One among the sad truths that the world has to witness today is the ever diminishing innocence of young children. I’m not getting into the “good old days were much better” debate here but I just want to talk about the way things are today.
Where most of the children back in those days had a choice of not getting exposed to media and all the crap that it imparts, these days we can almost without fear of contradiction say that they don’t have a choice like that. One way or the other, media is going to reach their innocent little brains at a really young age. And if not TV, then mobile phones for sure.
As such, the innocence of the young ones are getting masked at a really young age. Mind you, I’m saying masked. Not that it is lost. Masked in the sense that what they hear and talk and think are all adult thoughts and talks. Media is bringing to them more than what they should know at their ages and as such, they truly really believe that what they know is the truth. Young minds are like that. Unless they are given specific instructions and teachings about what all things are wrong in the beginning itself, they are not going to be able to resist. Can a sponge resist absorbing any kind of liquid thrown on it?
Once you are old, you are your own responsibility and you can go tiger hunting in the wild amazon for all I care. But young ones, they are our responsibility. Each and every word that we talk to them gets absorbed by them and it stays there. So unless we are really careful about the example we set for our little ones, we are going to have one heck of a ruined generation. And that will be all our fault.
You might be wondering what compelled me to write this post. Well, last Friday while I was returning from mosque with one of my friends, we cross a Government L. P. School on our way. While walking by its side, we heard all the children sitting and singing something together. We both were like all back to childhood and stuff. Out of curiosity, we went near one of the classroom windows and the sad truth struck us. We heard…
For those of you who are not familiar with programming languages, the title of this post may not make much sense. So here are a few words for you.
In programming we use programming languages such as C, C++, Java, etc. We write programs in those languages and run it in order to make something happen. However while writing a program, it is much like an administrative task where there are superior officers and other sub-ordinates to whom they delegate their duty to. Just like that, there is a main part who starts running the running/execution of the program and in between, to do some specific tasks, just like delegating it to a sub-ordinate, there are small pieces of code called ‘functions’. These functions do their duty and tell the result back to the main program so that the main program can continue its execution.
My title is the way (or the syntax of) how we write a function. The name of the function is ‘Easy’ and the return value (what the sub-ordinates response back to their superior is) is ‘void’. Void means that it returns nothing. But hey, as I said, this post is not about programming!
Now coming to the meaning of the post, the things that we are able to do easily in life does not reward us with much. It might depend on the way we measure what we get in return, but let’s see if I can make sense here.
What I have the foremost in mind is relationships. It is something that I started seeing and experiencing after coming to college. That relations are so easy to be made. All it requires is a few messages through mobile phones. I used to believe that relations like that had meaning. But I’ve figured out it is not so. Because it is just soo easy!
You don’t need to take the time to go and see your friend, nor do you need to look into their eyes and speak, nor do you need to find words at the moment… For all they know, you could be watching Charlie Chaplin and laughing your heart out while consoling your friend through messaging for his relative’s death! And that poor friend will think that you are so empathetically sharing his sorrows.
Love, friendship whatever it be, this is the case. There is no truth. Unless and until you have a relation with a person by talking with them face to face and understand their facial expressions and tones of sound while saying certain words, you’re never going to understand what they mean reading their messages.
As an example, if a person says he is going to kill you, unless and until you know the tone in which he says it, you’re never going to know whether he is serious about it or not. (Manu! I hope you don’t mind!). Well, killing may be a bit too far fetched but if you look into the relations that you have that are through phones, I guarantee that you can find such small instances that causes a HUGE misunderstanding.
Until we use messaging and calling just to keep in touch and not to build up a relation, mark my words the return value is going to be really low.
This goes for many things as well like learning too. The trend of ‘edutainment’ these days, which focuses on providing education through entertainment, might seem really awesome and interesting. But what we are forgetting there is that knowledge is not something to buy and keep and say, “Hey look! I’ve got a new toy!”. Knowledge and education is what moulds your brain into shape. It gives you immense confidence, wisdom and most importantly humility.
If you think you can get knowledge easily, all you are going to be is arrogant. The pride that you know something when all that you know are a few words and sentences that has no use in your life or in others. It is hard to attain humility and wisdom and as such, until you work hard for it, no matter how much you show that you are humble, you can never be.
Be ready to work hard for something you really truly want to attain. And instead of just being in the state, “Yay! I have it!”, you’ll be able to feel the difference that it makes.
It is not a joke when they say, “There are no shortcuts to success”.
I’m adding a small video to this post. Its one of my favourite songs in western but the guys here have remade it into an Indian version. And even when we are engineers and this video shows doctors, I think as far as college life goes, we both have enjoyed it.
A few people are going to kill me as they expected to get something delivered into their hands. But hey, its my gift and so its in my form.
All the people whom I have been friends with till now have called me crazy. I’m thinking they meant it in a complimentary sort of way where they wanted to express the feeling that I was different, but one guy (quite a big guy at that), put my craziness in a completely different way. He told me I was ‘a happy and creative guy’. And looking back, that was one of the best compliments that I have ever got. We will eventually come to all that in this post.
I remember last year on New year’s eve me typing in all that had happened in that year and messaging that to everyone. I guess some people enjoyed it whereas some people didn’t.
But today, instead of doing that, I’m going to individually torture each and every single person who has been there with me for the past four years. And guys, that is my Christmas present!
ചുരുക്കത്തില് പണി തരാന് തന്നെയ ഉദെശം.
However, as my class knows, I haven’t been that much of a party person and as such I have miserably failed at getting to know everyone. That is going to reflect here. But I hope you guys can fill in the blanks. So read through and have fun.
Keep in mind two things while reading this.
1. We all have things in college that we don’t want to be reminded of ever in our lives again.
2. We all have our diplomatic stances with certain people.
3. I won’t be using smileys and that doesn’t mean I’m serious when I’m writing every darn line in this post.
Oops! Off-by-one error! (In the memory of the great Dennis Ritchie).
So here goes…
Afaf
Ah! We go a long way back. As long as till February second week 2009. She has the honor of being the second girl that I messaged to in my life. We will come to the first one later.
We’ve been friends (and foes too) till now. One of those few people who had a few similar tastes as mine. (Hey, that is two “fews” in one sentence. So you can guess how little it would be).
Although I’ve never been able to digest and agree with her religious ethics, which are considerably confusing, she really is one of a kind. I remember during first year when some seniors made her tie a scarf around her head!
She writes well and has sent me a few poems which I have still got in my diary. Read one of her poems here:
For those who had heard her seminar, it was certainly enough to know that she was one of a kind. She was not a “byhearter in pursuit of marks”, and I don’t think she has ever bowed her head in submission in front of academics. And I respect her for that. Hailing from Calicut, she is one person whom I will have memories about.
Oh and one thing! She is Chiang Kaishek! Thanks to Jinu, the noodles boy.
Ajith
Here is one person whom I simply loved working with. Dedication is his best quality I guess.
I say this because each time an idea has popped into my head regarding ABACUS, however weird it was, this guy was there to support it and bring me back into reality when I was going too far. I don’t know how to put it more clearly. It is truly a wonderful pleasure when you find a person dedicated to something as much as you are. Even if you were sitting without the thought in mind, they would come and tell you, “Dude, I’ve got something to tell you about this”. And mind you, he never is the, “So, how are things going?” kind of person. I mean he is not one of those people who try to show that they care about what is happening even though they don’t give a shit. He involves himself and becomes a part of whatever happens without any invitation or ordering.
I’ve enjoyed true peacefulness of delegation, thanks to this cute guy who is a brother to many at college.
But that’s not all, he has two addictions. He he…
He is quite a master at cars and bikes. Even a mechanical engineer would have trouble winning a debate with him on this topic. He reads all the freakin’ magazines regarding it and has a say about all the cars and bikes that one can behold.
The second addiction, he acquired lately. And that is Naruto! Can’t blame him for that because he knows how I am with Wolverine.
A really good teacher, a wonderful friend, a darn good treasurer (him being the treasurer of the first trip of our class to Trichur and for the class tour) and one among the few good Java programmer’s in our class, he has found a place in the hearts of almost all in our class.
Amrutha
The princess! He he..
I have no idea if its a pun or if its serious when they say that royal blood flows through her veins. If that is the case, then I haven’t given her the respect that she deserves. lol!
I’m indebted to her for two things. One for giving me the compiler lab programs. Here is the happening.
Jinu : “ആ പ്രൊഗ്രാം ഒന്നു ഫൊടൊ എടുതൊട്ടെ?”
Amru: “നീ ഹാരിസിന്റെ ഒപ്പം അല്ലെ??”
Jinu: “ഒറപ്പല്ലെ! പ്രൊഗ്രാം താ”.
ഞമ്മളു തലയും താഴ്തി ഒന്നും അറിയാത്ത പൊലെ അവിടെ ഇരിക്കും!
The second is for giving me the rest of the question’s answers of the second DS assignment. Well, not me only, but almost the whole class wrote that I think.
I think Namitha will have a much more brilliant say about our princess. Expecting her comments.
അയ്യൊ I forgot! Thanks to her a million times for giving me her stapler during the sessional exams! I don’t know what I would have done without her!
Anisha
Now here is one girl with full of energy. Annie, I call her and Harry, she calls me. My new year friend whom I blessed with a Royce Rolls car. Erm… He he.. Yes. Not Rolls-Royce.
I remember her being the Referee of the small demonstration of wwe during the first year official freshers by “wh കൂതറാസ്” or something of the sort. Wow! She has got guts!
A brilliant talker and a girl with almost unlimited confidence, we all count on getting the university lab exam questions via message once she is in! Come on. Even boys don’t have that courage!
My guide to Calicut, every time I have a doubt regarding that huge place.
I’m pretty sure my words don’t do justice to her. So I’m expecting someone to chip in and put a few words in.
(See comment below by Aparna P. Rajan)
Anjali
One among the many with whom I haven’t talked to except once or twice. Sigh… I really should get to know people more…
(See comment below by Aparna P. Rajan)
Guys, fill in over here!
Anju Mary
A quite and composed girl. But I have a score to settle with her. Ha! I bet none of you remember it. Then here is a reminder for you.
I was our class rep for the first two weeks! And she is the one who took away my title! He he he… I hope you guys remember our HOD’s face when he realized the blunder he had made. But then our good old bundle of knowledge, Sharat MR took over and our lives started!
Sometimes I do wonder whether all that this world requires to be a better place are people who knows to keep their mouth shut and not open it unnecessarily. But hey, I got no say there because I don’t keep my mouth shut.
(See comment below by Pretty)
Aparna
Ms. Romantic! I wonder if that title has been put to the test. He he.. Usually known as കൊച്ച് അപര്ണ. She is a dancer who loves dancing. That day for the placement training with Didi, we were split into batches of five and six and this girl, along with Jayan, Vincy, Sajith, me and one more other dude were in the same batch.
We had to talk about the thing that we loved the most for one minute. And she, who was till then afraid of speaking and finding it hard to talk and deliver her one minute intro package, started to fluently talk away like an expert! She did not even care about the language because all her mind was on dancing. Her expressions changed, her actions became graceful and she convinced all of us that she knew exactly what she was talking about.
Still, I don’t think this description does justice to her. A girl of talent.
Aparna P Rajan
Me being a reader of comic books, I’ve always come across characters who appear to be trivial in the midst of the story, but finally playing the key role in the story happening. In the class, I think of her as so. Putting this down here, I’m in the hope that I can get to know her better before I leave college. And oh yeah, she is usually known as വലിയ അപര്ണ.
I was impressed with her humanities seminar during first year where she was not only excellent with her English, but also she made sense with her class unlike many of us who just wanted to get it over with. She proved her consistency when she came in front of us for her seminar on Flash memory.
I don’t know why, but I just can’t stop this entry without saying she is a girl of mystery. Or its just that I’m absolutely really bad at reading people.
Oh! And I forgot to mention. I was her Christmas friend! Her gift for me of a sitar modeled out of plastic with a Rose underneath that would light up if it was turned on. That all was fine. Except for the music that accompanies the current flowing through the circuitry inside. Man! It is a symphony by Mozart. But due to the loose connection of the battery, you feel as if someone was squeezing Mozart’s throat and pounding on his head with a hammer while he was playing it! Lol!
Arjun
MASTER BLASTER! Ho ho ho… A really awesome sportsman. I remember hearing once that he led his team to victory with sixes! Hey Arjun, correct me if I’m wrong.
Many a times my study partner at hostel, I remember a lot hearty laughs I had with this guy. But hey, beware. He is a skilled charmer. Talk to him for a while and you will definitely feel like he is the best person in the world! Either that or maybe he just is the best person in the world. I dunno.
The candidate for election in our class, with one victory and one failure, he takes that too in his sportsman spirit.
Oh I forgot to mention! He is a bloody photo addict! Pass by his room and he will call you, buy you a drink, listen to all your problems and everything as long as you will look at his photos in his laptop. He he… But he looks good. I’ll give him that.
I remember once when we were climbing the mountain behind our hostel… It was a steep slope and we were crawling on all four to get to the top. But this idiot didn’t give a damn… He wanted photos taken no matter what… And thanks to him we have some pretty awesome pics to remember those days by.
They are an awesome team… Its fun to be with them… This dude, Jayan, Panju, Kannan, Haresh, Shihab… I only got to know him during my third year. But I’m glad it wasn’t any later.
Asha
I’m going to need help to be writing about her. I’m amazed at my lack of socializing.
Bini
Apart from the fact that she has the face of kid seeing everything for the first time, I’m going to need help in figuring her out.
(See comment below by Aparna P. Rajan)
Bose
Known to a few as Sutheesh also.
The person whom I respect the most in our class. The one who showed me through actions rather than through words that nothing was impossible. The person who
DESIGNED A NEW FREAKIN’ LANGUAGE AND WROTE A COMPILER FOR IT!!! And that too as a part of his mini project!
He was just an ordinary lad while in high school. But P. C. Thomas did a few wonders on him I guess. An expert on almost all the subjects related to computers, a core programmer having a superb grip on algorithms, everyone knows that he has answers up his sleeve.
A poet at heart and soul, malayalam poetry comes like glowing pearls from his finger tips!
However! A BIG however… None of us are going to forget his question at the placement training auditorium session! The way he stood up, shook his head to the right, his hands to the left and asked… Ummm… Well, those of us who need to know the question already knows it!
And one more thing… The variable names this guy uses while programming! Oh MY GOD!!! He just presses some random key on the keyboard and that’s his variable name… The trouble we have understanding his program after copying it… Whew!
One among the four who were with me for repairing the networks lab. Read about it here:
The poster child of patience and humor. ഈ പഹയന്റെ ചളികളെ കുറിച്ച പറഞാല് തീരില്ല. അവസാനതെ വര്ഷം ആയിട്ടു ആള് ഒന്നു കുറചിട്ടുന്ടു ചളിയടി. പക്ഷെ നായെന്റെ വാല് കുഴല് ഇട്ടതൊന്ട് നിവരുലല്ലൊ!
The second member of the mission-lab venture! A singer, artist, padippist, chaliyist, handsome idiot who doesn’t know how to ride a motorcycle! He he.. I think we all remember that incident.
One among the very few people whose presence always makes a difference. A worthy friend. I’m proud to have known him.
INTERMISSION: I’ve been at this from morning! Didn’t know it would be this taxing while starting. But don’t worry folks! The rest of you are on the way!
Here we go again…
DD
Dare Devil? Nope. Dincy Davis. Just like saying the x86 family of microprocessors, she is one among the Xincy series. There is Rincy, Vincy and even Fincy! Wow…
Apart from knowing that she is one of the main personalities of the wh കൂതറാസ് , I have not yet had the opportunity to know her more.
(See comment below by Aparna P. Rajan)
Dil
പടചോനെ… ഈ ചങ്ങായി വീണ്ടും വന്നോ?? ഈ കളള ഹിമാറിനെക്കുറിച്ച് ഞമ്മളു ഒരു തവണ എഴുതിയത. അങ്ങനെ ഇപ്പൊ ഇജ്ജ് സുഗിക്കണ്ട ഉസ്ബൂ!
Perhaps the most experienced person among us, she joined us a year later after we had kicked off. Another person whom I really should take time to talk to and get to know.
Don
The name speaks for itself. He is the top man. Also known as hawk-eye. A name that sends shivers down the spine of his opponents. Not submitting to the life’s challenges in front of him, just as the superb kick boxer he is, he fights with life and there is only one outcome. He must win. I’ve always wished to be trained as a Kung fu student or under some martial arts and as such, I find it admirable that he has accomplished so much.
A top notch football player, he has made his mark in many a games. I’m in his team for Samba football tournament. Let’s see what happens.
Almost always the first to have finished writing the series exams, he walks away coolly as if each moment is precious.
A person who doesn’t tolerate bull shit much. If you’re planning to cross him, be careful. I’ve always wondered if his friends are those who gives meaning to his life…
സഗാവ് ഗൗതമന്! Our class’ SFI candidate. For the failure he encountered last time, he has emerged victorious this time. But that’s politics. I know him better as a person.
We have had our differences in the past. But we have sorted them out. He is a guy with a lot of guts and energy. But none of those qualities are what got my attention.
He learns stuff by knowing them. And is never tied down by academics. Unlike me who learns for marks, he just can’t do that. Unless he understands what the hell he is learning, he reaches at the conclusion that its not worth learning anyway.
I hope we all remember how he stood up to Neenu ma’am with his Pazhashiraaja dialogues! Poor ma’am… All the time this guy was talking she was asking me, “Haris, don’t you have anything to say?”. I was like, “What the hell am I supposed to say? I don’t even know what DCS is!”. But Neenu ma’am was not to be trifled with. She researched and came back with a rocking reply. But hey, that was fun.
I remember this guy dancing in the rain during first year… It was in the month of March. It gets hot like hell during those months and one day evening like a beggar finding treasure, we were blessed by a heavy rain! Oh how good it felt. The spray of water coming through the window and the cold wind blowing through the congested corridor… Nice memories.
Oh! And I forgot to mention. He is a wonderful singer. He and Dil entertained us with their musical wonder during our first year fresher’s day programme. None of us are going to forget that.
And the way he took his seminar… Oh boy!
Gori
He just might not be known as Shihabudheen! Thanks to Jinu. Perhaps the most innocent one in our class. But whatever whoever has done in our class, Gori ranks above all of them as he IS the real hero. A hero who saved a life from drowning. I thought that was only possible in movies. But no. Gori did it in real life.
A person with a humongous natural humor sense, almost all the talks and moments you have with this guy will have something remarkable in it.
I would like to mention the walk we had.
After my treat at Noorjehan, almost everyone went to A-Zone. Me, Jinu, Shihab, Dileep and Ajith decided to get back to the hostel for a good sleep and as such we got out. It was 8’o’clock and the direct bus to our college from Palakkad was at 8.50. So all of us decided to wait. But in the midst, of waiting, an alien thought grabbed me by my shirt’s collar and entered into my head.
Why not walk to the college? I was determined in that second itself.
Telling this to the others, they were like, “എടാ നോക്ക്! കറുത്ത ആകാശം!”, “മോനെ! ടാര് ഇട്ട Road!”, and things like that.. I told them I was going to walk no matter what and started walking! (First in the wrong direction. And then back tracking, in the right direction). Reaching Municipal stand, I received a call saying they were coming too! Ho ho… But Jinu had scooted. So it was me, Dileep, Ajith and Gori, the fantastic four on our foot from Palakkad till NSS College!
On our way, we coincidentally, very amazingly coincidentally, reached the A-Zone venue right at the moment when Ponnappan’s drama was starting. I have no freakin’ idea how the hell our time got synchronized like that! We enjoyed the drama and continued our Journey… Talking absolute nonsense and stopping momentarily here and there to catch our breaths and other umm.. primary activities, we made it back to college at about 10.30… Gori had started to dream in his walk about a heaven called room number 36, his hostel room!
Haresh
The person to have killed my pride of being the only person in class having a name starting with H (Really. I was proud about that). He is the only sincere vegetarian I’ve seen in my life. And that too out of his own choice.
Having joined us a year later, he has grown to be one among us in a really short time.
A person who doesn’t go with maths very well. But a person of Kerelian taste and interests. Not the type to accept all the movies that gets released these days. He is a fan of Malayalam literature and as such, has a crystal clear idea and opinion about the movies that he watches.
I don’t know why… But thinking about him, I’ve seen him always with a smile on his face no matter what was bothering him.
Known to a few among us as “സെറ്റപ്പേട്ടന്”.
Jansheed
Hot boy of the class! Well, he shares that title with Varun.
Now this guy is what I call ‘freaky’. The way he dresses, and his hair style! Man oh man…
A brilliant student who when reads a sentence, it stays in his head like words carved on a rock. Except the fact that he doesn’t read much. Lol!
Jayasankar
My neighbor. A sports person as well as one who is present for every moment of enjoyment. You would think that he was someone who would be somehow managing with his academics… Even I thought that until the s3 and s5 results were out.. He has a whopping aggregate of 70%!!! If someone asks me about a guy who has enjoyed his college life, then that is Jayasankar. No doubt about that.
It was for his brother’s wedding Sunil, Dileep and Ajith stayed at my home. He is one among those guys who will always be there for his friends.
I don’t think it would be wrong if I say he was one of the internet providers at our hostel. Ha!
BREAK!
Whew! I’m totally tapped out… This is hard work… I’m stopping for today folks. But don’t worry, I’ll fill up slowly! Merry Christmas to all!
Jiji
Now here is one girl with a completely open attitude. Where usually girls have this shy, reserved attitude, she has no boundaries whatsoever. A friend to all, she never hesitates to open up her mouth and say whatever is being generated in that Brain neurons of hers.
I think Jayan and Jinu have a lot to be thankful to her for… Well, considering their roll numbers, I think you know what I mean.
I’ve made a promise to two girls in my class regarding one thing. She is one of them. While sitting in the PC lab during our first year labs without having any idea what the heck C programs are, there was this rumor that I used to sing. She was sitting nearby and she in a low whisper asked me, “ഹാരിസെ, ഒരു പാട്ടു പാടുമൊ? ‘Show me the meaning’ മതി”. I was like, “What!?”. Fortunately, I had a running nose and a sore throat back then. Instead of admitting that I didn’t know how to sing, I told her that I wasn’t well that day and I promised her that I would sing someday.
I don’t know if she remembers that conversation. But I very well do. And I hope I have fulfilled that promise during our onam celebrations. Even if what I sung was total crap!
Kannan
RAW POWER! The champion of arm wrestling!
“Master Kannan”, as some like to call him due to his artistic co-ordination of the “തിരുതാധിരക്കളി” for our onam celebrations.
I think Arnold Schwarzenegger would have found a challenging opponent in this guy for body building.
A frequent visitor to my room, he is one of those very few who has the patience to sit and listen to all the crap that I speak and actually discuss with me regarding all that. Being in a single room during final year of college, my loneliness is cured with him and Panju being often with me…
A person who wanted to sit and learn Python programming, we both tried hard to find time for it. And we actually did get a good start too. But the overwhelming schedules of our university and college didn’t let us go further.
Kunjunj
Known to a very little few as Sunil Hari.
Okay everyone. I think all of you know how the superstars in wwe wrestling has their own entrance music. Well, this guy has one such dear song and here it is!
A really (seriously) big man, well built, but with kid’s heart. He is curious at all times about what is happening around the world that it is quite hard to get his attention on one thing. An experimenter by nature, Linux security will have a few things to worry about if guys like this exist.
A hacker, he goes into those folders within the computer that almost all of us are scared to touch. But usually he ends up ruining his system. The impressive part is that he fixes that ruined system by himself and again gets on with finding new ways to ruin it!
A dear friend to those who takes time to know him, he is one of those characters in our class that everyone will have a hard time forgetting.
MR
Sharat MR. Let me put it this way. All the mini projects of our class has at one point or another gone through this guy.
All the times when a laptop doesn’t work or a pen drive doesn’t get detected, it reaches this guy. All the times that you want to be entertained while sitting in class, just sit near to him. He’ll keep knocking your pen off and if not that, he’ll dismantle your pen and ship the pieces to 7 different countries!
Does he know Malayalam? Well…
English? Hey, he knows right? Ummm…
Hindi? Kinda… Yeah..
But with a mix of all like the aviyal that we eat, he is one guy who has real knowledge in our class. Experimenting with all the scary things from his childhood onwards, he has been almost through all the circuitry and done almost all the experiments with them. But is it enough? Noppity nope…
He is making a ROBOT!!! And that too as a part of his main project.
I think the guys staying with him at Ambadi hostel will have a lot to add to the description of this jovial character.
Namita (Without the ‘h’ as she has warned me beforehand!)
Me and she are the anti-insomniacs!
A wonderful person with a wicked sense of humor whom I got to know better only recently. She is the kind of person whom you’ll definitely enjoy talking with. Taking everything cool, she does make you feel like everything is alright with the world. Well, the few times I’ve had a frank chat with her, I’ve felt so.
Oh, My Co-sleeper!! An excellent class room nodder. And here I break a small promise that I made her. He he.. I hope she forgives me.
Once when we were talking, I urged her into writing a small article or story for me. She was pretty adamant not to do it. But finally my natural charm overcame her (Man, she is going to kill me!) and she came up with the following brilliant masterpiece! She wrote:
##
MY INADVERTENT SLUMBER.
Every time a teacher enters our class, I make sure that I repeat the words, “I won’t sleep this time” in my head. But sadly enough, those words remain merely words as minutes through the class, I’d be snoring happily…….!!!
Yes, that’s a sad (yet thoroughly enjoyable!!!) part of my life. Sad, because, when I think of the position that I’m putting the teacher in, I mean, imagine that you’re a lecturer taking an important topic in a class and the girl sitting in front of you is sleeping right under your nose..then you can really understand how they (the lecturers) might be feeling..!!! And enjoyable, because….. well….I guess I needn’t elaborate on that one because sleeping is simply so ENJOYABLE…!!
Well, it’s as if when the teacher enters the class, I’m fully charged up or something and the moment she/he (without any sort of gender bias for that!) starts teaching, my brain starts getting dull…as if there’s some battery in there that gets discharged……Slowly and gradually I’m engulfed in the welcoming hands of sleep…..Sleep, that would not allow me to open my eyes, that wouldn’t even let me sit straight!! The sounds around me seem to come from a distance….and most of the times I find Amrutha trying her best to wake me up from the lull…(though it’s not very often that she succeeds!) The poor girl tries everything from pinching to punching and slapping….but all in vain! Now, it’s not that she doesn’t sleep in the class or something…..she does give me company sometimes…although it (the sleeping, of course) becomes some sort of competition between us during others…
Then, when I wake up from my nap and look around to make sure that nobody has actually seen me sleeping….(it’s actually against my prestige, you know!!)…I see a number of smiling faces looking at me as if they’d just watched a very entertaining act. Their smiles don’t help me get over the guilty feeling that I’ve for sleeping in the class though…. The only solace that I get is when I see you sitting on your seat like a perfect statue…eyes closed…dozing away…!! You are in such a perfect posture that any teacher would feel that you are either in deep concentration or are jotting down something important!! But the very fact that there are others apart from me and Amrutha who find the class boring…is well….very comforting…..
Well I don’t take all the blame for my slumber….. The reason that I fall asleep is that either the subject is boring or the teacher is not effective enough to conduct the class, (Wow, it’s so easy to put the baggage on others!!). But still I wish I could avoid it because had I been teacher and had I witnessed a student sleeping in my class….I would have felt really bad… But maybe these are all parts of being a lecturer, I guess….kind of ‘occupational hazard’, or something…. and sleeping in the class is a part of being a student( or may I say, being a student in a professional college), I suppose……
##
I’m most certainly in for trouble!
I remember (it was during the first year vacations, I think) when she was going alone to her mom and dad back in Haryana… She was traveling alone and I had admired her courage for taking such a long journey single handedly. I kept her company almost completely through the trip and I remember teasing her with her trip when she told me she was afraid of university exams!!
A person whom you will surely want to be friends with. The drama queen who was a girl in a guy’s disguise, she most certainly is a part of many of our unforgettable memories.
Neethu
Ah! The nice little girl hailing from Wayanad. I think we all remember her reply to Vijayakumar sir during our first year when he asked her to describe about her home town.
“അവിടെ പശു ഉണ്ട് ആട് ഉണ്ട് …” And everyone burst into laughter with him stopping her.
Someone with a nice smile, she is a heavy walker. I mean you can hear her feet go “thump, thump” when she is walking.
I remember during the end of s3 when her CP fair record was submitted with many a flaws in her flow diagrams. (Oh man! Flow diagrams! Drawing those were a nightmare). Just a quick thought here. Take a look at this: http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/flow_charts.png .
It was given back by… by.. Usha ma’am? Oh my God! Usha ma’am was the in-charge of our cp lab?? Man..
And calling her up, she tells me she is half way home. Suffice to say I couldn’t refuse her pleading request to sit and correct it all and resubmit!
Hey… I just remembered something regarding her. During the TCS placement training… When we were nearing the end of day 1, some of us were selected and we had to talk about a topic for minute which will be given at the moment. The topic given to her was, erm… I actually don’t remember the topic heading, but the idea was, “Domestic violence. Wife to Husband”. She had to talk about that.
And it was really funny how she said that it would be advantageous for them girls if that was to happen! She was like she wanted to kick the crap out of her husband. He he.. No offense Neethu!
Nisha
The cute little girl hailing from Trichur. One among the class toppers, she is a very good Hindi speaker and writer.
And hey! She is the source of our Labour India! I mean its unbelievable how she takes down class notes of certain… umm… ‘weird’ teachers so neatly! Once exams near or a sessional test is announced, no doubt, all the boys get a photostat of her notebook. If the Men’s Hostel guys of CS passes the exams or get good marks, all of us owe it to her. She even took down lecture notes from Usha ma’am’s class!!! AUGH!
Erm… Just a slight boast here. I used to be like that too while at school and first year at college. People would take photostats of my notebook. It lasted until I mastered the art of sleeping under the very noses of the teachers!
She will be an ever living part of many of our memories by being the one to give our class the first chance to be together and enjoy a class trip to her Brother’s wedding reception. Boy, I still remember her brother’s face when he saw the 57 of us barge in at noon with empty stomachs! I’m pretty sure they had a tough time sorting out the bills for meals. Lol!
Nishi
Again my neighbor. However, I’ve no clue why I haven’t got to know her much. Apart from having had enjoyed a few of her wonderful dances, I’m waiting for time to introduce us further.
മോനെ! Panju!
Rahul K. R. അധവാ പഞ്ചു
Mr. Romantic! A very open hearted person who hasn’t the slightest of shyness talking with whoever it be. Girls, boys, enemies, friends, strangers.. He just dives right in and starts talking with them. A person whom I got to be really close to only lately. The one along with Kannan who keeps me company at my times of loneliness.
A great sports person, his sports man spirit in unmatched whichever game he plays. I don’t know anyone in my class or in my college who can’t be friends with him. He is a guy who has even gone to the extent of sitting with me and watching a whole Wolverine cartoon! I’ll be indebted to him all my life for doing that. Even though I told many the excitement I had of watching that cartoon, none even took a fraction of a time to talk and discuss it with me… I don’t blame them. But still, they could have done it just to make me feel better. And Panju here did it.
My exam study mate, all our efforts at studies usually end up in talking about the philosophies of life and love. But an awesome guy to be taught…
The time when Vijayakumar sir caught him for his bit-keeping abilities and analyzing that bit with Sabareesh’s paper thinking it was his always finds a few hearty laughs whenever that subject pops in a conversation at the hostel…
Oh! And a superb exaggerator too! He he…
Ponnappan
Volleeeeeeeeeeeey! Ho ho.. Our stick-like rep! (Ummm… Look who’s talking. I know!)
Ooh! I’ve been itching to write about this idiot. Lol!
I wish I could say, “നീ പൊന്നപ്പന് അല്ലടാ തങ്കപ്പനാ!”. But unfortunately it seems there already is a thangappan! One whom we didn’t have the luck to get to know.
These guys are a trio. Chellappan, Ponnappan and thangappan. And we got only 2/3rd of the entire thing. And boy are we glad we have these two dolts in our class!
The very first thing about him is that I see him as a leader. And my definition of a leader is… Being a leader is not about being friends with everyone and being like by everyone. It is all about being able to take the toughest of decisions and making the right choices no matter what anyone feels. And this guy is exactly that.
A guy of natural positive energy, you just feel good when he is around and talking with you. A crazy addict of Liverpool FC, he has even got his ‘religion’ in fb as Liverpool! OMG! But hey, he has signed for the football tournament this year. Let’s see if he really can show his interest in actual game too!
Although at times we get into a debate for one thing or the other, he usually talks of stuff that he really truly believes in rather than just having heard from here and there. And without doubt, I can say that he is the most popular character of our class. Being there for everything that has the slightest tint of the word ‘enjoyment’, he is a brother, friend and a really good company to all. However, with the rumors of a “ponnamma” surfacing lately, we do doubt whether he is a romantic guy after all! He he…
The third guy to be with me in repairing the networks lab… Man, I sure am going to miss this guy…
Poornima
Currently the topper of our class. A girl who believes happiness is the key to life. Even though I can’t completely digest that point of view, there is one thing that I have to be thankful to her for. And that is to find happiness in things that you feel that are completely sick. It really takes an awful lot of stress to do that because it forces you to look at things in an entirely different perspective from the rest of the world. And as such, I’ve found happiness about my college. About me being here and about all those things that I thought was sick and twisted about my college, I’ve finally figured out that those are not the things that I should be looking at.
Talking to people from other colleges, I see why my college is college heaven. And with the currently elected union, I’m sure things are going to kick off for the better. But enough of that.
I’m pretty sure that whenever all of you think about her, you can only remember her smiling face. I don’t know how she does that, but she does it. And she is almost always there in front for any initiative being taken.
As for me personally, she has been a great support for me. Especially during the starting days of my blog, without her encouraging words, I wouldn’t have done much of a good job on it.
The co-ordinator of our onam celebrations, she is sure to have made a place in all of our hearts.
Praseetha
The silent girl hailing from the vicinity of the silent valley. Unless and until you look specifically for her, you really won’t know she is there at all. But the point is, she has got skills that makes people come specifically in search of her.
A girl brimming with tremendous amount of creativity inside, her graphics rough solution book and her sketches on the board has left me gaping! She even drew the 3-D views of the objects while we were somehow trying to get past the formality called rough solution! She enjoys what she does and she carves for perfection in it. I remember many of us staring in wonder at her assignments even!
Being the closest friend to Sharat MR, she has acquired many a talent in coding from him and soon she will fly away to heights that none of us can possibly dream of reaching. A girl who has drawn her way into many of our hearts, here is all wishes to her for a bright future.
Pretty
Yaoh! The power house of female energy! Its not often that you see her sitting in some place calmly without chasing the guys around the class, beating and kicking them.
A jovial, smart character who is always there for her friends with or without their invitation, she has made many a memorable occasion for her friends. I remember during our first class trip to Trichur.. While I was organizing it, I was a bit depressed and worried about the money issue… And just then this girl calls me up and tells me she has already collected from everyone in lh! That gave me a new energy and me, Sunil and Ajith set out to get money from the rest of the people coming…
I know it was a small happening. But sometimes small gestures like that do make a strong impression in one’s life…
But hey, I think her close circle of friends will have more to put in about her. Expecting their comments!
Priya
The ‘mark’ist party leader! Don’t get me wrong. I did not mean the political party. He he… I meant the team of mark hunters.
Almost my partner sitting at the first bench and pouring questions at Viji ma’am, she is one girl who has her entire studied theory till now in her head. Ask her anything from anywhere and she has an answer.
Mistaken for a nerd, we were all amazed at her graceful dancing steps on our first class trip to Trichur.
I was under the impression that she was all about by hearting stuff just for the sake of marks. But my ego was given a damn good blow when she proved herself worth by acquiring a place at sourcebits! Oh man! I hope we both don’t pour questions at superiors too!
The one and only… PUTZ!
Putz, puttalu, and for the sake of simplicity, just ‘put’ will do. It is hard to restrain ourselves from laughing each time a teacher uses the word ‘put’ for describing something.
However, as much hype as I have put into that title, I know very little of this guy. Another mysterious character of our class, he really has showed that his shyness and reserved nature was purely by choice on the day of our Christmas celebrations. Those who questioned him while on the hot seat got petrifying replies on the spot!
An expert logical reasoner, aptitude tests are like pencil lead in an iron smith’s hand for him. He cracks them fine and easy no matter the complication of the question. One who doesn’t care much about being at social parties, tours and stuff, given the need for the situation, he has all the skill up his sleeve for the desired occasion.
And the number of friend requests that he got through the Christmas letters! I envy him for being so popular among the ladies! Lol!
Rahul
One of those rare people who knows how to handle any given situation. He doesn’t ignore the things that needs attention around him by simply turning his head away from it as if it did not concern him and for that very matter, it increases your amount of confidence in doing something if he is around. Just because you get the feeling that someone is watching your back.
A windows (I mean the OS! He he) expert and a quick paced Linux learner, his contacts and relations cover almost all the software industries! That day when we had an argument on what UST stands for, this guy on the spot called up one of his cousins at Infosys and the call got forwarded to a number of software firms in that instant itself inquiring the full form of UST. But due to the super secret work of the firm, they had made sure that none in the world knew what UST stood for and as such, we were disappointed.
പക്ഷെ ഞങ്ങള് ആരാ മക്കളു!
We, hostelers made three different titles for it in religious harmony!
1. Unnithan & Son’s Tech.
2. Usman & Son’s Tech.
3. Urumisthambaan & Son’s Tech.
Ha! Beat that.
Perhaps the heaviest person of our class, I only recently found out that he was an awesome football player. Oh man! The way he kicked that ball and bent it like Beckham! Can’t wait for the Samba football tournament to see this big guy in action!
Oh! And most importantly, our Maveli as well as Santa claus!
Rambo Jinu
ഈ കളള ബലാല് ഞമ്മടെ കൂടെ 1സ്ട് ഇയര് മുതല് വിടാതെ ഉളള ചങ്ങായി ആണു. J. H. Spice ന്റെ സ്വപ്നവുമായി നടക്കാന് തുദങ്ങിയിട്ട് ഇത് നാലാം വര്ഷം. ഇവനെ പറ്റി കൂടുതല് ഒന്നും പറയാനില്ല. എന്റെ എറ്റവും അടുത്ത സുഹ്രുത്ത് എന്നല്ലാതെ. I’ve written about him here:
A person whom I’m only beginning to get to know better. One among the lateral entries, her quick wit and friendly nature had earned an indistinguishable place among us. I will have to depend on time to fill in more about her.
Rashmi
An awesome singer!! I don’t remember taking to heart any person’s singing before as much as I did hers on the day of our onam celebrations. Her solo song was heart touching and it was evident the silence that fell upon the crowd when we cherished our memories of college drowning in her sweet voice… I hope we have the luck to hear and enjoy her song again…
I was going to write that she was a nice, sensitive girl.. But suddenly something hit my brain like a rocket falling and exploding. The first year fresher’s!! Oh ho ho… One, she had the guts to go and sing on the stage. Two, she sang WITHOUT a karaoke! Three, no matter what the crowd did, booing, shouting, she didn’t give a damn… She just stood there, thoroughly enjoying her own voice and completed the song without even the slightest quiver in her voice! Way to go Rashmi!
Oh and there is one more thing.. But better than describing it BANG!!! Ho ho ho…! Glad that Priya is there with her on the front bench to hold her!
Revathy
A smart and happy girl who is another power house of female energy. “Dhoom machale” is the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of her… Okay. To a bit of personal views here…
We all saw the second girl whom I had messaged to in my life and I’m pretty sure you’re all really curious to know who was the first one. Well folks! Here she is! She has the honor of being the first girl to receive a message from me (if it can be considered a honor at all! He he…).
Another girl with a beautiful sound, she has been there in many of the singing groups. However, her unique sound and gestures accompanying it hasn’t gone unnoticed. Our good old Usbu does a very good imitation of her voice and actions! Lol!
Oh and one more thing… Those of you who have read Jiji’s entry in this post, I mentioned that there were two girls that I had made a promise to. Here is the second girl, again. She had tried to pressurize me into singing during the first year fresher’s. But sadly, I was pretty adamant not to and I regret not doing it. (I might’ve regretted doing it as the seniors were ready to break our legs for participating in it! But GKV & Usbu have come out alive and so I missed a wonderful chance to make a total fool of myself.)
Rithwik
If there is a guy who can tell you about hell in such a way that you’ll actually look forward to the trip, then its him. (That’s actually a pun about lawyers if memory serves right).
This guy is what you really mean by ‘cool’. Because he simply is! You see people walking into class with all sorts of things from textbooks, notebooks, pens, bags to mobiles, cameras, laptops and all. Well, amidst all that, this dude walks in with a novel having bookmark somewhere in between and when after class he leaves, the bookmark is sure to be somewhere near the end.
His carefree attitude and tremendous amount of self-confidence coupled with his immense GK and reading habits makes him almost impossible defeat in a debate. It does not matter whether he is wrong or he doesn’t know the subject. The only thing that you need to know is that he will win. Man, is that wicked!
Apart from all the ‘talking and reading’, he is a singer too at heart. Film songs or nadanpaatu, he has proved his mettle in all.
I got two ‘instant’ poems of his jotted down in my diary. Here they are:
“Thou words so comforting,
it compels my heart to embrace sleep hastily…
ere that, may you have a good night’s sleep,
and wake up to a good and prosperous day,
as is deserving of thee.
Entammo! Swasam Kittunille!”
Next:
“Sun has risen above yonder hill/
and his rays of gold has vanquished the fog/
as if by heavenly magic//
i think of you my dear pal/
may you have the most blessed day of ’em all;/
become wiser and cleverer – and yet
remain the way you are! . . . . Good morning!”
Rincy
Ah! Another one among the Xincy series. Lol! Apart from knowing that she held the pride of CS high by winning the lemon spoon race for our onam celebrations, I know very little about her.
Sabitha
Yet another girl whom I have not much spoken to. But I do believe Usbu will have a few words to put in regarding her, she being his lab partner and all.
Sachin
Little master?? Noooo.. I’d like to call this guy the “I don’t give a shit about you and your bloody academics” man. A person whom the four walls of the class has trouble containing, you can see him zipping and zapping here and there on his altered bike like a hero on a mission!
Hoping I get to know him better in the very few days that are left.
Sangeetha
Almost all the people whom I know little about are coming in one place in this post. Here is one girl whom I don’t know much about. And I doubt whether I will ever figure out this silent girl.
Saranya
Here is one girl whose talk I just simply love hearing! Don’t get me wrong. It is not because she is a flatterer or anything (quite exactly the opposite, if I might add), but just because of her pronunciation. Seriously, I don’t know if I have heard anyone speak malayalam so nicely. Crisp and clear with a sort of… ‘muffled’ voice…That was not the word that I was looking for.. But anyway, I hope you get the idea.
I did not know she sang as well till our onam celebrations. A girl who at times is a bit too tensed about exams, she handles them quite well finally when the time comes. But hey, I’m pretty sure there is more to her than what I’ve written here.
Sariga
The first thing that comes to my mind regarding her is how she replied to our Principal’s, Vikraman sir’s question so as to how a Laplace’s equation can be used to describe an electric circuit with components or something. OmiGod! Man! Me and Jinu were like, “What the…!?”
Now that I think of it, it seems our class is quite infested with singers! Lol! Here is another one among them. She has the face of a little child seeing the world for the first time too. Always with keen open, wide eyes, she is one among us who has nailed the academics.
And not forgetting her beautiful role in the English Drama which drove the crowd into a roar each time she made her appearance!
Shabs
Sabareesh. Even though staying at the Men’s Hostel, I have only rarely spoken to the fellow. He too is one among the “Won’t submit in front of academics” kinda guy. A hardcore SFI fan, I’m pretty sure his friends will have a much more detailed description of him.
Shambhavi
Now that’s name that you don’t get to hear every now and then. Mind you, I’m not referring to the person, but the name. A sister to every-one, even though we had tried to get to know each other, it dropped off strangely somewhere in between. Maybe one day we will pick it up from where we left off.
Sinto!
The one man army! I mean, come on! This dude puts on so many different beards that there aren’t many styles left to imitate! ഇവിടെ താടി എങ്ങനേലും ഒന്നു വന്നു കിട്ടിയിരുന്നെങ്കില് എന്നു ആഗ്രഹിക്കുമ്പൊള് അവിടെ ഒരുവന്മാര് അതും വെചു കുതുബ് മിനാര് പണിയുന്നു! ഇവന്റെ ഒകെ താടി ഞാന് ഒരു ദിവസം കത്തിച്ച് കളയും. ഹല്ലാ പിന്നെ!
Whether it be Mammotty, Mohanlal or any among the many heroes, they don’t stand a chance in beards against this guy. A keen observer by nature, he never fails to spot the shortcomings of an event and give feedback regarding it. A trio, this guy, Gouthaman and Rithwik, they will be anywhere and everywhere they can be.
A bit short tempered by nature, for the ones who knows him, there can be no better a friend.
Soumya
Well, even though she is a jolly girl and the only girl in our class to come riding on a scooter (Hey! Anisha is on her way learning it. So you’d better watch out!), I got to speak to her for the first time only recently. But something tells me we are going to get to know each other well soon. And that something are the words. “Batch Book!”.
Sreejitha
Whoa man! Am I indebted to her! She is the only girl who has shown the slightest of interest when I have talked about Wolverine and the X-MEN! (Really, if any of you want to get something done by me for you, just come and talk to me about a few superheroes from comics and I’ll be all yours! Lol!). She is one among the lateral entry too. (Hey! Is she? I’m having a hard time remembering her not being there with us in the first year.)
One of the others whom I borrow the stapler from now and then. Being seated just beneath Priya, this girl is one who enjoys my weird sleeping postures in class! (I’m beginning to think I’m a source of entertainment in that sense for almost everyone in the class. He he…)
Genuine Sriram XP
The BFG! The BFG! The BFG! He he he… Successfully having won the bet with him regarding what BFG is, I fear no man now while saying that. Although for those of you who have gaming in mind more than reading, your interpretation of those three letters might seem a bit out of the context here. Ha ha!
BFG stands for the Big Friendly Giant! A sort of giant he is! A big, tall guy with lots of random hair trying hard to find their place on his head, he is a really entertaining guy to be with. Both in Humor and in knowledge.
This guy is one among the 4 or 5 MSP (Microsoft Student Partners) in Kerala and has taken various cool seminars for us regarding the tools that he uses to get things done. I think only if he writes about himself will justice be done to him.
The first person with whom I saw a 1TB Hard disk, his appearance on the day of the TCS placements could never have gone unnoticed! Man.. With his coat and suit.. He was teaching the interviewer the basics of algorithm design! He he…
Not so very keen on his academics, he has already made his career. An intern at Microsoft and a keen coder, I don’t think he will have trouble finding his place in the world. Oh, I almost forgot! He plays the guitar! I have only heard him once or twice, but I’m going to make sure that our class is going to hear him more than enough before we leave this place.
And by the way… This is the big guy whom I was talking about in the second paragraph of this post. I regret not getting to know him any earlier.
Sumi
The sweet little girl who is one among the dancers of our class. Even though the sourcebits interviewer short listed many of us through the tech interview, it was this girl who caught his attention with her innocent and nervous replies.
I had made up a joke regarding her once while studying COD I think. There are these instruction set operations like mov, sum, etc.. And when one of the operands is not a register, we have to use the ‘immediate’ operator or something which is done by adding an ‘i’ to the end of the operators. So when we had to do an immediate operation on sum, I told the guys that ‘sumi’ will do it. Ahem.. I do remember none of the guys laughing at that joke however… But you have to admit it was a really cool joke!
Swapna
One among the class toppers, our conversation limits to just the point where she asked me not to ask her questions after her seminar. (Though many of the boys and girls were afraid of me in that matter. But I’m pretty sure that apart from earning them marks for discussion, I haven’t troubled any of them with my questions. But some ounce of fear is always good! He he..)
Intermission:
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!!! I’m almost done!!! The end is in sight! Been on this for like six days now! Hu hu…
Varun
Varun AKA Valsan, the Hot boy of the class.
Now I’m indebted to this guy for life (in his own words, “കടം ഫൊര് എവര്”) for just giving me a chance to speak English. There is one more guy who has helped me over the years for it, but we will come to that later.
This dude has a killer smile which no girl can resist. Seriously, even the teachers fall for it!
I’m actually quite scared to write about him because he usually is good at reading people’s minds from their words and actions. So you’ll be in trouble if you don’t watch out! The person who is reluctant till the end to be at class gathering and finally crashing in on the party surprising everyone.
He is a jolly cool character and a friend beyond fun and joy for those who have the patience and bearing to keep constantly trying to be friends with him. But usually, without realizing what they are missing, only a few have taken the tough path of getting to know him.
A guy who spreads the message of enjoyment, he is one among the eccentric characters of our class.
Vincy
The last that our class has to offer among the Xincy series. Apart from knowing that she is a person who takes her academics seriously, I know very little about her.
Cyber Guru
Alright, I don’t know if anyone knows this guy in this name and I have no clue how this name came to be! But since I am using the names that I have saved in my mobile phone to put in over here, I’m using this title for him. The Cyber Guru!
Real name: Manu Govind.
Even though Rahul is our Maveli, this dude is the one who puts that name into practice because you rarely see him in the class! Also, as much as Gori saved that life from drowning, this guy was the one who jumped in and lifted Gori along with the drowning fellow and brought them over to the shore.
A jolly fellow whom you don’t see tensed much, he always adds a bit of laughter to any occasion in which he is there.
Yo Boy
മച്ചാന്! With his stunning Phazer bike, he is a popular figure all around. His sportsmanship and ultra cool English has earned him an attitude that none among us have.
But let us not forget his hair! That noodle like strings staying in perfect harmony on his head maintaining the same look each and every day, I kinda wonder how much effort this guy puts into doing it.
A person ready to help any of his friends in need at any time, he is one among the extra-ordinary characters of our class.
And finally, the last but not the least…
Every-one
Kukkudan, Manu “The man” Mohan, Kaattarabi, etc, etc… എന്നിങ്ങനെ പല പല പേരുഗളിലായി ഇവന് അറിയപ്പെടുന്നു.
Only because no-one should write about every-one am I writing this entry. (Dude, I’m having fun!) Now this here is a guy who has spoken to all and helped almost all the people in our class. Both personally and through his contacts. Just like Wolverine, always in thought of his past, he does a pretty good job of committing and dedicating himself to any relation he has, however small it be.
The dude along with Varun who gave me the chance to speak English, he is one irritating fellow to be with! He keeps on pestering you that you feel like putting him on Earth and pulling down the entire sky upon him. With a constant aim of killing me, his main weapon is irritation and the slight favour of destiny towards him than me. (Hmph!)
Anyway, this guy has been fun throughout my college life and looking back, I got lots of pleasant memories with him.
AND THAT’S IT!!! I’M DONE!!!
But I can’t argue that it is a Christmas present because its almost new year now. So maybe this be kinda both to you all!
Before winding up, I would like to extend a warm thanks to Poornima for the support she gave all along this post to keep me at it.
And hey, three more months left. Let’s rock’n’roll!
You guys are going to kill me for this because as much as I put forward my quite controversial opinions regarding social networking, I got the following lines from one of my cousin’s posts in Facebook.
“Do you expect kids to listen to their parents when Tarzan lives half naked , Cinderella comes home at midnight , Pinocchio lies all the time , Aladdin is the king of thieves , Batman drives at 200 mph , Sleeping Beauty keeps sleeping and Snow White lives with 7 guys . We shouldn’t be surprised when kids misbehave -they get it from their story books.”
His name is Jaafar Sadique. He lives at Singapore, has a loving wife and a cute kid.
For those among you who have read Lord Of The Rings, you already know Frodo,the Hero. How his life’s destiny was entwined with ‘The Ring’.
It is all too familiar how The Ring came to be in Frodo’s hands and how he set out on his adventure with his friends that brought him to dangers and threats and new alliances. How the small Hobbit became the most important person in the world once he destroyed the terrible Ring that was the entire power of Sauron by throwing it into the engulfing flames of mount doom.
However, after the new and rightful King of Minas Tirith, Aragorn, had been restored back on his throne and all the men and elves had bowed deep in respect of Frodo and the three hobbits, when they four peacefully returned back to their Home, the Shire, things were not as expected.
To those who were in the Shire, these four Hobbits were just Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin. To them, these four hobbits were not saviors of the world, nor were they the ones who fought against the terrible Nazguls, nor were they the ones among the valiant soldiers who guarded Minas Tirith from the terrible wrath of Sauron. They were just four Hobbits.
Well…
Being back at Hostel after attending DriodCon and volunteering for it, I’m just the silly old Haris to everyone here. To them, I’m not the one who co-ordinated the speeches in the conference halls, nor was I the one who went around and made sure that all the volunteers were in their respective rooms, nor was I the one who was an important part who made Kiran’s dream of DroidCon come true.
But it was a lovely experience. There was no bossing around and there was no ‘watching over your shoulders’. You were allocated a venue and it was entirely your responsibility that things went smooth over there. And as such, all my fellow-volunteers whom I worked with, Vamsee, Royson, Ankita, Prakhar, Rasagy and the Main guys, wanted the event to be a success with all their hearts. There was no gain in it for any of them if the event was a success nor was there any blame on them if the whole thing got screwed. But still, they dedicatedly did a wonderful job and made the event a success!
Here is my wishes to hasGeek for conducting such a fantastic event and giving all those who were there an opportunity to be together and share their spirits.
It refers to the state a person is in because of being at a place for too long.
Those among you who have seen Shawshank redemption may get the idea in one shot when you think of Brooks. But we are talking about real life here.
I guess being at a college for four years gets you into this state quite a bit. It is so because at college you are with your friends who know who you are and what you are. They almost always would want you to be with them, to help them out, to enjoy with them and stuff. As such, you’re a part of a family who loves and respects you. You’re in a scenario where if you pull the knot, you can see whether an end is getting tightened or loosened. You’re in a controlled atmosphere where you can, to an extent, decide and know the consequences of your action.
But once you get out of your college, a world there is awaiting you where not a single person knows you. You suddenly become unimportant and unnoticed by people. You show what you have and no one realizes what it is. Unless and until you are so strongly mentally prepared to face it and slowly grow up out there, you’re sure going to break. That is what happens when you don’t sow your seeds when you can. Unless you do that, you won’t have anything worth to harvest. So you’ll naturally go to someone else’s field and start pestering him about it.
This is where people get cheated by the term, “enjoying college life”. You must enjoy it, but there is a way to do everything. And the way that you know might not be always right.
Before ending this post, I would like to point out how FaceBook provides this false sense of importance to a person. Prolonged use of fb could get a man cracked when he suddenly realizes people are not “liking his comments” but instead are commenting on him being a loser.
You always do feel extremely good when people notice your comments and reply to it. You feel good when people ‘like’ your comments. You are important in there. But an absolute loser out there where it actually counts. Do you believe any of these ‘like’ers are going to come to help you out in the wild world? Yeah right…
One line that I found very meaningful quite lately, “Am I betraying myself in the name of enjoying the present?”.
This post comes from the teachings of our economics teacher, Mr. Sanjeev sir. A really awesome teacher.
I’m sure this post can go on and on if I were to let it. But I’m going to make it concise and just state a few points.
When the question of “Why population explosion?” is being discussed, few factors become extremely relevant. And one among them is poverty.
Does poverty increase population or does poverty decrease population? I do not know what answer came into your mind, but I’m pretty much sure that your first thought would have been inclined towards poverty decreasing population. I mean after all, a guy has to feed his kids right? And for that he needs money. So it must be inversely proportional.
The thing is, in most cases it is directly proportional.
I only wish to state two cases in this context. One is a beggar’s and the other is that of a person who enjoys a high standard of living.
The thought of the beggar is not going to be how he is going to feed his kids if they are born. On the contrary, he sees his each child as a source of income for him. On an emotional level, this can be debated. But hey, economics doesn’t include emotions. Facts are facts and whatever you might feel, this is what is happening.
So, as many kids as the beggar has, as much his income increases. And as much children they have, that much the probability of one or two among them reaching a stable position and supporting them.
However, on the flip side of the coin, what does the guy who has money think? Each child he has is going to reduce his income. He has to raise them and support them till they reach a point where they can take care of themselves. As such, he is going to have lesser number of children.
A beggar’s son will start earning while he is 4 or 5 years old on the streets. At least by begging. But imagine a rich man’s son working at that age. It is not going to happen.
It is interesting to see how much money affects the way see and perceive life.
Pretty soon I’m going to get sued because almost all of my posts are based on some other person’s advice.
As such, this one was told to me by my sister when I was in first year of college. Lately, Ambu sir (take a look at my last three posts to know who this guy is) also said the same thing. He said, “What you do and what you think when you’re alone defines the person you are”.
I guess that is very true because it is when you realize that no one is watching you that all your mischiefs come out. It may be through your actions or through your thoughts. The way you control the thoughts that come at those moments will determine the person that you are.
When you are alone is the time when the strength of your morals, beliefs and values that you carry within you are questioned.
I found it one of the best ways to evaluate one’s self.
This post is from the teachings of Mr. Ambu sir. (Take a look at my last two posts)
Shifting gears, an action we are all too well familiar with. When there is a hill ahead, we down our gears and when there is a straight road ahead we up our gears right?
These two words was the keyword in his entire talk. Our ability to shift our emotional gears. How we behave in the company of various people. We might be a cool, care free guy rocking his life. That would be fine considering being in college among friends. But when you get into the presence of someone with an authority, like your dad, mom, teachers or even into a company, you have to shift your emotional gears to adapt to it. If you try to ascend a hill in 4th gear, you’re not going to make it.
Most of us say you have to be who you are wherever you go. But that is just the irresponsible way of making an excuse just like the “lashing” and “withdrawal” of Wolverine that I mentioned in my last post. We are all busy believing and taking for granted what others say without even putting an ounce of thought into the matter. But Ambu sir quoted an example for it.
He is a busy marketing person and involves in a lot of business which takes away a lot of his time. He is seriously professional when it comes to dealing with his clients and puts on a lot of authority when it comes to fulfilling his role. But, he is a father too.A father to two sweet girls as of now. One 2 1/2 years old and the other 8 years old.
When he goes to them, he can’t be what he was in his business. All his humongous degrees consisting of all the English alphabets means nothing to those two cute girls. They want him to play, care, be foolish, tell them a lot of stories and such… So he shifts his emotional gears and adapts to his children and family leaving all the professionalism behind.
As such, being who you are wherever you go doesn’t mean the way you posture yourself to others I guess. It means the beliefs and morals that you carry within you. Your belief in religion and God. The virtues you have learned from your masters. I mean, I still haven’t figured out the exact meaning of “Be who you are wherever you go”. It has a fine line that divides the things to which it applies and to the things which it doesn’t.
There are some among us, 20 to 22 years old, who talk like they’ve experienced everything and they’ve figured out all the answers to life’s questions. Some people saying you have to be happy all the time, some people saying you have to be cool all the time. They say you shouldn’t introspect, you shouldn’t sit and think of the things that make you sad. I mean, there is a difference holding like a monkey onto the past, and introspecting and learning from it. But these people just don’t get it. They have to be happy all the time. I guess it categorizes under lashing out or withdrawal.
There is no one size fits all solution nor a single solution to fit one’s all. I hope you got that sentence. I agree it is framed a bit weird.
As such, learning to effectively shift gears is what I find as the key to a successful life right now. But as Ambu sir always said, we are humans and there is always room for improvement. Are we all done and ready listening to just one advice? Of course not. My mind is open and I continue to seek for answers.
Ah well. The second day of training. Even before the training on November 1st began, I was planning on attending the sessions of the first day and then skipping the second day entirely. But Ambu sir’s energy and his attitude had got to me. I wanted to be in his presence for more time. So I thought to myself, “What the heck. No one is going to come to me in the future and tell me, ‘Hey! You made a fool of yourself on that training day’. So why not have a go?” and went for the training.
We started off the day with A-Z-Alphabets-included-degree-person Mr. Ambu sir blessing us with his so called “Muul Mantras” (I hope that I got that correct) of life. He was talking about becoming a successful good person and asked us what was the key factor that one would require to be so. Everyone started with humility, responsibility and the usual stuffs. And Ambu sir had this attitude of picking up whatever a student told him and improvising on it. One of the loveliest things in the world.
And while he was improvising on the point of humility, I started thinking vigorously about what that key factor might be and just as if he had read my mind, he said, “You have to be good listeners. Not selective ones. I’m sure you have lots of minimized windows in your brain while one application program is running. And that would decrease the resources available for that running program and also reduce its efficiency.”
I got the point. But how he read my mind, I have no clue.
Then going forward, he talked about the exact things that I had once thought I would speak to a crowd if I had a chance. I was dumbstruck and completely engrossed in his session.
Later on he came to the point of facing various situations in life. Just as he made that statement, I remembered once helping one of my friends with the answer to that. It might the dumbest thing, but my thoughts on it were evolved from one of my favorite characters Wolverine. In one of the stories, it is explained to him by a long dead love of his how he reacted to various situations in life. He had just two basic ways.
Lashing out or withdrawal. He was not ready to get emotionally hurt by facing the situation.
Just as this thought came into my head, Ambu sir came with his version of it.
“You can react, respond or fall back to the situations in life”.
Lashing out = React.
Fall back = Withdrawal.
And the third one, respond, was the advice that I had given my friend. To face it, process it in your brain and the result should be the outcome of that processing you did.
So there again, Ambu sir said what was in my head.
At about noon we had this team work to do. It was really funny. We had to find a few things common to our team, we had to find a few unique things of our team members, we had to find out our personal and our team’s strength and weaknesses and plus, we had to name the team and give it a punch line.
My team was Deepak (EEE), Viji(EEE), Raseena(CIVIL), Ramesh(MECH), Hrishiknath, Aparna(EEE), Aswathy(IC) and myself.
Viji came up with the name Technosapiens and we were like “WOW!”. But I dunno, I still have this feeling that I’ve heard that somewhere before. Anyway, we made up a clumsy chart with clouds and leaves and sun and finally I came up with the punch line, “Processing the evolution”.
Our presentation was not that well organized, but it was short and to the point. Whatever goofing up we all did, Viji covered it all up with her brilliant conclusion and we got off the stage a happy team.
Time went by with Ambu sir’s talk and finally it was time for the mock interviews. 10 of us were selected for attending the mock interview and 6 of us were selected to sit in the panel and do the interview.
The interview was over and it was fun Karthik suddenly going out of the room in those mushy casual clothes of his and within ten minutes coming back with neat tucked in shirts and all! We learned quite somewhat about how the interview would be.
The training was over and all the groups were summoned back to the auditorium for one final showdown. There there was a quiz of 20 questions and whoever answered was awarded a tcs hat! It didn’t surprise me that I did not know the answer of a single question that they asked!
Then there was the final announcement of the best two from each group and guess what? I was one from mine!!
That was a real honor for me considering all those skilled people out there. I’m still thinking as to why and what showed me out from the rest of the 59 people with me. There must’ve been something that clicked in Ambu sir’s eyes about me. Anyhow, here I sit and blog with that Parker pen given to me by TCS in my front.
It was a constructive and successful day in my life. God bless Ambu sir.
It being our campus placements two more days ahead, the TCS “officials” have come to spend some professional time with us. ‘Placement training’, we call it. Us students being divided into 5 different groups, I’m in the first one called ‘Aakash’ meaning ‘Sky’. 59 of us and the day started.
It went on with Mr. Ambu, Phd ABCD MDD FAGP JINFI, etc (He’s got a hell lot of degrees and I only remember the alphabets and not their order!) giving us a talk on the philosophies of life and stuff. He was so full of exploding energy that even those among us who found ‘philosophical talks’ boring, did not feel bored. He went on and on and came to the point of making the remark which is the reason why I’m writing this post.
He came to the distinction between winners and losers and asked us if we could point out what the difference was. The usual answers, “Winners never quit, quitters never win”, “Winners take responsibility for their actions”, etc came from us but none of them was the point he was looking for.
Finally he said what it was. His remark was, “Winners do what they don’t like to do”. And with that our first session was over.
We all went to have lunch and me on my way back to my hostel, felt really weird about his remark. I mean, it has been only 8 months (Wow! 8 months!!) since I started this blog and I had a very good reason for starting it too.
The reason was that for the inauguration of ABACUS, our CS Association, a very renowned entrepreneur had come to give us a talk. His name is Mr. Shalin Jain. He had started his own company at the age of 18 and it is now one of the most successful ones in India. Tenmiles corporation.
As of now, I consider him a winner.
His most important message in the talk was to follow what we loved. And that one sentence he said is the reason why I started my blog. I loved to write. And that belief was contradicted by Mr. Ambu’s remark.
Also Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, said “I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did”. So was Steve Jobs not a winner?
There was something wrong with the perspective. And with all this in mind, I came back for the second session which had three more minutes to get started. Mr. Ambu told us we could ask him anything we wanted. Me being never good at restraining myself when I’m brimming with something within me, jumped up and put forth the question to his cute face.
“Sir, do you consider yourself a winner?”
“Well… I’m trying to be one as in life one has to always look forward and for success”
“Alright.. But I haven’t quite made my point yet. Do you consider Steve Jobs a winner?”
“Get to your point please…”
“Okay sir… The thing is, when you said that winners did things that they didn’t like to do, one of the beliefs that I held dearly to was poked. The reason is that I consider Steve Jobs a winner and what he said is that what kept him going was that he loved what he did… So how does that go with the remark you made?”
I thought I had got him for good. I had cornered him and he would helplessly admit his defeat. But he had a lawyer degree plus he was a part of the TCS HR team and now I know even God would have a hard time winning a debate against them!
“You see”, he said, “You took what I said in the wrong perspective. I was speaking from the students perspective where if you guys are working in some company, an elderly manager might come and tell you to do something that you don’t like. So in order to step up in life, you might have to agree to the request as a mental investment for the future and do that thing you don’t like to do. But all in all, you have to be passionate about what you’re doing too. Otherwise whatever you did won’t have a soul. But just that in this case the passion will be the mental investment you made in order to rise in ranks. Do you get my point?”
“Well”, said I, “absolutely sir”.
And the second session of the training programme started which went uneventfully with each of us going onto the front of the stage and talking about the topics that were thrown to us.
When was the last time you were not happy getting more marks?
When was the last time you were not happy getting more number of hits on your blog?
When was the last time you were not happy having more number of friends on facebook?
When was the last time you were not happy getting two chocolates than one?
When was the last time you were not happy you could do 10 push ups than 5?
When was the last time you were not happy getting more points while playing tetris?
————————————————
Those questions make my point pretty much. However, this is not just a number line with whole numbers only. We’re considering integers. As such,
When was the last time you were happy seeing your high hospital bill?
And as for that matter your electricity and telephone bills crossing a threshold?
When was the last time you were happy seeing millions had died in a catastrophe?
————————————————
We attach numbers to almost everything we do and the higher the value, the stronger our emotion regarding it is on the ‘happy-sad’ integer number axis. The questions I’ve written in the first part lie on the positive x-axis and as the numbers go up, it means we’re having more fun and enjoying our lives.
On the other hand, the questions in the second part lie on the negative x-axis and as the numbers go up, we get sadder. So our soul reacts to the events that take place around us depending on the numbers we have attached to it.
It might be alright if we just don’t take that for granted. There is the natural tendency of high numbers indicating strong emotions. But putting more thought into it is sure to give shades of gray too than just black and white.
During my 12th standard, I had a teacher by the name of Arun Kumar. A cute and charming person dedicated to teaching and family. He used to give us free times in the class now and then so that we could discuss with him and the whole class about any sort of weird ideas that we had.
I still do not remember how this “weird” idea came to be in my mind, but it did and I did ask him about it. (Hola! I suddenly remembered! I had read the book “Time machine” by “H. G. Wells” and I think something of the sort was mentioned in there)
My teacher was not a very highly educated person, but he loved to know how students thought and he encouraged us thinking out of the circle. He told me he had heard about such a thing during his college days but had not looked into the matter much. But he did push me to find it out.
But somehow I dropped the idea.
Now after all these years, it comes back to me all of a sudden when I was talking with my Professor at college about how much time I was actually wasting in the name of “attending classes”.
But coming back to the point, is time a dimension? We use dimensions in order to represent an object or plane right? If we need to represent a square plane, we need to have two axes minimum. But the thing is, the square existed in this world when we represented it. It existed for an amount of time while we were busy representing it with two axes.
Suppose we used x and y axes for representing it. Then just like saying that the square doesn’t have existence without either x or the y axes, we can say that the square can’t exist without time either. So time is a necessity for representing anything and everything. So shouldn’t it be an universal axis? Maybe that is the reason why we don’t use it explicitly in order to represent things.
Even though I researched about the matter, I’m trying my best to not any Wikipedia information interfere with my thoughts on the matter. For this is science and we all have a say.
As such, the question of ‘what is time?’ becomes confusing. Is it just a measurement standard that we use to specify the occurrences of events in our lives? I mean just like we use mass to represent the amount of substance within an object? Or is time something that has an existence of its own waiting to be explored by us?
My thoughts on the matter have reached this point and I’ll be carrying on with it later. After all, I need more time.
Those first two words are spoken by Kyo Kusanagi, a character in the gaming series King Of Fighters.
After two weeks of nothing but exams, I’m back on the road. Let’s get going.
First of all, there is going to be a lot of reorganization because I plan to take down a few pages and make them categories instead. So I’ll have to post them and your inboxes are going to get flooded with my posts. Please do not mind that for a while.
I’m waiting in my cold room, when the alarm begins to chime,
reflecting on my past tries and it doesn’t have much time.
‘Cause at 1’o’clock, they take me to the exam hall,
the sands of time for me are running low.
When the sir comes to give me the papers,
I take a look through the bars at the last sights,
Of a sem that has gone very wrong for me.
Can it be that there is some sort of answer?
Hard to stop the surmounting terror.
Is it really the exam, not some crazy dream?
Somebody please tell me I’m dreaming,
Its not easy to stop from screaming,
But words escape me when I try to write.
Ink comes but why am I writing?
After all I’m not afraid of failing,
Don’t I believe that there never is a pass?
As my friends take me to the college,
Somebody cries from a room, “May bits be with you”,
If there’s a God, then why has he let me go?
As I walk all my leaves drift before me,
And though the end is near I’m not sorry,
Catch my hand ’cause its willing to write away.
Mark my words, please believe my will lives on,
Please don’t worry now that I have gone
I’ve gone beyond to see the truth.
When you know your time is close at hand,
Maybe then you’ll begin to understand,
Study leaves are just a strange illusion!!!
Yeah, yeah, yeah… Hallowed be my name
Yeah, yeah, yeah… Hallowed be my name
YEAH!
Hey there! My exams are just eight days ahead and I’m taking a short break of about 20 days from blogging. So just wanted to give you a short farewell. 🙂
And hey, the above song is not written by me. Its actually a song by “Iron Maiden” called “Hallowed be thy name”. I just kind of raped that song with my own lyrics in between! Here is the actual song.
A 'psycho' path. 