Less than a year ago I left my then job in Chennai and came to Bangalore , citing the reason as doing GMAT some time soon. Today I finished the test and I think its worth recording some of the "interesting" things I went through in the interim period.
The test itself is really straightforward in that it tests your high school math skill , reading comprehension , some kind of logical reasoning with "Critical Reasoning" and Sentence correction. Having prepared for CAT last year quite seriously ,the Quants part (which has problem solving and data sufficiency) did nt need much preparation and just required some care before deciding the right answer... ie, to avoid careless mistakes. Verbal was what took some time and dedication.
My 2 months preparation was roughly split up like this:
From OG11 , I just tried solving a few questions in quants, and verbal in no particular order , but did some daily just to keep the momentum and not feel guilty about it :D. This took maybe 1-2 hours everyday . After I finished OG11, I stopped doing exercises in CR ,RC and quants... only the mock tests , ie Powerprep, gmat prep and some 800 score tests . I started going through Manhattan Sentence correction, which was really good to learn a systematic approach to sentence correction and along with OG10 sentence correction exercises... you see manhattan gives u the questions you need to solve from OG10 to understand a certain topic ,so it really starts making sense.
One day before the test , I finished all the exercises in SC and watched "Fantastic four: the rise of the silver surfer" , Jessica Alba who looked cute except for the pseudo blonde wig ( yuck) , why do people ever try to look like Caucasians? Anyway , I slept well and went on time for the test thanks to my dad and his activa . <> Test got over , I got a decent score ... 760 and I returned home in rain again thanks to my dad . And then i decided to blog about it just for the heck of it.
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Friday, August 17, 2007
random rhyme
Meeting people on the go
I often think they are slow
To realise that I know
Their thought flow
By the time they blink
I can sleep forty winks
And come back to jinx
The silly ppl in pink
They then start to wonder why
This unknown guy
Not looking sly but shy
Is smiling / frowning try
I am laughing within
How can I tell the heathen
The truth of the situation
That coz of they , all is stinkin
I slowly relent
Sensing the lack of an intent
To learn and invent
Messiah I know I am meant
I take a step closer
To touch the pretty poser
Shes a child , o sir
In mind , not body;stirred
Ah, the pink hon
I cry for she's not the only one
Whos lost in this insane cone
Of an earth , flesh and bone
Forgive her , for she slapped
A saint , a saviour perhaps
Pure thought , in a mind's gaps
Lost on you , pink clothed chaps
And so I cry and laugh again
Why do i try in vain
To make people see truth in the sane
What do I stand to gain?
My tears fall, I m so sad
How can they call me "mad"?
I wonder what I ll tell my dad
When I meet him , maybe "oh gad"!
..................................................................
please don't pull at your hair after reading this , this is something which I wrote to see how weird things can get when I write just for rhyme and grime :D
I often think they are slow
To realise that I know
Their thought flow
By the time they blink
I can sleep forty winks
And come back to jinx
The silly ppl in pink
They then start to wonder why
This unknown guy
Not looking sly but shy
Is smiling / frowning try
I am laughing within
How can I tell the heathen
The truth of the situation
That coz of they , all is stinkin
I slowly relent
Sensing the lack of an intent
To learn and invent
Messiah I know I am meant
I take a step closer
To touch the pretty poser
Shes a child , o sir
In mind , not body;stirred
Ah, the pink hon
I cry for she's not the only one
Whos lost in this insane cone
Of an earth , flesh and bone
Forgive her , for she slapped
A saint , a saviour perhaps
Pure thought , in a mind's gaps
Lost on you , pink clothed chaps
And so I cry and laugh again
Why do i try in vain
To make people see truth in the sane
What do I stand to gain?
My tears fall, I m so sad
How can they call me "mad"?
I wonder what I ll tell my dad
When I meet him , maybe "oh gad"!
..................................................................
please don't pull at your hair after reading this , this is something which I wrote to see how weird things can get when I write just for rhyme and grime :D
Argument analysis -2
" The desire of corporations to maximise profits creates conflict of
interest with the welfare of the nation at large "
---------------------
The argument presented concludes rather abruptly what the consequences of
the desire of corporations to maximise profits might be. This is unwarranted
as there are many cases which can prove the contrary,ie, corporations which
go after maximum profits add to the general welfare of the nation at large.
Consider "Reliance " in India, which is one of the largest retailers in the
country. It is known for its seemingly absurd business ventures which plunge
market rates abysmally low, but eventually make up for the low rates with
maximum volume. Customers are drawn to the low rates and this forces
competitors to bring down rates and provide better service in order to
compete effectively with Reliance. Though Reliance is definitely after
maximizing profits , its ventures are such that they make the competing
business environment more customer friendly ,thus helping the nation in the
long run.
Another case in point is that of "Tata " Corporation in India. Known for
its adventurous streak in business , its business ventures have always been
helpful to the nation at large. Its recent acquisition of a steel
manufacturer in Europe will no doubt make sure its clout in the global steel
market increases , but it also makes the Indian presence stronger as a
result. In short, however profit oriented Tata might be , its success
creates a better brand image of the nation .
There are cases where the reverse is also true. Pharmaceutical corporations
around the world are known for their high prices and tight fistedness with
patents of life saving drugs. Their desire to maximize profits by not
sharing life saving information with the general public does harm the
nation's well being .
Considering that there are instances of selfish motives of corporations
helping the nation or otherwise , and also because we dont have conclusive
evidence about the relative numbers of such corporations , we cannot agree
completely with the argument .
interest with the welfare of the nation at large "
---------------------
The argument presented concludes rather abruptly what the consequences of
the desire of corporations to maximise profits might be. This is unwarranted
as there are many cases which can prove the contrary,ie, corporations which
go after maximum profits add to the general welfare of the nation at large.
Consider "Reliance " in India, which is one of the largest retailers in the
country. It is known for its seemingly absurd business ventures which plunge
market rates abysmally low, but eventually make up for the low rates with
maximum volume. Customers are drawn to the low rates and this forces
competitors to bring down rates and provide better service in order to
compete effectively with Reliance. Though Reliance is definitely after
maximizing profits , its ventures are such that they make the competing
business environment more customer friendly ,thus helping the nation in the
long run.
Another case in point is that of "Tata " Corporation in India. Known for
its adventurous streak in business , its business ventures have always been
helpful to the nation at large. Its recent acquisition of a steel
manufacturer in Europe will no doubt make sure its clout in the global steel
market increases , but it also makes the Indian presence stronger as a
result. In short, however profit oriented Tata might be , its success
creates a better brand image of the nation .
There are cases where the reverse is also true. Pharmaceutical corporations
around the world are known for their high prices and tight fistedness with
patents of life saving drugs. Their desire to maximize profits by not
sharing life saving information with the general public does harm the
nation's well being .
Considering that there are instances of selfish motives of corporations
helping the nation or otherwise , and also because we dont have conclusive
evidence about the relative numbers of such corporations , we cannot agree
completely with the argument .
Thursday, August 16, 2007
analysis of an issue(gmat practice)
"The presence of a competitor is always beneficial to a company. Competition forces a company to change itself in ways that improve its practices."
Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the opinion stated above. Support your views with reasons and/or examples from your own experience, observations, or reading.
-------------
The presented argument should be considered with a pinch of salt.
The reasoning on which it is possibly based is that "competition" is a positive influence. Competition by itself can be of differing natures. Fair and healthy competition can promote improvement in the practices and functioning of a company. If the company and its competitor follow the law and don't indulge in unfair practices , then there is only scope for improvement in order to compete. For example consider the restaurants on Mosque road in Bangalore. All of theses restaurants cater to similar tastes . They sell the same kind of food , but they do not indulge in any unfair practices such as trying to influence a customer not to go to any of the other restaurants. They try to improve on the food quality and the service as well in order to keep their customers and get new ones. In this case , the "company" responds in a positive way ;competition is a positive influence and forces the company to improve its practices. The arguments holds true in this case.
On the other hand, if the "competition" is unfair, the company on the receiving end,in order to fight back or just survive , might have to indulge in practices similar to those of the competitors. This will definitely not force a company to "improve" itself . For example , auto rickshaw drivers in Bangalore are now increasingly becoming shrewd at cheating customers as a result of unfair competition. When an honest auto rickshaw driver sees that he is losing out on customers and money because his dishonest counterparts use unfair means to cheat customers like rigging up the fare meter or taking a long winded route to the destination , he might be forced to learn and adopt these techniques in order to survive and prosper . In this case , it can be seen that the argument does not hold true and thus we can say that the argument is not complete and does not cover all possible cases.
The examples cited above are real life examples and I think that they would hold true if you even replace the restaurants and auto drivers with companies . What they try to prove is that its not necessary that a company's policies improve with the presence of a competitor, they can also deteriorate or go bad. The argument is thus not a sound one and should be considered conditionally , ie, with a pinch of salt.
Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the opinion stated above. Support your views with reasons and/or examples from your own experience, observations, or reading.
-------------
The presented argument should be considered with a pinch of salt.
The reasoning on which it is possibly based is that "competition" is a positive influence. Competition by itself can be of differing natures. Fair and healthy competition can promote improvement in the practices and functioning of a company. If the company and its competitor follow the law and don't indulge in unfair practices , then there is only scope for improvement in order to compete. For example consider the restaurants on Mosque road in Bangalore. All of theses restaurants cater to similar tastes . They sell the same kind of food , but they do not indulge in any unfair practices such as trying to influence a customer not to go to any of the other restaurants. They try to improve on the food quality and the service as well in order to keep their customers and get new ones. In this case , the "company" responds in a positive way ;competition is a positive influence and forces the company to improve its practices. The arguments holds true in this case.
On the other hand, if the "competition" is unfair, the company on the receiving end,in order to fight back or just survive , might have to indulge in practices similar to those of the competitors. This will definitely not force a company to "improve" itself . For example , auto rickshaw drivers in Bangalore are now increasingly becoming shrewd at cheating customers as a result of unfair competition. When an honest auto rickshaw driver sees that he is losing out on customers and money because his dishonest counterparts use unfair means to cheat customers like rigging up the fare meter or taking a long winded route to the destination , he might be forced to learn and adopt these techniques in order to survive and prosper . In this case , it can be seen that the argument does not hold true and thus we can say that the argument is not complete and does not cover all possible cases.
The examples cited above are real life examples and I think that they would hold true if you even replace the restaurants and auto drivers with companies . What they try to prove is that its not necessary that a company's policies improve with the presence of a competitor, they can also deteriorate or go bad. The argument is thus not a sound one and should be considered conditionally , ie, with a pinch of salt.
analysis of an argument(gmat practice)
The following appeared as part of an article in a magazine on lifestyles.
"Two years ago, City L was listed 14th in an annual survey that ranks cities according to the quality of life that can be enjoyed by those living in them. This information will enable people who are moving to the state in which City L is located to confidently identify one place, at least, where schools are good, housing is affordable, people are friendly, the environment is safe, and the arts flourish."
Discuss how well reasoned you find this argument. In your discussion be sure to analyze the line of reasoning and the use of evidence in the argument. For example, you may need to consider what questionable assumptions underlie the thinking and what alternative explanations or counterexamples might weaken the conclusion. You can also discuss what sort of evidence would strengthen or refute the argument, what changes in the argument would make it more logically sound, and what, if anything, would help you better evaluate its conclusion.
----------
The argument presented is not reasonable as it tries to extrapolate the provided information to get a convenient conclusion. An assumption which is clearly evident is that information about one city in a state ( which would consist of several/many cities ) is sufficient to predict how the rest of the state would be.
The validity of the information obtained from the survey itself not established as it largely depends on the people who have taken part in the survey. We do not have information about how many people were surveyed , from what social standing they are and what their inclinations are.
Assuming that the survey is reliable , then a family which wants to locate a suitable place to live in city L might be able to get some useful information from the survey . However , to conclude that the family will surely benefit from the survey and definitely find a place where it might be satisfied with the schools,housing , people etc. is wishful thinking . There is not enough evidence to conclude so.
One more reason why this argument does not hold much water is that the factors which are considered to identify a place , viz. schools,housing,people,environment and the arts are all subjective. Schools which might be affordable to a rich family may not be so for a relatively poor family. Housing follows the same logic. Whether the people are friendly is again dependant of the perception of the families . They might find someone friendly whereas the neighbours may not . A safe environment can depend on many factors. What is safe for one family may not be safe for another.
If we had further information about the state in which city L is present, then the argument may be more reasonable using known data to come to a conclusion. Supposing we knew that the cities in the state were more or less similar with respect to the factors mentioned ,then the argument could be considered more reasonable.
"Two years ago, City L was listed 14th in an annual survey that ranks cities according to the quality of life that can be enjoyed by those living in them. This information will enable people who are moving to the state in which City L is located to confidently identify one place, at least, where schools are good, housing is affordable, people are friendly, the environment is safe, and the arts flourish."
Discuss how well reasoned you find this argument. In your discussion be sure to analyze the line of reasoning and the use of evidence in the argument. For example, you may need to consider what questionable assumptions underlie the thinking and what alternative explanations or counterexamples might weaken the conclusion. You can also discuss what sort of evidence would strengthen or refute the argument, what changes in the argument would make it more logically sound, and what, if anything, would help you better evaluate its conclusion.
----------
The argument presented is not reasonable as it tries to extrapolate the provided information to get a convenient conclusion. An assumption which is clearly evident is that information about one city in a state ( which would consist of several/many cities ) is sufficient to predict how the rest of the state would be.
The validity of the information obtained from the survey itself not established as it largely depends on the people who have taken part in the survey. We do not have information about how many people were surveyed , from what social standing they are and what their inclinations are.
Assuming that the survey is reliable , then a family which wants to locate a suitable place to live in city L might be able to get some useful information from the survey . However , to conclude that the family will surely benefit from the survey and definitely find a place where it might be satisfied with the schools,housing , people etc. is wishful thinking . There is not enough evidence to conclude so.
One more reason why this argument does not hold much water is that the factors which are considered to identify a place , viz. schools,housing,people,environment and the arts are all subjective. Schools which might be affordable to a rich family may not be so for a relatively poor family. Housing follows the same logic. Whether the people are friendly is again dependant of the perception of the families . They might find someone friendly whereas the neighbours may not . A safe environment can depend on many factors. What is safe for one family may not be safe for another.
If we had further information about the state in which city L is present, then the argument may be more reasonable using known data to come to a conclusion. Supposing we knew that the cities in the state were more or less similar with respect to the factors mentioned ,then the argument could be considered more reasonable.
Friday, June 22, 2007
Mum(bai)'s the wor(l)d
Bangalore airport
Driven by dreams of glory somewhat and more by the thrill of getting out of the mundane 9-6 ( in my case 12 - 9 ) existence and meeting quakers hot babes , matter and i packed for the trip to mumbai! In case you are thinking matter and i were packing together spatially and in the same time zone ,you are mistaken , matter as usual was in his own MST ( matter standard time ) while was in good old (boring ) IST where you have to be at the airport well in advance and sit waiting in hope of seeing a real hot beauty ...hope is all I ve got now :( . Anyway , with usual alacrity after a few harried phone calls , matter suddenly turned up behind me as if he had been there all the time and we safely boarded the flight! That was a relief I tell you . About the inevitable question as to how many chicks there were on flight , I can recall only one really hot tam ( i think so) girl in sari and a few ok ok ones.
On board and away
Our onward journey was on Indigo and man the most disappointing flight I ever had in terms of .....the air hostesses ! I remember telling matter that 90% of the air hostesses are pretty ordinary looking but are definitely one thing... paper white! I cant understand whats the point of having air hostesses who wont even look into the eyes of the people getting on board while (if at all ) welcoming them on board. We were lucky to get at least that service considering that as soon as our trip was over , there was a nation wide strike by the ground staff of some or all of the airlines! Anyway it was nt worth the effort worrying about them when theres so much to do in our own lives . During the course of the flight I discovered a very intimate detail about matter! Can you guess wat ? yes you are right , he does have a very soft inside... before you get the wrong idea, let me clarify. Actually (verbatim matter) , his body pressure is much lesser than that outside therefore the pain in the ear,and when he inserts his ears to stop the pain , his fingers get sucked in ! Well with such proof , I had to admit to his theory which is true btw hehe.
Before this occured , matter very expectantly enquired about the availability of cotton to stuff his ears with . On the polite refusal , his exasperation was very noticeable and lasted through most of the rest of the journey as DK and Gandhi would testify . I forgot to mention that matter shot the take off of the flight .... you are right ... from within the plane!!!
Arrival at chatrapathi sivaji international airport and journey to Deek's abode
After a relatively short flight during which I was enlightened on several topics by matter , most of which I dont remember :) , not that it was not interesting , but because of STML. After say good riddance to the pasty air hostesses , we got in touch with Deeks . After trying to remember a set of confusing directions which we were supposed to relate to an auto driver , and failing miserably ( inspite of a detailed sms from dk which we later learnt was copied from a map hehe ) , Deek's idea of speaking to the auto guy solved the problem and we were safely off . The directions I remember are something with key words , Chembur...Vashi... three of four highway names..and Indianoil colony . In that sultry - salubrious (is that an oxy moron? ) weather , we were relieved to be in motion albeit within extremely cheap transport ! Man , you could say we were very pleasantly surprised to see the auto meter just registering some chillare as he sped along the paved cement roads ( the road looks like a pavement in mumbai ) and really wide highways. We reached Deek's abode in some time , less than half an hour . As Gandhi and Deeks came ambling towards us from a distance I really wish we had shot that pic ! I was just taking out Rs.10 to give the auto guy, as the meter read 10.5 .... who for a strange reason was laughing at us! Deeks came to our rescue at this juncture along with the ever youthful Gandhi . It seems that the meter has to read with a scaling factor of 10 for autos and for cabs its some kind of whacky non linear scale which would put our pn diode graph to shame.
Deek's abode and lunch
In a supposedly tamil area , the apartment building was called GRIT ,and was part of a bunch of buildings near a small colony called Indian oil colony. Enquiring about the availability of hot babes in the colony we entered the place where Deeks spends most of his sleeping and blogging hours ( just guessing). It was a really spacious place where 2-3 people could live easily and we were really glad to relax under the fans as we acquainted ourselves with what we were upto and I updated them about matter's latest quotes. It was really pleasant surprise to also have Gandhi in Mumbai at the same time and added a hairier factor (especially the feet! ) to our stay . After a really heavy lunch of egg fried rice and veg manchurian and freshening up , we set off to see mumbai!
The suburban trains
Our plan was to take autos to this place called Vidya Vihar which was the closest station which would connect us to the artery of the city , the mumbai rail. Mater with a really professional looking thick ,black camera and Deeks with his handy Silver cam with a thinner extensible cylinder made for obvious analogies to their prowesses in other places ... which was was unabashedly confirmed by matter! On board the train we were told of the different lines which ran parallel and in the north south direction . A really huge number of people use this network everyday... for exact figures , ask Deeks and when you see how alive that whole system is you cant help but wonder how it all works. Even after the bomb blasts and all that shit , people fearlessly just getting on with life ;looking at them , our apprehensions were gone .
CST (Chatrapathi sivaji terminus) , marine drive and ragada patties
We arrived at a major stop called CST , which I guess is equivalent to Majestic in train terms . Outside this station is the place you see in most films based on mumbai with some old huge buildings. It was really great to be in the places you get to see always on tv , what with all the news channels being so partial to mumbai ! Anyway after a short walk through stalls which mainly hawked pirated cds and dvds of all kinds... a guy ever saw my unsure eyes and was pulling on my shirt asking if i wanted "sexy" stuff! After being had by the ESWC guys for not even sponsoring the travel , we thought it not worth buying stuff we were not sure would even work and so we went on to the next location... the beach. Driving past "Marine drive" , makes you realise that the name is exactly what it is ... a long drive along the beach. It looks like the sea has made a wide curved inway into the land and on one of the arms of the curve you can see really huge buildings showcasing the city's vibrant business life. That place is really awesome , something totally unique to Mumbai and we stood relishing the scene in the fading day.
After a while , guess who came to meet us ? It was good old Rajesh Bhat ! The first thing you can notice about him is that hes not changed one bit..except for his get-up which was now purely formal with a characteristic laptop bag across his chest and shoulders. After learning about his life at Reliance Life Sciences and also anecdotes of Mukesh Ambani and generally a lot of time pass we headed to have the best chat we have ever had in our short lives! Unbelievably tasty stuff which didnt seem that unclean either , we had an ample helping of "Ragada patties " and other normal chat stuff , which left an indelible memory of street food in mumbai which was only going to be further enhanced!
Leopolds
After a long walk along marine drive , we decided to hit the next destination... Leopold's . For people who love to pour beer ..(into their mouths ) and at the same time have a great conversation , this is heaven! It also incidentally serves as one of the hangouts for the main character in this book called "Shantaram" . I guess we should be able to see it in a movie before long starring Johnny Depp and AmitabhBachan as an underworld Don . The hype did nothing to diminish the experience and ambience . The place was ..not huge , but the number of people it accomodated was big, mainly because of optimization achieved over a long time ( as long as a hundred + years ... if what the photo says is true). With closely placed tables meant for four mostly , we five adjusted into one and settled down amidst a crowd which a significant foreign presence. The reason we learnt was because of one undeniably its ambience and second because they have a discount of 10-15% on the bill ! It added more eye candy for us , with local maal and foreign maal at the same place and with the effect of beer kicking in, it seemed all the more lovely. The beer came in a really beautiful chemistry lab apparatus kind of thing. A really tall tube of maybe 10 cm diameter and a tap at the bottom constituted a pitcher . Filling it up and settling down for some great storytelling by some of the best at it... Matter and DK,Raju and Gandhi adding their own experiences , I was really getting a sleepy kick out of it. I think I now know enough about matter's experiences to write a book about... considering how much "matter" is there in them :D . An eternity and a couple of pitchers later , we decided to make a move to....
Bade Miyan
It sounds like a part of some really bad Amitabh Bachan film, but its nothing like that . Its an awesome street food place for the gods ( or is it the lucky dogs who get the left overs?) and mortals from Bangalore . No pictures were taken at this location unfortunately . Anyway it was a road side place as good as it can get. With scores of cars parked on the street and on parallel and nearby streets , most of the customers stand and eat as the seating was ready to be filled many times over by families mainly. Imagine, whole families all dressed up nicely and outside at something like 23 :00 + hours ! There were even some really good looking girls who were least bothered about the time or being among all those men at that time of the day. This is one of the really amazing things about mumbai which struck me as being in sharp contrast to the places I have lived in before ... namely Bangalore and Chennai ( which bolt up by 23 30 max , beyond which you are on your own risk) . We ordered some chicken kababs which ran out as we spoke and then settled for some other kind of kabab while Deeks relised his veg sheek kababs . Never mind that it was a wholly upright meal as in we were standing all the time, it was a really delicious experience and a revelation of what night life can be. And this is only an eating place ! Imagine what fun it would be to be at an all night booze dance party, will I ever get to do that ? Maybe someday. After stuffing ourselves with meat and veg kababs , we headed to the final spot of the day....
Gateway of India and back home.
After the sweaty travel during the day , we still remained sticky , with the weather remaining distinctly humid even as the time neared midnight. This place is not very impressive , I mean as the name would imply, I would imagine a gigantic gateway in to the second most populous nation in the world. Barring such expectations, it was a nice monument, whose historical significance I am not aware of .. maybe somebody will throw some light on that . What was really cool about the place was the light from distant buildings playing on the water surface near the monument. Some more anecdotes later , on the steps which led into the water and some cool photos , we were asked to bugger off by the police at the stroke of midnight. Opposite this monument , is another ... a Taj Hotel which literally has compound facing the Gateway of India , it is all building right onto the road! It looks like a huge palace and well probably unaffordable anyway . finally it was time to head back home and thus concluded the first night in mumbai with reflections of light off the water and thoughts off the mind.
Driven by dreams of glory somewhat and more by the thrill of getting out of the mundane 9-6 ( in my case 12 - 9 ) existence and meeting quakers hot babes , matter and i packed for the trip to mumbai! In case you are thinking matter and i were packing together spatially and in the same time zone ,you are mistaken , matter as usual was in his own MST ( matter standard time ) while was in good old (boring ) IST where you have to be at the airport well in advance and sit waiting in hope of seeing a real hot beauty ...hope is all I ve got now :( . Anyway , with usual alacrity after a few harried phone calls , matter suddenly turned up behind me as if he had been there all the time and we safely boarded the flight! That was a relief I tell you . About the inevitable question as to how many chicks there were on flight , I can recall only one really hot tam ( i think so) girl in sari and a few ok ok ones.
On board and away
Our onward journey was on Indigo and man the most disappointing flight I ever had in terms of .....the air hostesses ! I remember telling matter that 90% of the air hostesses are pretty ordinary looking but are definitely one thing... paper white! I cant understand whats the point of having air hostesses who wont even look into the eyes of the people getting on board while (if at all ) welcoming them on board. We were lucky to get at least that service considering that as soon as our trip was over , there was a nation wide strike by the ground staff of some or all of the airlines! Anyway it was nt worth the effort worrying about them when theres so much to do in our own lives . During the course of the flight I discovered a very intimate detail about matter! Can you guess wat ? yes you are right , he does have a very soft inside... before you get the wrong idea, let me clarify. Actually (verbatim matter) , his body pressure is much lesser than that outside therefore the pain in the ear,and when he inserts his ears to stop the pain , his fingers get sucked in ! Well with such proof , I had to admit to his theory which is true btw hehe.
Before this occured , matter very expectantly enquired about the availability of cotton to stuff his ears with . On the polite refusal , his exasperation was very noticeable and lasted through most of the rest of the journey as DK and Gandhi would testify . I forgot to mention that matter shot the take off of the flight .... you are right ... from within the plane!!!
Arrival at chatrapathi sivaji international airport and journey to Deek's abode
After a relatively short flight during which I was enlightened on several topics by matter , most of which I dont remember :) , not that it was not interesting , but because of STML. After say good riddance to the pasty air hostesses , we got in touch with Deeks . After trying to remember a set of confusing directions which we were supposed to relate to an auto driver , and failing miserably ( inspite of a detailed sms from dk which we later learnt was copied from a map hehe ) , Deek's idea of speaking to the auto guy solved the problem and we were safely off . The directions I remember are something with key words , Chembur...Vashi... three of four highway names..and Indianoil colony . In that sultry - salubrious (is that an oxy moron? ) weather , we were relieved to be in motion albeit within extremely cheap transport ! Man , you could say we were very pleasantly surprised to see the auto meter just registering some chillare as he sped along the paved cement roads ( the road looks like a pavement in mumbai ) and really wide highways. We reached Deek's abode in some time , less than half an hour . As Gandhi and Deeks came ambling towards us from a distance I really wish we had shot that pic ! I was just taking out Rs.10 to give the auto guy, as the meter read 10.5 .... who for a strange reason was laughing at us! Deeks came to our rescue at this juncture along with the ever youthful Gandhi . It seems that the meter has to read with a scaling factor of 10 for autos and for cabs its some kind of whacky non linear scale which would put our pn diode graph to shame.
Deek's abode and lunch
In a supposedly tamil area , the apartment building was called GRIT
The suburban trains
Our plan was to take autos to this place called Vidya Vihar which was the closest station which would connect us to the artery of the city , the mumbai rail. Mater with a really professional looking thick ,black camera and Deeks with his handy Silver cam with a thinner extensible cylinder made for obvious analogies to their prowesses in other places ... which was was unabashedly confirmed by matter! On board the train we were told of the different lines which ran parallel and in the north south direction . A really huge number of people use this network everyday... for exact figures , ask Deeks and when you see how alive that whole system is you cant help but wonder how it all works. Even after the bomb blasts and all that shit , people fearlessly just getting on with life ;looking at them , our apprehensions were gone .
CST (Chatrapathi sivaji terminus) , marine drive and ragada patties
We arrived at a major stop called CST , which I guess is equivalent to Majestic in train terms . Outside this station is the place you see in most films based on mumbai with some old huge buildings. It was really great to be in the places you get to see always on tv , what with all the news channels being so partial to mumbai ! Anyway after a short walk through stalls which mainly hawked pirated cds and dvds of all kinds... a guy ever saw my unsure eyes and was pulling on my shirt asking if i wanted "sexy" stuff! After being had by the ESWC guys for not even sponsoring the travel , we thought it not worth buying stuff we were not sure would even work and so we went on to the next location... the beach. Driving past "Marine drive" , makes you realise that the name is exactly what it is ... a long drive along the beach. It looks like the sea has made a wide curved inway into the land and on one of the arms of the curve you can see really huge buildings showcasing the city's vibrant business life. That place is really awesome , something totally unique to Mumbai and we stood relishing the scene in the fading day.
After a while , guess who came to meet us ? It was good old Rajesh Bhat ! The first thing you can notice about him is that hes not changed one bit..except for his get-up which was now purely formal with a characteristic laptop bag across his chest and shoulders. After learning about his life at Reliance Life Sciences and also anecdotes of Mukesh Ambani and generally a lot of time pass we headed to have the best chat we have ever had in our short lives! Unbelievably tasty stuff which didnt seem that unclean either , we had an ample helping of "Ragada patties " and other normal chat stuff , which left an indelible memory of street food in mumbai which was only going to be further enhanced!
Leopolds
After a long walk along marine drive , we decided to hit the next destination... Leopold's . For people who love to pour beer ..(into their mouths ) and at the same time have a great conversation , this is heaven! It also incidentally serves as one of the hangouts for the main character in this book called "Shantaram" . I guess we should be able to see it in a movie before long starring Johnny Depp and AmitabhBachan as an underworld Don . The hype did nothing to diminish the experience and ambience . The place was ..not huge , but the number of people it accomodated was big, mainly because of optimization achieved over a long time ( as long as a hundred + years ... if what the photo says is true). With closely placed tables meant for four mostly , we five adjusted into one and settled down amidst a crowd which a significant foreign presence. The reason we learnt was because of one undeniably its ambience and second because they have a discount of 10-15% on the bill ! It added more eye candy for us , with local maal and foreign maal at the same place and with the effect of beer kicking in, it seemed all the more lovely. The beer came in a really beautiful chemistry lab apparatus kind of thing. A really tall tube of maybe 10 cm diameter and a tap at the bottom constituted a pitcher . Filling it up and settling down for some great storytelling by some of the best at it... Matter and DK,Raju and Gandhi adding their own experiences , I was really getting a sleepy kick out of it. I think I now know enough about matter's experiences to write a book about... considering how much "matter" is there in them :D . An eternity and a couple of pitchers later , we decided to make a move to....
Bade Miyan
It sounds like a part of some really bad Amitabh Bachan film, but its nothing like that . Its an awesome street food place for the gods ( or is it the lucky dogs who get the left overs?) and mortals from Bangalore . No pictures were taken at this location unfortunately . Anyway it was a road side place as good as it can get. With scores of cars parked on the street and on parallel and nearby streets , most of the customers stand and eat as the seating was ready to be filled many times over by families mainly. Imagine, whole families all dressed up nicely and outside at something like 23 :00 + hours ! There were even some really good looking girls who were least bothered about the time or being among all those men at that time of the day. This is one of the really amazing things about mumbai which struck me as being in sharp contrast to the places I have lived in before ... namely Bangalore and Chennai ( which bolt up by 23 30 max , beyond which you are on your own risk) . We ordered some chicken kababs which ran out as we spoke and then settled for some other kind of kabab while Deeks relised his veg sheek kababs . Never mind that it was a wholly upright meal as in we were standing all the time, it was a really delicious experience and a revelation of what night life can be. And this is only an eating place ! Imagine what fun it would be to be at an all night booze dance party, will I ever get to do that ? Maybe someday. After stuffing ourselves with meat and veg kababs , we headed to the final spot of the day....
Gateway of India and back home.
After the sweaty travel during the day , we still remained sticky , with the weather remaining distinctly humid even as the time neared midnight. This place is not very impressive , I mean as the name would imply, I would imagine a gigantic gateway in to the second most populous nation in the world. Barring such expectations, it was a nice monument, whose historical significance I am not aware of .. maybe somebody will throw some light on that . What was really cool about the place was the light from distant buildings playing on the water surface near the monument. Some more anecdotes later , on the steps which led into the water and some cool photos , we were asked to bugger off by the police at the stroke of midnight. Opposite this monument , is another ... a Taj Hotel which literally has compound facing the Gateway of India , it is all building right onto the road! It looks like a huge palace and well probably unaffordable anyway . finally it was time to head back home and thus concluded the first night in mumbai with reflections of light off the water and thoughts off the mind.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Shitty food?
After many an incident involving raw flesh or unwanted creatures dead or dying in my food at various restaurants in different cities , I want to let the world know the names of these sons of bitches so that at least some of you would refrain from letting them continue.
Marry Brown , Chennai : I have visited 2 outlets of MarryBrown during my 3 year stay in Chennai . I used to like the taste of the fried chicken there until my stomach started complaining about it . This was not such a big deal since bad food is quite common . But on another occasion I was just about to leave for Bangalore from Chennai Central , when I bought a burger from the Marry Brown outlet there ( the one right next to Saravana Bhavan) . This was a "special" burger which was supposed to have a fried piece of chicken instead of a patty. The guy packed it and promptly took the payment. I took my seat in the train when there was 15 minutes to departure . I opened the packet and took a bite... to find that it was rubbery. The flesh was uncooked . Seething with anger I returned to the counter and shouted at the guy there . The main guy in charge was a kiddish looking north indian chap , he just stood there staring as if his brains where at home , the other guy who handles customers was saying "sorry sir , please " repeatedly. I asked them how they would feel to be served raw meat for money and took my bag and left.
Ponnusamy Chettinad Hotel , M.G.Road , Besantnagar : It was a Sunday afternoon . My roommate Vijesh and I went to this "famous" restaurant to have the most important meal of the weekend , "brunch" . We went in and sat down at a table among the all the other confusingly placed tables. We waited for an eternity before I had to shout to get some service. We ordered some Fried chicken which according to my roomie was a specialty . When it did arrive , I found it was quite stale and was really pissed about it. After making a lot of fuss and threatening legal action , we got a replacement piece from some other curry . Deciding never to visit this Ponnu "myre" samy place ever again , we left with a warning to the guys there.
Kwality Riviera : This is one of the shittiest incidents I ve had at a restaurant. First the guy serves some stinking Chicken tandoori and then he argues with us that it is fresh , the freaking bastard. Anyway , after threatening him that no one from Verizon would ever come there again , his and his friends' attitude changed to that of pleading . I sometimes think what would happen to all the people who worked in such places if they get shut down for such things , but now I think I ll do my best to screw anyone else who wants to play dirty.
Hotel Grand: This is the biggest misnomer of the century. For the stalest food ( apparently because they need to conserve power by turning off the refridgerator at night ) , read stinking chicken lollypop , you can rely on this place. Its got filthy curtains and table cloths and a particular waiter who would put LOTR's Gollum to shame with his shifting faces . I was accompanied by an especially good natured guy (KKP) who was reasoning ever so pleasantly with that SOB... as if he would turn over a new leaf . After we left that place with disgust , I came to find out from him that if we took a sample of the food with us to Rajaji Bhavan in Besantnagar, we could actually file a case against them. I really regret not doing that that day.
Nandhini Palace : This is the latest addition to the really long list of such incidents. 12/6/2007 , 3:00 pm , I ordered a limited meals at Nandhini Palace on new BEL road . This was on the ground floor restaurant . Already feeling weak because of bad seats at work and travel fatigue , I was happy to get the food on my table finally. A small bowl of rice and sambhar and rasam and curd which had the color of urine ( yeah , it really did ) , at least the top layer . Halfway through the meal some kid came and served "dhaal" and some vegetable side dish . When I was almost done, I saw a dead cockroach hidden among the slices of the vegetable . My first reaction this time was , man why me? I really didnt have the mood to fight with these people . I called the waiter and showed the dead insect. He said something about informing his manager and scooted off. I just could nt eat anymore and went to wash my hands. Seeing the alarm on the faces of the waiters I knew it was quite serious , but it was their lucky day I was already bugged enough with other things like the way ESWC 2007 was held in Mumbai the previous weekend .
On this day , I have decided to take revenge on erring restaurants one way or the other ... better not mess with the paying customer , coz one day you ll be brought to the streets if you do .
Marry Brown , Chennai : I have visited 2 outlets of MarryBrown during my 3 year stay in Chennai . I used to like the taste of the fried chicken there until my stomach started complaining about it . This was not such a big deal since bad food is quite common . But on another occasion I was just about to leave for Bangalore from Chennai Central , when I bought a burger from the Marry Brown outlet there ( the one right next to Saravana Bhavan) . This was a "special" burger which was supposed to have a fried piece of chicken instead of a patty. The guy packed it and promptly took the payment. I took my seat in the train when there was 15 minutes to departure . I opened the packet and took a bite... to find that it was rubbery. The flesh was uncooked . Seething with anger I returned to the counter and shouted at the guy there . The main guy in charge was a kiddish looking north indian chap , he just stood there staring as if his brains where at home , the other guy who handles customers was saying "sorry sir , please " repeatedly. I asked them how they would feel to be served raw meat for money and took my bag and left.
Ponnusamy Chettinad Hotel , M.G.Road , Besantnagar : It was a Sunday afternoon . My roommate Vijesh and I went to this "famous" restaurant to have the most important meal of the weekend , "brunch" . We went in and sat down at a table among the all the other confusingly placed tables. We waited for an eternity before I had to shout to get some service. We ordered some Fried chicken which according to my roomie was a specialty . When it did arrive , I found it was quite stale and was really pissed about it. After making a lot of fuss and threatening legal action , we got a replacement piece from some other curry . Deciding never to visit this Ponnu "myre" samy place ever again , we left with a warning to the guys there.
Kwality Riviera : This is one of the shittiest incidents I ve had at a restaurant. First the guy serves some stinking Chicken tandoori and then he argues with us that it is fresh , the freaking bastard. Anyway , after threatening him that no one from Verizon would ever come there again , his and his friends' attitude changed to that of pleading . I sometimes think what would happen to all the people who worked in such places if they get shut down for such things , but now I think I ll do my best to screw anyone else who wants to play dirty.
Hotel Grand: This is the biggest misnomer of the century. For the stalest food ( apparently because they need to conserve power by turning off the refridgerator at night ) , read stinking chicken lollypop , you can rely on this place. Its got filthy curtains and table cloths and a particular waiter who would put LOTR's Gollum to shame with his shifting faces . I was accompanied by an especially good natured guy (KKP) who was reasoning ever so pleasantly with that SOB... as if he would turn over a new leaf . After we left that place with disgust , I came to find out from him that if we took a sample of the food with us to Rajaji Bhavan in Besantnagar, we could actually file a case against them. I really regret not doing that that day.
Nandhini Palace : This is the latest addition to the really long list of such incidents. 12/6/2007 , 3:00 pm , I ordered a limited meals at Nandhini Palace on new BEL road . This was on the ground floor restaurant . Already feeling weak because of bad seats at work and travel fatigue , I was happy to get the food on my table finally. A small bowl of rice and sambhar and rasam and curd which had the color of urine ( yeah , it really did ) , at least the top layer . Halfway through the meal some kid came and served "dhaal" and some vegetable side dish . When I was almost done, I saw a dead cockroach hidden among the slices of the vegetable . My first reaction this time was , man why me? I really didnt have the mood to fight with these people . I called the waiter and showed the dead insect. He said something about informing his manager and scooted off. I just could nt eat anymore and went to wash my hands. Seeing the alarm on the faces of the waiters I knew it was quite serious , but it was their lucky day I was already bugged enough with other things like the way ESWC 2007 was held in Mumbai the previous weekend .
On this day , I have decided to take revenge on erring restaurants one way or the other ... better not mess with the paying customer , coz one day you ll be brought to the streets if you do .
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Ode to a soddie...
13/5/2007
A pain in the wrist and a fat ass is
All you ve got , my softie sis
Oh you want to have an easy life?
A fat salary and a sexy hot wife?
So you gonna work real hard...
So hard ur backside goes soft
Your eyes a popping mister , oft
When passes by a female chick
Oh What a lousy life you lead my softie sis,
Aint worth a doggie's piss
You dreaming a lot my man,
When u sposed be working on...
Through the nite , you aint got no life
No life , no wife, no f**king strife
The white man's rich, his dollars' real money
Your ruppee aint worth ur sweet time honey.
So slog ur fat ass...all day all nite
The white massa's paying u alrite
You speak his tongue and u wipe his ass
Maybe u go his house ,oh so fast!
You dream a lot my man ,
Someday u ll marry ... a woman?
u look in the mirror anytime , hey softie sis?
ur ass so big, did i just hear it hiss?
U aint going to do no kissing ...
Ur teeth have food which went missing
What a sorry state ur in my buddy
Life sure sucks as a softie coolie
Oh softies s(t)ud ... u gonna die a virgin
Coz none cares of ur end or origin...
U a drop in the ocean , u salty prick
U gonna die without use of ur stick
Wat lifes gotta offer u ll never know dude
Coz u gonna look , but u never do
The net u live in ... u browse
Your veil itll be , sitting forever in the house
U coming home in a huff
Ur packets' full of money stuff
Now u r boss , u softie coolie..
U lucky dog , u .. see me drooly
O Wait, ur heart's a beating slow
My man , u must a been cheating
Death , ur heart's a leaking ..
A softie's life's so short , is it fate?
U dying my brother, my softie mate...
Wat a life , wat strife , of no action ,
better dead still ..you are than a life of no motion.
No one gonna mourn u my dead son
U were no one , no helping hand
U thot u were living a life so grand..
No family ,no frens u cared
Look who has better fared...
I earned much less... I loved much more
I knew money's worth , I never sought a crore
I am the real worker , u lost ur way
I live life , while you exist in a hell for which u forever ...pay
( today's incidentally my bro's birthday . some of the intense feeling of being a softie with no life has been influenced by him and more so by observing this ever growing imbecile species)
P.S : this poem aint a joke! its satire at the "prosperous" software engineer , a growing breed , who lives a "model" life with a lot of money and pretty much no skill at anything save stare at a blank screen...
A pain in the wrist and a fat ass is
All you ve got , my softie sis
Oh you want to have an easy life?
A fat salary and a sexy hot wife?
So you gonna work real hard...
So hard ur backside goes soft
Your eyes a popping mister , oft
When passes by a female chick
Oh What a lousy life you lead my softie sis,
Aint worth a doggie's piss
You dreaming a lot my man,
When u sposed be working on...
Through the nite , you aint got no life
No life , no wife, no f**king strife
The white man's rich, his dollars' real money
Your ruppee aint worth ur sweet time honey.
So slog ur fat ass...all day all nite
The white massa's paying u alrite
You speak his tongue and u wipe his ass
Maybe u go his house ,oh so fast!
You dream a lot my man ,
Someday u ll marry ... a woman?
u look in the mirror anytime , hey softie sis?
ur ass so big, did i just hear it hiss?
U aint going to do no kissing ...
Ur teeth have food which went missing
What a sorry state ur in my buddy
Life sure sucks as a softie coolie
Oh softies s(t)ud ... u gonna die a virgin
Coz none cares of ur end or origin...
U a drop in the ocean , u salty prick
U gonna die without use of ur stick
Wat lifes gotta offer u ll never know dude
Coz u gonna look , but u never do
The net u live in ... u browse
Your veil itll be , sitting forever in the house
U coming home in a huff
Ur packets' full of money stuff
Now u r boss , u softie coolie..
U lucky dog , u .. see me drooly
O Wait, ur heart's a beating slow
My man , u must a been cheating
Death , ur heart's a leaking ..
A softie's life's so short , is it fate?
U dying my brother, my softie mate...
Wat a life , wat strife , of no action ,
better dead still ..you are than a life of no motion.
No one gonna mourn u my dead son
U were no one , no helping hand
U thot u were living a life so grand..
No family ,no frens u cared
Look who has better fared...
I earned much less... I loved much more
I knew money's worth , I never sought a crore
I am the real worker , u lost ur way
I live life , while you exist in a hell for which u forever ...pay
( today's incidentally my bro's birthday . some of the intense feeling of being a softie with no life has been influenced by him and more so by observing this ever growing imbecile species)
P.S : this poem aint a joke! its satire at the "prosperous" software engineer , a growing breed , who lives a "model" life with a lot of money and pretty much no skill at anything save stare at a blank screen...
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Moving on ...
What is it that makes moving on to the next step so difficult? It was all so easy in school . You finish one grade and move on to the next . Getting through is not very difficult for most and the process is synchronized so that no one is left behind. Until you pass out of school you are taken care of . Only then that meritocracy kicks in . You go where your abilities ,proclivity , ambition and various other factors take you . Taking decisions becomes important for an individual at each of these junctures . Moving from school after completing 10th to another institution... choosing a discipline for pre university , UG course selection ... they are all important for most people in the retrospective. By the time you realize that the strings which your parents (siblings) were holding should have been in your hands all along , you are stuck in a high paying job with absolutely no or little correlation to what you are interested in. Which brings up the point, what are you really interested in? I can think of a handful of things which I love to do and still cannot single out one which would be an option to pursue full time. I can't play quake full time , I would then probably become a Dependant on my brother or even worse on my retired parents . Anything would be better than depend , and so once most of us enter a job , we stay stuck for 1 year, 2 years and slowly it just slips our minds how once upon a time , there was a dream , a dream to achieve something . The will to go through the extra hour to learn that skill , nurture that special talent which would one day make all eyes revere you and how smug you could be.
Somewhere in the middle of this phase are stuck many people not unlike me. I for one have had several passions in my short life of 24 years. I used to love to sketch with the pencil , pen , sketch pen , in the sand , in dirt , on dirty cars and even in the air! The feeling of elation when I can draw a balanced, proportionate figure of a guy , or even better a woman still never fails to show up. The only difference is that the frequency of this event has gone down drastically. You call it the dying of the human spirit , the drying up of creative juices , procrastination , aging , in fact you can attribute it to umpteen reasons . The fact remains that I am becoming an addict to mediocrity . I find me telling myself every time I am challenged by a particular task , why not delay it a little longer . It can wait for some more time and then I can be done with it forever. The attitude towards anything which does not interest me is so allergic to say the least and disinterested at the max on the outside . Two years of working in software can do to me what 14 years of school and PU could not do . I seriously think that what I am running on now is the momentum of a time when I attained a peak , some time in 10th standard when I could listen to my biology teacher Mrs. Simon at a stretch for 45 minutes and then sit down and write down all that she had said. I had the confidence that I had it in me to do well at any task related to studies .
The difference between then and now when there is so much more freedom to choose what I can do , is with choices . I chose to follow a path , a well trodden path . A path which would guarantee me an easy life so that I would not have to go through the trudge my father went through . I know that its a good option , something which thousands of people go through every year... probably suppressing the desire to become a poet or a cricket player or an artist. It is after all basic education now . So what if you were great in school. That does nt count all that much. You then have to excel at 12th , college and at the end of it all , you know that at the bottom of your heart , all you really want to do is just sketch faces on the class notebook. I have been living in this state of perpetual inner desires reaching out for satisfaction from different sources . Don't even get me started about other unsatisfied desires !
The time to make some important choices has come again and this time I have taken probably one of my first major decisions which could be quite life altering and all that . Its the decision to leave my first job , which is almost like the continuation of my life from college . The thing that made it difficult to do it all these days was I had trouble getting myself to focus on preparation for interviews . The will to do it was not there and after some introspection and learning from past attempts , I latched on to the simple formula for minimum required success (LOL)... do the right things , not necessarily the tough things , get all the material for preparation ready and just read (and probably program) sincerely . And so with a job in hand and an imminent move from my first place of work... I stand in the midst of a photograph , where I am moving from one stage to another . I do not know where this decision will take me . I do not know if life as I know it will be better or worse . Will it bring back old memories as I go back to my hometown , or will it finally be the course which will eventually lead me to that woman who I long to hold in my arms and smother with kisses , will it make me a better son to my parents , to whom I my duty as a son still remains largely unfulfilled , will I at the end of it all make my self happy ...
I wish I could learn to move on ... in life .
Somewhere in the middle of this phase are stuck many people not unlike me. I for one have had several passions in my short life of 24 years. I used to love to sketch with the pencil , pen , sketch pen , in the sand , in dirt , on dirty cars and even in the air! The feeling of elation when I can draw a balanced, proportionate figure of a guy , or even better a woman still never fails to show up. The only difference is that the frequency of this event has gone down drastically. You call it the dying of the human spirit , the drying up of creative juices , procrastination , aging , in fact you can attribute it to umpteen reasons . The fact remains that I am becoming an addict to mediocrity . I find me telling myself every time I am challenged by a particular task , why not delay it a little longer . It can wait for some more time and then I can be done with it forever. The attitude towards anything which does not interest me is so allergic to say the least and disinterested at the max on the outside . Two years of working in software can do to me what 14 years of school and PU could not do . I seriously think that what I am running on now is the momentum of a time when I attained a peak , some time in 10th standard when I could listen to my biology teacher Mrs. Simon at a stretch for 45 minutes and then sit down and write down all that she had said. I had the confidence that I had it in me to do well at any task related to studies .
The difference between then and now when there is so much more freedom to choose what I can do , is with choices . I chose to follow a path , a well trodden path . A path which would guarantee me an easy life so that I would not have to go through the trudge my father went through . I know that its a good option , something which thousands of people go through every year... probably suppressing the desire to become a poet or a cricket player or an artist. It is after all basic education now . So what if you were great in school. That does nt count all that much. You then have to excel at 12th , college and at the end of it all , you know that at the bottom of your heart , all you really want to do is just sketch faces on the class notebook. I have been living in this state of perpetual inner desires reaching out for satisfaction from different sources . Don't even get me started about other unsatisfied desires !
The time to make some important choices has come again and this time I have taken probably one of my first major decisions which could be quite life altering and all that . Its the decision to leave my first job , which is almost like the continuation of my life from college . The thing that made it difficult to do it all these days was I had trouble getting myself to focus on preparation for interviews . The will to do it was not there and after some introspection and learning from past attempts , I latched on to the simple formula for minimum required success (LOL)... do the right things , not necessarily the tough things , get all the material for preparation ready and just read (and probably program) sincerely . And so with a job in hand and an imminent move from my first place of work... I stand in the midst of a photograph , where I am moving from one stage to another . I do not know where this decision will take me . I do not know if life as I know it will be better or worse . Will it bring back old memories as I go back to my hometown , or will it finally be the course which will eventually lead me to that woman who I long to hold in my arms and smother with kisses , will it make me a better son to my parents , to whom I my duty as a son still remains largely unfulfilled , will I at the end of it all make my self happy ...
I wish I could learn to move on ... in life .
Monday, February 12, 2007
Liberty , a dream
Liberty , a dream 13/2/2007
Unwilling , I rise
From the dreams ..of a different life
Heavy eye lids pull me back
The pillow wants to smother me
Make me sleep forever...
A jarring noise grows
Breaks the reverie so real
Another twenty four hours
Of nothing beckon, the mind is numb..
I can almost see myself from without
Putting on a disguise to fool ..whom?
With haste and a hurried pace
I rush to run the fake race...
The wheels of the bike turn,
My mind rewinds , a happy family
Four on a scooter , downhill on neutral
What joy , dad was my hero , mom was an angel
And that moment was pure heaven..
At work I sit , with a flat screen
I wonder about the world ,
Is nt there so much still to be seen...
Than the awkard silence and fumbling
Of the very same third floor
A moment of pride , came to my mind
I had excelled without doubt
The tenth standard it was
My heart swelled at the thought
How much I could have grown...
A poet? A writer ? A pilot ? an artist?
Buy what have I become now..?
A slave to comfort? Life's pampered pet?
If life is conscious thought ..and deed
And if thought is stuck in a loop
No action of novelty is done ..
Am I falling ..into a well of no return
But wait ... a flickering flame
Still burns somewhere
Which makes me look at myself,
As if a ghost from without
At the sorry state I am in
A thread I find in a hand still strong
It leads ... from the past into the future
A kite soars above , tugging ... like a failing heart
It wills me to forget a sorry past ,
Pulling me towards the light..
It lifts me , I fly
Flapping my wings ... I cry
I am free, to seek my destiny
With violent jerks I awaken
To see ..for the last time
A friend's face , he cries..
"Don't die, my friend.. you are too young!"
A smirk , and a wistful look remain ...
No breath , no warmth , no man , no unwilling life..
- Railmani
Unwilling , I rise
From the dreams ..of a different life
Heavy eye lids pull me back
The pillow wants to smother me
Make me sleep forever...
A jarring noise grows
Breaks the reverie so real
Another twenty four hours
Of nothing beckon, the mind is numb..
I can almost see myself from without
Putting on a disguise to fool ..whom?
With haste and a hurried pace
I rush to run the fake race...
The wheels of the bike turn,
My mind rewinds , a happy family
Four on a scooter , downhill on neutral
What joy , dad was my hero , mom was an angel
And that moment was pure heaven..
At work I sit , with a flat screen
I wonder about the world ,
Is nt there so much still to be seen...
Than the awkard silence and fumbling
Of the very same third floor
A moment of pride , came to my mind
I had excelled without doubt
The tenth standard it was
My heart swelled at the thought
How much I could have grown...
A poet? A writer ? A pilot ? an artist?
Buy what have I become now..?
A slave to comfort? Life's pampered pet?
If life is conscious thought ..and deed
And if thought is stuck in a loop
No action of novelty is done ..
Am I falling ..into a well of no return
But wait ... a flickering flame
Still burns somewhere
Which makes me look at myself,
As if a ghost from without
At the sorry state I am in
A thread I find in a hand still strong
It leads ... from the past into the future
A kite soars above , tugging ... like a failing heart
It wills me to forget a sorry past ,
Pulling me towards the light..
It lifts me , I fly
Flapping my wings ... I cry
I am free, to seek my destiny
With violent jerks I awaken
To see ..for the last time
A friend's face , he cries..
"Don't die, my friend.. you are too young!"
A smirk , and a wistful look remain ...
No breath , no warmth , no man , no unwilling life..
- Railmani
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Evil is not human and human is not divine...
2/2/2 007
Its only human they say,
To err , and then learn from it
Is perfection about this ?
Does Correction lead to nirvana..
Will it make me divine?
Or will the prevention of sin...
I fall many a time , but rise
Through effort , luck or vice
Sometimes I see the light
Or trip again on the very same rock.
Is it the devil in me , which then guides my thought?
A free thought it is
When I let my mind go free
Abandons all rules ,looking for harmony
Battling against viral thoughts
Planted by endless debauchery
Sometimes it breaks free
A momentary silence , A moment like a void
I stand still and the world moves ...so slow
Before it all comes crashing in
Through a crowd I walk
Losing myself in the flood of faces and bodies
Sometimes the limbs my eyes desire ,
At others the faces beckon
A stolen moment , meeting eyes
Always makes me wonder what lies
Behind the fellow conspirator's mask...
An innocent whim, or a virile spark
It passes and I kick myself
For depravity , taking control
The middle path I choose to tread
A chosen road in between
Always lies , leading miles ahead
No horrible vice I know , nor great virtue
Am the man who lives with all ,but finally nothing in his head
Half a mind , is it a mind at all?
A thought , decision made makes no sense
How is it possible to ever reach , attain zen?
The roads beckon , but I tread the middle path
For evil is not human and human is not divine...
Its only human they say,
To err , and then learn from it
Is perfection about this ?
Does Correction lead to nirvana..
Will it make me divine?
Or will the prevention of sin...
I fall many a time , but rise
Through effort , luck or vice
Sometimes I see the light
Or trip again on the very same rock.
Is it the devil in me , which then guides my thought?
A free thought it is
When I let my mind go free
Abandons all rules ,looking for harmony
Battling against viral thoughts
Planted by endless debauchery
Sometimes it breaks free
A momentary silence , A moment like a void
I stand still and the world moves ...so slow
Before it all comes crashing in
Through a crowd I walk
Losing myself in the flood of faces and bodies
Sometimes the limbs my eyes desire ,
At others the faces beckon
A stolen moment , meeting eyes
Always makes me wonder what lies
Behind the fellow conspirator's mask...
An innocent whim, or a virile spark
It passes and I kick myself
For depravity , taking control
The middle path I choose to tread
A chosen road in between
Always lies , leading miles ahead
No horrible vice I know , nor great virtue
Am the man who lives with all ,but finally nothing in his head
Half a mind , is it a mind at all?
A thought , decision made makes no sense
How is it possible to ever reach , attain zen?
The roads beckon , but I tread the middle path
For evil is not human and human is not divine...
Monday, December 11, 2006
Insomniac mosquito?
There was a poem in my high school text book about mosquitoes... and I used to wonder , what a jobless guy the poet must have been! Now I take back my words as I realise how much havoc that silly little creature can wreak on one's life.
I spend only my nights at home on weekdays and this is the time I am supposed to sleep and rejuvenate myself for work later on. For the last one week though , I have been struggling to get a semblance of a proper sleep cycle in place. The reason being a sudden surge in the mosquito population in my area or maybe the impotence of a mosquito repellant called "Mortein" or "GoodKnight" . I think I am getting nearer to the state of an insomniac with 3 -4 hours of sleep everyday and declining brain power as a consequence. Sleep , used to be something which I could enjoy at anytime , any place no matter what ! I am infamous for falling asleep on moving buses while standing in a crowded train etc. and now this situation is ironic at the least .
Getting back to the main protagonist, the chennai f**king mosquito ... did you know that the culprit is a female mosquito?! I can understand women liking me , but the female of another species finding me so attractive as to kiss me on the face and lips everynight is ridiculous!
Although I do relish the final "Basic Instinct" like scene when I hunt them down and massacre them with blood splatterign all over ( the difference being thats probably my own blood). Whats so special about the mosquito that makes it such a villainous vermin? I can go on and on about this , but I ll get in a few important points as in a good group discussion .
1) They bite where it hurts (itches) most , the forehead , the lips , cheeks ... who am I kidding they bite anywhere , as if they care !
2) They have no self control, they sons of b*ithes suck so much blood that they are like drops of blood flying around and smashing them is the closest thing to revenge possible.
3) They buzz around annoyingly near the ear so that I get up even from my deepest dream into an awake nightmare.
4) They come in various sizes, and the bite is inversely proportional to the size. The small black and white ones are like the black adders of mosquitoes.
5) They are all females ! For a fact only the female mosquitoes bite ... the males are vegetarians , now here is a species in which the males are clearly lovable creatures...but are nt they the ones which fertilize the eggs of the females..so f*ck them too! Kill any mosquito on sight I say... bloody
I am cutting short on this list and hope to elaborate further , here are a few valuable tips to extract your well deserved share of vengeance , or vendetta if you d have it.
1) Get an empty plate and put some oil on it such that any fat mosquitoe once stuck in is stuck in it for the rest of its sorry life unless you kill it before its natural term of existance expires , and then just master the art of swinging the plate at any flying mosquitoe and enjoy! The detestable creatures get stuck in the muck so easily , you can already feel your mood lightening ! You can probably kill them off one by one after capturing them or just throw them away to suffer a sorry death over a few days... I would recommend the former coz you never know if they get up and fly away!
2) Get an empty glass glass( a glass tumbler ie) and try to capture a mosquito alive ! You could swat one such that its momentarily knocked out and then get to work ;). Put it in the glass , place the glass upside down and then you do a whole lot of things. ...
a) get a mosquito mat and let the fumes in and watch the fun!
b) get a magnifying glass and burn the little bastar*s
c) just shake them so hard their brains and other organs get exchanged !
3) You could also place a subject on a hot mosquito coil/ mat and watch the fun .
4) Ever tried drowning a mosquito? Well its tough , I guess the one I killed died out of shock rather than water entering its...lungs?
Hmm , thats quite an impressive list of ways to exact revenge ... maybe I can write a whole book about this! Lets see..
I spend only my nights at home on weekdays and this is the time I am supposed to sleep and rejuvenate myself for work later on. For the last one week though , I have been struggling to get a semblance of a proper sleep cycle in place. The reason being a sudden surge in the mosquito population in my area or maybe the impotence of a mosquito repellant called "Mortein" or "GoodKnight" . I think I am getting nearer to the state of an insomniac with 3 -4 hours of sleep everyday and declining brain power as a consequence. Sleep , used to be something which I could enjoy at anytime , any place no matter what ! I am infamous for falling asleep on moving buses while standing in a crowded train etc. and now this situation is ironic at the least .
Getting back to the main protagonist, the chennai f**king mosquito ... did you know that the culprit is a female mosquito?! I can understand women liking me , but the female of another species finding me so attractive as to kiss me on the face and lips everynight is ridiculous!
Although I do relish the final "Basic Instinct" like scene when I hunt them down and massacre them with blood splatterign all over ( the difference being thats probably my own blood). Whats so special about the mosquito that makes it such a villainous vermin? I can go on and on about this , but I ll get in a few important points as in a good group discussion .
1) They bite where it hurts (itches) most , the forehead , the lips , cheeks ... who am I kidding they bite anywhere , as if they care !
2) They have no self control, they sons of b*ithes suck so much blood that they are like drops of blood flying around and smashing them is the closest thing to revenge possible.
3) They buzz around annoyingly near the ear so that I get up even from my deepest dream into an awake nightmare.
4) They come in various sizes, and the bite is inversely proportional to the size. The small black and white ones are like the black adders of mosquitoes.
5) They are all females ! For a fact only the female mosquitoes bite ... the males are vegetarians , now here is a species in which the males are clearly lovable creatures...but are nt they the ones which fertilize the eggs of the females..so f*ck them too! Kill any mosquito on sight I say... bloody
I am cutting short on this list and hope to elaborate further , here are a few valuable tips to extract your well deserved share of vengeance , or vendetta if you d have it.
1) Get an empty plate and put some oil on it such that any fat mosquitoe once stuck in is stuck in it for the rest of its sorry life unless you kill it before its natural term of existance expires , and then just master the art of swinging the plate at any flying mosquitoe and enjoy! The detestable creatures get stuck in the muck so easily , you can already feel your mood lightening ! You can probably kill them off one by one after capturing them or just throw them away to suffer a sorry death over a few days... I would recommend the former coz you never know if they get up and fly away!
2) Get an empty glass glass( a glass tumbler ie) and try to capture a mosquito alive ! You could swat one such that its momentarily knocked out and then get to work ;). Put it in the glass , place the glass upside down and then you do a whole lot of things. ...
a) get a mosquito mat and let the fumes in and watch the fun!
b) get a magnifying glass and burn the little bastar*s
c) just shake them so hard their brains and other organs get exchanged !
3) You could also place a subject on a hot mosquito coil/ mat and watch the fun .
4) Ever tried drowning a mosquito? Well its tough , I guess the one I killed died out of shock rather than water entering its...lungs?
Hmm , thats quite an impressive list of ways to exact revenge ... maybe I can write a whole book about this! Lets see..
Friday, August 25, 2006
Bike trip to office( over)
It was a periodic pounding , an irritating noise to say the least. From the middle of a successful sojourn at my "happy place" , I got up from my bed a throbbing head ache. It was not going to be a good day, some thing told me. It must be one of those things which humans are very good at , calculations based on memory and prediction , the stuff which machines can't do for nuts . I could say that something was totally out of place even before I went to the loo.
A queer dream it was , the one that I was rudely awoken from. I brushed my teeth with the conscious feeling of a pain in one of my pre molars which grew ever so little everyday. And as I turned around , another pain , somewhere near the heart towards the right , made its presence felt. I knew it was not the cardiac muscle for sure, but it was a bugging pain nevertheless. There was a time I used to think I was if not invincible , at least invulnerable to such "static" pains. But it was all happening to me , I was a physical entity and not just thought like many philosophers would have us beleive . I was affected even by the slightest of mosquito bites and the slightest brush of long hair of a woman was indescribably enjoyable. With such mundane thoughts my day began and I set out with a mismatched pair of socks ( courtesy : my house maid) from my room. As I opened and closed several doors to get out of the container called "my" house , I relished the feeling of ownership... of that space , which nobody could invade . The space of my room , my computer , my bed ... my bathroom . Yes, being alone in this world had its benefits.
Behind the gate stood my bike . The gate opened directly to the road . The houses in Chennai are not like what you would see in American TV series... like "The Wonder Years" , with open lawns and neatly arranged houses , with so much space that you would hardly brush against anyone without pure intention of doing it . Here , evidence suggests that the houses are built by the individual who happened to own that plot of land and it was built with parameters which at that time were to him suitable and reasonably affordable. This results in innumerable permutations and combinations like the one on my street. My house , incidentally I am a tenant is quite different from the immediate neighbours' on the left and the right and across the road, which are all apartments. Mine is a "house" , with me living on the first floor along with another college and work friend. Nothing of much significance about my house except that I live there ;).
My bike still stood there , as it has through so many good times and bad . The bad being several accidents which could have ended my riding and any other do"ing" s... and the good being all those times spent at exhilirating speeds or with interesting company behind . After a customary wipe with the filthy (which could be considered an euphemism!) cloth , my bike was once again transfigured to a noble steed hehe and stood erect almost inviting me to sit , like the horse in the movie "Spirit". Climbing onto my bike I moved it with familiar ease out of the gates and onto the road. Closing the gate behind , I decided to make it to office in record time.
My trusty bike is a Yamaha RX - 135 , made in 2000, in a way they are never going to be made again. The more natural thing to me , I have begun to feel for a long time now , between running and riding my bike is the latter . I kick started it , one of the things about my bike , is that it requires a kick everyday to get it started , like any obstinate human being (like me) needs to get going (hehe). It came alive with the sound which can only be a Yamaha 2 Stroke engine and I lovingly ran my hands over the tank and touched the metal font which had the word "YAMAHA" on either of the flanks. Revving up the engine a couple of times, I slowly released the clutch from the first gear , it sprang forward and I was on my way. As is the case with many heroes on noble steeds ( like in the movie "shrek"), I always face my share of obstacles and fire breathing dragons on the way to the "castle". The only variable missing here is the princess I should say .
Anyway , I gently bent to the left and at the same time turned the handle in the same direction to avoid on of the silly dogs which live on my street. If you think that dogs are animals with great instinct , reflexes and other attributes which make them somewhat better equipped than humans for life on the roads, you are greatly mistaken! I Often see dogs squished by lorries or buses and wonder how they could be so careless. But when I see the dogs on my street, I wonder how they ever survived so many years to reach a ripe old dog age! I am not being unfair to the canine species here, its just that these two dogs are so far removed from the rest of their ilk that they appear to me not as dogs but more as pigs ! First of all, they are really rotund ,what with leftovers from a well to do neighbourhood and a drunken benefactor at nights. Second ,their reflexes are so bad I could easily tie up their legs before they could even attempt to give me a bite . This I say with the assurance of experience in tormenting my labrador at home in Bangalore. And last but not the least , they were afflicted with a severe case of mange which almost made them "Pannis" (pigs in tamil).
My bike journey was now onto the first main road where I need to cut across the main road to enter the mainstream traffic. This I do so with considerable elan and care. An accident in school on a bicycle when I tried to cross a road with only grace and no care makes me extra careful. I realised I needed to make haste to beat my present record and twisted back the accelerator and rapidly changed gears to reach the fourth in few seconds. Within a few seconds, had it not been for an especially long traffic signal , I would have been near IIT Chennai. At this signal , I get my first taste of the heat in Chennai every morning . The futility of daily cleansing struck me as a monumental waste of the country's wealth. Browsing around I looked for a pleasant face in the sea of human traffic. I spotted , as I do once in a while , some pretty software engineers waiting at the bus stand near the signal. Time sure flies when you are enjoying yourself and its true alright.The signal timer reached single 10...9.. and I started my bike . At the count of 5 , the vehicles started moving slowly to cover up the avenue for vehicles going through in the perpendicular direction and get going once the signal is green. This phenomenon , used to appear weird to me initially , but now I know that if this is not done at the right time when there is peak traffie , theres a good chance that you could miss that signal because the already moving vehicles don't pay heed to the signal or rather ignore the red and continue moving with inertia.
Once past this signal , I went through the road where some of my colleagues used to live(Reji) and also where I write the MOCK CAT on sundays. I was moving a somewhat dangerous 50 + speed , when suddenly another guy from a subordinate cross street cut across and I applied squealing brakes to avoid imminent collision. Cursing under my breath about senseless louts , I get through safely momentarily shaken . At the end of that road I took a right to enter Kamaraj Avenue where quite a few people I know stay , including Sanal and his Calicut NIT friends. Its also the road where I get to see attractive women every now and then. You see, its one of the cool residential - cum - good - eating - place kind of street, so theres always a good crowd . I rode past many Honda Activas and scootys , and autos (which never cease to amaze me) . On the Activas , there are the fast college girls, working ladies and sometimes slow elderly gentlemen. On the scooties are the wannabe fast people , who can't go beyond 50 something , but make it a point to block the way for me. The autos are the most interesting. Their movements reflect the state of the driver's mind often. Moving slowly on the side of the road means that he has not found a "giraaki"(customer) yet and is on the lookout for opportunity. A really ripping fast auto with scant respect for any other vehicle save the monstrous MTC buses , means the customer is in the back seat and time is money! . Otherwise , they just like to go slowly minding their business in the middle of the road hehe. With this I reach the end of that illustrious road and take the last left just before the signal.
I was about to venture onto "Sardar Patel" road which for me is quite an important name, because I ve travelled a lot , almost everyday of my stay in Chennai. Its the node in a graph which I have to traverse in order to get any place of importance like office or a movie theatre ;).
Beyond that turn lay the big bad world of Chennai two wheeler traffic. Its as inescapable as the sweltering heat here. However bad this used to be a year ago , when I got my bike, it is now second nature. For example , when you are a beginner on the roads , with a two wheeler , when you see a huge gap on the left side of the road and everyone is trying to go down the centre or the right , you would do the same . "Overtaking from the left " is still a profanity for you. But after being on the road for enough time , you know that the only way to get through some really thick traffic is sometimes go from the left or whatever gaps are available. This of course should be done with extra care , because there can be instances of people trying to cross the road at the very same instance and your combined actions could put you on a collision path. The front brake and some intuition helps a lot here. When you see a bike or an auto slow down in front and there is a possible gap which you could exploit, go for it but not very fast and be prepared for a sudden brake. It pays to be careful on the road , because only when something goes wrong you realise how much trouble it can be. Anyway , Chennai traffic is going to be bad no matter what , so either you learn how to deal with it or get left behind in exhaust ;)
Madhya Kailas and the bridge above it gave way rapidly as I glanced at a speed limit sign which showed 40 and my speedometer showed 55. Thats not much I can assure you because if you have ever travelled at 100 or above you ll know that anything below is just ...mundane. IIT Madras went past me and I glanced at the entry gate. My only memories of this place are those of playing Quake 3 with some of the final year guys the previous year . Traditionally very good at Quake , this college is one of the few places where Quaking is still a religion , if only for a few.
In a way , quake in my college was an offshoot of iit madras , because the first guy who showed me Quake was the brother of an iitm passout ! That was more than 4 years ago and there are now quite a few tricks up my sleeve as well ;). Fading away , those memories made me smile and I swayed to the right to avoid a MTC bus which was ahead and slowing down and moving towards the left of the road. From that point onwards is the "fast zone". Its a stretch of road with no signals , trees lined up on the road(!) albeit only towards the left and actullay stretches along a huge compound wall on the left side. Recently there have been some traffic cops at one or two spots in the "fast zone". My guess is they are there to discourage people from speeding , and not really catch them. How could they ? when they are standing and the possible guilty party would be on a fast bike! Anyway , I consciously slow down at this juncture and as soon as I am out of sight of any such uniformed police, continue at my regular speed. The road narrows down as I reach Raj Bhavan. It appears as though the office building next to Raj Bhavan might be the cause , but its probably because of some lack of planning. The place where I worked for over a year, this place carries a lot of fond memories and unpleasant ones as well! At the junction that immediately follows , I could see office goers like me , united for a moment at a traffic signal in life. This is the Velachery junction and many of the bachelors of the city take a left here to go to the "mansion" suburb of the city (mansion here means a living place akin to a hostel, nothing to do with a palace! ) . Going further down , Mount road enters the scene. This road , I think is the "aorta " of Chennai . Connecting all major parts of the city, its one road which can save you shit loads of trouble if you are geogrophobic ( hows that for a new word ; ) ) like me, and cant remember directions easily! Taking a left at the junction of Mount road and Sardar Patel road ( this is where SP rd ends) , I rush into Guindy . This is one of the most horrible places anywhere for a vehicle phobic pedestrian . To cross the road needs a great deal of confidence and a sense of adventure . There are hardly any signals for a long stretch, a few traffic cops help pedestrians , but still their plight is plainly visible. Occasionally I slow down considerably to let a scared pedestrian cross the road comfortably . For him thats less than half the battle won, because there is the "compound" wall - like divider at the middle of the road , crossing which he has to then go through the anti parallel part of the road which is as crowded.
I went past the Guindy railway station from where I have taken a suburban train to Central (Park Station ) on a few occasions . One of the differences between Chennai and Bangalore ( thats where I am from ) which for me makes Chennai better in a way is the suburban train system.With amazing efficiency and low cost , this is something which every growing city / metro must have ... its amazing how much effort and time such facilities can save. Mumbai is a good example of a city whose very work life is centred on this kind of train system. Soon , I hope Bangalore will have one of these ! The next significant landmark on this road is "Le Royal Meridien", which is the venue for many a politician's stay/function or whatever. When that happens , all common folk like yours truly have to wait for at least half an hour for the array of official bodyguarded cars to pass. Just beyond this lies the great "Kathipara " junction. This is one of those places where traffic from 4 - 5 roads accumulate at peak hours and are regulated by over taxed policemen who dont really seem to have any real control over the vehicles. Taking a curved right along with the rest of the traffic , I entered 100 feet road which is the last main road of my journey to office. Here , something happens to me and to quite a few others beside me , and an irresistable urge to speed takes hold and I let go. Feeling for the last time for that day the hot air blowing into my face , I reach office after a few minutes.... still not able to better my previous record!
A queer dream it was , the one that I was rudely awoken from. I brushed my teeth with the conscious feeling of a pain in one of my pre molars which grew ever so little everyday. And as I turned around , another pain , somewhere near the heart towards the right , made its presence felt. I knew it was not the cardiac muscle for sure, but it was a bugging pain nevertheless. There was a time I used to think I was if not invincible , at least invulnerable to such "static" pains. But it was all happening to me , I was a physical entity and not just thought like many philosophers would have us beleive . I was affected even by the slightest of mosquito bites and the slightest brush of long hair of a woman was indescribably enjoyable. With such mundane thoughts my day began and I set out with a mismatched pair of socks ( courtesy : my house maid) from my room. As I opened and closed several doors to get out of the container called "my" house , I relished the feeling of ownership... of that space , which nobody could invade . The space of my room , my computer , my bed ... my bathroom . Yes, being alone in this world had its benefits.
Behind the gate stood my bike . The gate opened directly to the road . The houses in Chennai are not like what you would see in American TV series... like "The Wonder Years" , with open lawns and neatly arranged houses , with so much space that you would hardly brush against anyone without pure intention of doing it . Here , evidence suggests that the houses are built by the individual who happened to own that plot of land and it was built with parameters which at that time were to him suitable and reasonably affordable. This results in innumerable permutations and combinations like the one on my street. My house , incidentally I am a tenant is quite different from the immediate neighbours' on the left and the right and across the road, which are all apartments. Mine is a "house" , with me living on the first floor along with another college and work friend. Nothing of much significance about my house except that I live there ;).
My bike still stood there , as it has through so many good times and bad . The bad being several accidents which could have ended my riding and any other do"ing" s... and the good being all those times spent at exhilirating speeds or with interesting company behind . After a customary wipe with the filthy (which could be considered an euphemism!) cloth , my bike was once again transfigured to a noble steed hehe and stood erect almost inviting me to sit , like the horse in the movie "Spirit". Climbing onto my bike I moved it with familiar ease out of the gates and onto the road. Closing the gate behind , I decided to make it to office in record time.
My trusty bike is a Yamaha RX - 135 , made in 2000, in a way they are never going to be made again. The more natural thing to me , I have begun to feel for a long time now , between running and riding my bike is the latter . I kick started it , one of the things about my bike , is that it requires a kick everyday to get it started , like any obstinate human being (like me) needs to get going (hehe). It came alive with the sound which can only be a Yamaha 2 Stroke engine and I lovingly ran my hands over the tank and touched the metal font which had the word "YAMAHA" on either of the flanks. Revving up the engine a couple of times, I slowly released the clutch from the first gear , it sprang forward and I was on my way. As is the case with many heroes on noble steeds ( like in the movie "shrek"), I always face my share of obstacles and fire breathing dragons on the way to the "castle". The only variable missing here is the princess I should say .
Anyway , I gently bent to the left and at the same time turned the handle in the same direction to avoid on of the silly dogs which live on my street. If you think that dogs are animals with great instinct , reflexes and other attributes which make them somewhat better equipped than humans for life on the roads, you are greatly mistaken! I Often see dogs squished by lorries or buses and wonder how they could be so careless. But when I see the dogs on my street, I wonder how they ever survived so many years to reach a ripe old dog age! I am not being unfair to the canine species here, its just that these two dogs are so far removed from the rest of their ilk that they appear to me not as dogs but more as pigs ! First of all, they are really rotund ,what with leftovers from a well to do neighbourhood and a drunken benefactor at nights. Second ,their reflexes are so bad I could easily tie up their legs before they could even attempt to give me a bite . This I say with the assurance of experience in tormenting my labrador at home in Bangalore. And last but not the least , they were afflicted with a severe case of mange which almost made them "Pannis" (pigs in tamil).
My bike journey was now onto the first main road where I need to cut across the main road to enter the mainstream traffic. This I do so with considerable elan and care. An accident in school on a bicycle when I tried to cross a road with only grace and no care makes me extra careful. I realised I needed to make haste to beat my present record and twisted back the accelerator and rapidly changed gears to reach the fourth in few seconds. Within a few seconds, had it not been for an especially long traffic signal , I would have been near IIT Chennai. At this signal , I get my first taste of the heat in Chennai every morning . The futility of daily cleansing struck me as a monumental waste of the country's wealth. Browsing around I looked for a pleasant face in the sea of human traffic. I spotted , as I do once in a while , some pretty software engineers waiting at the bus stand near the signal. Time sure flies when you are enjoying yourself and its true alright.The signal timer reached single 10...9.. and I started my bike . At the count of 5 , the vehicles started moving slowly to cover up the avenue for vehicles going through in the perpendicular direction and get going once the signal is green. This phenomenon , used to appear weird to me initially , but now I know that if this is not done at the right time when there is peak traffie , theres a good chance that you could miss that signal because the already moving vehicles don't pay heed to the signal or rather ignore the red and continue moving with inertia.
Once past this signal , I went through the road where some of my colleagues used to live(Reji) and also where I write the MOCK CAT on sundays. I was moving a somewhat dangerous 50 + speed , when suddenly another guy from a subordinate cross street cut across and I applied squealing brakes to avoid imminent collision. Cursing under my breath about senseless louts , I get through safely momentarily shaken . At the end of that road I took a right to enter Kamaraj Avenue where quite a few people I know stay , including Sanal and his Calicut NIT friends. Its also the road where I get to see attractive women every now and then. You see, its one of the cool residential - cum - good - eating - place kind of street, so theres always a good crowd . I rode past many Honda Activas and scootys , and autos (which never cease to amaze me) . On the Activas , there are the fast college girls, working ladies and sometimes slow elderly gentlemen. On the scooties are the wannabe fast people , who can't go beyond 50 something , but make it a point to block the way for me. The autos are the most interesting. Their movements reflect the state of the driver's mind often. Moving slowly on the side of the road means that he has not found a "giraaki"(customer) yet and is on the lookout for opportunity. A really ripping fast auto with scant respect for any other vehicle save the monstrous MTC buses , means the customer is in the back seat and time is money! . Otherwise , they just like to go slowly minding their business in the middle of the road hehe. With this I reach the end of that illustrious road and take the last left just before the signal.
I was about to venture onto "Sardar Patel" road which for me is quite an important name, because I ve travelled a lot , almost everyday of my stay in Chennai. Its the node in a graph which I have to traverse in order to get any place of importance like office or a movie theatre ;).
Beyond that turn lay the big bad world of Chennai two wheeler traffic. Its as inescapable as the sweltering heat here. However bad this used to be a year ago , when I got my bike, it is now second nature. For example , when you are a beginner on the roads , with a two wheeler , when you see a huge gap on the left side of the road and everyone is trying to go down the centre or the right , you would do the same . "Overtaking from the left " is still a profanity for you. But after being on the road for enough time , you know that the only way to get through some really thick traffic is sometimes go from the left or whatever gaps are available. This of course should be done with extra care , because there can be instances of people trying to cross the road at the very same instance and your combined actions could put you on a collision path. The front brake and some intuition helps a lot here. When you see a bike or an auto slow down in front and there is a possible gap which you could exploit, go for it but not very fast and be prepared for a sudden brake. It pays to be careful on the road , because only when something goes wrong you realise how much trouble it can be. Anyway , Chennai traffic is going to be bad no matter what , so either you learn how to deal with it or get left behind in exhaust ;)
Madhya Kailas and the bridge above it gave way rapidly as I glanced at a speed limit sign which showed 40 and my speedometer showed 55. Thats not much I can assure you because if you have ever travelled at 100 or above you ll know that anything below is just ...mundane. IIT Madras went past me and I glanced at the entry gate. My only memories of this place are those of playing Quake 3 with some of the final year guys the previous year . Traditionally very good at Quake , this college is one of the few places where Quaking is still a religion , if only for a few.
In a way , quake in my college was an offshoot of iit madras , because the first guy who showed me Quake was the brother of an iitm passout ! That was more than 4 years ago and there are now quite a few tricks up my sleeve as well ;). Fading away , those memories made me smile and I swayed to the right to avoid a MTC bus which was ahead and slowing down and moving towards the left of the road. From that point onwards is the "fast zone". Its a stretch of road with no signals , trees lined up on the road(!) albeit only towards the left and actullay stretches along a huge compound wall on the left side. Recently there have been some traffic cops at one or two spots in the "fast zone". My guess is they are there to discourage people from speeding , and not really catch them. How could they ? when they are standing and the possible guilty party would be on a fast bike! Anyway , I consciously slow down at this juncture and as soon as I am out of sight of any such uniformed police, continue at my regular speed. The road narrows down as I reach Raj Bhavan. It appears as though the office building next to Raj Bhavan might be the cause , but its probably because of some lack of planning. The place where I worked for over a year, this place carries a lot of fond memories and unpleasant ones as well! At the junction that immediately follows , I could see office goers like me , united for a moment at a traffic signal in life. This is the Velachery junction and many of the bachelors of the city take a left here to go to the "mansion" suburb of the city (mansion here means a living place akin to a hostel, nothing to do with a palace! ) . Going further down , Mount road enters the scene. This road , I think is the "aorta " of Chennai . Connecting all major parts of the city, its one road which can save you shit loads of trouble if you are geogrophobic ( hows that for a new word ; ) ) like me, and cant remember directions easily! Taking a left at the junction of Mount road and Sardar Patel road ( this is where SP rd ends) , I rush into Guindy . This is one of the most horrible places anywhere for a vehicle phobic pedestrian . To cross the road needs a great deal of confidence and a sense of adventure . There are hardly any signals for a long stretch, a few traffic cops help pedestrians , but still their plight is plainly visible. Occasionally I slow down considerably to let a scared pedestrian cross the road comfortably . For him thats less than half the battle won, because there is the "compound" wall - like divider at the middle of the road , crossing which he has to then go through the anti parallel part of the road which is as crowded.
I went past the Guindy railway station from where I have taken a suburban train to Central (Park Station ) on a few occasions . One of the differences between Chennai and Bangalore ( thats where I am from ) which for me makes Chennai better in a way is the suburban train system.With amazing efficiency and low cost , this is something which every growing city / metro must have ... its amazing how much effort and time such facilities can save. Mumbai is a good example of a city whose very work life is centred on this kind of train system. Soon , I hope Bangalore will have one of these ! The next significant landmark on this road is "Le Royal Meridien", which is the venue for many a politician's stay/function or whatever. When that happens , all common folk like yours truly have to wait for at least half an hour for the array of official bodyguarded cars to pass. Just beyond this lies the great "Kathipara " junction. This is one of those places where traffic from 4 - 5 roads accumulate at peak hours and are regulated by over taxed policemen who dont really seem to have any real control over the vehicles. Taking a curved right along with the rest of the traffic , I entered 100 feet road which is the last main road of my journey to office. Here , something happens to me and to quite a few others beside me , and an irresistable urge to speed takes hold and I let go. Feeling for the last time for that day the hot air blowing into my face , I reach office after a few minutes.... still not able to better my previous record!
Sunday, July 09, 2006
Mocking the CAT
150 questions , three sections : Tenth standard Maths , Labyrinthine English , Totally encrypted Data to interpret... how tough can it be??
This is how i felt at the beginning of the 3rd mock CAT I took up today at 10 30 am . This pattern was a departure from the last 2 tests I wrote , which consisted of 90 Questions with 10 one mark and 20 two mark questions in each section. Looking at the analysis of the paper in the web site, I got the impression that it was supposed to be easier than the earlier few tests. For me it turned out to be a bad experience. Thinking about it now , I think that I made some wrong choices within those 120 minutes... thankfully its not the real thing !
The mistakes I made in the Verbal ability section : I rely on the grammar and vocab portion of the section usually to get me through comfortably and only after I finish this do I go for the Reading comprehension. I have been warned about this approach earlier , but today it was decisive, I need to change my strategy . No more shying away from RC... its really weird if you think about it though. I am what you could call a somewhat voracious reader. But when it comes to RC, something goes wrong everytime ... so now I make a vow that I ll do at least "n-2" passages from now on in RC ! The grammar and sentence completion parts of the section were to say the least awfully twisted... this is usually my favourite section! In this , I need to be able to leave questions and not make suicidal attempts.
In DI: Well , I did not do much in this section , in fact I have not done much until now in any of the tests. There were 50 Qs like in any other section and its all the more distressing to see more questions which seem unanswerable ! This is slowly getting to be a phobia now and this is another sections where I have to concentrate like RC . This is more important though because I am clearing Verbal and not DI!
In quants: In the first 2 tests , I chose the right questions and cleared both the test cutoffs comfortably , which was pleasantly surprising considering that a veteran CAT guy in my office could nt do it and so did a couple of my friends. This time though , the change in pattern and lack of strategy at that point( the right strategy is to look carefully from among more available options for the right Qs) , made me choose some wrong Qs and get stuck ! In short I got emotionally invovled with the problems somewhere in between and thats the last thing anyone with CAT aspirations should do!
Overall , the daily distribution of time to office and study is not working out . Attending morning class is fine, I am doing that regularly, and office as well is fine , but where I insert the additionaly preparation time is giving me problems. I have been speculating combined studies with a couple of TIME friends and also with a colleague, but what makes me hesitate is that we ll end up having fun and not do anything else besides. I think I ll give it a try ... heard someone say , try everything once before rejecting ;) . 16 more to go and the clock is ticking , wish me luck...
and if you happen to read this , please give me tips or what ever you can ...
railmani
This is how i felt at the beginning of the 3rd mock CAT I took up today at 10 30 am . This pattern was a departure from the last 2 tests I wrote , which consisted of 90 Questions with 10 one mark and 20 two mark questions in each section. Looking at the analysis of the paper in the web site, I got the impression that it was supposed to be easier than the earlier few tests. For me it turned out to be a bad experience. Thinking about it now , I think that I made some wrong choices within those 120 minutes... thankfully its not the real thing !
The mistakes I made in the Verbal ability section : I rely on the grammar and vocab portion of the section usually to get me through comfortably and only after I finish this do I go for the Reading comprehension. I have been warned about this approach earlier , but today it was decisive, I need to change my strategy . No more shying away from RC... its really weird if you think about it though. I am what you could call a somewhat voracious reader. But when it comes to RC, something goes wrong everytime ... so now I make a vow that I ll do at least "n-2" passages from now on in RC ! The grammar and sentence completion parts of the section were to say the least awfully twisted... this is usually my favourite section! In this , I need to be able to leave questions and not make suicidal attempts.
In DI: Well , I did not do much in this section , in fact I have not done much until now in any of the tests. There were 50 Qs like in any other section and its all the more distressing to see more questions which seem unanswerable ! This is slowly getting to be a phobia now and this is another sections where I have to concentrate like RC . This is more important though because I am clearing Verbal and not DI!
In quants: In the first 2 tests , I chose the right questions and cleared both the test cutoffs comfortably , which was pleasantly surprising considering that a veteran CAT guy in my office could nt do it and so did a couple of my friends. This time though , the change in pattern and lack of strategy at that point( the right strategy is to look carefully from among more available options for the right Qs) , made me choose some wrong Qs and get stuck ! In short I got emotionally invovled with the problems somewhere in between and thats the last thing anyone with CAT aspirations should do!
Overall , the daily distribution of time to office and study is not working out . Attending morning class is fine, I am doing that regularly, and office as well is fine , but where I insert the additionaly preparation time is giving me problems. I have been speculating combined studies with a couple of TIME friends and also with a colleague, but what makes me hesitate is that we ll end up having fun and not do anything else besides. I think I ll give it a try ... heard someone say , try everything once before rejecting ;) . 16 more to go and the clock is ticking , wish me luck...
and if you happen to read this , please give me tips or what ever you can ...
railmani
Friday, July 07, 2006
Classroom revisited..
My fondest memories of the classroom experience are spread over the latter part of high school , engineering and now at TIME CAT coaching classes. The last one is still not that much of a memory as I am in the midst of it.
Now you might be wondering whats so special about going to a CAT coaching class , a large number of people are doing in presently. The essential difference here is that this is the second time I am doing it! Shocking , surprising whatever it is , its a decision I won't regret , judging by the classes, tests,faculty , material ... and most of all how much my earlier classes at IMS sucked!
Yes, its true ... TIME rocks and IMS sucks. This conclusion is based purely on my experiences alone and anyone is free to contend or concur with me. Here are some of the key differences between the two ( both centres are in Adyar, IMS is near near Adyar Signal and TIME is near MGR Janaki college).
1) Ambience
IMS is awfully cramped , it is a small shady place with A/C and all , but hardly any place to walk around . TIME is conducted in decent classrooms (MGR Janaki college).
2) Basic reference / study material
IMS material sucks big time. They dont realise that people preparing for CAT come from different backgrounds and dont have the time to read a text book kind of material each of which is bigger than any you might have had in school! ( except perhaps your Atlas).
A word list "book" is given to you... which is not even as useful as a dictionary .Who the hell will carry it around everywhere , most of all office?
TIME material is concise, with relevant problems ( in the case of Math) and to be honest , I ve not gone through the english stuff yet. The cue cards though are impressive, if not sufficient to learn all words , at least they are more handy and digestable than one big book which we already have in the form of a dictionary.
3) Faculty
This is one department where TIME scores way above IMS. Most of the IMS faculty are very good, with relevant experience with whatever they are teaching . Its really heartening to meet English teachers of rare quality after school ... in fact better than those at school ( FAPS,Bangalore). The maths teachers are very good as well . Some are excellent and others are satisfactory, but overall standard is good and they do their job well.
At IMS , I found there was a fifty - fifty distribution of bad and good faculty . There was one good English teacher , but the other one was so horrible that english rated negative for me at IMS. This I was able to make out because I knew what mistakes and negligence was being meted out to the students there .
4) Class room material
At IMS: From day one , even at the concept building classes , you are expected to race with time! When you are learning something , its against logic to hurry it. And when I used to try clarifying things, it would be pushed to the end of the class... which is of no use most of the time.
I know for a fact that if I did nt understand something , most of the class would not have. And this speaks poorly of the design of the material to be completed in a short time and also by the staff handling the classes. The class room material is awfully rigid , with fixed deadlines for every set of problems and leaving little scope for the faculty to be flexible.
At TIME: Concept building is learning how to solve problems in Maths ,with a good reason behind every formula used ; learning ways to identify errors in English, logical explanations of some features of the language and the like. It all boils down to the experience and ability of the staff. The class room material is NOT used to govern the class room experience... in fact , the faculty relies on his/her own experience and the material is used as a tool not as a fetter .
5) Timings
There is a slight difference here , I went to the evening classes at IMS ( 7 to 8 30 pm) and attend morning classes at TIME ( 6 to 7 45 am). Comparing the morning classes at TIME to the evening classes at IMS may not seem fair, but I ll do it anyway.
Evening classes at IMS are affected by things such as traffic leading up to the classroom from a days work at office; people coming in late from work, college ; even the faculty coming in after a day's work ( most of them are not full time); change in shcedule because of faculty not turning up because of problems arising in the day time and spilling over into the class time.
The morning classes at TIME pose a different problem : getting up and ready by 6 am! Once this task is accomplished , the rest is easy. The faculty is almost always on time and not more than 5 minutes late and there is no problem with the class going on for even half an hour more than scheduled because its early in the morning and there's the whole day ahead! There is a world of difference between the two... anyone who wants to go for coaching classes, morning is the time for it... and this is coming from a hard core night gaming guy!
6) Centre manager
This might not apply to all IMS centres but the one at Adyar has a real bad one is all I can say. Yeah , before collecting the fees , she was very polite and all, but after that all experiences left a bad taste in my mouth. With unpredictable merging of batches to suit her whim and fancy and some bullshit reasons , she used to pre pone classes to 6 30 pm.. when coming at 7 pm itself was tough for the working folk like me and couple of others. I had paid my hard earned money for class room coaching and she comes and preaches the good of the "majority" and all that. I wonder how I actually went through this without running her over with my yamaha... guess it would nt have made any difference , my bikes as dirty as it can get anyway.
At TIME, the centre manager is a voracious speaker to say the least. May not be eloquent in the strictest sense , but has amazing focus on what he is saying ... if he can speak about test taking strategies for 2 hours at a stretch! That is the only experience with him I have had until now . He is also a member of the teaching faculty at TIME , so I guess I will meet him sometime as the faculty allocation works on a rotation basis across all centres in Chennai. I ve got some intuitive and logical approaches to take the test which nobody at IMS able to offer with the conviction as he did.
7) Human touch
This is a very important factor which I found mostly missing at IMS , whether it was the faculty , centre manager or the receptionists for that matter. During the month of July last year ,I was down with Jaundice and staying at home in Bangalore . I tried in vain to get the material to be sent to me from the centre at Adyar... thanks to the apathy of the centre manager. At the end of the recovery period, I got a big bundle of material for the time I missed.
I cant say much about the office staff at TIME , most of them are cooperative. Faculty again I say is very good and they are genuinely helpful when you ask them for help.
8) Mock/Sim CATS
An important thing I almost forgot!
At TIME , there are 20 mock CATS! right from the time you join classes for you to get a feel of the real thing . Its not an overkill at all, considering that you get an idea where you stand right from the beginning , with good feedback as well.Many toppers who eventually make it to the iims say that this is the most important part of their preparation for the real thing in November.
At IMS , there are 8 Sim CATS in total and a whole lot of other home based or class room based tests which I think is something like Ruffles lays giving chips in different coloured packets . Even if you are just planning to take a test series, theres more value for money with TIME...
To conclude , I ve not felt any better than I do now about my prospects at CAT. At IMS , you are made to feel how difficult it is to get there rather than showing how to get there... but at TIME , that is not the focus, they do their job and if you do yours, theres no stopping you!
Now you might be wondering whats so special about going to a CAT coaching class , a large number of people are doing in presently. The essential difference here is that this is the second time I am doing it! Shocking , surprising whatever it is , its a decision I won't regret , judging by the classes, tests,faculty , material ... and most of all how much my earlier classes at IMS sucked!
Yes, its true ... TIME rocks and IMS sucks. This conclusion is based purely on my experiences alone and anyone is free to contend or concur with me. Here are some of the key differences between the two ( both centres are in Adyar, IMS is near near Adyar Signal and TIME is near MGR Janaki college).
1) Ambience
IMS is awfully cramped , it is a small shady place with A/C and all , but hardly any place to walk around . TIME is conducted in decent classrooms (MGR Janaki college).
2) Basic reference / study material
IMS material sucks big time. They dont realise that people preparing for CAT come from different backgrounds and dont have the time to read a text book kind of material each of which is bigger than any you might have had in school! ( except perhaps your Atlas).
A word list "book" is given to you... which is not even as useful as a dictionary .Who the hell will carry it around everywhere , most of all office?
TIME material is concise, with relevant problems ( in the case of Math) and to be honest , I ve not gone through the english stuff yet. The cue cards though are impressive, if not sufficient to learn all words , at least they are more handy and digestable than one big book which we already have in the form of a dictionary.
3) Faculty
This is one department where TIME scores way above IMS. Most of the IMS faculty are very good, with relevant experience with whatever they are teaching . Its really heartening to meet English teachers of rare quality after school ... in fact better than those at school ( FAPS,Bangalore). The maths teachers are very good as well . Some are excellent and others are satisfactory, but overall standard is good and they do their job well.
At IMS , I found there was a fifty - fifty distribution of bad and good faculty . There was one good English teacher , but the other one was so horrible that english rated negative for me at IMS. This I was able to make out because I knew what mistakes and negligence was being meted out to the students there .
4) Class room material
At IMS: From day one , even at the concept building classes , you are expected to race with time! When you are learning something , its against logic to hurry it. And when I used to try clarifying things, it would be pushed to the end of the class... which is of no use most of the time.
I know for a fact that if I did nt understand something , most of the class would not have. And this speaks poorly of the design of the material to be completed in a short time and also by the staff handling the classes. The class room material is awfully rigid , with fixed deadlines for every set of problems and leaving little scope for the faculty to be flexible.
At TIME: Concept building is learning how to solve problems in Maths ,with a good reason behind every formula used ; learning ways to identify errors in English, logical explanations of some features of the language and the like. It all boils down to the experience and ability of the staff. The class room material is NOT used to govern the class room experience... in fact , the faculty relies on his/her own experience and the material is used as a tool not as a fetter .
5) Timings
There is a slight difference here , I went to the evening classes at IMS ( 7 to 8 30 pm) and attend morning classes at TIME ( 6 to 7 45 am). Comparing the morning classes at TIME to the evening classes at IMS may not seem fair, but I ll do it anyway.
Evening classes at IMS are affected by things such as traffic leading up to the classroom from a days work at office; people coming in late from work, college ; even the faculty coming in after a day's work ( most of them are not full time); change in shcedule because of faculty not turning up because of problems arising in the day time and spilling over into the class time.
The morning classes at TIME pose a different problem : getting up and ready by 6 am! Once this task is accomplished , the rest is easy. The faculty is almost always on time and not more than 5 minutes late and there is no problem with the class going on for even half an hour more than scheduled because its early in the morning and there's the whole day ahead! There is a world of difference between the two... anyone who wants to go for coaching classes, morning is the time for it... and this is coming from a hard core night gaming guy!
6) Centre manager
This might not apply to all IMS centres but the one at Adyar has a real bad one is all I can say. Yeah , before collecting the fees , she was very polite and all, but after that all experiences left a bad taste in my mouth. With unpredictable merging of batches to suit her whim and fancy and some bullshit reasons , she used to pre pone classes to 6 30 pm.. when coming at 7 pm itself was tough for the working folk like me and couple of others. I had paid my hard earned money for class room coaching and she comes and preaches the good of the "majority" and all that. I wonder how I actually went through this without running her over with my yamaha... guess it would nt have made any difference , my bikes as dirty as it can get anyway.
At TIME, the centre manager is a voracious speaker to say the least. May not be eloquent in the strictest sense , but has amazing focus on what he is saying ... if he can speak about test taking strategies for 2 hours at a stretch! That is the only experience with him I have had until now . He is also a member of the teaching faculty at TIME , so I guess I will meet him sometime as the faculty allocation works on a rotation basis across all centres in Chennai. I ve got some intuitive and logical approaches to take the test which nobody at IMS able to offer with the conviction as he did.
7) Human touch
This is a very important factor which I found mostly missing at IMS , whether it was the faculty , centre manager or the receptionists for that matter. During the month of July last year ,I was down with Jaundice and staying at home in Bangalore . I tried in vain to get the material to be sent to me from the centre at Adyar... thanks to the apathy of the centre manager. At the end of the recovery period, I got a big bundle of material for the time I missed.
I cant say much about the office staff at TIME , most of them are cooperative. Faculty again I say is very good and they are genuinely helpful when you ask them for help.
8) Mock/Sim CATS
An important thing I almost forgot!
At TIME , there are 20 mock CATS! right from the time you join classes for you to get a feel of the real thing . Its not an overkill at all, considering that you get an idea where you stand right from the beginning , with good feedback as well.Many toppers who eventually make it to the iims say that this is the most important part of their preparation for the real thing in November.
At IMS , there are 8 Sim CATS in total and a whole lot of other home based or class room based tests which I think is something like Ruffles lays giving chips in different coloured packets . Even if you are just planning to take a test series, theres more value for money with TIME...
To conclude , I ve not felt any better than I do now about my prospects at CAT. At IMS , you are made to feel how difficult it is to get there rather than showing how to get there... but at TIME , that is not the focus, they do their job and if you do yours, theres no stopping you!
Friday, June 02, 2006
Terminating thread
30/5/2006. 3 am
Fading away I turned around
I could hear a remnant of a sound
Pausing a while I tried to hear..listen
As the tears fell to the ground they glistened
I knew it was not meant to be
Another broken heart I could not see
Embracing the grief of the tear
I chose to be a mourner sans fear .
In the dark I stood and watched
A pensive step and silent shuffle
A memory being read in a fond grimace
In a moment of weakness my will trifled
An animal grunt my throat escaped
She turned around with fear emboldened
In the dark I could see, a will unscathed
To endure suffering her fate she had resigned.
Coming closer my cloak I withdrew
Showing who I was for real
In her eyes the story unfolded true
In mine my heart waited in an ordeal
Betrayal, hopelessness … relief..Ecstasy
For a long time we stood, I knew not why
In her presence I could not move
She wept as she devoured me with hungry eyes
Her love had been lost
To see her suffer had I tried
To watch the torment of the deprived
Until I knew her life and mine would be the cost
Why had she made me suffer since ..
The time she knew we were meant to be one
Words could no longer be minced
For no thought no body, there were none
A tender touch in the twilight drizzle,
Turned to a violent desire, a fight
A will to own to possess the other, the skin bristled
In a moment of glory, it ended … it was a gory sight
She lay in my arms, a smile on her lips
As she bled …her fingers loosened
The gun slipped out of her grip
A treacherous task had it failed
Part of the job, was this danger
In a trance the gun returned to the holster
If killing was just pulling a trigger
Would nt life be simple ..a snigger
The first time it would ve been,
That I went against a rule
The hunted tried the hunter to be
And to the calling function I returned a bool true.
-------------------------------------------------------
Fading away I turned around
I could hear a remnant of a sound
Pausing a while I tried to hear..listen
As the tears fell to the ground they glistened
I knew it was not meant to be
Another broken heart I could not see
Embracing the grief of the tear
I chose to be a mourner sans fear .
In the dark I stood and watched
A pensive step and silent shuffle
A memory being read in a fond grimace
In a moment of weakness my will trifled
An animal grunt my throat escaped
She turned around with fear emboldened
In the dark I could see, a will unscathed
To endure suffering her fate she had resigned.
Coming closer my cloak I withdrew
Showing who I was for real
In her eyes the story unfolded true
In mine my heart waited in an ordeal
Betrayal, hopelessness … relief..Ecstasy
For a long time we stood, I knew not why
In her presence I could not move
She wept as she devoured me with hungry eyes
Her love had been lost
To see her suffer had I tried
To watch the torment of the deprived
Until I knew her life and mine would be the cost
Why had she made me suffer since ..
The time she knew we were meant to be one
Words could no longer be minced
For no thought no body, there were none
A tender touch in the twilight drizzle,
Turned to a violent desire, a fight
A will to own to possess the other, the skin bristled
In a moment of glory, it ended … it was a gory sight
She lay in my arms, a smile on her lips
As she bled …her fingers loosened
The gun slipped out of her grip
A treacherous task had it failed
Part of the job, was this danger
In a trance the gun returned to the holster
If killing was just pulling a trigger
Would nt life be simple ..a snigger
The first time it would ve been,
That I went against a rule
The hunted tried the hunter to be
And to the calling function I returned a bool true.
-------------------------------------------------------
Insomnia
31/5/2006. 3 am
Waking up in a strange place
I see myself in the mirror on the wall
There I saw an even stranger face
Where was I, had I lost it all?
A day not recent,
I entered. Life so clean
An inspiring rise I had made being decent
Thought I knew everything to be said and seen
A disarming smile I encountered
At every corner of the fast lane
“You the one … who’s needed”
“Here ...you are the main”
At wits end I would always be,
Until the unlikely truth I could almost see.
Every time that smile came back
I knew this was a code I had to hack
A hole too deep I was stepping in
Every helping hand pushed me a little further
Until without one I was afraid to sin
Thinking I was safe in the hands of a brother
As the twilight set in ,
My eyes went dim, portending sleep
The hole I fell into, too much had I sinned
A never ending night, the darkness was complete..
The light came, so sudden
It purged the lingering night
An unfamiliar bed … a naked woman
As I shook my head, she stirred... What a sight
“Honey, it’s too early”
“Come back to bed”
As I stared at the gesturing nymph
A hand I felt on my shoulder
A dream I thought this weird plot
Turning around I saw a mirror stare
In it I stood a moment silent in thought
And then I turned in bed without a care
A familiar pattern emerged through the night
A dream it is when there is a fight
Or when there’s a woman for sex
Or when quake and life mix
And when a mind is made a slave…
For unfitting knaves.
At last the hole opened up dark, wide
I dropped in with a smile wry
Goodbye to consciousness, conscience...And tears dry
I was going to rest in peace, until to work I had to ride.
Waking up in a strange place
I see myself in the mirror on the wall
There I saw an even stranger face
Where was I, had I lost it all?
A day not recent,
I entered. Life so clean
An inspiring rise I had made being decent
Thought I knew everything to be said and seen
A disarming smile I encountered
At every corner of the fast lane
“You the one … who’s needed”
“Here ...you are the main”
At wits end I would always be,
Until the unlikely truth I could almost see.
Every time that smile came back
I knew this was a code I had to hack
A hole too deep I was stepping in
Every helping hand pushed me a little further
Until without one I was afraid to sin
Thinking I was safe in the hands of a brother
As the twilight set in ,
My eyes went dim, portending sleep
The hole I fell into, too much had I sinned
A never ending night, the darkness was complete..
The light came, so sudden
It purged the lingering night
An unfamiliar bed … a naked woman
As I shook my head, she stirred... What a sight
“Honey, it’s too early”
“Come back to bed”
As I stared at the gesturing nymph
A hand I felt on my shoulder
A dream I thought this weird plot
Turning around I saw a mirror stare
In it I stood a moment silent in thought
And then I turned in bed without a care
A familiar pattern emerged through the night
A dream it is when there is a fight
Or when there’s a woman for sex
Or when quake and life mix
And when a mind is made a slave…
For unfitting knaves.
At last the hole opened up dark, wide
I dropped in with a smile wry
Goodbye to consciousness, conscience...And tears dry
I was going to rest in peace, until to work I had to ride.
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
Road trip to "Pondi"
(22nd and 23rd April,2006)
For a relatively less traveled guy like me, any prospect of going outside the well established routine of “work - home in Chennai – home in Bangalore” was a welcome one. Along with me were a few almost or probably more frustrated guys. Frustrated with quite a few things, mainly with being single since forever …and with being stuck in Chennai for almost two years (this is true for Ruchin and Naga at least). God knows how many real opportunities at meeting pretty girls we missed by not being in Bangalore / Noida or any other place ! Some of my friends may disagree with this, but it’s the whole truth and nothing but the truth (I swear!). And so with dreams of getting to go to a dance bar for the first time ever and trying out some new alcoholic drink (you see, I am a novice in this dept.); we decided Pondicherry would be the ideal place to go for the weekend.
This plan was mooted sometime last year when Naga had joined the other three in Chennai, after all of us landed here through job placements through college. Owing to our busy professional and personal lives, we kept postponing it until finally the time has come for us to go our own ways. Naga is moving to Bangalore for greener pastures (in other words, a better job) and in a short time, Ruchin and I will too. Armed with enough money and
two excellent bikes, a vintage Yamaha Rx 135 and a one year old Honda Unicorn, we made last minute plans on the previous day, i.e. a Friday.
The plan was like this: We start at 11 am in the morning, have brunch and set off. The estimated time of travel was three hours for a distance of about 160 km from Chennai. Keeping in mind an earlier accident on my bike in the dark, I was keen on riding in the day alone. Besides that, we got the location of a good hotel and a DVD shop from one of my colleagues who is from Pondi.
Anyway plans made by us are rarely kept, especially when Vijesh is in the night shift 90% of the time. Moreover, with Ruchin and me going to sleep at 3 am we knew it would happen. Only Naga turned up at 11 am as informed earlier and woke us up from deep slumber. With empty stomachs and full tanks, we set off, 4 on 2 bikes. I was a reluctant rider with a fidgety pillion rider (Vijesh) who btw weighs a ton
. I believe his body density is very high!
After an hour’s ride through the initial crowded portion of ECR (East Coast Road), we reached a highway eating place which we eventually discovered was way too overpriced and gave far too little quantity of anything edible. At the end of it, we were set back by around 550 rupees and an hour of riding. We took off with the determination to make it there before dark.
Ruchin on his Unicorn and without even a pair riding glasses was unstoppable, in spite of having a heavy load behind him (Vijesh who I swapped for a more stable Naga). After the initial lead which I had owing to the starting point, I did not see them except in breaks which we took three – four times in between. I knew I was going too slow … some where in the sixties and occasional seventies .This was because I was scared of falling of the edge of the road as I once did on NH 17 on the west coast …now that’s another story . And so I persisted with the slow riding with stubbornness. Moreover my bike starts vibrating with some resonant frequency or something just when I reach 70 kmph and then it becomes so shaky, it kind of makes me feel that it might fall apart! We carried on past through a pretty well laid road (even the road gets laid once in a while!)... I remember seeing the beach on the way in glimpses and some fields too which were pleasant to the eye.
As it became darker slowly … the distance Naga and I had covered was much lesser than those two and the thought of riding in the dark made me visibly shaky with the bike. At one point of time I started regretting coming by bike with nothing but the bags and the clothes on our back. It would be really awful to have an accident just because we were too confident with our riding or too poor with our planning. After a really slow and careful ride through some rough roads in the last 30 kms to Pondi we reached a dome where we met and decided to stick together, just in case. Next we reached the “Toll Gate” (I think you need to pay money if you are on more than two wheels and planning to enter the city) where we bikers were never stopped which was a relief after all that riding. Once in the city, we found an ICICI atm and took some money just in case the Pondi people were not credit card friendly.
Armed with the name of the Hotel (Ram International) and its location (somewhere near the bus stand), we went a couple of km out of the way to finally find it, when we retraced our steps. I guess your expectations never match what you finally get. It turned out to be a pretty good place on the inside though. At 675 rupees for a day in a double bedroom, with extra beds, it was quite reasonable. Besides there was a T.V without the STB (set top box) problem which Chennai is infamous for. After relaxing for a while on comfortable beds and relieving ourselves of burdens mental, physical and biological … we set off on our search for booze, food and the elusive dance bar! On the way down to reception, I intercepted one of the attendants and as I was asking him “Are there any dance bars you know of?” an old lady and her daughter came up the stairs. On his negative reply I just walked down without looking at anyone … but once down I was wondering why I did that, was so many years of being in conservative company finally affecting me? Anyway reminding myself to be a non conformist, I joined the others to spread the bad news. Ruchin didn’t lose hope and he asked a very decent looking auto driver for a dance bar. He told us that they would all be closed by 10 p.m. cursing our luck, we decided to settle for a Pub or bar and Restaurant to finish off what was left of the night.
The road which goes past the hotel is called “Anna Salai” like the one in Chennai, but with no resemblance at all. The driving on this road was even worse than any road I ve seen in Chennai or Bangalore for that matter! Guys were riding like each one of them owned the road and I was thankful that I was inside an auto for once, besides he wasn’t bleeding me like the Chennai auto guys do for a short trip to office. The destination was a place called “Hot and Cool”, supposedly a “yo” pub. When we did reach it, it was too late, unless you had some “jugaad” (some friends at the right places) to get in. After some thought we decided to get back to our starting point and find some place close to the hotel.
The auto guy dropped us off in front the hotel. It took some effort to suppress Vijesh’s irrational urge to go after DVD’s at that time of the night (around 9:30 pm). With that done, we entered a shop with half its shutters down and a lot of loud voices emanating from within. Inside were all men in various stages of inebriation. We (Ruchin and I) scanned the bottles behind the counter for something familiar. The expert in this department was Ruchin and I was ready to follow his bidding. We bought“Smirnoff Vodka – Citrus twist “for Rs.360. I had one of these at home (in Bangalore) unopened and thought that was the right time to see what it could do. We came out of the shop with the bottle wrapped up in a black polythene cover , I was still smiling at the way the shop guy had said “ Super sir “ and made an appreciative gesture with his thumb and index fingers .
There’s one thing which I learnt from more experienced drinkers (“drunkards” seems derogatory and also untrue), never drink and not eat anything. It seems your stomach will get FUBAR (fu***d up beyond all recognition) . Not willing to attempt any such stunt, we went around looking for food. This is something which we do on weekends in Chennai, foraging. After rejecting several places for not being non vegetarian, being the
Same old Chettinad stuff, and looking drab …we settled for a Chinese restaurant called “China Land”. After one more disappointing experience with pseudo – Chinese food, we headed back to the hotel room.
The way I was raving even before boozing, the guys were really scared what would happen with me in high spirits! Vijesh was the main focus of all our ribbing and leg pulling which he gets done with great enjoyment and the right amount of resistance. This really makes us come up with some real good jokes with him as the main role in them. We had got coke and 7 up to go with it and I took a cautious 100 ml with the 7 up. Naga did the same and Ruchin I guess took more being the more experienced among us. How can you describe the taste of vodka? Hmm, let me try. This was “smooth” as in u don’t feel it burning down your throat so fast or so much. Its not as bad tasting as beer. It made my upper lip feel like it was very soft and tender after some time. I kept complaining that I didn’t feel a thing coming on. And then in about 15 minutes - half an hour or so, I started feeling the slow and steady effects of the alcohol going to my head. If you are sitting down its not that evident. When you stand up and start walking, your balance is affected. Getting back the equilibrium takes time as the response time increases. And so I ended up chasing Vijesh around the room and falling all over the beds. It was fun and it seemed having a little more would be even better. I shifted to having it straight and settled down in a comfortable position on the bed. We talked a lot about things which are close to our hearts and normally would not come out, especially from a guy’s mouth. Old crushes, infatuations … dreams of the future, incidents in the past, all came freely and without hesitation. I felt liberated for some time. So this is what people mean when they say it “loosens the tongue” I thought. We had finished more than half the bottle, main contributions from Ruchin and moi. We were approaching the limits of drowsiness. We went to bed deciding to get up by 8 am, get ready, visit the DVD shop, visit a boat club nearby and if time permitted the Aurobind ashram.
The next day, I gained consciousness at 10 am. Everyone except Ruchin was just getting up. We got ready “aaram se “and decided to vacate the room. Whatever may the case, we had to leave for Chennai by 3 30 pm, not to repeat the night riding problem of the previous day. We had a dosa breakfast at the restaurant “Mayura” on the ground floor and took off on our bikes to “Tic Tac”, the most popular DVD shop in town. The pre noon heat was overwhelming. Only the motion of ou
r bikes made us survive that weather. We were faced with a surprise; “Tic Tac” was not one of those “seedy” places where you buy pirated DVD’s. It was a well established and maintained place where you can buy (pirated) movie DVD’s and related stuff. The shop lay on one of the cross roads of “Anna Salai”. Elbowing through the crowd, I got a place on the counter which stretched from the beginning to the end of the shop. We were amazed by how professionally this was done. It was like they were selling delicious dosas off the tava … but the difference was they were selling copies of original DVD’s at a price which is about 1/100th of the original DVD’s price. I learned later that they buy an original from places like Malaysia/ Singapore and then sell hundreds of copies within hours. Anyway, leaving the issue of piracy aside, it was heaven for my roommate Vijesh who was making a huge
list of movies on paper. After buying stuff worth nearly 2000 rupees, we headed off to destination boat club.
We got directions from auto drivers (they are really indispensable at this) and set off along the ordinary roads to cover an estimated distance of 7 km towards Cuddalore. We reached the place in a short time; it didn’t look anything like a boat club. But we entered anyway; we didn’t have any other better choice. We parked the bikes, paid for that …and again after a
few metres paid some more small change for entrance and camera. We were wondering how many more such counters we would encounter before we reached the boat. After a short walk we came to the actual boat counter where we paid 240 rupees ( 60 per head ) to take a motor boat ride to an island where we could stay for how much time we wanted and come back in a similar boat which would keep “polling” the island for people waiting to return. Armed with the tickets and snacks coupons, we entered the boat and settled down among mostly families who had come for a fun weekend. Not finding any pretty girls, I just looked around as the boat lurched forward into the open water. The motor was a “Yamaha” as I expected. Along one side of the water was the coast dense with coconut trees , which reminded me of pictures of Kerala . We could see the land we were approaching … it seemed quite close, but it took a lot more time than I expected to get to it. I guess motorboats cannot match their land counterparts that easily.
We had something cool to drink and ventured forth onto the yellow sands. We saw a bitch in the water (I mean a female dog) near the land which was looking expectantly towards us. We concluded that it must have been Vijesh’s lover in its last life and now it was waiting for a tearful reunion in the salt water! After a futile attempt to force a reunion, we left it to its fate and went on to see what ours offered. There were some cottages here and there and also some small hut like structures on stilts but there were already too many people in all of them. We found a raised wooden platform which was still not taken and settled down on it. We took some snaps and after some more ribbing and general “Bakwaas” we decided to head back to town for something important … DVD’s of the other kind!
The return to the coast from the island was delayed because of a mini exodus. It seemed like everyone wanted to leave at the same time. Maybe because of the afternoon heat I thought. When we finally made it into the boat, it was better in one way, there was one pretty girl on it. Getting back to city, to make our trip “worth the effort” … we found some DVD shops soon enough. In almost a repeat of our “Tic Tac” experience, we went berserk buying DVD’s because they were cheap. Finally when the time came to leave, one of us, I don’t know who finally popped the question and received an affirmative reply. DVD’s of the other kind were available but at a little higher price and in more discreet packing. After some really funny haggling, we got a totally unverifiable set of DVDs which we bought because we were always hopeful of getting good stuff for less money. We ended up having lunch in some very small, drab place where the seats of the chairs were all torn. Afar a few “chapattis” and orange juices, we headed back home.
Ruchin had bought himself a pair of cooler/riding glasses and took off like a rocket. I was skeptical as to what would happen to my bike beyond 80 kmph until then. But I decided to let go and I did just that. We made good speed on good road once we got past the 30 kms from Pondi. Traveling consistently above 80 kmph, I was really learning what my bike could do. Despite this, the other bike was far ahead at that time. At the first break, I realized we were not that far apart. I thought I could keep the lead from there, but was wrong again, the pair of riding glasses was a deciding factor this time. At the next stop we filled a bottle with tender coconut water and also had a fruit which is very similar to a coconut, but the name of which I don’t recall. It’s like a coconut on the outside (deep purple color though) and has 3 -4 disc shaped kernels with gray stuff and some water inside. From there it was non stop, until we reached “Kabab Court” at 6 30pm. We reached about 10 minutes after Ruchin and Vijesh, which is not such a big difference. Proud and tired of riding so much, we decided to gorge ourselves on Kababs and nothing but Kababs. Priced at 400 rupees , we ordered a “seafood platter” followed by a “Non Veg Platter” . The place has excellent interiors and everything. Even the kababs were fine, except for the Kalmi kababs in the non veg platter. They were totally bland and hard to eat. We did get a replacement piece for that, but only because our appetites were already sated, I let it go at that. Filling up a feedback form with detailed
comments we left for home.
I was relieved to reach Chennai safe and sound. At the end of the trip, I got an idea of how it feels to ride for a three hour stretch, how much fun controlled drinking is, that Pondicherry is the place for DVD’s of any kind and how good it feels to visit new places. We planned to go back there by bus and visit some of the places we missed out , but for then , we rushed back home to check out the DVD’s on my comp.
For a relatively less traveled guy like me, any prospect of going outside the well established routine of “work - home in Chennai – home in Bangalore” was a welcome one. Along with me were a few almost or probably more frustrated guys. Frustrated with quite a few things, mainly with being single since forever …and with being stuck in Chennai for almost two years (this is true for Ruchin and Naga at least). God knows how many real opportunities at meeting pretty girls we missed by not being in Bangalore / Noida or any other place ! Some of my friends may disagree with this, but it’s the whole truth and nothing but the truth (I swear!). And so with dreams of getting to go to a dance bar for the first time ever and trying out some new alcoholic drink (you see, I am a novice in this dept.); we decided Pondicherry would be the ideal place to go for the weekend.
This plan was mooted sometime last year when Naga had joined the other three in Chennai, after all of us landed here through job placements through college. Owing to our busy professional and personal lives, we kept postponing it until finally the time has come for us to go our own ways. Naga is moving to Bangalore for greener pastures (in other words, a better job) and in a short time, Ruchin and I will too. Armed with enough money and
two excellent bikes, a vintage Yamaha Rx 135 and a one year old Honda Unicorn, we made last minute plans on the previous day, i.e. a Friday.The plan was like this: We start at 11 am in the morning, have brunch and set off. The estimated time of travel was three hours for a distance of about 160 km from Chennai. Keeping in mind an earlier accident on my bike in the dark, I was keen on riding in the day alone. Besides that, we got the location of a good hotel and a DVD shop from one of my colleagues who is from Pondi.
Anyway plans made by us are rarely kept, especially when Vijesh is in the night shift 90% of the time. Moreover, with Ruchin and me going to sleep at 3 am we knew it would happen. Only Naga turned up at 11 am as informed earlier and woke us up from deep slumber. With empty stomachs and full tanks, we set off, 4 on 2 bikes. I was a reluctant rider with a fidgety pillion rider (Vijesh) who btw weighs a ton
. I believe his body density is very high!After an hour’s ride through the initial crowded portion of ECR (East Coast Road), we reached a highway eating place which we eventually discovered was way too overpriced and gave far too little quantity of anything edible. At the end of it, we were set back by around 550 rupees and an hour of riding. We took off with the determination to make it there before dark.
Ruchin on his Unicorn and without even a pair riding glasses was unstoppable, in spite of having a heavy load behind him (Vijesh who I swapped for a more stable Naga). After the initial lead which I had owing to the starting point, I did not see them except in breaks which we took three – four times in between. I knew I was going too slow … some where in the sixties and occasional seventies .This was because I was scared of falling of the edge of the road as I once did on NH 17 on the west coast …now that’s another story . And so I persisted with the slow riding with stubbornness. Moreover my bike starts vibrating with some resonant frequency or something just when I reach 70 kmph and then it becomes so shaky, it kind of makes me feel that it might fall apart! We carried on past through a pretty well laid road (even the road gets laid once in a while!)... I remember seeing the beach on the way in glimpses and some fields too which were pleasant to the eye.
As it became darker slowly … the distance Naga and I had covered was much lesser than those two and the thought of riding in the dark made me visibly shaky with the bike. At one point of time I started regretting coming by bike with nothing but the bags and the clothes on our back. It would be really awful to have an accident just because we were too confident with our riding or too poor with our planning. After a really slow and careful ride through some rough roads in the last 30 kms to Pondi we reached a dome where we met and decided to stick together, just in case. Next we reached the “Toll Gate” (I think you need to pay money if you are on more than two wheels and planning to enter the city) where we bikers were never stopped which was a relief after all that riding. Once in the city, we found an ICICI atm and took some money just in case the Pondi people were not credit card friendly.
Armed with the name of the Hotel (Ram International) and its location (somewhere near the bus stand), we went a couple of km out of the way to finally find it, when we retraced our steps. I guess your expectations never match what you finally get. It turned out to be a pretty good place on the inside though. At 675 rupees for a day in a double bedroom, with extra beds, it was quite reasonable. Besides there was a T.V without the STB (set top box) problem which Chennai is infamous for. After relaxing for a while on comfortable beds and relieving ourselves of burdens mental, physical and biological … we set off on our search for booze, food and the elusive dance bar! On the way down to reception, I intercepted one of the attendants and as I was asking him “Are there any dance bars you know of?” an old lady and her daughter came up the stairs. On his negative reply I just walked down without looking at anyone … but once down I was wondering why I did that, was so many years of being in conservative company finally affecting me? Anyway reminding myself to be a non conformist, I joined the others to spread the bad news. Ruchin didn’t lose hope and he asked a very decent looking auto driver for a dance bar. He told us that they would all be closed by 10 p.m. cursing our luck, we decided to settle for a Pub or bar and Restaurant to finish off what was left of the night.
The road which goes past the hotel is called “Anna Salai” like the one in Chennai, but with no resemblance at all. The driving on this road was even worse than any road I ve seen in Chennai or Bangalore for that matter! Guys were riding like each one of them owned the road and I was thankful that I was inside an auto for once, besides he wasn’t bleeding me like the Chennai auto guys do for a short trip to office. The destination was a place called “Hot and Cool”, supposedly a “yo” pub. When we did reach it, it was too late, unless you had some “jugaad” (some friends at the right places) to get in. After some thought we decided to get back to our starting point and find some place close to the hotel.
The auto guy dropped us off in front the hotel. It took some effort to suppress Vijesh’s irrational urge to go after DVD’s at that time of the night (around 9:30 pm). With that done, we entered a shop with half its shutters down and a lot of loud voices emanating from within. Inside were all men in various stages of inebriation. We (Ruchin and I) scanned the bottles behind the counter for something familiar. The expert in this department was Ruchin and I was ready to follow his bidding. We bought“Smirnoff Vodka – Citrus twist “for Rs.360. I had one of these at home (in Bangalore) unopened and thought that was the right time to see what it could do. We came out of the shop with the bottle wrapped up in a black polythene cover , I was still smiling at the way the shop guy had said “ Super sir “ and made an appreciative gesture with his thumb and index fingers .
There’s one thing which I learnt from more experienced drinkers (“drunkards” seems derogatory and also untrue), never drink and not eat anything. It seems your stomach will get FUBAR (fu***d up beyond all recognition) . Not willing to attempt any such stunt, we went around looking for food. This is something which we do on weekends in Chennai, foraging. After rejecting several places for not being non vegetarian, being the
Same old Chettinad stuff, and looking drab …we settled for a Chinese restaurant called “China Land”. After one more disappointing experience with pseudo – Chinese food, we headed back to the hotel room.
The way I was raving even before boozing, the guys were really scared what would happen with me in high spirits! Vijesh was the main focus of all our ribbing and leg pulling which he gets done with great enjoyment and the right amount of resistance. This really makes us come up with some real good jokes with him as the main role in them. We had got coke and 7 up to go with it and I took a cautious 100 ml with the 7 up. Naga did the same and Ruchin I guess took more being the more experienced among us. How can you describe the taste of vodka? Hmm, let me try. This was “smooth” as in u don’t feel it burning down your throat so fast or so much. Its not as bad tasting as beer. It made my upper lip feel like it was very soft and tender after some time. I kept complaining that I didn’t feel a thing coming on. And then in about 15 minutes - half an hour or so, I started feeling the slow and steady effects of the alcohol going to my head. If you are sitting down its not that evident. When you stand up and start walking, your balance is affected. Getting back the equilibrium takes time as the response time increases. And so I ended up chasing Vijesh around the room and falling all over the beds. It was fun and it seemed having a little more would be even better. I shifted to having it straight and settled down in a comfortable position on the bed. We talked a lot about things which are close to our hearts and normally would not come out, especially from a guy’s mouth. Old crushes, infatuations … dreams of the future, incidents in the past, all came freely and without hesitation. I felt liberated for some time. So this is what people mean when they say it “loosens the tongue” I thought. We had finished more than half the bottle, main contributions from Ruchin and moi. We were approaching the limits of drowsiness. We went to bed deciding to get up by 8 am, get ready, visit the DVD shop, visit a boat club nearby and if time permitted the Aurobind ashram.
The next day, I gained consciousness at 10 am. Everyone except Ruchin was just getting up. We got ready “aaram se “and decided to vacate the room. Whatever may the case, we had to leave for Chennai by 3 30 pm, not to repeat the night riding problem of the previous day. We had a dosa breakfast at the restaurant “Mayura” on the ground floor and took off on our bikes to “Tic Tac”, the most popular DVD shop in town. The pre noon heat was overwhelming. Only the motion of ou
r bikes made us survive that weather. We were faced with a surprise; “Tic Tac” was not one of those “seedy” places where you buy pirated DVD’s. It was a well established and maintained place where you can buy (pirated) movie DVD’s and related stuff. The shop lay on one of the cross roads of “Anna Salai”. Elbowing through the crowd, I got a place on the counter which stretched from the beginning to the end of the shop. We were amazed by how professionally this was done. It was like they were selling delicious dosas off the tava … but the difference was they were selling copies of original DVD’s at a price which is about 1/100th of the original DVD’s price. I learned later that they buy an original from places like Malaysia/ Singapore and then sell hundreds of copies within hours. Anyway, leaving the issue of piracy aside, it was heaven for my roommate Vijesh who was making a hugelist of movies on paper. After buying stuff worth nearly 2000 rupees, we headed off to destination boat club.
We got directions from auto drivers (they are really indispensable at this) and set off along the ordinary roads to cover an estimated distance of 7 km towards Cuddalore. We reached the place in a short time; it didn’t look anything like a boat club. But we entered anyway; we didn’t have any other better choice. We parked the bikes, paid for that …and again after a
few metres paid some more small change for entrance and camera. We were wondering how many more such counters we would encounter before we reached the boat. After a short walk we came to the actual boat counter where we paid 240 rupees ( 60 per head ) to take a motor boat ride to an island where we could stay for how much time we wanted and come back in a similar boat which would keep “polling” the island for people waiting to return. Armed with the tickets and snacks coupons, we entered the boat and settled down among mostly families who had come for a fun weekend. Not finding any pretty girls, I just looked around as the boat lurched forward into the open water. The motor was a “Yamaha” as I expected. Along one side of the water was the coast dense with coconut trees , which reminded me of pictures of Kerala . We could see the land we were approaching … it seemed quite close, but it took a lot more time than I expected to get to it. I guess motorboats cannot match their land counterparts that easily.We had something cool to drink and ventured forth onto the yellow sands. We saw a bitch in the water (I mean a female dog) near the land which was looking expectantly towards us. We concluded that it must have been Vijesh’s lover in its last life and now it was waiting for a tearful reunion in the salt water! After a futile attempt to force a reunion, we left it to its fate and went on to see what ours offered. There were some cottages here and there and also some small hut like structures on stilts but there were already too many people in all of them. We found a raised wooden platform which was still not taken and settled down on it. We took some snaps and after some more ribbing and general “Bakwaas” we decided to head back to town for something important … DVD’s of the other kind!
The return to the coast from the island was delayed because of a mini exodus. It seemed like everyone wanted to leave at the same time. Maybe because of the afternoon heat I thought. When we finally made it into the boat, it was better in one way, there was one pretty girl on it. Getting back to city, to make our trip “worth the effort” … we found some DVD shops soon enough. In almost a repeat of our “Tic Tac” experience, we went berserk buying DVD’s because they were cheap. Finally when the time came to leave, one of us, I don’t know who finally popped the question and received an affirmative reply. DVD’s of the other kind were available but at a little higher price and in more discreet packing. After some really funny haggling, we got a totally unverifiable set of DVDs which we bought because we were always hopeful of getting good stuff for less money. We ended up having lunch in some very small, drab place where the seats of the chairs were all torn. Afar a few “chapattis” and orange juices, we headed back home.
Ruchin had bought himself a pair of cooler/riding glasses and took off like a rocket. I was skeptical as to what would happen to my bike beyond 80 kmph until then. But I decided to let go and I did just that. We made good speed on good road once we got past the 30 kms from Pondi. Traveling consistently above 80 kmph, I was really learning what my bike could do. Despite this, the other bike was far ahead at that time. At the first break, I realized we were not that far apart. I thought I could keep the lead from there, but was wrong again, the pair of riding glasses was a deciding factor this time. At the next stop we filled a bottle with tender coconut water and also had a fruit which is very similar to a coconut, but the name of which I don’t recall. It’s like a coconut on the outside (deep purple color though) and has 3 -4 disc shaped kernels with gray stuff and some water inside. From there it was non stop, until we reached “Kabab Court” at 6 30pm. We reached about 10 minutes after Ruchin and Vijesh, which is not such a big difference. Proud and tired of riding so much, we decided to gorge ourselves on Kababs and nothing but Kababs. Priced at 400 rupees , we ordered a “seafood platter” followed by a “Non Veg Platter” . The place has excellent interiors and everything. Even the kababs were fine, except for the Kalmi kababs in the non veg platter. They were totally bland and hard to eat. We did get a replacement piece for that, but only because our appetites were already sated, I let it go at that. Filling up a feedback form with detailed
comments we left for home.
I was relieved to reach Chennai safe and sound. At the end of the trip, I got an idea of how it feels to ride for a three hour stretch, how much fun controlled drinking is, that Pondicherry is the place for DVD’s of any kind and how good it feels to visit new places. We planned to go back there by bus and visit some of the places we missed out , but for then , we rushed back home to check out the DVD’s on my comp.
Monday, April 17, 2006
To read and to be led along...
The last weekend , I was fortunate to somehow get around to read a couple of good books . The first one was "To Kill a mocking bird" . And the other "One Night at a Call Center".
I bought this book last year at Blossoms if I remember right. But since my memory is almost always suspect , I ll leave it at that. The more important thing here is the book was lying in my house in a desolate bookshelf for a long time with other classics like "Moby dick" ( which is incidentally about a whale and not anything else mammalian) and "War and Peace" . To describe each and every book that lives in that book shelf would be really tiring to me to write and u to read , so I ll skip the crap and get to the point.
About the former , its a story about childhood , as seen through the eyes of a really young girl.
It addresses a whole plethora of issues , racism being the foremost. I remember how it used to feel when I had questions burning at the back of head all the time waiting to be answered . And when I finally figured it out , it was such a great experience that it has no substitute , not even Quake (!) . The way this books progresses is somewhat similar , one discovery after another through such an honest outlook , that I think we adults suppress so much , its killing a part of us slowly. When you saw something you did not understand ... when you were a child and had an adult around you who could answer these questions satisfactorily , that must have been the beginning of a very well learned life. I recall that I found most of my answers to unanswered questions through books , and many more questions still remain unanswered , but now the problem is I ve forgotten the questions !
The most impressive characters in this book.... almost all of them are very well constructed. The dude being the Mr.Atticus Finch whose harmless ,boring daddy image at the beginning turns to the thoroughly professional lawyer who will not compromise on his integrity for any reason, even threats to harm him in person. His handling of the curious children (his elder son and younger daughter ) is exemplary , if I could compare with any number of parents I have seen. No offence to any real parents , but that guy teaching his children strong principles , with solid reason behind every belief if something which I dream to achieve if and when I have children of my own. This gentleman not only handles his children well , but there is something which is said about him in the book. He's the same inside his house and outside on the streets. This is something which I have heard from my department (ECE- Electronics and Communication) H.O.D , Dr.P.Subbanna Bhat ... he said it once in a Conference hall , and I still had nt fallen asleep due to Quake stress . He said "Only when what you say , what you do ,what you preach , what you practice are the same , you have integrity .Most people have a rift somewhere in them , which makes one or more of these things go awry ...." something to this effect ..and then of course , like the rest of the half of college lectures , I was lost in uncontrollable involuntary nodding. So this character "Atticus Finch" is one of those guys who believes in being consistent in all versions of his interaction and I know chances of meeting his kind are far and few in between. That's enough about Mr.Finch I think , else I ll end up telling the whole story right here .
The youngest character and the narrator of this story is "Scout" . That's what everyone call this really young girl who does not want to be anything "girly". She reminds me of my child hood friend "Sushma" on whom I had a enormous crush for years until I met her a couple of years ago and all my child hood memories were shattered by what was left of her. Back to "Scout" ... shes the embodiment of curiosity , and she asks away questions and very often the answers are not easy to give . Like when I was a kid and I really wanted to know where babies came from. There were several theories floating around at that time. One of them was that if a bee stung a boy and a girl , the girl would then have the boys baby ! It was an ever greater mystery how the baby which I assumed was in the stomach of the mother would ever come except through the ..... And so my mind was so muddled up with alternative theories put forward or atleast repeated by my classmates , that when the actual stuff was taught to us in school , I could n't believe that what I was hearing was true! It seemed like there was something very uncomfortable about the entire topic , which I believe holds true to this day . Anyway "Scout" the girl asks such and many more questions. The best part about it is that there is someone who can give her a satisfactory answer bound by reason and not just mindless sentiment and emotion. Even when the answers are not satisfactory , the reasoning process of the child does not stop, and this is the most important quality any human being should possess. This I realized only after a very long time in my life. Along with her elder brother , she sets out on a learning adventure almost everyday in the book , and what a dream of brother shes got!
Mr Atticus' son's name is "Jem" , and the name just does nt do justice to what he could have probably grown upto be had he been real , or what he was even as a kid. Whats so special about the kid? He's a thinking boy who goes through that hated adolescent phase with a lot of questions and comes out with so many firm beliefs at the end of it , it makes me feel that I wish I was like him. I guess having a firm and loving mentor in his father (like mine) makes the difference between an average run of the mill guy to a good human being with a firm sense of justice . This is not the only characteristic of this boy , he's very adventurous and because of that ends up making great mistakes and consequently learns much greater lessons at such a young age. Being adventurous is not only important when we are kids , but it becomes all the more important when we are adults and life and work bogs us down. Making mistakes not only prepares us for a rough day , but makes us more rounded personalities. This boy impressed me with the dedication he shows to follow his father's words. The way he stands by his sister and father even when there is grave danger at hand. The sense of fairplay in him makes him feel great remorse when a negro is ill treated by just harsh words of a white prosecutor. He grasps some concepts like how the judicial system of having a jury of citizens is not foolproof and in cases of racial nature ,they become topsy turvy with such deep reasoning that his dad must have been one proud guy !
Well , that was a brief look at some of the main characters in that book . I wish to stop here because I don't know if I am doing any justice to the book by giving inklings of the characters involved. There are atleast 2 more important characters in this story , i ll just name them ... one of them is the black house maid and care taker of the children , "Calpurnia" is her name and she reminds me of "Mammy " in "Gone with the wind"( don't blame me if u have nt read tat one ! its a real killer though ...1024 pages !). I give the last but not the least position to the ultra introvert and indoors neighbor "Arthur Radley" ... he's a legend among the kids because nobody's ever seen him step out of the house. What could be the reason?
To find out that and much more , you ve got to read this book . Its not a scare even for the first timers or beginners with the time required I would say roughly 2 - 3 times of that taken for "5 . someone " . I guess most people I know who do read novels regularly have read it already and think its a great book. What I would advise someone whos going to read any book is to go for it without any prejudice about the name/author/cover and so many things , because I have been made to eat the dust so many times about misjudging a book by its cover , I never dismiss any book without reading at least a couple of chapters.
I started off with talking about 2 books , the other one being "one night at the call center" . I ll write about that hopefully this week. I have a many more interesting stories related to that ... more of that later .
Good night
railmani , 12 39 am , 15th April 2006.
I bought this book last year at Blossoms if I remember right. But since my memory is almost always suspect , I ll leave it at that. The more important thing here is the book was lying in my house in a desolate bookshelf for a long time with other classics like "Moby dick" ( which is incidentally about a whale and not anything else mammalian) and "War and Peace" . To describe each and every book that lives in that book shelf would be really tiring to me to write and u to read , so I ll skip the crap and get to the point.
About the former , its a story about childhood , as seen through the eyes of a really young girl.
It addresses a whole plethora of issues , racism being the foremost. I remember how it used to feel when I had questions burning at the back of head all the time waiting to be answered . And when I finally figured it out , it was such a great experience that it has no substitute , not even Quake (!) . The way this books progresses is somewhat similar , one discovery after another through such an honest outlook , that I think we adults suppress so much , its killing a part of us slowly. When you saw something you did not understand ... when you were a child and had an adult around you who could answer these questions satisfactorily , that must have been the beginning of a very well learned life. I recall that I found most of my answers to unanswered questions through books , and many more questions still remain unanswered , but now the problem is I ve forgotten the questions !
The most impressive characters in this book.... almost all of them are very well constructed. The dude being the Mr.Atticus Finch whose harmless ,boring daddy image at the beginning turns to the thoroughly professional lawyer who will not compromise on his integrity for any reason, even threats to harm him in person. His handling of the curious children (his elder son and younger daughter ) is exemplary , if I could compare with any number of parents I have seen. No offence to any real parents , but that guy teaching his children strong principles , with solid reason behind every belief if something which I dream to achieve if and when I have children of my own. This gentleman not only handles his children well , but there is something which is said about him in the book. He's the same inside his house and outside on the streets. This is something which I have heard from my department (ECE- Electronics and Communication) H.O.D , Dr.P.Subbanna Bhat ... he said it once in a Conference hall , and I still had nt fallen asleep due to Quake stress . He said "Only when what you say , what you do ,what you preach , what you practice are the same , you have integrity .Most people have a rift somewhere in them , which makes one or more of these things go awry ...." something to this effect ..and then of course , like the rest of the half of college lectures , I was lost in uncontrollable involuntary nodding. So this character "Atticus Finch" is one of those guys who believes in being consistent in all versions of his interaction and I know chances of meeting his kind are far and few in between. That's enough about Mr.Finch I think , else I ll end up telling the whole story right here .
The youngest character and the narrator of this story is "Scout" . That's what everyone call this really young girl who does not want to be anything "girly". She reminds me of my child hood friend "Sushma" on whom I had a enormous crush for years until I met her a couple of years ago and all my child hood memories were shattered by what was left of her. Back to "Scout" ... shes the embodiment of curiosity , and she asks away questions and very often the answers are not easy to give . Like when I was a kid and I really wanted to know where babies came from. There were several theories floating around at that time. One of them was that if a bee stung a boy and a girl , the girl would then have the boys baby ! It was an ever greater mystery how the baby which I assumed was in the stomach of the mother would ever come except through the ..... And so my mind was so muddled up with alternative theories put forward or atleast repeated by my classmates , that when the actual stuff was taught to us in school , I could n't believe that what I was hearing was true! It seemed like there was something very uncomfortable about the entire topic , which I believe holds true to this day . Anyway "Scout" the girl asks such and many more questions. The best part about it is that there is someone who can give her a satisfactory answer bound by reason and not just mindless sentiment and emotion. Even when the answers are not satisfactory , the reasoning process of the child does not stop, and this is the most important quality any human being should possess. This I realized only after a very long time in my life. Along with her elder brother , she sets out on a learning adventure almost everyday in the book , and what a dream of brother shes got!
Mr Atticus' son's name is "Jem" , and the name just does nt do justice to what he could have probably grown upto be had he been real , or what he was even as a kid. Whats so special about the kid? He's a thinking boy who goes through that hated adolescent phase with a lot of questions and comes out with so many firm beliefs at the end of it , it makes me feel that I wish I was like him. I guess having a firm and loving mentor in his father (like mine) makes the difference between an average run of the mill guy to a good human being with a firm sense of justice . This is not the only characteristic of this boy , he's very adventurous and because of that ends up making great mistakes and consequently learns much greater lessons at such a young age. Being adventurous is not only important when we are kids , but it becomes all the more important when we are adults and life and work bogs us down. Making mistakes not only prepares us for a rough day , but makes us more rounded personalities. This boy impressed me with the dedication he shows to follow his father's words. The way he stands by his sister and father even when there is grave danger at hand. The sense of fairplay in him makes him feel great remorse when a negro is ill treated by just harsh words of a white prosecutor. He grasps some concepts like how the judicial system of having a jury of citizens is not foolproof and in cases of racial nature ,they become topsy turvy with such deep reasoning that his dad must have been one proud guy !
Well , that was a brief look at some of the main characters in that book . I wish to stop here because I don't know if I am doing any justice to the book by giving inklings of the characters involved. There are atleast 2 more important characters in this story , i ll just name them ... one of them is the black house maid and care taker of the children , "Calpurnia" is her name and she reminds me of "Mammy " in "Gone with the wind"( don't blame me if u have nt read tat one ! its a real killer though ...1024 pages !). I give the last but not the least position to the ultra introvert and indoors neighbor "Arthur Radley" ... he's a legend among the kids because nobody's ever seen him step out of the house. What could be the reason?
To find out that and much more , you ve got to read this book . Its not a scare even for the first timers or beginners with the time required I would say roughly 2 - 3 times of that taken for "5 . someone " . I guess most people I know who do read novels regularly have read it already and think its a great book. What I would advise someone whos going to read any book is to go for it without any prejudice about the name/author/cover and so many things , because I have been made to eat the dust so many times about misjudging a book by its cover , I never dismiss any book without reading at least a couple of chapters.
I started off with talking about 2 books , the other one being "one night at the call center" . I ll write about that hopefully this week. I have a many more interesting stories related to that ... more of that later .
Good night
railmani , 12 39 am , 15th April 2006.
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