A journey which revoked the past !!!

Journey's are a memorable one. It is, because of the place you are traveling to or the person with whom you are traveling or the mode in which you are traveling or few other factors too. But each and every journey would give you some wonderful memory when recalled later.

Though i had a lot of wonderful journey with my loved one's and special one's, this one particular journey was something kind of different which i never expected. It was the Pongal eve and I had planned to visit my hometown though i never informed my grandparents about the visit so as to give a small surprise to them. Once the plan was phrased, the next was the most difficult stage (i.e) getting a ticket and that too during a festival time. I had always preferred traveling by bus rather than train. Since one of my close friend was accompanying me then i had sought the help of my friends to book a tatkal ticket all for the sake of making the journey comfortable for her. She always preferred traveling by train. But fate played a spoilsport then. Obviously every single Indian who uses the irctc website would obviously know the result of getting a tatkal ticket. So as expected we didn't get the ticket. My friend who was supposed to come with me went ahead and booked a ticket for herself in a private travels. I was left alone now but i already had a backup plan. It was nothing but "You will find a seat for yourself in one of the buses leaving from Koyembedu". Sounds bit crazy right, even my friends said it right in front of my face but i never bothered. I held over to the same plan because CHENNAI has never let me down in any matter. With the josh i left to Koyembedu Bus Terminus, found a comfortable seat in one of the SETC's special bus which was arranged mainly for the festival.

Beleive it or not I never seen transport officials working so perfect which actually helped to ease the crowd. The right number of seats were filled and bus left exactly when it had to. Oh god i was really amazed by looking at the dedication of the SETC employees.

Okay coming back to my journey, the bus was running perfectly with no hurdles on the way. Cool air was hitting my face taking me to the past. When i was a doing class 4 or 5 it was then where mofussil buses had a makeover with colorful lights and sound system in them. As a boy at that age i always fancied them and would love to travel in them. It would be like a dream come true every time i travel by bus. As years passed we found a complete new face of transportation thus hardly getting any small chance of traveling in an ordinary bus. Naturally those good old memories went hidden. After 10+ years it was that particular night which brought back my hidden memories live.

I find it really hard to express the feel which i had it then because words can never express what we actually try to mean. But on an outline that particular journey brought back the sweet hidden memories of mine. And that is how that journey was so special to me. I guess each one would have encountered one such journey.



A change that is most needed !!!

Important signs and instructions only in Tamil seem to get people from other states into hot water.


One of my friends, who has been working in Chennai for a while, was travelling in a MTS bus using a pass. At one stop, he was asked his ticket by officials and he showed it. They checked it and asked why he hadn’t signed it. He said that he was not aware as the instructions were in Tamil, which he didn’t understand, and no one told him. The officials didn’t agree and fined him. He shared this incident with me and I sympathised.

Another time, I went to CMBT to board a bus to Hyderabad. As I entered the terminus, I saw two boards displaying the terminal number, platform number, state transport names and routes. All of it was in Tamil. I had to ask another person to help me find the right platform.

Chennai, so-called metro city and State capital, doesn’t use English to display important instructions. Mostly, it's in Tamil. When I went to Bangalore, I got a bus pass which had instructions in both Kannada and English. Do Chennai’s authorities expect people from other States to read Tamil? This is not the way information is disseminated in a metro.

I am sure that many people are troubled by this issue. People from all over the country come here. There needs be a system where English is also used to display public information.

Source : http://www.thehindu.com/features/metroplus/nxg/language-blues/article5578287.ece

The above article is one such thing which had always strikked my mind. Its good that somehow it got limelight through media. Obviously as the article mentioned, we do find bilingual displays in every bus stops over Bangalore. I always wished Chennai too had it and i guess the authorities may take some time (i.e. couple of years according to them) to fix this issue. A metropolitan city should be easily accessible to every kind of people.

Hope to find some new change over the city in the future.



Grand Evening !!!

Celebrating Cognizant 2013, the first corporate event that i was attending. Right from Saturday morning i was too excited. Obviously on one side the excitement was for the event and the other was the venue. I had longed every time when i watch "Vijay Awards" on television that somehow i should visit Nehru Indoor stadium. And since that dream was about to fulfilled i was jumping in excitement.

By mid noon, I boarded the bus to the venue. The moment i entered into the stadium, for a minute the scene where Vikram in the film "Anniyan" used to enter the stadium hit my eyes. I felt some kind of excitement rushing within me. Every performance was catchy. The best was the performance of Andrea. What a voice it is, a really gifted one. Of course singer Vijayprakash too did justice to his appearance.

Everything seemed perfect except for one thing. Registration were limited to one entry per registration. Actually the house was only half filled. So if the organizers had allowed two entry per registration, it would have been good.


Not a favourable one to me..

Chennai, the land of love. Hmm, I am sure many will deny it :P Anyway Chennai in person has given me lots which if listed would go too long. There is no such area that i dislike but of course there is one such area which is unlucky to me.

I don't know the exact reason but every time my visit to Nungambakkam ends up in failure. Actually it started off way back in my college 3rd year. I was fresh out of my college hostel which was actually kind of a Jail. A friend of mine tempted me to join with him for Core Java course at NIIT. Since NIIT Nungambakkam was considered the best of all, we had our enrollment there. Believe me or not, the course itself was spanned over just 8 days and out of it we attended only 4. I was with NCC and my friend was with NSS. Both had camps and so we missed the classes. So that was the first failure.

The next was, i had my credit card approved from Standard Chartered Bank. It was more than a month and yet i didn't receive it. So the customer care executive asked me to visit the nearest bank and collect it. I went to the bank but returned empty handed. The staff informed me that credit card processing is no way related to Bank. It is a separate body and asked me to contact them. With nothing to say further, I returned back. This was the second failure.

Recently i planned to get myself a two wheeler. So on enquiring i found a Yamaha showroom on the Nelson Mannikam Road. I visited it and to my disappointment the model which i wished to buy was void. Moreover even the company has stopped the production of that particular model. With a heavy heart i left the showroom and entered Skywalk mall. My friends and I were planning to watch a movie on Christmas day. On reaching the counter the saleswomen of PVR greeted me with a big smile. I inquired her about availability of tickets on Christmas eve. Again with a very big smile she said, "Sorry Sir...Bookings open only for today". I was about to ask again but she just gave me a bigggggg smile indirectly asking me to clear the line.

I can't say it as fate or luck but fact is may be things are not turning out for me over there at that point of time.



A perfect start for the day...

Getting up early in the morning and feeling refreshed about the new day's work gives everyone a new feel. Be it any day, the feel you get every morning is awesome. The mind looks fresh ready to take up any number of task and completing at a wipe of lash.

Even i start the day with the same feel. Everything goes fine till i reach my boarding point. It is barely 20 min of travel to my office from my point but the city bus make my day completely horrible. The bus which i take runs through a very busy area and there are barely countable number of bus present in the fleet of that route. Even though i board the bus from the first point, it is never free a single day. People start boarding the bus right before it arrives at its spot. Getting into such a bus, getting cramped in the crowd, sweat flowing from the body, no air flow, oh god what a day it is...

Finally getting down before office and stretching the body, wish no one else is facing such difficulties during the start of their day.



My first road trip

Road trips, a quite exciting one as experienced reading from novels and books. I never imagined that i would be experiencing one such trip on hand. Last weekend my brother rang me up early in the morning asking me to get ready for an outing. I was doubting where had he planned to go because usually he tells me the place. He came down to Tambaram and picked me up for the road trip to Pondicherry.

Initially the plan was to take up the ECR to reach Pondicherry but later we shifted on our route towards Tindivanam from where we had a bypass to reach it. I, my brother and his friends had no idea about the places to visit there. Having no proper destination in mind we just moved on into the city. Having a wonderful lunch at seashore restaurant with the cool breeze hitting us, we decided to halt up there till evening. So sitting on the sea shore, watching the waves hitting the shore, oh man what a feel it is. By dusk we rolled the streets watching the famous Aurubindo ashram, french settlements, auroville. As the sun made its decend, we hit the gas on the same Tindivanam bypass returning back. Sitting in the car i was just wondering and telling myself that is how a road trip used to be but anyways everyone including me enjoyed it a lot.

Just reading from novels to real time experience, hmmm guess what i myself started planning for more raod trips. A SLR hanging around my neck and a vehicle to roll out, there is nothing to stop me.

An Encounter with the Monkey

            Childhood is age of craziness. It’s of no doubt that not even one would have stopped himself/herself from doing at least one crazy or stupid thing. This post is one such stupid or crazy thing which I did that finally ended me at a hospital.

             This incident occurred when I was in my kinder garden class at Chinmaya Vidhyalaya, Coimbatore. Usually I had my class getting ended up by afternoon itself, reaching home I used to have a great meal and sleep happily (A care free age with just enjoyment round the clock). Getting up by 6pm and not having a burden of home works to be done I used to finish it soon and get ready for the Temple, a regular habit then. I and my mom visiting the temple would pay a visit to my grandparent’s home (Mom’s Parents) which was in the same locality too. During weekends I used to be full time at my grandparent’s home. They are the best if you would ask me.

            Once during a visit they had planned of taking me to a nearby Lord Hanuman’s Temple situated in our locality. Even from a kid I always had a special liking towards Lord Hanuman. More over during those days (i.e. year 1995) there weren’t much of entertainment as of these days. So visiting temple itself was a great outing for me. As dusk was creping we entered the temple and luckily there wasn’t much crowd. Finishing prayers and receiving the holy theertham (Holy Water) and Thulasi we were about to leave. It was then that I noticed a monkey been tied up to a pillar inside the temple. There were few devotes who were offering fruits to that monkey. Curiosity has stopped whom as to stop me and so I dragged my grandparents towards it.

           Since we didn’t have any fruits to offer my grandfather suggested let’s move on but I stood there protesting not to move from there. So to satisfy me my grandpa gave few coins to offer to the monkey. With a great smile on my face I neared it, extended my hand with coin. The next minute I was shouting with pain. Actually what happened was I approached the monkey with the intention of giving the coin but the monkey thought that I was actually coming to snatch the fruits from it. So to protect it the monkey scratched my hand with its sharp nails. Throughout the way to hospital I was crying nonstop. I was given a Tetanus injection which made me to cry even further. It took so long for the scar to disappear.

Even today on visiting the temple I used to get a small smile on seeing the spot where the Monkey was tied, though it’s not alive now.    

Unexpected Meeting

2^nd Semester

              It was a bright Tuesday morning and we had our Engineering Mathematics-II class the very first hour. In the previous semester we had a very nice staff handling Maths but this semester he was such a stupid. I wondered how he rose to the designation of Assistant Professor. Actually his name was Mr.Balamurugan. I guess I am right with his name. So coming back to the Maths hour taking place, this Asst Prof was blabbering out and as usual we were taking notes of it.

               Around 9.30am a lab assistant from the Physics dept had come to collect the attendance sheet from the class. There used to be columns of benches in our class. I and the rest of the hostel mates used to occupy the last three rows of bench in the middle column. As the lab assistant was noting down the absentees, one of my close friend and my colleague at HCL too Mr. Karthik was busy repairing out his pen and by mistake as he blew air out of the pen’s lid it made a mild whistle sound. The lab assistant heard it and suspiciously was looking at our row of guys. But we didn’t show even the slightest anxiousness nor did Karthik have the slightest amount of fear on his face. Before leaving the class lab assistant asked who had blew the whistle in the class and even then we didn’t bother to mind him. With a furious face he left the class and we were enjoying the moment.

             The first hour ended and the second hour started. It was the Basic Civil & Mechanical Engineering class. During the first apart from the department to which we belong we were taught the basics of all the other departments. Civil and Mechanical subjects were handled by different staffs. We were lucky to have Mr. Vijayakumar, Assistant Professor, Mechanical Dept as our staff. It’s hard to find such persons especially at SaiRam Engg College. He was a class apart from other staffs. While on the contradictory we had the Civil Dept HOD handling the civil paper. So on that day it was civil class going on and we guys as usual were enjoying the class. Nearly 20 min were there for the class to get over but we found the lab assistant entering our class again.

              He went directly to the staff taking class, spoke few words and turned towards us. He signalled the Last 2 rows to come out. I was one among it and wondering the reason why he has called we moved out of the class. Outside he asked us to meet Balu Sir (A very Interesting character hardly to forget throughout my life). On hearing his name itself everyone started having a sick feeling within us. Slowly as we walked towards his office in the ground floor we decided that whatever be the treatment we should never betray our friend. So reaching his room we were standing quietly. The lab assistant too came and he informed Balu sir about us. After some time an office assistant came and called Karthik alone inside. We were all craning our necks through the window to see what is happening inside. Little later Karthik came out and told that Balu knew that it would have been me and he warned me not to do so in future. We were all confused about how Balu found the culprit correctly. Later Karthik informed us that Balu was also hailing from his place and while induction itself his dad has asked Balu to keep an eye on his son. Hearing it we were laughing uncontrollably and moved towards the class.

             Suddenly an idea stuck to one of my friend. He informed everyone to remove their ID cards and keep it within your pocket. We will create a scene in the class like Balu sir had collected our ID cards and later we will reveal the truth. Accepting to his plan we removed our ID’s and entered the class. As expected we received the reaction from our classmates. The Civil HOD was also scolding us saying “you are in your 1^st year and don’t act as if you are in your final year”. We didn’t even bother to listen what that HOD was shouting and went straight to our places and sat.

An unexpected meet with Balu was fun though we escaped of getting nice slaps from him.

Note: At SaiRam Engg College our ID cards are like visiting foreign nation with our Passport. Once your passport is lost then the following days after it you would be under a hell of problems. So as long as it is safe around your neck it means you are in the safe zone.

The Buffet

             This post is once again on one of the sweet memories of my college life. When we entered the 2^nd year we quiet found lot of changes in the Hostel. It was only two floors before and now the third floor was being constructed. We were shocked to find uninterrupted water supply. The canteen contract was given to a new group, as a result the menu got changed. Finally a lot number of new coin operated phone were put up which means guys need not wait so long to romance with their girlfriends. Mobile phones were banned inside Sai Ram campus and so we had coin operated phone to ring up to our families. But its quiet common to see guys using just one or two coin to speak to their home and nearly 30-40 coins for their girlfriends. After all it’s the only way of communicating with girls in that strict campus, so I don’t blame them but actually feel pity for them.

            Coming back, as I mentioned before the canteen contract was handed over to a different caters. On one Saturday after returning back from our evening play of Volleyball we found a huge crowd at the entrance. Over hearing the discussion of the crowd we came to know that it’s going to be a buffet dinner tonight. Adding to our excitement was that buffet served both Vegetarian & Non-Vegetarian food. We thought that If there was one who was studying during the first study hour then for sure he might be an idiot, because the entire hostel was discussing about the buffet. Though usually during the study hours there would be much silence, on that day it was completely filled with the discussions coming from each and every room. Even the security and the warden couldn’t control us.

7.30 pm

            All the other days at this time only few from the hostel move towards the canteen. We IT guys always start by 7.45 because we could find the canteen less crowded at that time. But on that day once the bell rang at 7.30 every one ran towards the canteen. We didn’t understand why people were running like this. As our room was in the third floor we were watching it from the veranda. At 7.45 we left to the canteen and approaching it we were shocked to see the scene there. There was a huge line continuing even out of the canteen. It was the line for Non-Vegetarian Buffet. The Vegetarian was served at a different place and we found it completely empty with a total of around 50 boys. Cursing the management for not making the canteen much bigger we stood in the line. 10 min later we were almost near to our destination. We found Balu sir instructing the serving man to put extra chicken piece. Seeing the scene it started mouth watering for every one of us. Visualizing that scene makes me mouth watering even now. Among us Karthik’s favorite was Chicken Biriyani. I and Sreenivas were discussing about having how many rounds of food. We collected our plate and started tasting every items present. The menu was Tomato Soup, Gulab Jamun, Naan, Chicken Biriyani, Chicken gravy, Salad, Ice cream, Banana. Meanwhile a good news started spreading throughout the canteen. It was that Balu sir has cancelled the second study hour which we usually have it after dinner. This was such a great treat for all of us. Going in for more rounds we were enjoying it every time and since few of the servers at the canteen are friend of us we IT guys get extra chicken or gulab jamun or even the ice cream. Finishing our great feast we came out of the canteen only by around 9.15 pm. Even then there were lots still having their food back.

Note: You may even feel weird about us after reading all the above lines but to be honest at SaiRam finding such delicious food is rare. Only occasionally we get such food. Rest of the days there were even few who skipped either breakfast or lunch or dinner or all the above.

            So returning back to hostel and also the study being cancelled it was a great enjoyment for us. In the veranda we IT guys along with Mech, EEE and E&I had a long chat only to know that the time was 10pm. Saturday night 10pm is the time which is eagerly awaited by almost half of the hostelers apart from this buffet, because from 10pm till next day dawn we are allowed to watch any number of films. Continuing the chat we moved towards the TV hall and started enjoying the movie.     

            Though I have visited a number of buffets, this kind of buffet can be hardly found and cherished in my later days.

Away from home

           I was happily doing my class 8 at Hilton Matriculation Hr Sec School, Courtallam, Tirunelveli District when one of my relative suggested to my dad on putting me up at a boarding school in Tiruchengode. During that period schools from Tiruchengode, Rasipuram and Namakkal were producing good results in the 10^th and 12^th public exams. So my parents even decided of joining me there. Two months before the end of class 8 I had my entrance exam at Vidya Vikas Matriculation Hr Sec School, Tiruchengode. There were nearly 500 students who had come up for the entrance. A week after the exam, results came out and I was selected. They had asked us to come and pay the fees and carry out all other formalities.

April 2004

            Packing up all my things we headed towards Tiruchengode. It was a 8 hour car drive. I was really excited upon moving to a new atmosphere. Reaching the hostel we cleared all formalities with the staffs seated outside it. Moving towards the notice board where the room allocation of each student was put up I was shocked on seeing it. My room occupied 12 members and 8 of them in it had the first name as Manoj. Having a small smile within me I and my parents moved towards the room F-7. A corner room in the first floor having the advantage of viewing people coming from the main gate, vehicles moving on the busy Tiruchengode-Erode highways and the most exciting one is the Girls Hostel. So once our parents left we started talking to each other and became thick friends eventually. Among them the closest friends of mine were two smart fair guys.  One is Mr.Mithun from Metupallayam and the other is Mr.Arun Prasad from Kanchipuram.

           Slowly as days went we came to know about the rules and regulation of the hostel and school, though I would mention about my school experience in the coming posts. Our day starts by 5am. Within half an hour we should get ready for either Jogging or Yoga. Mostly all preferred the later one because it would be comfortable to sleep while performing asana in yoga. All my roommates including me preferred Jogging because it would be great feeling the fresh air of morning and more over we used to have chats on the way. Returning back from Jogging we would be having our exercise and it gets over by 7.30am. Moving towards the hostel we would go towards refreshing our self. Meanwhile few would go towards making call since it would be their turn that day. We class 9 had our turn on every Thursday.  So freshening up, wearing our uniforms, packing up our bags we would move towards the canteen situated inside our hostel itself. Though the food won’t be so good we got adjusted to it and later on started liking it. Once finished we head towards our class.

            In the evening’s we would be playing some game and later moving on towards our study. Finishing our work, getting the completed sign from our study- in- charge we would return back sleep fully towards our room. There would be hardly time to speak because the next day we got to get up early. So this is routine followed up there. Though lot of interesting events occurred there, let me just post it out individually.