber) from IISc. I was seriously drugged (taking medicine for fever) while packing. Other than those, the list of things not packed included my iPod, toothbrush, shaving set etc.

Firefox 4 beta is out. Cool look.

Main project work hasn't started in proper sense yet. We've been attending some presentations and so on, but Self-Driving Car still seems a distant dream. Bach is having better luck with his one I believe.

Till anything interesting happens.. Signing off..

My Train Journey

2010-06-20T03:10:00.000-07:00

Travelling alone was going to be boring. I had packed some books along, but was too loath to open them and get myself to read. The job on other side of the journey wasn't any different. But there I had atleast someone to talk to. 3 years in the company gave me some friends, though at the price of wasting some of the prime years. So there I was sitting idle looking out at the green kerala tapestry when someone walked in.

She wasn't much of a beauty but I didn't care. It was not going to be a someone I'd be least interested sitting opposite me on this trip. Getting the side seat on train has it's advantages (though not much weighing the disadvantage of being cramped for sleeping space with my height). Once in a while you get someone interesting to chat up and side seats feels more like a personal area than the 6-seater berths. Back to her, it wasn't her look that made me notice her. There was this aura of ethereal swarming around her which made her look out of this world. She seemed to be floating around on her tiptoes which carried her as fate would right opposite to me. "Should try to talk to her", I made a mental note.

An hour or two passed and she took out her dinner packet. I'd bought one one the way and took the cue that it's dinner time. Being the careless guy, I forgot to buy water. She kept her bottle on the table. Observing me eyeing it for some time, she offered the water. "Thanks", I said, putting out my hand to get the bottle and asked where she was going.
She replied "I'd been to Trivandrum for some work. Now I'm returning back to Bangalore. What about you?"
"I work in Bangalore too. I'm coming back from seeing my parents." and so the conversation began.

She, after completing her MBA is working as senior consultant in some "enterpreneurship promotion" department in her father's company. Couldn't make much out of it but it was something related with encouraging people setting up their own companies. Her father is a self made man, who now is the CEO of the million dollar company that he built up. She as a person was very warm and fun to talk with. In comparison to my pretty boring work, she scored a perfect ten. I caught her name in between the conversation - Claire Roy Tresa. People called her 'CRT', she joked. She wasn't an LCD flatscreen anyway. The two hours spent chatting fled by and it was time to sleep. As I tucked in, I couldn't resist taking a small peek down to her berth. She smiled back saying "Goodnight".

I overslept as usual. Anyway the train wasn't going to reach Bangalore till about noon. Then I noticed her berth was empty. Even the sheets had gone. At first I thought she may have gone somewhere, but as time passed I realised she must've got down at some place while I was sleeping. Felt kinda bad that I didn't get to say goodbye. I had to let it go. Anyway I'd to worry about getting to office in time so that I don't have to take full day leave.

Now I'm back in office the next day. Can't get Claire's image out of my mind. Maybe I could google and catch her on some social network. "Claire Roy Tresa", I typed and pressed the 'I'm feeling lucky' button. What appeared on the screen shocked me. It was a news article:

Claire Roy Tresa (26), daughter of Roy Cherian passed away in a train accident yesterday. She was returning from Trivandrum, where she went on a business trip. ...

The report continued. Then I noticed something: Published on 20th June, 2009!

Two much?

2010-05-28T11:48:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to write about the second semester in IISc for some weeks. I'm back home now and feel like writing about the city more than IISc. You always inherit something from your hometown. For me, Trivandrum has given the trait not to be in a hurry for doing anything in life. Like the slow calm pace of the city, I try to give everything it's own time. Sooner or later everything's bound to fall back in place. Now let me get back to the work at hand and hope I'll be able to jot down something about the second semster in IISc.

We'd feared the second semester more than the first. It was supposed to be the most strenuous times in our lives, with possibility of 4 or more mini-projects. Fearing this, none but the bravest dared to take more than 5 courses. Since I didn't have any hurry, I took 5 like most of my friends. Into the first month, we were surprised by the amount of free time we got. We even started doubting whether the seniors were joking.

It was cold in Bangalore. That was the first time I got to spend a proper winter season. Back in Kerala we never have winter. It's either summer or rainy season. I liked waking around in warm clothes. Those leisure time never went to waste though. Our gang, Bach, Ak, Navy & Me spent many of our nights at Tea board, chatting about everything under the sun/moon. It was fun, something like all the museum sessions during B.Tech. The Tea board sessions continued throughout the sem, though in varying frequency depending on our workload. Navy discontinued the membership at Tea board as our return time started to extend past 2 am :-). Moving on to less fun and more work...

It was towards the end of February that we got the scent of what's coming up. Assigments started taking up more and more of our time in March. Come April we were deep into mini projects work. AVLSI mini project got over first. The project involved lots of sweeping and balancing acts (tech terms coined during those times). Lost interest in it towards the end, resulting in a sub-standard report after all the work we put in. Thankfully it got over much before the exams which started in mid April. The exams felt more like a disturbance than any tension. Most of us wanted it to get over as soon as possible so that we could get back to work on the mini-projects.

Working on mini-projects were exciting and exhausting at the same time. Working with Ak on ID-project was most fun due to it's nature and electronics hardware work involved. Processor Design project ate away half of my head, but felt satisfied once it was over. I left the work on Embedded Shell assignment halfway and made a short visit to homeland. Got back, the whole team worked overtime and the assignment somehow turned out fine eventually. We spent the whole night before submission in lab. Slept after having lunch the next day (At this point let me say that this must've been the 5th or 6th night-out to do assignment that month). So finally everything got over and we were officially free!

Short note on Mini project allocation without going into the details of what happened before that. Ak and Me are doing 'Self Driving Car'. Our project guide envisions a car driving by itself through IISc road. Somehow my eyesight's gone a little blurry there. Bach and Navy would be working on 'A non-802.11 wireless mesh network'. Lots of networking work there, I hope they don't get caught in it.

Homecoming

2010-05-09T02:00:00.000-07:00

Reached home sweet home yesterday. Though it is not much of a homecoming for me because none of the usual residents are here. Miss ya.. mom and dad.. :-) Then there are some other things too that you realise you miss very much once you reach home. One such thing is the sound of ma Creative SBS.. Reminds me of all those days when I used to close the door, put it at full volume and simply enjoy the music. Next is the food. I'm not someone who gets high on culinary stuff. But lack of good food, or at many times the lack of any food gets me into a paranoia which can end only if i get some home made food on a proper dining table. Back here, that wish is granted too. Had been wishing to blog about this semester at IISc for so long.. Hoping to do something about it in next blog.

Light in the Dark

2010-05-02T07:56:00.000-07:00

Saw a firefly on the way to lab. I cant remember the last time I saw one. Memories of my native place in Malabar are flooding back into my mind.

The house is halfway up a mountain called Kappimala. All around, you can see the Western Ghats spreading away like ripples of green water. The nights are as beautiful as the day. This place might be one of the very few areas where there is no electricity connection in Kerala. So once it is night, it's pure darkness.. Nothing like the night lights filling up the sky in Bangalore. The only light sources are the Moon and fireflies. I remember the joy of sitting out on the couch after dinner during such nights. The calmness just engulfs you, feeling one with nature and the sounds of nature rings in beat with the soft music from my iPod. Ah..

Baby steps?

2010-04-21T04:57:00.000-07:00

Not even a blog this year.. and it's almost reaching the end of the fourth month. Not that I didn't think of blogging many a times. Never quite got the idle time. Hoping to take the baby steps back into the world of blogging once the exam gets over.

The change of seasons.. Saw a proper spring season for the first time. It's become hot now with intermittent rains. The rains are beautiful. The campus takes on a completely new picture when it rains. You just feel like sitting simply and enjoy it. But more of that only after the exams and mini projects.

Happy B'day!

2009-12-29T03:21:00.000-08:00

4 years and some hours ago was conceived an idea. It started off with small stuff like swatting mosquitoes but down the years, though in fits and spurts, it's sustained as one of the most important literary work in modern history. Happy Birthday Music.Life.Blog.Enjoy. Quick trivia, the name of the blog had been Simple Musings of a Complicated Mind and changed the name when I realized my mind is not that complicated at all.

Feels like it's long back since the beginning, but just 4 yrs.. which added with the previous 2 has been the most eventful years of my life. A lot has changed, a lot hasn't but a lot happened in between. After the pretty boring first few months in CET, it changed all of a sudden around the time I started this blog. Been a roller-coaster since then. To be honest, I've never been much of a writer and those reading here would know it. But the blog has helped me to keep a log of events and stuff that mattered most to me. I still feel like the 'just out of school' kid that I was then - lost, arrogant, confident, silent, talkative, foolish, loyal. I've got to thank all my loved ones around me for everything. Life's always great, you only have to make sure you're looking at it with your eyes open.

Final words of acknowledgment to all those idiots (right now being an idiot is the most fashionable thing to be) who are following the blog and those who've dropped by with useless comments. Keep it going.. ;-) There's nothing like negative publicity. And hope the blog will still be alive to celebrate another birthday.

IFFK - '09

2009-12-18T08:22:00.000-08:00

Once every year during the hot wintry month of December in Kerala comes the visual treat of movie splendor - IFFK. I chanced upon being part of the fest only twice, but both times it gave me immense pleasure to see the world through the movies.

Being back in hometown only for a brief period and spending the first few days in cinema halls, it almost became a fashion asking me the question- have you come home to watch movies. But if those asking the question had gone for the fest, they would've known why. The film fest took my breath away the first time and didn't disappoint this time too. I got to see just 10 movies this time around, due to various reasons. So I'm not in a position to make any authoritative appreciation/criticism about the fest. But who cares I'm blogging. Now START CAMERA ACTION...

The movies I liked the most were My Secret Sky, Broken Embraces and Rithu. My Secret Sky talks about the life of two children in the farms of Africa after their mother dies. How they come to town to fulfill their mother's dream of entering a hand-crafted mat in a competition. The movie had all the elements - a serious theme, moments of joy, beautiful shots etc.. The spanish master Almodovar is back this year with Broken Embraces. The movie has complicated relationships akin to the directors style. And the whole mesh of relations unravel amongst awesome camera-work. Watching the movie in first row of the theatre, the areal scene in which the camera zooms in onto a car driving in a deserted highway - unforgettable.

Rithu is the latest offering by renowned malayalam film director - Shyamaprasad. The movie tells the story about 3 friends in the current generation mallu youth. Although the movie might not have garnered as much critical acclaim as the directors previous movies, I hold it close to my heart cuz I'm part of that group and could connect with the movie so easily. Some readers might've noticed that I borrowed the title of previous blog from tag line of Rithu. Another movie which I felt is very good is About Elly. The movie captured the tension of characters during a catastrophic incident very realistically.

One thing different from the previous IFFK was that this time we went for desi films too, instead of the all phorein policy. That was a revelation in itself. Watching Thaniyavarthanam and Dev D felt as good as watching movies from abroad. But somehow we failed to catch the French New Wave. The two movies in that category that we saw - Cleo from 5 to 7 and Pierrot goes wild felt pretty ordinary. Cleo had it's good moments, but the comedy in Pierrot was completely beyond us. Looking for Eric is an ok movie, the best parts being replay of goals being scored by Cantona. I'm still confused about the ending of Divine. If someone watches it, please explain.

Overall, the film festival was a very satisfying event. Last time the mix of movies were better cuz we got to see more movies which were purely entertaining. Maybe we got our selection of films to watch a li'l wrong. But that doesn't take anything away from how much we liked it. And would love to watch many more films... next December. CUT!

Seasons Change.. Do we?

2009-12-16T08:56:00.000-08:00

Home is where your heart is. We always end up following our heart, where ever we are. Life takes us to places we never dreamed we would be, yet we always come back searching for our heart. But what if your heart has been split and send off to places, all over the world?

The biggest chunk of my heart is still in Trivandrum and that's where I've returned to now. My journey started of here. And going round a circle, I wish to end it here.

People often ask, what's there in a place? why get stuck? get going to somewhere better..
I say, it's not places that we get stuck in. Life moves forward only if we move forward in our mind, our vision, our dreams.. Let memories not hold you back, instead thrust you forward. Never stop dreaming, that's the important thing. The place doesn't matter in terms of progress in life. But it does when you ask yourself where the heart is..

That led me to the first serious question I asked myself in this direction after staying away from home for the longest period in my life - Is all of this really worth it?

Numb

2009-11-16T11:54:00.001-08:00

The Linkin' Park song playing on songbird right now is so apt for my current mood. 1:00 am and you find out that the bug in the program has rendered your work of about 5 hours corrupted. You cannot but smile at the laptop and say this has to happen just now - 3 days before the DVLSI mini project submission.

How I wish the submission date wasn't extended last week and everyone would've been the same kinda ***t I'm in right now. The bright side is I get something to write on in the blog because.. because I dont have anything to do now! God save our souls..

Potluck

2009-10-14T02:26:00.000-07:00

Every time I think it's over now, somehow she returns back into my life with more challenges. I'd been under the impression that after not getting through the Rythmica auditions at IISc, it would really be the end. Then came Potluck and the challenge was much greater than previous times for me.

We always had someone doing the directing/coordinating part in the band while in CET. I just had to simply sit around and watch them all practising. But this time around I turned out to be the senior-most guy, in the sense I was the only one who'd actually performed with a band. Determination and love for music are the two things required to keep it going. We had enough of both and with the fun added, we got it through. And the CEDT freshers band was formed - Mitsu and me on Vocals, Gaurav and Bach (Suraj as he is known here) on guitars, Navyendu on Violin and Abhishek and Makarand on Keys. We did a pretty good show on stage for first-timers, though it had moments like Gaurav breaking the pluckdrum half-way into the final song. Hoping to continue with the band in future..

Though the band performance was the most important part of the event for me, Potluck is much more than that. Let me start from the beginning. Potluck is a family gettogether of our department. The 'crazy' CEDT family, including the faculty, alumini, seniors and freshers. We, the freshers are in charge of organising the two day event involving sports, cultural nite and dinner. I'm happy to say that both sports and cultural events went very well. Esp. cultural events since Akansha and me were heading the cultural comittee ;-). The night ended with a sumptuous dinner and long photo session.

Our Potluck day didn't end there. Gaurav, Bach and me set out to airport on Gaurav's Honda City at around 11pm. The route to airport is one of the best I've seen. The new airport looks really great. We sat down and had drinks at CCD outside the airport. Too bad the parking cost us Rs 80/half hour or we'd stayed longer. Thanks to Gaurav, I got to drive the car back to IISc. It felt awesome. Thouroughly enjoyed the ride back. Thus ended a really nice saturday and it was back to work from next day.

People

2009-09-10T02:10:00.000-07:00

My roommate left yesterday. Though he had reservations about taking PhD from the beginning, the news kinda came as a shock to me. The stay here was brief, but we had some nice time together.

IISc is the first time I'm properly staying in hostel. The only thing I was sceptical about was having a roomie whom I might not like. Thankfully Soumya turned out to be a nice guy and we never had problems adjusting. We met only once or even less a day and had a few good chats. While leaving, he left behind a note which was very thoughtful. Now all of a sudden, the big room seems void and very large with just me.

The news also put into perspective my thoughts about people we meet in our lifetime. Some we see and never see again. Some we meet and still never meet again, but wish we could. There are still others who remain with you through your life and finally those who are far away but close at heart.

Treading Unknown Waters

2009-09-10T02:05:00.001-07:00

Some day in week 1: 11:30pm PD-220
Just back from my own beautiful moment of the day - the midnight walk back to my IISc hostel room listening to iPod. I didn't know whether Soumya, ma roomie, is back yet. Seems he's back early today and out talking to someone. Tomorrow it will be a week since I left my hometown.

IISc
I feel blessed to have been part of three awesome campuses. Right from the beauty of Loyola in school days, to the elegance of CET and now IISc. All three have something in common - unlimited greenery, and that's something I enjoy very much. It's said that the temperature in IISc is three degrees below the normal temperature of the city. All the roads are bound on both sides by trees. Though it's not the spring season, I can imagine how it would be during full bloom. None of the buildings are more than 2-3 floors high, each unique in design. They seem to pop their head occasionally out of the green and does not stand out from the surroundings. The main building is an exception. Made of some kind of white stone, just one view of it takes us to the grandeur of 1900s. Our admission procedure was held in the main building. Before that we'd to pick lot to decide our hostel room and I got PD-220.

Hostel
The walk towards my hostel room seemed an endless one, esp. with a bag full of stuff. I'd to cross a busy road. Thankfully the guard in the gate opposite guided me to the hostel. The room is a double room. It's really spacious with large wardrobe, well furnished and even a small balcony to top it all. There's also a terrace nearby. The area is very silent at night (which is pretty much the only time I'm there). My roomie is a bengali - Soumya. I got quite a shock when he messaged me for the first time telling name and informing that 'd arrived ;-). The name is pronounced Shomu, pretty nice guy about to do PhD in ECE dept. Though the hostel is about a km from main areas, I like it and the walk back to the room at night.

12:00pm PD-220, a week later.
CEDT
The department had impressed us a lot the first time we were here for the test and interview. On the official day 1 in the department, we were taken around the department, shown the labs and given a briefing about the subjects. Both Suraj and me felt like the labs comprised of our favourite subjects clubbed into one MTech course. The teachers were jolly, even overdoing it occassionally with chalus. Now we're past a week into classes. Labs are about to start soon. That's gonna be the tuff and time consuming part according to seniors and the dept would virtually be our second home. Four of our subjects have lab and we get to have a hands-on experience in electronics design.

September 5: U-47
Now in Sreejith's room. It's more than a month now. Starting to taste the real IISc life. The past month was pretty good with not much work. But towards the end we got to know what's going to haunt us for the next 22 months. Lab assignment submissions seems to be the worst of that nightmare now, but who knows what all are going to be thrown us at from now on. Lab work is enjoyable if you know how to do it. But sitting in front of some problem without a clue how to solve it for hours at a stretch is plain disappointing. Hmm.. Hope the situation gets better if we start studying. How to find time to that is another question.

Sept 7/8: Lab
Riding back to hostel at 4:00 am.

IISc beckons

2009-07-27T19:52:00.000-07:00

I'm off to IISc, Bangalore today. I'd thought I would write something long enough about it, but seriously nothing coming into my mind. Cya all. The good thing about net is that it does not care about geographical locations. So the me in Bangalore would be the same here. And hopefully I'll get enough time to keep blogging. KU has been kind enough in that respect.. :-)

HOTC Ch 7: The Rains Went By

2009-07-23T10:47:00.000-07:00

It's almost a month since CETlife officially ended. I hadn't thought about taking the series this far when I started off back in S6. The final two sems have been as happening as the previous ones but thinking back about it when it's over is tough. But I've got a feeling that HOTC's gotta be completed and if dont do it now, I never might. So..

A new semester, a new hope, a new beginning.. No No! we were right in the middle of the storm like in the beginning of HP7 and we didn't have time to appreciate the change in classroom. We were Potters in search of the horcrux jobs, with Albus Samson helping us out at CGPU. That's when the bubble-that-must-not-be-named burst (literally) into scene. Things never got better after that and even after a year our batch is still bathing in the aftershock. (pardon me for the absurd allegory in previous statements :-) . The fact that our class secured the most number of jobs in the batch was little consolation for what happened.

Looking at the smaller picture, the placement season was an 'experience'. There were the PPTs of companies in the beginning. The real deal didn't bore us as much as the PPTs though. It was a special sight seeing us dressed well, as executives for a change (got to say our ladies looked better those days too.. ;-). Those days provided some unforgettable scenes.. The joy after getting a job, the disappointed figures being consoled by friends. I was able to stay back many of those days 'cuz of the proximity of my house. Saw a lot of gr8 friends groups around CGPU including ours - staying together during the hard times. It had the funny moments too.. Sure going round and round the pillar before an interview and three guys doing the same after he'd gone in, AS claiming 'I love japanese people, I love japanese culture' at Toshiba interview and a lot more..

Then came one day that could be named the Happiest day in HOTC. It was our onam celebration. There wasn't any celebration to tell about the previous year. But this was to be our final onam celebration and the AE batch of '09 rocked it Applied style. Back were the laughter, the energy that had gone dim after S5 tour. After our customary trip around the campus (esp civil for obvious reasons), we were back in our class. Thanks to some organising by LN, we'd plenty of payasam and sweets. Then a session of onappattu accompanied by traditional dances (dappankkuthu). There were many cameras around and none of them were disappointed. We made all kinda permutations and combinations for group photos sessions which lasted well into the evening. There were even absurd ones like Akashagopuram kandu thenjavar.

Robotics was still in our veins and another Shaastra was coming along. This time we secured entry in two competitions (thanks to AS). Sleepless preparation nights (mostly just chatting around) and countless screwings (?) 'n debuggings later, we'd three bots ready. One was shaped futuristic-ally like a bat-mobile though it ended up having stability issues. This time, there were more of us making the trip. But we couldn't roam around the campus as much as previous time 'cuz we'd competitions on two days. The robotics competition was real tuff and we were a tad disappointed by it's organisation. Else might've had a chance at winning a prize. The laser show was stupendous! We did go to the beach and spencer plaza. The time we spend at CCD were enjoyable too.

Towards the end of the sem, we went for another robotics competition at GEC, Trissur as part of their tech fest - Resonance. Our group had become professional by then, each knew his part of the work. We were rewarded with 4000 bucks too though the organisers were reluctant at giving out prizes. We also witnessed the first and last Sargam (inter-sem) which went through without much fanfare. I believe Jisha (in pic) won many dance prizes. Another thing to take notice was that the teachers were in charge of the events, which told a lot about the political scenario.

In academics, lectures became more of a formality even though teachers showed their love by drawing hearts in class. We had our seminar and preliminary presentation(s) of main projects throughout the sem. We'd thought of them with reverence in the previous sems. But as usual, most of the work was done at the last minute, keeping up the CET tradition and most of us got through fine. The university exams came along dragging it's feet. We didn't have proper answers to his questions, but survived somehow thanks to our combined efforts. Thus ended the prefinal semester of CETlife and the fact that it would be ending soon was dawning on us.

Inspiration

2009-07-15T09:16:00.000-07:00

There was a time when I admired his academic proficiency and excellent teaching skills, but towards the end of my schooling days AO sir (as we lovingly and often fearfully call him) became much more than that for many of us.. a true inspiration. Today we went to visit him again and could just sit with awe at what he said.

My pals, Ram, Appu, Gokul, Somu and I used to sit nearest to sir during the classes, in the side bench. He would sit down at a chair beside me to rest after solving problems on the board. The whole class would still be pondering over whether to try doing the questions by themselves or just take down what's written on the board. We, the ones nearest to him knew his eyes would be on what we did. That must be the time our brain worked to it's fullest capacity till now. Physics stopped becoming a subject to study. It became our passion.

I don't know how to explain the change in our minds towards AO through the two years. What was once fear, turned gradually into respect and finally admiration. His persona must have been the inspiration of so many students, students about whom he still talks in abundance even with his failing strength. Cheers to my greatest teacher. Thank you sir and we'll try to make the best of the faith you put in us..

Quotes over the ages

2009-07-02T11:10:00.000-07:00

There was a time when I used to study from my notebooks more than any text. All that became a thing of the past when in college. Notebooks became more of a symbol of expression during the lectures (often monotonous). One habit that I caught up was writing down a quote on the first page and omit writing down my name. Due to the fact that I didn't have many notebooks during the four years and cuz I might have lost one or two, I could recover only 4 of them:

S5:
Science is an ongoing process. It never ends. There is no single ultimate truth to be achieved, after which scientists can retire. And because this is so, the world is far more interesting, both for scientists and for millions of people in every nation who, while not professional scientists, are deeply interested in the methods and findings of science.
- Cosmos, Carl Sagan

S5-S6, Still one of my favourite quotes:
It's so easy to run to others. It's hard to stand on one's on record. You can't fake virtue in your own eyes. Your ego is the strictest judge. It's simple to seek substitutes for competence - love, kindness... But there isn't substitute for competence. That precisely is the deadliness of second handers.
- The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand

S6-S7, Very meaningful at that time:
My past life seemed floated away to an immeasurable distance, the present was vague and strange, and for the future I could form no conjecture.
- Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte. ( The irony is that I never completed that book)

S7-S8:
I yearn to define my life
Placing faith in chance to meet me in halfway
Back row to the left, a little to the side,
Slightly out of place
Look beyond the light, where you least expect
There's someone special.
- From the song Someone Special, Poets of the Fall

2 days

2009-06-25T11:50:00.000-07:00

Finally done with the TC and course certificate formalities. Sadly we've to surrender our ID cards. I wonder why we are not allowed to keep it even after being punched brutally through the middle. I went around the department and college and took photos of the classes we sat in the 4 years.

First year: we were on top of everything, including the Principal. Spacious enough to play cricket. And the fact that there were always the S8 comscis to drop blame on any noise we made helped a lot.

Second year: This is for me the best class in the whole college. With a great view into paths to Archi, Civil and Electrical departments, the class had windows to three directions. It also had a natural seating place outside where we used to sit chatting, listening to music or just have a look outside.

Third year: Got to say, horrible class to sit in.. with birds for company (the real ones). That resulted in us sitting out most of the time.

Final year: Lots of beautiful memories to cherish in this class.

Now that I've told about today, here's something about which I planned to write yesterday. I'd been cleaning the room some time yesterday. Still haven't given the room any name. It's like some place where everything gets dumped and seldom comes out. Once in a year I'm allotted to perform the ritual of arranging things in it. 2-3 hours into the job I've not gotten anywhere. This is the progress:

Work Done ................................................................Work Undone

The best part of cleaning up the room is there's so much stuff in there that could tell a story. I found my relics from school and college.. The Loyolite, the magi memento, the candle we held on our school farewell, slam book, stuff from LaFest.. Entering college, the pieces of glass from the last day incident of our first year tour, the piece of wire that held our mini project together, robotics (too much stuff to name any), my notes (few and far between), and the precious few gifts and cards I got through my school and college years. Always gets a feel that I've moved on after spending some time there..

Update from 2 more days later:
The room has assumed a better situation now. I've managed to pack/dump robotics stuff into boxes. The large box below holds irrecoverable junk and those smaller ones atop contains useful things. The irrecoverable junk holds more value in our hearts than the other one.

K in a nutshell

2009-06-19T23:05:00.003-07:00

Didn't get time to jot down anything on the first day of the trip due to busy schedule. But one thing I've got to mention - It was unbearably hot and humid. The climate in TVM is heaven. So to the second day when mom bought half a dozen handbags and a score of sarees.. I'm not exaggerating. I got plenty of time observing and here goes somethings I wrote down:

Morning:
I realise I'm walking through a city which was once the capital of British India. It seems like the city never arose from the shock of losing the status of capital. Here even the newest buildings are made in 19th century style. In the heart of the city it still breathes the Victorian era. Most of the metros have given up on it's traditions, but you can see Kolkata in 19th, 20th and 21st century side by side. Where else would you find street hawkers, a huge 'new' market housing all types of garments in shops having century old tradition and KFC in the same road. Another example would be cycle rickshaws, the only working tram network in India and the modern metro rail ploughing along the same area.

Noon:
Noe to some interesting news. I found most of the gals in Kolkata are naturally pretty and fashionable. :-) This requires special mention 'cuz the same cannot be said about southern states. And the best thing is they can be found everywhere, not just in top notch shopping malls.

Afternoon:
I would've died of boredom today hadn't it been for the iPod. My ever faithful music companion always helps in finding better perspectives in times like these. Thank you sis.

Evening:
Parents left me at a saree shop with lots of stuff that we bought and went on to buy some more (Saree count around 15 by that time). The shopkeeper was a hospitable man. His son did B.E & M.Tech in Bangalore, married a Kannada girl and is working at GE, Bangalore now. He seemed very happy to know that I'm going to do M.Tech in Bangalore. He bought us free fountain Fantas too - Yippee!

With clouds between my knees

2009-06-19T23:05:00.001-07:00

It is my first time flying. Though slightly apprehensive at lifting my feet off the firm earth beneath, I knew it should be worth the money. So began my maiden flight on a plane. I craned to look out of the window as it took off. My eyes fell on how green Trivandrum is! Few hundred feet above my homeland, you can see nothing but a sea of coconut trees. We kept going higher until I noticed the clouds were getting closer. "Surely" I thought, "we weren't gonna fly alongside them". But we did.. The plane slowly went though the cloud level with some turbulence and rose above it. That is truly a sight to behold. Just like they show in the movies, you feel like sailing on an ocean of clouds. There were more beautiful views which you would see only through the window of a plane... the shadow of clouds on the ground.. the shadow of plane on the clouds.. and the beautiful coastline where the sea meets land. But the best was reserved for the last. We landed in Kolkata at night. Viewing the city lights from above, you feel like travelling through space.. with stars above and below.. just loved it.

Kolkata - A Photo Blog

2009-06-19T09:17:00.001-07:00

Kolkata

2009-06-14T20:41:00.001-07:00

I'm off to Kolkata today. It would be my first time on a plane. Exciting..

Few words for the Chairman and VC

2009-06-08T06:50:00.001-07:00

Politics in Kerala should be a matter of intense study in the field of human pschology and University of Kerala should be a chapter in it. How else could you explain this rescheduling of labs, which is very common but due to a reason not so common.

Just a small peek into the history of Kerala. There was a time when Bandh were rampant in the state. That's when the court ruled that they were banned. Then came the hartals, which was the same old wine packaged in a new name. And now what - Kari Dinam. Doesn't make much difference but it's a step in the right direction as far as malayamisation of names goes. I do not claim to know much about politics but the current situation seems absurd even to any layman due to:

1. The government is going against the ruling of the judiciary. The whole point of having an independent judiciary is to be not influenced by any governing body. As the saying goes the ruling of the judge is final and it should be accepted.

2. Kerala University has supported the decision of government extending both hands. The exams due to be held on two days have been shifted. It was the same people who refused to delay the exams for the students who had to attend interviews for higher studies selection. This is the part of the story where I realised the system has indeed broken down and left to dogs.

Sorry for using such harsh words. I have always been a supporter of constuctive politics in college and is still a fan of the syllabus and scheme. But the same cannot be said about it's working. Lets all hope for a better future when KU is truly independent and makes decisions only for the betterment of it's student community.

You Complete Me

2009-06-04T10:09:00.000-07:00

There are some times when you just wanna lie down and let the pain creep in.. with wet eyes and heavy heart you just let the helpless slowly intoxicating. My friend recently accused me of being a vishadakamukan even before falling in love. Maybe I am. There comes few times when something beyond our control takes us away from the ones we love. Due to those I've even considered not loving something/someone so much that you cud never say goodbye. No. This is not a farewell message to any gal. This one's for my dear friend without whom I'm nobody.

It's so easy to cry off your sadness. That was the case when I encountered such a scenario in school. But this is a different kind.. We've been laughing off our sadness. Any hint of nostalgia is washed away in a bursts of jokes which leave us gasping for air. It's more the harder cuz everyday you've got to return home and realize you never said how much you would miss him/her. That has left me spiraling down and down and finally drowning in this pool of tears.

Even through all this, the faith that keep me going is my belief - you never leave your loved ones behind. They are always with you. Right there watching the world through your eyes from that little corner in your heart. The corner that never stops beating.

This one's for none other than you. Each and everyone of you. Like the Joker says, You complete me.

:-) Remember the days we used to think Samson sir is the original Joker.

Hail KU

2009-06-02T08:01:00.000-07:00

Your're the best..

PS. Make me pass tomorrow's exam.

Fade to Grey

2009-05-27T05:33:00.001-07:00

It's always the little things in life that you miss the most. College life has given me some really unforgettable moments/incidents. But there are so many little collection of things that I can't remember with clarity. They happened every other day but everyone of them were special like..

the joy of walking to college everyday with music at your ears
cutting classes for pretty much no reason
laughing until you cry at your friends' cracking joke
the whole days spend chatting in pancharakadu
the feeling of looking at a person the whole day and knowing you'd be back the next day to do the same
the smell of rain drizziling outside when you're warm n' cozy in class
having lunch at Lords though every time we end up cursing them
all the days when nothing out of ordinary happens
the innumerable museum sessions when discussions ranged from intellectual to plain PDs
the mini and main project days..
my regular presence in bus bay from first year onwards though I've always walked home
walking back home on the half tarred - half clay road

Flocking

2009-05-22T08:33:00.001-07:00

Firefox is the best browser in web-world for me and I've been a faithful follower since the day I first installed it. I've never looked back at IE or more recently Chrome after that, unless the webpage demanded it (some sites are still designed to be supported only in IE!).

Then came one day, last week when I happened to see Flock in action. Though it's built on the Firefox engine, the browser has considerably improved features for social networking. The browser is made for the profile. If you sign in to the same computer into email or social networks everyday, this is the browser you should surely check out.

Some of the features I liked were:
* support for gmail, facebook, digg, twitter, blogging etc
* feeds
* media streaming
* update alerts for all of the above
* integration of these features without making much fuss
* Drag and drop support for pics. I draged and dropped that picture directly into this from browser!

On the other side,
* I lost some valuble browsing space in the top due to additional tab
* tried using small icons option as in firefox, but the buttons turned out to be uncontrollably small
* for auto-login, the passwords came up in saved passwords list (I'd used remember me option in firefox. So I never saved important passwords in browser)
* this has forced me to use master password option

Improvement suggestions:
* make it sleeker both at the top and bottom
* integrate gchat instead of facebook chat
* make seperate password list for auto-sign in into features.

Happy flocking everyone..

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Finalest University Exam

2009-05-21T06:48:00.000-07:00

I could write a whole story about the Kerala University and it's exams. But one thing I give credit to this institution is the survival skill it builds in students. Otherwise how would I be able to cooly write out a blog on the eve of the exam with modules remaining to study.

Over the years I had noticed a considerable rise in my blogging activity around exam time. It hasn't been much different this time. The only difference being though I'd been writing blogs in ma mind, couldn't jot it down here due to acute lack of time. I'm hoping to make up for that by this one just before the first exam.

So what makes KU exams special? Is it the way in which every time the question paper surprises us by including topics we haven't covered. Or is it the unasuming regularity by which important topics get skipped while short question from some nick and corner become an essay. And sometimes it surprises us by presenting such an exam which chalenges us and we're left wondering why it doesn't happen always.

Anyhow, after passing 7 semesters I'm still as 'not' confident as ever while attempting the first exams of getting a pass mark. All depends on several factors and though our knowledge contributes the lion share, it might often turn out that grace of person correcting could be the deciding factor. Thus let me be on my kneels with a white flag and olive branch held out to that person without a face.

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Now playing: Jars of Clay - Fade to Grey
via FoxyTunes

Bichar Kai Bhi

2009-05-10T10:05:00.000-07:00

I had the belief that when the ball starts rolling, everything would always fall into place. After Dhwani, that belief has been kinda shattered. So when going on a tour with just half the class, and more importantly some of my friends absent, I'm more than sceptical. But I'm giving ma belief one more chance.

The last few months in college has been.. confusing. Din't expect I had to use such a word. Why confusing? So much happened in such a short time.. I'm not talking about what happened outside. It's about what happened inside.. Inside my mind. All the time, I thought I'd grown into someone having clarity in thought and action. But everything seems back to square one. I'm unsure more than ever.. about life after college.. abt life in college now, and the worst - I'm not able to know myself, how I feel about people and other things around me.

Now, I would've liked to look back at each tour and write about it. But the pain inside prevents me from doing it. Letting go is the hardest part of falling in love. I wonder whether I've reached that moment.

and i'd give it all away
just to have somewhere to go to
give it all away
to have someone to come home to
- Linkin Park - My December
via FoxyTunes

Another list

2009-05-10T07:46:00.000-07:00

Making lists in mind and on paper is all I've been doing for some days. The list of main project things.. list of money I owe.. list of tables, figures, crushes and what not..

Here goes another list of the times when we went outta town with ma friends. The reason for listing it down is pretty obvious on the day before we're planning to go out on our final class tour.

1. 1st yr tour - Ooty
2. Ragam '06
3. S3 tour - Kodai, Hogainakal
4. Bhavah '07, TKM
5. Ragam '07
6. S5 tour - Pondy, Bang, Mysore, Goa
7. Shaastra '07
8. Ragam '08
9. Shaastra '08
10. Resonance '08, GEC Trissur
11. Ragam '09

PS. The list in itself is meaningless

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Now playing: Five For Fighting - Nobody
via FoxyTunes

Sleepin' with eyes wide open

2009-05-04T07:52:00.000-07:00

Having very much less sleep, being half starved and mental exhaustion can take you to another level like I am now. You can't feel the tiredness coz.. coz you cant feel anything. Everything seems to move in slow motion when you are the actual one who's slow. And then slowly it creeps in. Your head feels heavy, eyesight has a weird blur and you just feel the loud music on your ears drone away in the distance.

I woke up on a sandy beach running naked into the sun
then up a hill from where i fell..

Falling down and down I smelt the breeze
It was sweet, it was funny.. N2O?

The friction on my shirt burns it up
And I cry Rake it in!

Then somebody pulled me out of the tunnel
Somebody I knew not, there wasn't a face

I touched down on the clouds
It was soft, it was salty and black

Then down it fell and me along with it
The wet ground coming ever closer

I closed my eyes shut and waited
Until my brain crashed on the floor to wake up.

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Now playing: Imogen Heap - Rake It In
via FoxyTunes

Breathin' on..

2009-04-27T07:40:00.000-07:00

A month ago, I'd told myself I'd start thinking about college ending only after Dhwani. The last few hours of Dhwani suddenly left a void in me. As expected, nostalgia caught up with me and I went around in circles, kicking empty plastic bottles in an empty playground at the middle of night.

I haven't been able to blog as much as I would've liked about the last few days in college. So hoping to make up with short blogs.. much like the twittering has caught up with ma classmates.

Had our demo week last week. Sadly couldn't attend the first 3 days. That took a lot out of the fun but completely enjoyed the last two days.. Black, Pandi, School, Gunda and to top it all the Cross day. Awesome! Final years kii..

Finishing off the kutti blog with some usual philosophy:
There's a saying that each individual is an island. I've never believed so. Each of our lives are so intertwined with those around us that even if we sever off some branches, so many remain to hold us together.

Bucket List

2009-04-08T10:15:00.000-07:00

It's nearly complete.. Here are the completed ones..

1. Friends for lifetime.
2. Perform in front of 1000+ crowd as part of a Rock band.
3. Fulfill my childhood dream to make robots
4. Be the secretary of a club which I’m sure has a great future
5. Get a sub-50 GATE rank in S6.
6. Get a tech-job.
7. Have a serious crush on someone.
8. Watch two Dhwanis

Dhwani Eve

2009-04-02T12:27:00.001-07:00

I must have taken the decision to go home many time this evening... Almost went halfway back once. But something kept me pulling back to college. I couldn't go home feeling so. Feeling uneasy on the eve of the biggest cultural fest in kerala.

The eve of Dhwani brought me memories of the day before LaFest. Though in turmoil, we'd all have some kinda feeling of satisfaction then. That was lacking in my heart now. So I stayed back for some more time. That's when the lighting on Golden Walkway went on. Beautiful would be understatement. Blue lights lay on either side of the steps, from top to bottom. It was a treat to our eyes. Bino and me spend some time photographing it. The kanikonna afront the parking lot is in full bloom. But at night, under the sodium vapour light, they were like golden bangles hanging down from the tree. Wish I had a camera with me...

Still finding no reason to stay back, I decided to return back again. Met Sasi, Rizu and Sakhavu on the way, then Gokul. They were on the way to have dinner at Alif. I joined them. Some of them were returning back to college. I couldn't resist the temptation again. Returning back, we went to see the work at Dhwani stage. Arkees team were still well awake and working on it. Then we spend some time in Union room with whoever were left there. It was finally time to go home. When we returned the college was silent. The lights decorating Walkway were off. But we knew there were still people working in some rooms and near Dhwani stage... all to make tomorrow a better day. I felt happy inside.. this was what I was waiting for.

Dhwani Update

2009-03-19T09:48:00.000-07:00

Just 15 days to go. Dhwani's almost upon us and preparations have gone up another gear. All the events have been finalised and rules decided. Most importantly, dhwani has gone online : www.dhwani09.com. Expect changes and updates in the website soon. Keep yourself tuned in regularly.

On the sposorship side there's good news this week. Star Flow International has agreed to be the main sponsor. Our series exams are done, and I can happily go back to musing about Dhwani. In other college news, the work on Golden Walkway's almost done. Just in case someone (including CETians) is wondering what that is, here is a pic..

The new entrance and walkway looks cool...

Back to Dhwani.. So the natural question is What's new? and we say everything and nothing. You want the euphoria, the crowd and the olam back? It's still there. But what happened to the events? Where's my village of music? It's gone and reinvented itself! The events and rules this time around are more what you can say.. people friendly. It's not a just competion for the cultural brilliant, but a festival for the enthusiasts. So join in the fun!

April 3,4,5,6.. Be There

PS: I've uploaded an HQ .png version of Dhwani logo with transparency at Logo for anyone interested to do the photoshop.

HOTC Ch 6: Of Nothing Much At All..

2009-03-15T09:46:00.000-07:00

S6 was as short a semester as semesters could be. I thought there wouldn't be much to write about it, but I'm wrong. Time doesn't define the longevity of college life. It seems to fly fast as a bullet while living it, but we had in fact been part of many events during that short time.

As always, the previous semester dragged on into half of the next leading to s6 starting late into the second month of 2008. The next Ragam was upon us. But this time we decided to hand the reins over to our junior batch. Taken that Ragam's usually our unofficial tour, this time it was more so with half of our class ending up there. Our group made a breakthrough video titled "The Mask Within". The making so much fun with Maadan (in pic) being tied to the chair, tortured at will and left under the spotlight while we discussed the story. Those were the times when my parents had gone to US to visit my sis. Interesting times being the man of da house :-). Though most results didn't go CET's way this time around, we won first in choreography. Had a jolly good time too.

Back in Trivandrum, it was the season of tech fests. Robotics being our forte, we shelled out another robot from the jigsaw pieces. We had and still have a collection of Aluminium kit which would make any aakri kada proud. The competition hosted by SCT had a problem statement in which the bot had to seek and put off a candle. We cracked it! the only team to do so, and won the prize money. It was our first robotics prize and we duly spend it and choreography prize money on great food from Zam Zam.

Pretty much like Dhwani, there are events in college which are held only once every 4 years. No, I'm not talking about college day. We witnesses our first Electronite that semester. The events were of good standard. Our video was displayed to much criticism ;-). We (Mosqui, Malu and me) performed some songs, though majority of the crowd had left for some reason.

College life went along it's usual way. Looking back at the photos, the scores of hours we spent in pancharakkadu were as enjoyable as these 'events'. In fact many of our fruitful ventures had it's root there. I'm getting nostalgic over here.. The final sem trauma. Back to the rest of story then..

Mini tours come along in unexpected ways. Who would've expected us to take half the day off our Industrial Visit to go to aruvikkara. The dam and area is small, but we'd much fun simply walking around. By the way, the IV was to Keltron something' centre near aruvikkara. After that, the semester was getting tighter each day and mini project turning out to be a monster for many.

The CGPU kicked into action towards the latter half of the semesters. It organised orientation programs in Loyola College. Those programs had varying effect on the nature of the class. It was an enriching experience for all who participated. Personally, my biggest gain was getting to know some people in my batch who I never knew existed.

Placements.. hmm you could write a whole story about it, and the first chapter would be Cosmic Circuits. That story's already told in another post. Tensions were high in the first few days and could be felt in pulse of the class. They calmed down as days went on. Maybe the companies had already seen the recession clouds looming close by...the season didn't go as well as expected. For once, the university exams took backstage and we were deep into getting ourselves placed before the rains came down on CET.-JFx

Ask not what Dhwani can do for you

2009-03-09T08:34:00.000-07:00

We're are entering the final few weeks of our college life. Time for nostalgia to creep in. Idle time wasted away reminiscing those wonderful days. But wait. It's not yet time to throw up your hands and say it's over. There are still weeks to come and they're gonna be action packed... all thanks to Dhwani.

For, when a million notes blend in cadence , there shall be one.... and only one symphony ---''the symphony on palette '' of Dhwani !

We had our Dhwani '09 Curtain Raiser few days back. To be honest I was a li'l disappointed by the function and the response. Anyway that's past and it has given me (and hopefully many others) inspiration to make this Dhwani the best cultural fest in South India.

This is also an appeal to all those CETians waiting in the shadows thinking it's the Dhwani committee's Dhwani. No! It is CET's Dhwani and as it gets louder each day, we'll need all of you to reach out and scream at the top of your lungs so the Dhwani would be heard afar and colleges around India would come in search for her.

Being "Somethin' Else"

2009-02-15T10:35:00.000-08:00

Hard to believe that it's almost been a year since we performed as a complete band on stage. It was at Aagneya '08 (organised by Barton hill coll) when we did Dream On amongst other songs. The aftermath was pretty gloomy affair when we decided we wouldn't be going for that year's Ragam 'cuz it was sure to become unfruitful. This Valentine's day it felt like music has been given a new lease of life. Though music had been as ever inseparable from me, I missed performing on stage many a time during the past year.

The whole experience was not stretched out and planned and that was the beauty of it. The band composition itself had much change by including three vivacious juniors - Renjith, Hari and Smitha. Renjith was in the team to perform at Ragam '07 but couldn't make it due to illness. Anyway this time it was different with four vocalists, three guitarists and Malu on the keys. You might be wondering that wouldn't add up to 6. That's cause we'd two guitarists who would sing (No! It's not Mosqui, the other two).

The songs told a story - The feeling of falling in love but never expressing it in You're Beautiful. Bearing with the fact that she'll never be with him in Here without you. The helplessness and disappointment on her death in Goodbye My Lover and finally reconcilation through her memories in Pyar ke Pal. That's the story never told by Somethin' Else.

Another first for me was making the harmony work. We'd tried it various times but never in such magnitude. Having the luxury of 4 vocalists enabled us to even try 3 parts! We'd practice sessions in the evening last week. It was real fun.. Getting back to what I really loved gave me and the others immense pleasure. Hari, Renjith and Smitha had their funny bones in the right place too. Smitha, the junior and Mosqui our eternal ironbox bore the brunt of most theppu. Amongst all that fun we did create some quality music too. Though the results didn't go our way for the competition in Mascot Hotel, the real prize for me came much before that.

We practiced in the museum under the tree for some time before the actual event. Felt so happy seeing people around actually enjoying it, though I believe very few had a clue what we were singing. That made the day for me. Cheers to "Somethin' Else"! Hope I get to perform as the group again.. Dhwani?

Top 20 songs

2009-02-06T07:02:00.000-08:00

Music is something I can't live without. These are the songs that I love the most. It's hard to differentiate them from many other songs which are close to my heart, but somehow I limited the list to these 20. The list is not in any particular order.

The Fray - How to save a life
Counting Crows - Round Here
Switchfoot - Only Hope
Jewel - Foolish Games
Poets of the Fall - Someone Special
Rihanna - Unfaithful
t.A.T.u - Gomenasai
Tracy Chapman - Change
Shaastra Theme song
Jal - Ik Din Aaye Ga (Slow)
Maroon 5 - She Will Be Loved
Backstreet Boys - Siberia
Sona Mohapatra - Abhi Nahin Aana
Nelly Furtado - Try
Linkin' Park - My December
Call - Bichar Ke Bhi
Evanescence - My Immortal
Fuzon - Khamaj
Regina Spector - The Call
James Blunt - Goodbye My Lover

Confessions 2 (The letter) - The final page

2009-02-05T05:46:00.001-08:00

I walked out of the house. I knew I was leaving my mind behind. It was difficult to make a choice, but he has just made it easier. As I walked on towards the bus stop, I felt the handbag on my shoulder getting heavier. Was it his weeping heart in there or my guilt growing larger? I couldn't resist anymore. I slipped my hand inside and took out the letter. It said..

"You might not remember the last time I saw you. It was during our farewell party. I'd something valuble in my hands that day. Something I should have given you. I hadn't it was not mine to keep - the words in that letter I held. I almost gave it to you, but then you were holding someone else's hand. That piece of paper might have turned to dust on the party floor but the words still remain with me. I realised only yesterday that holding on to that which wasn't mine has led to me being so now. I'm giving it to you now, again.

Dated: Ten Years ago
You might not know me, but I've loved you for four years. It's time to say goodbye. Where you least expect there's always someone special. I've always wished I'd been that someone for you. - JFx

Life often doesn't give you second chances, but I've been given one. I want to add one line to the letter. May I call you back into my life?"

I lifted my eyes off the letter and looked at the handbag that hung by my shoulder as if it was some kind of tabooed artefact. Hesitatingly, I opened it and took out a piece of paper. It was torn at the edges. It seemed crumbled but had been neatly straightened out and folded. I carefully opened that. Yes! the letters matched.. I couldn't stop now, but answered his question with a silent tear. The teardrop blotted the final word - life.

Days later: When was the last time I saw him? Time flies by in life. But there are moments in life you never forget. They are so clear in your mind..as fresh a memory as it happened just moments ago. Ah, there he comes..

Confession 2 (Page 3)

2009-02-05T05:45:00.001-08:00

She sat down on the bed beside me. Her hair slowly floated around in the cool wind of the morning. The warmth of the sun was creeping in throught the windows.

"What's you plan?", she enquired smiling.
"You", I replied.
She laid back on the bed and closed her eyes. They looked calm. The nervousness I saw in it yesterday has completely left. I heard a music ringing in my ears. It was coming from somewhere near. She jumped out of the bed.
"That's my phone.", she replied to my puzzled look.

She went to the next room and got the phone out her handbag. I felt too lazy to get out of bed. Anyway she was coming back to where she sat. I saw deep lines of worry burrowing on her face. Something wasn't right. She tried to put up a brave face as she cut the call.

"There's a problem", she started.
"Eh?"
"The call was from Credence Hospital. My hus is admitted there. He's had a drinking problem. He went there for checkup due to stomach ache yesterday. It seems he has liver cancer."

I broke the silence that ensued "You should be going.", I said
"This is your problem, it has always been.." her words trailed away as I cut in angrily.
"Am I the one with the problem? You are the one who's had a broken marriage. You're the one who lost her son. You are the one who's run away and slept with a-" I stopped suddenly realising I'd gone too far. The silence that followed was the longest in my life.

"I'm going", she said softly. I understood.

As she walked into the adjacent room to redress I looked upon the pen that lay on the table beside my bed. I started doing what I should have done ten years ago. Five minutes later she returned. Her eyes told she'd been crying. I folded the letter I had written and held it out to her. She put it in her carrybag and walked out..

Confessions 2 (Page 2)

2009-02-05T05:43:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was the best day of my life. Ten years I'd been wandering aimlessly, without fame, shame or anything that would make me more than excited to say "Oh that". Suddenly I felt like I've a purpose to live the moment I saw her. She poured out her heart over the butterscotch milkshake we ordered. It was the warmth of her heart that melt the ice cubes. She began:

"I don't know where to begin. So much has happened after you left me"

Questions swarmed my mind. Why does she even remember me, let alone believe I've left her! But I let her continue.

"You remember the boyfriend I had when we left college? Both of us got placement in the same company and it was time to start a new life. We decided to get married right after college. It was after I got pregnant that our relationship took a turn for the worse. Fights became a common entity. Though we had fought before marriage, I'd never felt so disconnected to him. Something was missing in our relationship - my unwillingness to belong to him.

Right after my son was born, I got the divorce notice. I was fighting a losing battle from then on. I... I lost my.." her voice trailed off. Her tired eyes had lost the spark I saw fourteen years before. They were slowly filling with tears. The blue eyes looked like a deep ocean about to overflow.

I reached out my hand to hold hers. This was my first time I touched her. Her hands felt small in mine. In between silent sobs, she managed to say "I've a confession. I've always loved you."
I was completely shaken. "Why... why didn't you ever tell me?"
She turned her head aside and said "Why didn't you?"
I'd no answer.

She turned her head back towards me. This time I saw the spark had returned to her eyes. She told me how she'd liked me from the moment she saw me.. how she noticed me looking at her in the corridors.. how my presence had been the silent comfort during sad times and encouragement during the good ones. It was like traveling back in time. Living every moment again, moment's that we'd lost. I gathered some courage and invited her home. She agreed...

It's today. The bed seems to have been slept on by more than one. But no one's around. Funny I can't remember anything of what happened after she agreed to come to my home. Was it just a dream? Na. There she comes wearing my shirt. She says with a wicked smile "Oh you're back to blogging again?"

Confession 2 (Page 1)

2009-02-05T05:41:00.000-08:00

Disclaimer: The following is a work of fiction and any resemblance to characters and incidents in real life are purely coincidental.

When was the last time I saw her? Time flies by in life. But there are moments in life you never forget. They are so clear in your mind..as fresh a memory as it happened just moments ago. It was the batch farewell party and I couldn't take my eyes off her, I never could. It had been like that for 4 years.. the best of my life.

When was the first time I saw her?
"Hey you! come here" I turned my head around, being careful to keep looking down and not look in the eyes of my caller.
I slowly walked up to him.
"What's your name?", he asked.
"John"
"Don't you have a father?" he inquired with a mocking laugh
"John F Xavier" I replied.
"Describe her"
I turned to look at the person standing next to me. She was about my shoulder high. I started to open my mouth when she lifted up her face to look at me. The only thing I saw was the untold helplessness in her deep blue eyes. They were beautiful.

I walked to my class wishing her to be in it. She wasn't there. Destiny's playing dice with me as usual. I exhausted all the contacts I could gather in the college. By the end of first day, I found out which branch she was in and more importantly, her name. That evening, I went to the canteen with my friends. After the snack, we waited for our transportation in the bus bay. Then I saw her again. She was more beautiful than in the morning. I became a regular in the bus bay from then on.

It was just the beginning. I watched her for four years. Every time she walked through the corridor. The times when she laughed aloud or cried silently. Her first love - the hot senior. Their break-up. The guy who consoled her and became her second boyfriend. Her love for chocolates and ice-cream. The tragic death of her father. I knew everything about her but didn't know her. She never talked to me, ever.

Thinking back, she was pretty close to her boyfriend by the time we passed out of college. They must've got married. I never inquired about her to anyone afterwards. It was time to move on.

I've been on the same job for the past 10 years. Boring is the least you can say about it. It goes on and on until yesterday I got a postcard. "Meet me at 10, Desert Mist" Even after 10 years, I could instantly recognise the handwriting. I couldn't sleep the night and after 24 long hours now I am waiting for her. I'd always waited for her..

Here she comes. I can recognise her gait from a distance. She walks into the ice-cream parlour and finds me sitting beside the corner table. I can't take my eyes of her. The feeling's same as the first time I saw her. My heart warms as her beautiful lips part to utter the words-"Stop blogging, I've lots to talk."

Let the echoes roar

2009-01-23T21:25:00.000-08:00

It's been a long journey and it's almost at it's end. I don't remember how long it's been on the planning board. But I remember in the higher classes we rued the lack of our second footbal ground. The budget runs into crores it's said and this year it's almost reached completion.. Our school Auditorium. Looks awesome!

December '06.....................................................................January '08

School Day '08.........................................................................School Day '09

CBOT

2009-01-11T03:07:00.000-08:00

Trying to write the seminar report is like picking up a piece of seed you'd left behind after eating the fruit, and cleaning it up only to find there's no more fruit left in it to lick up.. It bloody hell not only hurts to think back to how you made the seminar work, but also makes you realise that you should have finished it when you were actually interested in that topic.

Every day begins with the same question. "So why don't you get it over with. It's just a matter of hours." But one thing I've discovered about myself (don't know if I was like that always) is that if I'm not inspired to do something, I'll probably never put my heart into doing it. It's the same for everyone, but I'm turning out to a worst case. On the contrary, I could spend days on things I'm interested in.

The sole purpose of this post being to remind myself not to put the reminder on the mob to start doing some work! in snooze mode. Tringg.. the bomb goes of.

CBOT - Control Based Object Tracking

Introduction.

Oops wrong place... cya thn..

PS. Still not started.. maybe I'll end up writing one more blog before starting..

you me and i

2009-01-09T23:15:00.000-08:00

When you have got time to waste, there are some things you stumble upon. Internet is the best place to waste time. Wiki's one such place when you are academically inclined. But when you are so lazy to read real stuff, there are some sites to that could humour you, like XKCD and Explosm.

Then somehow I stumbled upon google trends. It gives some interesting results for the keywords you throw at it. Here's and interesting plot: you, me, i

Interesting things to notice: you overtook i in late 2006. You me and i had an anomolous peak in November 2007. I wonder what those mean... Upon comparison with each other, Peru tops the list when ranked by 'you', New Zealand tops when ranked by 'me'and Denmark in the third case. India makes the Top 10 cut only when ranked with 'i'.

Long Drives

2008-12-25T10:11:00.001-08:00

Since the time I got my hands on the driver's license one thing that has always thrilled me is long drives. I'm always excited the night before such drives. Tomorrow we're about to go on such a drive to Ekm. Driving with the music on and windows down.. The cool air breezing around in the early morning, the sweating towards the noon when windows go back up and AC's turned on..

Tomorrow's likely to have more of the second though, cuz I'm told we're going to start at 8:30 am. Anyway it's going to be fun cuz the driver's seat is always the best view on road. The road leads forward. Don't be harsh on the accelerator lest you may lose control. Don't pull back the feet either, cuz there are places to go, people to see and not much time to waste.

Merry Christmas to everyone! and a Happy New Year..
This might be my last blog in a really eventful year..

PS: I'm celebrating the third anniversary of Blogging.
Cheers to everyone who's stumbled upon this site and found it useless..

Post DC

2008-12-20T09:37:00.000-08:00

A collection of discontinuous thoughts:

The exam was criminally tough for me. Not for the first time I'm left praying for a pass mark.

Loyolites never say goodbye. So a lot us met up after a year and continued along our usual conversations.. the football match.. the dinner at azad.. Had a great time.

I'd given more priority for higher studies than a job after BTech. But now I'm starting to think of taking the job offer. It's not that I've lost interest in studies. But it's some kinda intuitive thought arising from the current economic scenario forcing people out of jobs. In doubt again..

DC

2008-12-18T08:46:00.000-08:00

*Plz dont read this entry*

I know that without the internet i wouldn't be able to type this out to the world now.. But does that mean we've to study how it works? Been reading and reading the whole William Stallings book for more than 3 days. Everything still seems a blur to me. I hope the Data Communication exam would be easy. If otherwise, there's every chance I might give up during the exam.

No idea why certain numbers keep revolving around my head
25 803.3 232 803.11 .. i wonder what all they mean..

Current to do list:
high
main project - god knows wht'll happen to it
high
hack the dcf to access blocked sites (to install antivirus)
high
the hobbit - i'm taking longer than lotr to finish this book
med
Robotics - yippee!
med
jane eyre - where's that book btw?
low
pride and prejudice - er what?
low
other books.. - i wish
low
Movies - not seeing enuff of 'em

HOTC Ch 5: Step Back to Ponder

2008-12-13T22:19:00.001-08:00

I've lost count of how many times I've thought whether it's time I should put this chapter down in HOTC. I've often pondered whether 'some' happenings in S5 was a step back in our college career. But no, they were indeed the times we stepped back to ponder, to be better.

We shifted (college policy) into a new class, but this time around none of us were happy. The class is a wildlife sanctuary - no I'm not talkin about us. During our stay in it, we must've atleast seen 3 generations of Pravukal. Any love for pravu would be over after a year in it. They made nests in the roof ventilators, trained the little ones proffessionally over the ceiling fans and shit (pardon me for offensive language) on our already cramped benches. Nice situation to be in when you're bored by lectures and pondering whether anything's coming your way from the sky. Not much problem afterall, cuz we spent more hours outside than inside. :-D.

Moving onto the other species in the class: We made the most of what we had, sat on benches, jumped over them to move about and concentrated more on..not studies. Maveli arrived early in CET as usual (the real one, not our staff advisor). That years onam celebration didn't have the verve of previous year. Many had gone home and hence participation was less. That didn't dampen the spirits and we had a nice time walking around for onakazhchakal.

As soon as college resumed after onam vacation, planning started for next tour. All of us were really pumped up reminiscing the superb tour we had the year before. But from the beginning the tour was doomed. Two opposing parties came up vouching for the right to conduct the tour. Cold wars came up as both sides refused to let go. Uncertainty continued right up to two days before the tour and finally one side conditionally ceded.

Thus we started off on a tour crisscrossing South India. First to pondicherry, then Bangalore, Mysore, Goa and back to Trivandrum. The atmosphere was kinda subdued on the first night of journey. Pondicherry is a nice place and we had fun at the beach. But the accomodation left much to be debated, especially for gals. That was put up in discussion and discussions about such things during tour is not a good sign. As a group, we had fun throughout the tour. But elsewhere, things didn't improve going onto next place. Efforts were put into force and the tour seemed to be moving for the better. But the final few days proved otherwise. Controversies that would not be forgotten in our college life, that too involving some of my best friends.. I'd better stop at that.

It took a while for the atmosphere to calm down. We didn't have much time 'cuz Shaastra was coming up and this year we were determined to participate in the robotics event. The robo event we took up was Get a Grip. During the first few days of preparation, we understood that we'd hugely underestimated the magnitude of the problem. Finally after reading the problem statement properly, we got off to work on the robo. Aluminium sheets framed our days and dreams during night. Measurements went awry time after time. The whole thing was built and rebuilt and redesigned and rebuilt. I concentrated a huge amount of my time on a circuit which wasn't used ultimately. Few days and sleepless nights later, our robo was still incomplete [did i mention we had stuff and plan to build 2 robos?] - without even proper motors - before departing to IITM.

The Shaastra days still remains some of the most enjoyable days I've had. ur job on the bot wasn't over even after reaching IITM. The final touch took the whole night before the event. I was put in charge of controlling the bot and to my surprise it went smoothly. But tragedy struck in the form of our slightest misjudgement. The blocks we'd to load and unload got stuck onto the foam tape we attached on our gripping mechanism. We took the anticlimax in our stride and enjoyed the next few days to the fullest... Spencer Plaza, Tiffany's, CCD, chatting on hostel roof after 2 am, Ah I can't wait to go for next Shaastra.

We returned back to the boredom of classes and shut down our grey matters for the next few weeks. That year some of us went for IFFK - awesome movies. University exam came unanounced as usual and I don't remember having christmas celebrations. There was nothing much to do in class other than making fancy hairdos and waiting for the KU to postpone exams enough number times so that they get to schedule it right before the biggest hollywood release of the year.

-JFx

Coming up: Ch 6 - Of Nothing Much At All..

HOTC Ch 4: The Ragam Story

2008-12-13T22:18:00.002-08:00

S4 was a short semester, but didn't lack any of the unpredictability that makes college life so much fun. Every semester we start off bunking class (don’t blame us, teachers wouldn't have got the timetable ready by then) to watch a movie and this sem wasn't any different. Thus began another memorable chapter in HOTC.

Let me begin with a correction to HOTC Ch 3. Bhavah actually happened in S4. It was one of the first events in that sem. Shortly after that we'd the accreditation fiasco. Dressed up as terrorists to kill the dust, we cleaned the whole department for the first time in years. The pond in the middle of dept garden (yes we have a dept garden!) could be used by the archaeological dept to study prehistoric organisms. The toil didn't go unrewarded as we were promised the forbidden fruit - sessionals. Accreditation gave birth to many clubs unheard of till then. One of them was the robotics club of which we became the unregistered members. On display were the finest of our creations - Innak and Aruk.

February breezed through and accreditors awarded us an A. That year tech fests by individual depts were discouraged. So ISTE put up their hand to organise Aavishkar '07, a technical fest conducted by the CETians, for the rest of the world (supposedly). On the day of choosing event managers, a band of Applied turned up (thanks to KK again). Our class ended up having half of the main event managers. I was in charge of Physics Paper Presentation of which I remember not. The interesting events for us were AdZap and Industrial Village. Industrial village is the story about AS coming to the rescue of a hapless 'lady' event manager. We had a flawless design but the team with a multiplex in the middle of a huge lake in an industrial village won the event. Another memory worth remembering is the romantic Bach falling in love with R's eyes during the best manager event. Iceman and AS won prize in problem solving event that day.

Even while Aavishkar was going on, preparations had begun for Ragam '07. This year, we were determined to make CET presence felt at Ragam. As 2nd years, our batch took the initiative and intensive preparations for all events started at least a week before the mega event. Our band, which already had its share of break-ups, patched up and prepared for Western Orchestra.

The journey to NITC was so much fun with all of us together in the train enjoying our off-season class tour. I can still remember Appu and me chasing the runaway train in a station we had got down at 2 am to have to have a cup of coffee. The first day was slightly disappointing personally as our band didn't qualify for the finals. That was soon overshadowed by the amazing result in dance. It was only the beginning. By the final day we'd won most prizes by any college other than NIT. The prizes were for Street Play, Mime, Eastern Orchestra and many others. I'm happy to say that again Applied played a hand in most of those events; CET spirit scored above all that. The celebrations in NIT didn't last long because tradition predicted a fight. So we made a hurried escape back to railway station. The Ragam story is a truly remarkable one - one that should be taught to future batches as inspiration for following a dream, striving to achieve it and finding pure ecstasy on reaching the summit.

Even semesters has it's share of other events too like College day, LH day, Nuit 'd Emmaus, and MH day. I remember the College day particularly 'coz I'd one more rock performance. We must not have gained much fan following that day judging by the crowd response :-). But for me every performance has been a great experience and will always be.

Lastly, a few words about the club houses that sprang up in town those days. The first one is the famed PancharaKaadu. For years, the Acacia forest in CET between LH and main entrance had been the abode of lovers seeking privacy amongst the beautiful shades of those trees. We made it our club house #1. Boring teachers didn't worry us anymore, neither did the unfortunate souls who'd cut through PK. Club house #2: Madhavan Sir's tuition class. The previous semester taught us that electronic circuits can be interesting. What made it more fun were the innumerable days when we ended up either chatting away or went our club house #3 after trying our luck at the first circuit. #3: who said Trivandrum lacks a hang out place for youth. You have it right in the middle of town, under the shade of large, sticky-red-fruit bearing tree (dunno its name). Museum sessions on that lawn were the most enjoyable for me. These club houses brought the best brains in town together to discuss world issues, college life and PDs (ParaDooshanam).

Towards the end of semester, it was time for our dear final years to bid goodbye to our campus. The demo week was really funny. When it was over, we were so gloomy that it felt like losing someone close to us forever. We still miss you..

- JFx

Coming up: Ch 5 - Step Back to Ponder

HOTC Ch 3: A Cultural Awakening

2008-12-13T22:18:00.001-08:00

A new semester and a new classroom. We finally had a place in the electronics department. Though our class had a feeling of being out of place in the silent electronics dept, the new classroom's strategic position allayed our fears. The classroom had windows opening to the archi dept and the paths to Civil and Electrical depts. As you can imagine, there was continuous entertainment around ;-). Above all that, we found a new goddess - 'Sou' as we called her. No other senior have got so many dedicated fans in a single class she does. Her legend lives on in our mobile phone themes.

S3 was a semester of cultural and other events. The first in line was the sophomores' day, codenamed Miraglo. Though many connotations grew out of the name, the event was a success. Gokul, being the convener propelled our class into active participation in Miraglo. Mime, dance, rock show, Pulikali, Compering- you name it- we had applied colour in every event and organising committee. That was also proof that we were indeed a cultural force in college. The other major cultural event in the semester was Dhwani. It still remains the best Dhwani I've seen and the only one. Rivers of colourful birds didn't deter us from the job at hand. Once again we played our hand in organising the mega event.

One of the most memorable event that sem was our class tour. It's undoubtedly the best tour I went on. For once, we set apart the groupisms and celebrated it. Campfires and the bus turned into disco floors were not a single soul dared to sit. Wild adventures into mountain terrain, mischievous antics and interesting controversies - the tour had it all.

It was also the semester when we chartered unknown territories in the field of tech - Robotics. Thanks to Baachi, we were inspired into a field that both interested us all and gave us an 'academic cover'. Our first attempt, the soccer bots Innak and Aruk gave us third place in the competition held at TKM - Bhavah.

One of other things that comes to my mind is the Chicken pox epidemic, that engulfed our class. There were many more events I've missed mentioning. S3 was one of the longest semesters we had with University exams split up before an after Christmas (damn KU). With lots of fun and still lots of free time, it surely is among the top in my semester rating.

Coming up: Ch 4 - The Ragam Story

HOTC Ch 2: 'Dare' Remo Jayan

2008-12-13T22:15:00.002-08:00

That Christmas was the season of dares and crushes. Every other boy had at least a small crush on someone. As the 9 gals in our class wouldn't suffice, there were even crushes in other classes. Though I'm not much informed about the gals' crushes, some of the names have surfaced.

I don't remember who introduced the dare idea, but it must've originated in the LH. Anyway each person had to dare another to perform something in class. That's whe Jayan got a dare from someone (Later revealed as Sreekesh). He was to propose to V, Remo style. His friends added an additional dare to do it in front of Jaseela Ma'am (a guest teacher ;-).

Jayan, who already had a crush on V couldn't resist the offer. He came in the period after lunch. Jaseela Ma'am was standing in front of the class, about to start teaching. Jayan said " I love you, V" and gave her a 'Remo' kiss in front of the whole class with teacher watching.

We hadn't realised then, the importance of that moment in the HOTC. V was shocked and reacted with an outburst. Jayan was both furious and heartbroken. Our group united for a common cause for the first time - to support Jayan (avane thekkan :-). AS, Varun, Hari etc. moved to our side to join in the fun and thus the incident brought our gang together. Jayan on the other hand found a partner in crime by accusing (not completely falsely) me of having a crush on V. In the following months, U and V became close friends and what we call a 'pair'.

To summarise other relationships, Jisha broke with Jaleel and became friends with Gokul. Nothing came out of Gokul's crush on Remya. LnT-Gemo melodrama continued in the background with most of the class (excluding me and some others) unaware.

The college sprang alive with events like genesis, techfest (Dyuthi), our first class tour, Ragam '06 and the election. Those were the times when we played dumbcharades and cricket in class. Cricket ended in Principal's room below us and the dumbcharades made Suraj Baachi. The election revealed for the first time a rift in our class. Two sections in our class were in cold war with each other due to political and other reasons. Thankfully not enough reasons surfaced for a physical fight in our class, but the college was thrown into turmoil. Thus ended S1S2 with university exams approaching.

Coming up: Ch3 - A Cultural Awakening

HOTC Ch1: A Class Apart

2008-12-13T22:15:00.001-08:00

I shifted from mech to applied the next day. College classes hadn't been what I expected. After the immeasurable freedom we had in Loyola, college felt like captivity. The mech class whom I expected to be the most alambu were a disciplined lot then. You can undestand my apprehension in moving to AE&I who are expected to be the second most padippist class in CET. But an hour among them/us changed my views.

The first thing I noticed about the classroom was it's size. High ceiling and large spacious walking and playing area at the back and sides gave it the feel of a small hall rather than a huge classroom. The benches were arranged in 3 columns. Two wide-bench columns to the right and small-bench column at the left. My friend Gokul guided me to one of the small-benches and he sat in the row behind me. My benchmates were Krishnakumar 'KK' Ajithkumar (ya that's one name) and Umesh Malayath. KK was busy taking notes the whole period and Umesh wasn't far behind. "OMG", thought I, but as I turned around realisation came over that the rest of the class was a different picture. The students were having fun - talking, playing etc and if noise level went above limits, the blame went to the adjacent S8 Comsci class. Thus began my life among the applied kidillams.

I migrated between the small benches and the last rows of middle benches in those days. Other than my schoolmates Gokul and Sureannan (then known as Vishnu), I sat alongside and became good friends with Gautham (now Gemo), Mahesh, Baachi (formerly Suraj), Jayasankar 'Jayan', Maadan a.k.a Akhil, KK and Mosqui (what was his name again?). Emmaus boys, Rep Rahul and some others sat in front of us in middle. Most of the right benchers remained unknown to me, though AS (Vishnu AS) was a familiar face from some tuition centre. AS, Varun, Hari super-knae, Ajeesh, Jaleel etc sat in the first two right benches with 'sweet talkin' Ajesh most often occupying leftmost position (for obvious reasons). Sadly, many of those old right benchers still remain unknown to me as friends and I know nothing of their stories.The gals occupied the first row of middle and left benches and still reserves the first row to date.

Our group was in it's formative state then. Spending more time together made us know each other pretty well. In other news, Lakshmi N, Jisha, Ajesh and Jaleel were friends then. Lakshmi Thulasidas (LnT) was one of the few gals who talked with us. Vimina was already crowned the online beauty (better of the lot) of the class, but she gathered only few fans 'coz of her reserved and apparently conservative demeanor. Noone knew how Remya or Simi sounded like (few still know). About academics, KK held the reins over assignments, and thankfully still does. Other than being a constant entertainment in Krishnakutty's class I didn't have much academic achievements then. This fun loving class was completely unaware of the interesting times awaiting them in near future.

Coming up next week: Ch2 - 'Dare' Remo Jayan

History Of The Class- through the eyes of a student

2008-12-13T22:14:00.001-08:00

Foreword

Let me warn you that what is said this is purely not a work of fiction and are true incidents in the past three years of our class. Names have not been changed due to lack of imagination to create so many. Apologies for any mistake in the timeline 'coz I've focused more on the relationship dynamics than getting the time factually correct.

Some free time at my native place gave me the inspiration to write about the joyous years in college. It's fun reliving those moments and memories before they fade away and only the feelings remain.

Preface

It all began one fine afternoon in the |Autumn (October I think) of 2005. I was standing in front of the college office to complete the formalities concerning higher option. A girl stood beside me looking at forms similar to those held by me. I asked her name. 'Jisha', she answered. 'That's four', I counted in my mind the number of of people I knew as I entered the AE&I class of 2005, CET.

Coming up: Ch1 - A Class Apart.

The Way Back Home

2008-12-10T06:16:00.001-08:00

My friend and I got down at the bus stop and we part ways.. My mind was still not at ease after the main project session. I decided to call it a day and let Vienna Teng sing softly at my ears. As if by providence thence came the bus that led back home but via a long road I hadn't taken oft.

Time goes fast if you hurry. This was the verse that I played around for a while in the bus. The drizzle was starting to find in through the windows. I didn't care.. I fact I wished it would continue, like the days we spend in college. Time has it's own speed. It's our mind that goes fast or slow and it's seldom that I get moment like these when I'm able to pause everything for a moment and slow down time such a pace. A pace from which I could both admire the past, accept the present and dont give a **** about the future :-)

I don't want to remember my college days as a blur. Neither do I want to be tied down by the memories. So I try not to slip up on such chances that come by. As I was floating along in such memories something outside suddenly struck me. The walls outside seemed more than familiar. The fact that I hadn't thought that this road led afront ma school filled me with some kind of shame. I hadn't been to school for some months, even though I'm just a stone throw away. Had I been preoccupied with so much thoughts from college that i forgot my dear school? na.. After seeing school it was memories from school that took over. I'm now walking back home.. The drizzle's still there as if to say everything takes it's time; only if you don't hurry.

Early Goodbye..

2007-05-26T10:15:00.000-07:00

I dont think i would be doing much blogging here.. Have moved to the group blog:
AEI Oh You!

Dec 10, 2009:
I'll be putting up ma blogs both here and in AEI Oh You!

As the crow flies..

2007-05-09T03:08:00.000-07:00

Just completed the book..ya i know took too long to finish it, but the blame lies in the series exams causing much discontinuity in my reading schedule. The book has been a refreshing change to my choices of books, movies and songs..the dramatic tragedies. This one was a plain success stories. Though the protogonist had his high and low points, the story thankfully has a happy ending. That helped me in getting over the nostalgia and dampening feeling plaguing my mind over the past few weeks. Hope the bouyancy lasts.

More about the book, storyteller jeffrey has shown his class once again and convinced us that Charlie ultimately made the biggest barrow in the world. The sudden twist towards the end came as a surprise, and renewed my interest in completing the book. Dont know how much a week's fine would cost me, but it was worth reading.

PS. Saw spiderman 3 yesterday. It was disappointing, considering the huge hype before the movie.

Pertaining not to much as i may deem important.

2007-04-06T10:06:00.000-07:00

April 6, 11 pm.
I'm reading 'as the crow flies' by Jeffrey Archer. It's style of narration is interesting. The story moves from the viewpoint of different characters, the intriguing part is that the time periods overlap. So we see the same incidents in atleast two viewpoints. Although my first impression at the beginning of each chapter is 'not again', it still gets my attention. And i dread having to read the next chapter coz it's frm the viewpoint of the negative character. The plot is very simple..rags to riches story but like some one said, in the hands of jeff archer, it becomes an epic story.

SMS chats

2007-04-06T00:30:00.000-07:00

Recently I found out we talk lot of sense/nonsense via sms. So...No questions expected, No explainations given, this one's for you to understand in your own way.

5-6/04/07:
M:There shoould be someone close to you who never appreciates until you are perfect
V:Meaning i'm perfect or what.
M:Meaning either you dont hve anyone close, or a better guess would be there's nothing worth appreciating..;-)

5-6/04/07:
M:There shoould be someone close to you who never appreciates until you are perfect
B:That can be oneself
M:But that would clash with one's ego..detrimental effect..
B:If one has ego, anyways he's not gonna listen to others
M:That is more like an arrogant person..Having ego doesn't necessarily mean he doesn't listen to others ..(my opinion, considering ego as a good thing)
B:Roark was arrogant. Why do i directly go to fountainhead when i hear about ego..
M:Roark crossed the line many times to be arrogant..that's one of his flaws
B:If he hadnt, he wouldn't be in that book. Atleast wouldn't have becoma a bestseller. In our case we'll be just one of the 'the rest of the world' who never wins or never loses. Insignificant. People like drawing kinder for others. It is not to help you. But to keep you in control. It's your opinion to break free (very nicely said, B)
M:Cant think of a counter argument at the moment
B: K
M:Actually didn't He teach us, to do good things not to show others but for yourself..that's ego too.
B:clarify He
M:He as in Jesus
B:so you say ego is good. Or ego can be good or bad?
M:Ego is good, arrogance is bad
B:You know that is wrong. It is not like there are two things ego and arrogance. Arrogance is nearer to practical application. And ego is about the constitution of oneself. Ego affects everything that one thinks and does. Arrogance being one of them. Arrogance is the practical expression of one's ego.(???)
M:I dont know. It's all about how you understand each word...
B:Ah! The defenition.
M:Ya, the defenition..

Far Away

2007-01-31T09:26:00.000-08:00

-A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...(Star Wars,1977)

5..4..3..2..1..I closed my eyes. Though the complete sequence was practised many times before, the real experience is always different. I felt my back go limp as the multi-Gs pulled me back to where I really belonged. Life taught me that you can't attain anything if you dont dare to shoot out from the roots. And shooting out was exactly what I was doing aboard Endeavor II.

Space travel had always been my passion. Being on the first human spaceship to explore out of the Sun-solar system is by no means a little achievement and i perfectly knew i desrved it..after the 10 years training as astronaut in the best academy for space agency training. The only thing that disturbed me was the fact that no one other than me in the whole crew of 10 believed there was actually extraterrestrial life. I believed..

Ah.. the smell of something great cooking in the kitchen. My mind filled with the image of that person who made them...Sir...Sir! I woke up with a jolt. "Where are we", I enquired.
"We are near the outermost part of solar system. We should be getting ready for the hyper-jump"

I knew this was the most dangerous part of our mission. Hyper-jump experiments had the most number of casualities in human history. Though the technology had been perfected over the last few years, it was not completely fool-proof. I being the captain of the space-ship, was entrusted with the responsibilty of guiding the operation.

The mission control module housed at the front end of E2(as i liked to call the ship), had the look of a round-table-conference room. There was a huge telescreen in the middle with the seating arrangement set around it. Each space-pilot had his own controls. Moving into my position, I started the checking sequence...Coordinates-OK, Final Coordinates-OK, Velocity-OK, Activating Hyper-jump at 09:00 Feb 5, 2025 GET.

Life and Death are the eternal truths in this universe. All my life i strived to ammend one more..'Life outside Mother Earth'. There were instances where I'd talk for hours giving valid reasons for extraterrestrial life, but human ego refused to give up. More than being a breakthrough in intra galactic travel, this was my personal quest to prove the truth.

Unlike popular misconception that during a hyper-jump you feel a sharp jerk, there's no physical difference when the actual process takes place. The technology is used to warp the space-time around you in such a way that adjacent super-strings in the multidimension are extended to the perceptible three space-dimensions. Thus making it possible to travel at several light-years per second. As soon as hyper-jump was completed, we checked our final coordinates..OK. We were though, safe and alive.

"The mission with an aim, but no destination". Being dubbed thus was not entirely true. After careful pre-calculations, our initial destination was chosen as Alendro (a planet in the Cleu solar system, 314 light-years away). Alendro was the closest planet with more than 50% chance of having the conditions to sustain intelligent life form. E2 had the power for 3 hyper-jumps and a return hyper-jump to lead us back to Earth. That gave us more than 87.5% chance of mission success. But the figures didn't mean anything to me...

Loading Planet Exploration Module (PEM): Passenger check completed: Detaching PEM: Alendro atmosphere entry successful: Activating chutes: Retracting chutes: Landing mission-Done:: Endeavor II Main Log Entry, March 23, 2026 GET.

"Do we continue with the scheduled procedure, Chief?"
"Ya, just read out the main points"
" The first one's outta question, now that we see just barren land around. So proceeding as per plan B, where we're assuming or rather expecting to find microbiological lifeforms. Here it goes:
1. Collect samples from soil.
2. Find a water body
3. Collect water-sample
4. Test the samples at PEM lab"
"That's clear enough. You lead the team on land. We'll try to find the water body"

Alendro was similar to Earth in some aspects. It was estimated to have about 60% of the crust covered with water. But because of its distance from the Cleu, the temperature never went above freezing in most parts. Almost all the seas were covered by a thick sheet of ice. Downlink from E2 said that our landing site was about a kilometre from a lake. Our team proceeded to it. The ice sheet was about a feet thick. Our drill-extractor did the job. At first, I didn't see anything...but as the test tube warmed in my hands, it came alive!

04:14 GET :-
"Earth, Do you get me?"
"Yes we're receiving signals over the superwave"
"We've done it!"

05:20 GET :-
"Return to Earth, right away"
"What! But we've 2 more hyper-jumps left..."
"Return to Earth, they are orders"
"We've not discovered intelligent lifeform yet. The other planets could give us an answer"
"Further exploration will be done only after experimentation on the sample is completed"
"But..."
"Mission declared successful. Return to home base. Over and out"
"D...

It shouldn't be ending this way. We were so close to finding out if there were others like us in the universe. And now they want to abandon mission, giving it the "Mission successfully ended" tag. Damn the administration, damn the red-tapism and damned be human orthodoxy. I gave commands to activate return hyper-jump...Coordinates-OK, Final Coordinates-Failed, Velocity-Error, Trying backup sequence-Failed, Try abort-Fail...I closed my eyes.

"There...that ends Captain John's brain vediomap. That must be the time when our ship captured Endeavor II"
"I wonder what the Agency will decide. Execution is inevitable...Ah there comes the verdict"
I opened my eyes. Just as I opened my mouth to speak, I was dumbstruck.I was on some kinda bed. My face..covered by a mask. Water all around and suprisingly everyone around, whoever they were, were breathing perfectly without the mask on. The guy standing next to me was checking something on a handheld device.
He exclaimed.. "What! Can't believe it. They are to be set free.."
I sighed a breath of relief. Not able to hold back any longer, the questions spurted out..
"Where am I? Why are we held captive? Who are YOU?"
"You'll get the answers."
He turned to the other person alongside him and said "Give him the shot."
"No..." I passed out again.

"Captain..sir...Wake up"
"Where am I?"
"You must've lost consciousness during the hyper-jump. There were some miscalculations..We're OK now. Final coordinates located 5 million miles from Neptune. Sir, maybe you should take a rest now. I'll lead you to your room."
"Thanks, don't bother leading me to the room. I'm consious enough to find my way..."

Hmm...That was a wierd dream, being held captive on an alien ship. And the funny part is everything seemed so real. Wait a second, I havent seen that disc before in my room. What could it be? There's only one way to find out.

Running Autoplay:-

Captain John,
Your space-ship, Endeavor II was captured by Peacekeeper Agency agents. Multi-dimensional travel (better known to you as hyper-jump) without the knowledge of the PA is strictly prohibited in the universe. But it has come to the Agency's knowledge that Earth is a primitive planet, ie. they had not had their 'First Contact'. So after having a discussion about the issue, the Agency have made the following decisions:
1. Endeavor II would continue on it's journey to home planet. The crew, other than the Captain would not be alerted.
2. Earth would be contacted by our authorities and the Universal Rules would be laid down for acceptance by the planet.
Greetings to Earthlings on making the First Contact. Let your planet be an ally of the Peacekeeper Agency in the near future. Finally greetings to you too, my friend.
- Sgt. Ricky Enantonella, The Agency.

Life and Death are the eternal truths in this universe. All my life i strived to ammend one more..'Life outside Mother Earth'. This was my personal quest to prove the truth. I found it.

Dreams

2006-12-22T22:01:00.001-08:00

...wish the good ones came true.

Recently i have been doing a little research work on dreams, and who better to experiment on...than myself. Here goes the primary results of my experiments:

1. Just the other day, i was travelling with John Abraham in a car. We couldn't find a parking space in the city. So i walked around trying to find if any place was vacant. Then he comes along on a bike and tells me to jump on. Seeing the folly, i ask him where the car is and why the hell am i looking for a parking space if he's going around in the bike. We went back for the car...and the dream continued.
Conclusion: Dreams are said to be controlled by the subconsious mind. But it's not completely true. We think while we are dreaming. We just dont think the right thing..like why am i travelling with John Abraham!

2. Nightmares. There's no worst nightmare. All are equally bad. One thing worth noting about nightmares are that they transform with growing age. When i was young, the nighmares were about untamed lions, dungeons and dragons, but nowadays, they are almost always connected with exams..hehe wish they dont come true next week.

3. There are dreams within dreams. These are the scariests ones coz once you wake up from the dream within the dream, you never think that you are still dreaming. Though everything that happens feel absurd, you just cant think you're dreaming (coz you've already woken up in the dream).

As a final word, there's no harm dreaming...once you'll wake up realising life is just a very big dream. ;-)

The World Out There

2006-12-09T02:16:00.000-08:00

>Didn't expect i still had this piece of sci-fi excellence with me..j/k. Well, about the history of this short story, there's not much to tell other than that i wrote it in an English exam in 9th..or was it 10th? Anyway I didn't have the heart to change anything in the story. Here it goes...

‘Knock knock’

I woke up that day to hear a knocking on the door. ‘Mum and Dad came back early!’ I thought. They had gone to their native place and had promised to come back only after two days (two days of peace for me). I crawled out of my bed, slightly opened the door and peeped outside.

I saw a boy, about my age. He was slim and muscular. He had a weird gizmo mask on his head that made him look like an alien. I laughed my heart out. “Nice Joke!”
He looked surprised.

“Cool mask, guy. Shall I have it?” I presumed him to be one of my friends. “Arghh!” I got a shock as soon as I touched the mask.

The boy looked frightened. I shook my hands and asked, “Who are you?”

“Who am I. You’ll sure wanna know. I’m Ricky Enantonellan from the planet Enantonella.”

“What!” I couldn’t believe my ears. I pinched myself.

“May I come in?” he asked.

“Er…er…yes…”

He entered our living room and sat gently on our sofa. He looked weary. So I bought some water. He did behave like an extraterrestrial. He looked into the glass and the water traveled into his mouth.

I asked again, “Who are you?”

Then…He started telling his story.

“ I am Ricky Enantonellan. I do not belong to this planet. I belong to the great planet Enantonella.”

“Enantonella?” I couldn’t restrain myself from asking that.

“Yes, Enantonella. Haven’t you heard about it? Okay. Enantonella is a water planet. We Enantonellans live under water. That is why I have to wear this mask. We are the species Homo enantonelli. You humans are believed to have evolved from us.”
I couldn’t grasp all that he was saying.

He continued “We are having drought season in our planet. The water is decreasing. We need water for our existence. We breathe water, we drink water and we use water. Even our transport ships use water as fuel.”

“That’s convenient” I thought.
“But now we are forced to live our motherland. ‘Cause water is escaping to outer space as vapour. So we Enantonellans are traveling from planet to planet in search of water. Earth is a good water planet but the polluted water is poisoning us. We have launched a mission to talk to you humans not to pollute water. That’s why I am up here.”

“How is the outer space?” I gathered courage to ask it.
“Space traveling is rather boring. You just see some supernova bursting or have battles with the Heptolions who think the whole space-way is theirs. Our Z-lasers are quite useful in busting their Lionion battleships. One of our crewmembers died in a battle last time.

Yet in the planets it is always fun. I always play ‘Scudball’ with my friends.”
‘Knock knock’
Someone was again at the door. I opened it to see another Enantonellan.

“Mum” Ricky jumped out of the sofa and ran to her.

“Bye bye Ricky”
They walked away……

Afterword to "The Fountainhead"

2006-10-30T10:47:00.000-08:00

Thinking back..i've written that i'm not adding the book into my fav's list. But that's not true.. Although the background of Fountainhead is completetly different from mine, Ayn Rand's philosophy has left an indelible mark on me.

A Poem 2

2006-10-04T11:18:00.000-07:00

i guess nowadays there isn't much of a difference between poets and 'engineers in love'. Here's an outpour of powerful emotions by another friend:

Don't ask me why i loved her,
I always knew she wont be mine.
But then i will be the rose in her garden,
Her love will present me to her, i'm certain.
And then she'll embrace me to her bosom.

A Poem

2006-10-03T10:45:00.000-07:00

This is a poem written by my friend, Ajith a.k.a KK:

"My First Crush"

Prologue:
There was a time when i thought,
Crushes were emotions self bought,
To trouble young minds on which they easily sprout,
But now such thoughts have ceased,
For the clocks taught me to live eased,
And breathe every second appeased.

So hereupon I shine light onto the passage,
For that feeling to enter my heart's cage,
Perhaps love has the stallion inside me under dressage...

Part 1:
Very well I know it's just my heart's gesture,
Of an epheremal feeling that lacks outward lustre.
After much self-debate i decided to let her in,
Into that imperial sphere of thoughts within.

It's someone never attainable, so I'll never reach for,
But my heart smiles with pleasure, so i think like never before.

Her smile's like a flower,
And praises upon her voice i shower.

Part 2:
Just the silhouette of her face,
Brings cheerful accolades upon my mind with ace.
Skin deep beauty does make a contrast,
But all's well in a crush
That'll fade out fast..
For a crush is a sweet ice block on the warm hands of time.

So until the sands of that ultimate force
Bring into my life perhaps more important woes,
I'll dwell on my crush, a feeling so new
And hope against hope that it may come true.

Freedom

2006-09-03T10:41:00.000-07:00

She took my hand and said, "Let me take you to a time when the world was less complicated".

Freedom is freedom of mind. It's when your thoughts are not bound down by your own complexes, society..not even love. There's nothing worse than forcefully suppressing your thoughts. Ah..the freedom of staring at stars in the middle of the day, wondering why earth is so small under my feet.

Freedom is freedom of expression. No one stops you from expressing yourself, but you. You can't expess yourself under 2 circumstances: 1. when you're sure you wont be heard and understood and 2. when you stop youself for the sake of others.

Afterall what's freedom other than my right to finish this blog without an ending?

The Fountainhead

2006-07-07T11:27:00.000-07:00

Let me warn you beforehand, this is not a critical appreciation. These are my feelings on reading the novel and felt them worthy enough to jot down.

Beginning with the basics..why did i buy this book?
To be honest I've no idea. I saw the books name in the favourites' list of many, and thought why not have a try.

What's in the book?
I still haven't figured that out.

Inspiration?
Yes...but i liked "Gail Wynand" more than the proclaimed hero, "Howard Roark."

Did I like the book?
Yes and no..even after reading 674/694 pages I cant guess how a particular character would behave in the next page. That's both a good and bad point...coz it means I haven't understood the characters yet. On the other hand the uncertainty is entertaining.

Then why not add it to the favourites?
The book and the author talks abt objectivism, romanticism and other things of which I cant get any idea. I liked the book for the story. I cant connect myself to anything written in it, maybe coz it's set in New York, in the early 20th century.

The book has numerous inspirational conversations that can be quoted in any of those highly literary essays or in sophisticated speeches. I'll conclude this line of thought with a few words out of the book. This is part of a conversation between Roark and Wynand:

It's so easy to run to others. It's so hard to stand on one's own record. You can fake virtue for an audience. You can't fake it in your own eyes. Your ego is the strictest judge. They run from it. They spend their lives running. It's easier to donate a few thousand to charity and think oneself noble than to base self respect on personal standards of personal achievement. I'ts simple to seek substitutes for competence - such easy substitutes: love, charm, kindness, charity. But there is no substitute for competence.

Find out for yourself what the above paragraph means, then you get the core idea of this classic.

Words outta my dictionary

2006-06-30T12:18:00.001-07:00

Me-I
Others-Us
Still others-We
Friendship-Love
Music-Eternal
Loyola-Home
Football-Joy
Books-Inspiration
Rain-Purifier
Universe-Beauty
God-Everything

Out of my Mind

2006-06-24T01:10:00.000-07:00

There are times in my life when I feel alone in this universe. It's not the feeling of being lonely or sad...

Everything other than my mind is external, even my body. When I walk on the road, I know that everything around is moving and I’m the one standing still. Someone talks to me, I can hear my voice replying…I’m not thinking about what I replied; my replies are just default replies, stored in my subconscious mind-those that come out automatically. My mind is somewhere else, somewhere…I don’t know where.

Two things, I noticed, that can enter my mind from the outside world are beauty of nature and pure music. I don’t know how to explain all this, but I know how Derozio felt when he had a walk by moonlight…It’s one of the few things I don’t need or want any scientific explanation for. Is it just the happiness of being alive?

Back again,

2006-04-27T11:07:00.000-07:00

Let me step back into the world of blogging with a small step. Back to the basics. Tomorow and everything's almost done...
Tomorrow will be the last day we spent in the present class room. Extra classes are almost over. Finally, I finished the "workshop record". There are lots to say about the past year. I'll do the details in my next blog, hopefully.

:-(

2006-03-16T09:04:00.000-08:00

Today, something shocking happened in the college…sorry I’m not mentioning it, but that incident made be look back at something I wrote last year:

Date: 15^th November 2005

For the past many months, I’ve just been thinking about my farewell to friends… today something else touched me. As I’ve just browsed thru our old family photos… I see smiling faces (most of them – I still know, many I may forget in future). As I near my 18^th birthday… this entry is an appreciation for life, the life given to me by my mom & dad… the miracle of creation… I thank God. Life has been so good to me… it’s given me everything I could ever dream of. In times of struggle which I’m bound to have in future, I have a great childhood to remember by … giving me the strength to carry on despite adversities. I find that I’ve taken so many things for granted… nothing can be changed now… but I’ve to let others close to me think the same way about me in the future to make up for that.

I don’t have any more words to say…

Read me, watch elsewhere

2006-03-11T10:11:00.000-08:00

hi readers, i've created a new blog, exclusively for photos 'coz it wud be really messy having both pictures and write ups in the same blog. The link is http://john-photosblog.blogspot.com/
I'll inform everyone (through this blog) when i update that blog, so that there is no need to check it everytime. The Ragam photos are online now.

Ragam - Confluence of colours

2006-03-11T09:18:00.000-08:00

First of all, sorry everyone I didn’t write about Ragam, but I had reasons (lame excuses) and then writer’s block kicked in. But after watching Million Dollar Baby for the second time yesterday, my spirit’s back to normal and I’m back here with another blog entry. It may not be that very interesting ‘coz so many things happened in the past two weeks that has pushed Ragam a li’l back into my head. But such memories are never to be forgotten and before they fade away, I’d like to at least leave a mark in blogging history about our adventures at NITC.

A group of four is too less a number to actually enjoy such a trip. We had that regret, but our experiences were completely different from other larger groups. One among us [the bigger one ;-)] was an original native of the city and so we had a certain level of confidence to wander alone. His friend is in NITC and I take this opportunity to thank both of them for their help. So, back to the real motive of this blog…

It was the first time (would you believe) I was traveling on a train without my parents. That was only an omen foretelling a New World. When we reached NITC at 8 in the morning, the college was exceptionally quiet. Only the innumerable banners around the campus told us we were at the right place and that the fest was still going on. Thus we learned our first lesson: Nothing happens in the morning, so stay up late in the night and wake up at around 11:00 am.

We reached there on the second day of the fest. We came to know of the past day’s events through the words of Anoop (My friend’s friend in NIT; I’m naming him, lest I forget). We missed the Dance competition and a fight. According to him, the dance competition was excellent but the fight, between the students (mostly those from North East) of NITC and of another college, the previous night was as exciting. We waited for rest of the CETians to arrive so that we could register together. They arrived after about two hours wait. By then, extinguishing our hunger (for food) became our main priority. We had our brunch (first of many) and freshened up, all ready for competitions.

The first thing we visited was the Open Air Theatre (OAT) and one look at it told us that it was huge, much bigger than any OAT that I’ve ever seen. We were so spellbound by the look of it that most of the time in the next two days was spent in it. That afternoon, we enjoyed Western Orchestra in the OAT. One thing I noticed from the start was the amount of heavy metal fans in the college. My discovery was proven that night itself by the first Pro-Show, Parikrama.

I’d never heard of Parikrama before, and the only info I had about them was that they were a Rock Band. I’m not a huge fan of death metal/ heavy metal songs, but was looking forward to attend a live music concert. We had a hard time trying to get into the OAT, but what happened inside was worth the effort. I’d seen Rock concerts in TV, but never expected this to be something like that ‘coz I expected the crowd to be silent and to be rooted to their seats. What happened was completely the opposite, enthusiasm was boiling over and the OAT shook under the screams of Parikrama and the crowd. “Simply ****ing awesome” quoted the lead singer. To quote another person, (oru paavam chechi) “Athu Parikrama allayirunnu mone paraakramam allayirunno”. I felt like an outsider (me being an ardent fan of pop and hip-hop) …still thoroughly enjoyed the night.

After the concert, we heard the shocking news that Strings wont be performing the next day. To drain off the disappointment we stayed up till about 3 in the night. That’s when we noticed another thing, the college never slept. Everyone was wide awake and walking about throughout the night (no wonder they woke up late). The mini canteen was open till 2 am and made us all soft drink addicts by the time we left NITC. Before going to sleep we’d a check of our finances. One look around at my friends’ faces said it all…our second lesson, think before you spend.

The next day (beginning at 11) was spent wandering throughout the campus. We walked the whole span of the campus many times and even found our own favourite hangout, under the shade of an illi chedi. Not many interesting events other than face painting and Jam (Malayalam) in which we saw our seniors participating [we’d taken a unanimous decision not to participate in any event this year, just enjoy watching ;-)]. That evening the Pro-Show was by Silk Route instead of Strings. It was not up to the mark, but we danced along and made it worth the 100 bucks.

The final day, our college had something solid to cheer about. Our performance in the Eastern Orchestra was excellent and the first prize reflected it. That took us to third position in the overall points list. The only thing to look forward in the evening was the Fashion Show. We waited in the OAT for FS to start, but then we realised that we’d overlooked something. If we waited anymore for FS to start, we’d end up missing the train. Sadly, we got out before it started and began on the journey back home. This entry would not be complete without voicing my frustration at not being able to eat the famed Kozhikkode Biriyani due to bird flu!

>Long entry…hmm spent a lot of time on it.

Untitled

2006-02-21T05:17:00.000-08:00

Nothing much to write about the past week. Things seemed to have slowed down to its usual pace after the excursion. But usually such lull fortells unexpected things in the future. There are plenty of oppurtunities for it to happen in this week as I'm planning to go to Raagam 2K6 at NITC.
Well as the saying goes...expecting the unexpected.
Let this be a short log entry for a change.

2006-02-13T22:33:00.000-08:00

Friends, reunited at an unexpected place

2006-02-12T08:34:00.000-08:00

On top of the world (Nilgiri)

2006-02-12T08:32:00.000-08:00

Boating

The best cometh un-announced - the trip to Ooty.

2006-02-12T08:20:00.000-08:00

There are days that remain etched into your memory, ones that will be talked about many times later in life…always with a smile on the face. I passed through two such days… expecting it to be fun …but never expecting it be such great enjoyment. It passed so fast that now I’m left wondering if it was just a dream … a figment of imagination?

From the day the date for the tour was announced, I remained not too optimistic about its success…with new friends, new atmosphere and the same old Ooty. But what was in store was a completely different experience…one that I can proudly add to the one’s we had at school (that’s something gr8 coz my school-tours’ memories are the ones that I hold onto the hardest).

The tour had many firsts…

> the first time a 1^st yr electronics batch went for out of Kerala tour (thanks to my friend and our HOD),

> the first time I went to Ooty for more than a day (got to enjoy all places much better coz we’d more time),

> the first time I went for an excursion with girls (found out they were no worse than us in alambu)

…but the actual experience was above all such stats.

Detailing the whole tour (incidentally dubbed study-tour for formality’s sake) is impossible, but I would be doing injustice to my readers and myself if I do not mention some of the fascinating experiences. The first night was spent journeying to Ooty on the bus. Although the absence of MP3 player on the bus was a setback for us, the tour operator made up for it with a comprehensive collection of audio CDs. We danced to the music all night long, many not even sleeping a second (I slept for an hour).

The schedule for the first day in Ooty had Pikara Falls, Shooting spot and Botanical Gardens. Had great fun all day…but better things were yet to come. We had campfire that night, followed by a spirited round of Anthakshari between Tele & Applied (the two Electronics classes).

Next day, we went for boating. We, (group of four) liked it so much that we decided to sacrifice our safety deposit in order to get half an hour more of boating. It was one of the best part (maybe even the best) of the tour for me. After that, some enjoyable land rides (Swinging Boat, Tora Tora…). In the afternoon we went to Dodapett the highest point in Nilgiri, followed by visit to a tea museum/factory. Then we had the very famous train ride abroad the Nilgiri Passenger, from Ooty to Coonor. The natural beauty around, kept us spellbound. The journey back was as enjoyable as the ‘to’ journey (taking out one unfortunate incident). Many got down along the way at their native homes…and the rest, from Trivandrum were left to chat out the night. We returned back safely at 9, the next morning.

OYE! Chak de patte

2006-02-04T10:58:00.000-08:00

Saturday and noon-show, the usual combination in the life of a college lad. But with 5 of us together, I could expect the day to be different, and extraordinary it was...

The day began with my usual ritual of boarding the bus, getting down at the next stop, going to my friend's house, returning back to the junction with him and then wait for the next bus to our destination. I've been following this foolish routine for the past 3 years...God knows why. Anyway we reached the cinema hall, watched a movie that I enjoyed and got out entertained, but really hungry. Thus began our epic journey that lasted over three hours.

Our first mission was to find a cheap restaurant, restroom attached (u know why). We knew that our trustworthy Amma would cater to all our needs. When we reached Amma restaurant or where it was supposed to be, some changes were noticed...change in name, change in it's style. Little did we know that it's price-range had changed drastically. (Thankfully, we came to know about this after we had used the facility of the restroom). The price of meals had changed from our budgeted Rs. 15 to Rs. 35. (inflation did us in...no use checking the purses). Then my dear friend from Bangalore came up with the wackiest, instantaneous idea to get us out of the mess (out of the restaurant where we had been sitting for 5 mins, the waiter still waiting). He ordered Beer in a vegetarian restaurant. The waiter was shocked.

He replied "Sir, this is a veg- restaurant".

My friend (a law student) continued with the act, "But it's written beverages over there."

"Sorry sir, we don't sell beer here, there's a bar just outside to the right."

I could barely stop myself from laughing. My friend said to us, "Let's go, no beer here". Thus we got out of that place in the weirdest way possible.

To cut the drama short, we went to Azad and had our stomachs half-filled. Then we continued on our journey in search of nothing, beside the busy city roads - passing hundreds of faces along the way, some known, many unknown. Along the way, we lost one of our friends, but still we trudged along, finally reaching the unforgettable place...a place about which many such true stories can be written...the museum (the walk lasted about 45 mins and the distance covered was 2-3 kms)

The lime juice vendors were waiting for our arrival. After spending some time and money there, we circled the park and settled down on the lawn. For the next hour, as someone someday said....the joy of sitting together doing nothing (nothing happend other than lot of bird-watching, real ones...honestly). Then I had to split from the group, what other adventures they had, I know not.

PS. I went to the church after that, where my parents had agreed to pick me up. I'd to wait for more than an hour for confession...such great sinners, I thought. But when I my turn came, I found out why they took so much time for a confession...the first question the priest asked (God forgive me!) was "what do you do now?".

Vote for me!

2006-02-03T08:34:00.000-08:00

After an exciting (often boring) week of election campaigning, it finally ended with the much dreaded College Election ’06 and the announcement of results. Due to fear of physical harm ;-) I’ll not name the party who won majority of the seats, but I can already hear them celebrating in the streets…the hard earned prize?...an unsurprising end.

The happenings of this week have made me rethink again and again about politics. The initial enthusiasm for elections lasted just two days. After that, everything happened in a blur…some things happening at such an amazing pace that I could barely see them, while others dragged along at snail’s pace. By the eve of elections, I was in such a confused mood that I doubted if I should go to vote. But vote, I did…coz I knew my duties (pardon me if it’s the tagline of one of the parties).

I’ll just brush through the details for the unknowing reader. The voting was from 10 to 12 (am obviously). I was amazed by the number of CETians who ‘knew their duties’. Due to that, I’d to wait for about one and half hour. We had just 8 votes while the ladies had 10…Ha, Feminist! (Loyolites would know what that means). No time for exit polls…we rushed to our hang out, had lemon juice (mistakenly named lime juice)…and split for the day. Hours later I was woken up by the blast of crackers and I could guess the results right away. Thus ended my first experience of college politics…wait it’s not over yet…this Monday, college will be set alight with victory celebration.

Hoping this election has not had a detrimental effect on the unity of our class...John

Bechan weds Dyuthi

2006-01-27T08:30:00.000-08:00

A tiring day…really tiring…and instead of having a good sleep I’m here writing my weekly blog. Why? ‘coz now, I have a feeling that our work was worthwhile, at least today.

Dyuthi is the technical fest conducted by the Electronics Department. I being part of the department was chosen for volunteer job. We being first years didn’t have much hand in the technical part of Dyuthi. But we were in charge of conducting Conundrums Galore (the informals). The response to those events was good. The festival continues tomorrow and the day after. Hope the robotics event to be conducted tomorrow will live up to its hype.

Then who’s Bechan? That is a question whose answer I still don’t know. Anyway, Bechan Memorial is the inter-semester, inter-department football tournament conducted at the college and I played today in the ‘B’ team (dubbed Sadyatha B) of electronics dept. Sad news is we lost 3-0 and the good news is we lost by only 3-0. We played well but the opponents had much better quality in their ranks. We managed not to let in a goal till half time and that could be considered an achievement. Incidentally I played in the ‘C’ (Badyatha) team two days before who also lost 3-0. Hoping our ‘A’ (Sadhyatha A) team can do the job, I’m not playing. ;-)

2006-01-15T10:19:00.000-08:00

Class Photo

One More Time

2006-01-15T04:41:00.000-08:00

My first school day as an ex-Loyolite (or senior Loyolite as the princi calls us) incidentally came just a day after the hangover of Genesis. It had it’s moments of fun and nostalgia. One such moment was the ceremony where Achu and I shared the award for the maximum aggregate mark for ISC.

As I stood waiting to receive my last award from my school, my feeling was not of pride for what I achieved, but gratitude. I wanted to thank my teachers, my parents and my friends. They were the people who made it possible and I knew that ‘my’ dedication had the ‘least’ part in me getting the award. The medal could have felt like a burden of expectation, instead it was like a token of love…love, the institution and the people who make it gave me…throughout the 13 years.

For me, the greatest asset of Loyola is that it never emphasizes on academic brilliance, but encourages children to grow up as a good human being. It’s hard to be a true Loyolite, but I’ll try my best to be a good Loyolite.

- Wishing I was with you all, One More Time.

PS: saw “Thanmathra” today, another movie to add to my favs.

Who am I?

2006-01-13T06:27:00.001-08:00

[With great powers come great responsibility. This is my gift, my curse.
Who am I? Spiderman, The Movie]

"Being a celebrity is not easy. It is even more harder when you yourself have achieved so much in life." This was the thought that crossed my mind while walking on the beautiful Marina Beach with my friend Emma. I could still recall the events of previous night's Christmas party...

Enjoying a warm kiss from your lover is an experience not to be forgotten. Her lips closer and closer to mine. I can still feel the taste of her lipstick. I'd just started out with Emma...when those damn reporters. They burst out of nowhere, ruining my entire day (night to be exact). Seems like they r born for paparazzi, following me everywhere, waiting to take a snap when i least expect them. The questions they ask...How long have you been dating?...Did you get together during the shoot of "Yeh Jawani"...Are you going to marry?...goes on and on...and they've got their No.1 article for Page 3.

Just when the rapid fire round ended, came the flurry of fans. The fans are good only for one thing, to watch and promote my movies. Otherwise they are hell of a trouble. The rest of the evening was thus spent in writing out autographs for my fans...couldn't reject them because i knew the paparazzi was still around and i din want to have two Page 3 articles in the same weekend.

Back to Emma and the Marina Beach, the problem was still haunting me. Heads turned around from all sides to look at us. Why don't these people leave us alone for a while? Even the beggars in the street had their say in my problems. One child, in torn clothes, and holding an aluminium jar approached us. The jar had few coins in them and he made a weird noise by shaking the jar. I refused to give him money and tried to shoo him away. But instead he turned to Emma and started begging again. I made signs with my hand telling her not to give anything. Suddenly the kid snatched her bag and ran as fast as he could away from the beach. I told Emma to stay right there and started chasing him. That was the last time I saw her...alive.

He was really fast for me. He also had the added advantage of the beach being his territory. He ran into the fishing colony, making me chase him around thatched houses and fishing boats. Then I started hearing the first hints of trouble. I looked behind me. At first i thought it was some kind of a cloud. But it came closer every second, growing larger and larger in size. Devastating was it's effect-the killer wave left nothing behind...she took my love with her. I cried out to return her to me...No she wouldn't. It was entirely my mistake...I should have shed my pride. Seconds later the wave engulfed me. I tried clinging on to a coconut tree that stood nearby...no use. The tree came off the ground. I still didn't give up. Little did i know then that it would save my life. We traveled together for half a kilometer and then the wave stopped. I thanked God for the first time in several years for sparing my life. Then I blacked out...

Days later i regained consciousness for a while. The doctor asked "Who are you?". For the first time in life, I'd been made mute. I turned my head around and saw that the boy who robbed Emma was lying in the bed near mine. I remembered flashes of him clinging on to the same coconut tree. I replied "I'm his father". The doctor cleared his throat and said, "Your son died few moments ago". I wept.

Genesis

2006-01-13T06:23:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the event…the melting pot of talent, where the young budding minds of the youth is transformed into the CET mould. From the day of the announcement of the event, I’d expectations – good and bad. But the real experience was something I’ll never forget in my lifetime. It was completely different from what I expected, but was both sweet and bitter in its own way.

Genesis is an inter-branch cultural festival conducted by the seniors, for the freshers. Traditionally, we (Electronics Branch) have been really poor performers in Genesis. But ours being a really spirited batch, weren’t in a mood to give up. We’d our motto – ‘winning’ is not everything, it is the ‘only’ thing. Thus began our venture into the most eagerly awaited festival for the freshers.

The show began in the afternoon, the day before yesterday. Amazingly, when the first round of results was out, we were leading. I was singing (Western Music) in one of the venues, unaware of this. I saw a group of students marching through the corridor, cheering. To my surprise, they were the students of our class cheering for ‘Electronics’. This was the first time in my college life that I felt our class was a team, having the spark of the ‘unity’ that we had in my school. The lead didn’t last long, but by then the batch of S₁S₂ Electronics had created a new impression for themselves…casting away the face of bujis to reveal the melting pot of talent that lay beneath.

The awe inspiring run of the underdogs continued throughout the second day. The morning session was dominated by us, but Electrical and Mechanical branches, as past winners, always had the edge over us. We finished the second and last day with a victory (Group Dance). We finished in a fighting third place, but celebrated like we’d won Genesis. This was one chapter in the history of Electronics Dept. that should never be forgotten and hopefully would be an inspiration for our juniors.

Signing off,

Runner up in western solo,

-John

Before the Past

2006-01-04T07:16:00.000-08:00

I’ve been collecting some of my oldest memories of life. These memories are fleeting and I’m writing them down before they fade off completely.

It may be boring to the all readers, except John, who was born on a chilling November night in a hospital (I don’t remember the name) in the small city of Trivandrum (recently renamed Thiruvanathapuram), 18 years ago.

I don’t remember much of the years before I started education, ie before I was four years old. Most of the memories include me getting injured in someway or other. Once I fell from the stairs in front of the house (the exact place where I sat while writing the first blog-post) and another time I got beaten by my neighbour’s bat (accidently) on my (wicket keeper) nose while we were playing cricket. I still have a picture of me saying bye to my sister and neighbours everyday. They went on a black ambassador (seating capacity - 5) with other 20 odd children. I wanted to go with them, amazing coz a child of that age (any age) would never want to leave home and go to school (Maybe I had that feeling coz I was left all day with the servant when my parents went to work).

This part of the post describes some of the embarrassing moments, and please be prudent while judging me, coz I was very young. OK, let me begin with something I’m reminded off, when my sis has any grudge with me ;-). Many a day, when my mom came back from work, I would be dressed in ladies’ clothes (saree), complete with make-up (horrible!). I laugh at myself thinking about those days. When I became a li’l more older, came the rest of the story…Every other girl I saw became my future wife, first ‘twas the girl next door, then my cousin, then the girl I met in my nursery class! Laughable now…yes but not then. Then ‘twas serious business.

So…I was sent to a nursery when I became four. Having interest in going to school is one thing, and really starting education is another. Homesickness kicked in… everyday ended in tears. One year later I joined LKG at a school, where incidentally I met some of my friends who were to become an integral part of my life. The same car (black ambassador) was my conveyance and it remained so till I reached Std. X. The only memories of that school is having some part in the ‘annual school day’ and playing in the small ground (then it seemed much bigger) in front of the main building. And yes..i do remember one my present friends being in the same car.

My parents must not have debated a lot for the decision of my future. The next school was just a few yards away from the first. Many reasons have been given for the choice of that school but… little did they know that they had made the best decision and little did I know when I entered the school, that it was going to change my life…forever. I can still picture myself walking to my classroom, not knowing what kinda danger I’m going to meet there, not knowing what lies in my future…looking with awe at the huge buildings, and a tall man adorned in long white clothes.

On the dawn of a New Year

2006-01-01T08:17:00.000-08:00

I couldn’t write a good New Year wish, so here are my friends helping me out:

Within and Without You sez da 4 muses, life goes on. but does it???

I don't know.the year about to pass was a crazy one. Too many changes, replantings, surprises, heartbreaks...

New horizons and new objectives... all along, we were engaged in mad race to get here, now the race is to seperate the men from the boys. The wheel of time turns and may be these are inevitable and should be welcomed. But I am no wise guy and it takes quite a long before i get the hang of things.

I don't want to continue this ambling, all I want to say at this juncture is nothing but a reiteration of the fact that u people meant a lot to me, means a lot to me....and will continue to mean a lot to me.

May all our new years, by His grace, be happy and prosperous.

So long till we meet again,

Your comrade.

- Justin (1^st yr BA LLB (Hons.))

Each one of us has to go through difficult times in life. The road maybe very long and rough…but it becomes shorter & easier to tread upon, when we have the love & support of good friends. Friends to listen to you and to understand you.

I can’t imagine life without you people. Thanks for everything guys......

Let the New Year bring loaads of happiness and opportunities to you all.

Wishing you a very happy n prosperous 2006.

"Friends like you are as rare as moon dats blue"

- Appu (1^st yr Engineering)

Ambrosia?? What’s that?

2005-12-30T22:29:00.000-08:00

I guess the complete description of what happened yesterday would be boring. To summarise the evenings activities, our batch (2K5loyolites, ISC) had a smashing nite-out at Coffee Beanz. The food rocked, we rocked and the ‘bill’ shocked. ;-)

So what’s with Ambrosia? (Hope Ambrosia guys neva read this). We’d originally planned to have the party at Ambrosia, but due to lack of space, the venue was shifted to Coffee Beanz.

The get together was real fun…something that had been lacking for many of the guys present there. We shared memories of our past together, updated each other on their present & plans for the future. The most important fact was that we still had the magic in us that we had in the school days. I’m going senti all over again…sob. Waiting for the next year to end…to meet you all again…adieu my friends.

One year later

2005-12-30T10:16:00.000-08:00

We, were born apart, brought together by fate and took an oath to stay in touch when we parted. Today, we got together.
Will fill in with the details later.

Of marriages, betrothals & baptisms

2005-12-29T06:50:00.000-08:00

These days, after Christmas, there is a flurry of functions (reception attached) that form the most important part of the particular person’s (bride, bridegroom, or the baby) life…and I being a social being have to attend many of these. So there began my musing…

These functions can be divided into three:

One where you know everybody, can cook up a conversation with anyone, and enjoy the party.

The second type are functions where u are supposed to know everyone but actually don’t even know the names of many. Now-a-days, that’s not a problem ‘coz the elders would just ask me about my studies and other stuff. But when I was younger, such functions were the worst. Everyone asked if you knew them and I had two choices, either tell them I don’t know them and face the wrath of my parents or risk nodding my head. The second choice has often led me into trouble ‘coz they would ask me to name them…then I’d give them my best smile and reply “Sorry I can’t remember your name, but your face is familiar”

The third type are receptions where u have no idea who’s around…take for instance the betrothal I attended yesterday. I felt like a red rose in a bouquet of white lilies (whoa! what an expression…btw I wore a bright red shirt which I had to wear for the tuition class ‘coz I went there right after the party...there it was like a smashed up red rose among the bushes…worser still anyway).

The views given above may lead you to think that I hate going to such functions…but no. I love going to them. You can meet people you know, people you are supposed to know, people who you don’t know and people who you’ll never meet again. The real reason – free food, of course!

Me, my bag and...

2005-12-28T10:16:00.000-08:00

Today, I returned home from tuition class to find that amma and chachan haven't yet come home after shopping...too bad, I didn’t have a key and I couldn’t spend the evening at my neighbour’s ‘coz they too weren’t home. I tried to entertain myself (me being a very restless person). My first adventure began in the Stone Age…I tried my luck at practicing in the nets (my car-porch). Although the balls (stones from backyard) were good enough, I couldn’t manage to hit the wicket (the guava tree). Thus ended my dream to become a Rhodes.

Exhausted, I sat down and prepared for the long wait. Then, suddenly they came… at first I could see just dark spots in the fading light. Then they grew, both in numbers and in courage. Those ugly blood sucking monsters, the worst predators man has ever faced… they cornered me, attacking with their long swords. I didn’t give up. I declared war against them with bare hands. Killed one, then another, but they came back again with more reinforcement. I couldn’t let them win the battle, if I do, that would be the end of me, so I kept on. At some moment, I counted my kills…12…12 dead mosquitoes in half an hour.

These mosquitoes were either draining out my blood, or my energy. So I let them do the former for sometime. Then I noticed something amiss. Few of the mosquitoes I killed were missing. How could that be? Surely dead mosquitoes can’t fly! The Holmes in me started to work. I looked around and caught the culprit(s). Moving in a line, they were stealing my spoils of war. Should I let them? This time, let nature win. The ants had their evening meal ready for them by a caring human…symbiosis at its best!