A life of Techican

Beware - a long post (not intended for audience. Height of joblessness for the author)
I was introduced to PSG tech when I was studying First standard(Believe me guys: not 1987 world cup story :D). My Father said " karthi..this is the college in which I studied". I vaguely remember the management block. Then as time passed, I guess most of us know around 10th that there is a college called PSG which ranks after Anna and REC in the hierarchy. Counselling came and I was hell bent on taking PSG(partly because I hated chennai at that time and partly I was told that the best figures in Tamil nadu were in coimbatore :D). The worst thing that happened to me is kawa coming to same college and same course ( im not being IRONIC here :D ). Who can forget the first day in the college life. The 4th year seniors guiding us in the admissions process, we being put in the G-block, the seniors serving us and our parents in the G-block mess. I guess they would have answered endless questions about placement( now I feel like it was more of a "B" school rather than professional college ...???). Mani and Kawa in single room. Me being put in a room with 3 people from ECE. Here i have to digress a bit to explain about the hostel. The first years were put in G-block(with roof tiles. It was started in 1946 by mahatma gandhi. We were the last batch to stay a complete year in that. Our juniors had to vacate that in middle). We were supposed to return by 6.30. No interaction with seniors was allowed. Ragging was strictly banned(PSG tech is a school when u compare with govt colleges). There used to be a TV room (open air) where Surya TV malayalam movies were very famous(saturday night 11.00 (i guess i got it right :))). We also have a watchman exclusively for first years(to prevent seniors from entering and make sure that none of freshies go out after 6.30). Whenever he strolls around the TV room, the TV channel will change. However one fine night, he came and stood with us. We were restless because the "favorite" movie was about time. He then told us " surya TV channel podunga".... Even now this makes me to RTFL..... Whenever it rains it used to leak in the room(tiles rite...). I had an amazing roomie( friend of MORPHEUS..snorrrrr.......) who climbs his way up to hang the buckets, plastic bags. The principal who was the chief warden came to the room once and said " this doesnt look like an engineering college guys room".... what a compliment.
The amazing thing about G block is its interaction. Everyone know everyone else in the whole of G-block. Thats the place where the old boys networks form. Thats the place where the future is decided. The legendary mechanical connection we made that year reaped benefits for us in the placements. Guys from all over of TN were friends. All sorts of Tamil slangs were in place. The G- mess food (U guessed it rite!!! ), omlette tokens , mess timings(tell me a place where u can get ur brkfast at 11.00 clock in morning). The nemesis called Engineering mechanics and engineering drawing got our acts together. I also remember the Dramatix curtain raiser the day when we joined. The best of Tech was in display then. that dalapathi movie spoof ( the film dalapathi was changed. rajni and mamooty are students in psgtech.. shobana studies in krishnammal college(our sister concern)......).
The cricket matches, the first year inter-class football matches, my ramblings on CSE which shook the first years, the NCC camp (me losing 7 kilos in 10 days), the kovilpatti vijaykumar, mukundan(the guy who finished in c and c++ when he was in 8th std and who is in M$ now)clahing with subramani...Boy we have seeen many politics, we have seen many gals, many affairs ( ofcourse none of the hostel CSE guys indulge in it.. because we are GROWN up rather REARED up in the hostel properly..we had legendary kawa who makes sure that none of us are serious in anything.), legendary chandru exploits(some 15 gals should have propsed this guy.... )..I ll stop here for the first year.... im tired now (u must be toooooooo). i forgot to add abt our kalpana mam( all the guys in the class liked her...:D..me being decent here.)
p.s this is our hostel looks( 2nd,3rd and 4th years. )

sarigama padanisa

This post has been in the bench for a long time. Finally I have decided to allocate a project to this ( if meera jasmine had been here,she would have told: "konjam standard joke para da mone"...:-)
The legend of south Indian music: Ilayaraja ( He knows this and thats why in 1980's he had the guts to put on airs with songs like " raja ..rajathi rajan intha raja" and the lines in song "kadhal kasukudaya" in which he asks young couples to sing his duets). Nayagan(1987) is his 400th film, Anjali(500th), Devar magan(600th). Devar magan came at the same time when ARR debuted (1992). Now I guess Rahman would not have composed more than 100 films(in 15 years). Inferences are left to readers :-). Ofcourse I m a rahman fan as well. However Maestro is a step apart. In 1970's when the whole of Tamil nadu was singing to the tunes of RD burman and listening to hindi songs (ofcourse hindi agitation could not take on sharmila tagore :)...aradana, sholay..., a single man from Theni district changed the tastes. A man who debuted with the film Annakili and got his break with 16 vayithinele( kamal,rajni,sree devi, bharathiraja and Maestro went on and on after this movie). I remember a funny incident about this. A age old man came to the college and asked for Music club secretary(Sec). When the Sec asked him what he wanted, he said " I was the person who started this club"(For ppl who do not abt PSG Tech: My college is more than 50 years old. I stayed in a hostel opened by none other than mahatma gandhi. My father is an alumni.I know families with 3 generations of Psg-techians..more on this later). He then asked "do u still put hindi songs ?". The Sec replied: "no..very rare". The oldie " In those days when we put tamil songs, they used to pelt us with stones. The only songs allowed were Hindi..". The whole college now prefers the melodies of maestro. We never felt the need to listen to something else. I can appreciate that something else is good. However I can never appreciate something else is close to Raja's. Infact most of the guys I know have this Raja syndrome. They can never accept that someone else can be better. Just this sentence of prasanna(the famous guitarist) is what I remember and relate to the most. "its not folk, its not carnatic, its not earth, its not wind, its not Bach, it is Ilayaraja". Singing off ...sorry signing off......:)

PAST not PERFECT :(

They would have been the best pair of the entire circle. A perfect guy. A perfect gal. However they chose not to :(. I used to wonder what goes in the minds of the gals when an they spurn an offer. Do they extrapolate their life to check whether someone better can be their hubby ? Are they so much attached to their families more than guys ?. Are they right and the guys wrong ?. However there is still some hope left. If hope is not the best thing,it is atleast a good thing. I just hope that the both the perfects make their future "perfect" rather than making their future "tense".

Disclaimer : All the incidents and the characters in the above story are author's own imagination and is no way related to real life of author or his friends. This story is not intended for audience and comments are not welcome unless the reader has a strong urge to put a comment. Thanks

Macro or Micro? Randomnessss.......

This was the predicament I faced in landmark yesterday. For ppl who are confused by what is macro or micro,they refer to books Macro economics and Micro economcis. Finally I decided to start BIG. So Macro :-).... its also funny to see how these veiled women come for shopping. Ofcourse they will not work. They use the credit cards with the hard earned money of their husbands(gulf remittance??). The scenario is pretty similar in chennai spencer plaza as well. Its also fun to watch kids( ya..all those 12 th std, first year college guys) with their gal friends hanging abt the place. Funky dresses(like guna's definition of salman khan), chain around their necks(like 'sethu' vikram),band around their hands, but attitude?????. Somehow they remind me of the song "appan panna thappula" ( "fathers made mistake"..crude translation..but still holds good). Whatever ANBU said came to my mind. "bun..namma kids should not be like this. They shuld know middle class values. Surprisingly Many in the gang are aware of this and vouch by this stmt(me including). I took exactly 5 minutes to select a gift for my friend's wedding(Rs 2000 worth). I wonder whether the time was sufficient to arrive at this costly!? decision.
Already discussions have started in the Hell's kitchen( nice name to neyveli..i have kept) abt my would be salary. They want me to promise the sun and the moon. But i just told them "ettu latcham". Average c-to-c. Dont expect anything gr8. I also thought the urge was over . The urge of my studies. But this random thought has started tormenting me again. Though I consciously try keeping it off, it comes back again and again.
The thought is " Y not an fellowship after MBA.....????" :( ....Guys , please call an psychiatrist. I just hope that inmates of hell's kitchen will get me married b4 this damn thought overtakes me.
Signing off

State of my Mind

I plan to read. Wake up early. But when I start with financial accounting, I get struck. Something blocks my mind. I live in an utopia whenever i walk from office to home or the other way around. Me thinking how my life would have changed when any incident in my life would not have occurred or occurred. Have to Ctrl Z whatever im doing right now....
Reading, getting out of IBM, understanding what a stupid software called MS excel does,learning accounting basics, a trip with cousin brother to Munnar b4 his placement so that he ll be relaxed, a trip to thirupathi(Mom is insisting) though me a non-believer, are in the pipeline.
..
Of late hearing Endhu paranjalum and Ponavaani paadam thedi songs. Soothes me. I just hope that i ll read something this weekend..signing off..........
some one said first company is first love (my take: because both of them are prone to fail :) ). 4 more weeks in IBM :(

A mail which I would cherish

but why ibm..u guys will get much better companies..like trilogy and netscaler...veritas..yahoo..google
God I can think of a dozen other places
aim high, friend..
if u start out there..therez no limit to where you can get in a few years
in comparison, ibm is a compromise
think.
The above is the mail which someone(ob its a Gal :-) sent me some 20 months ago. I still treasure it in mail box. At one stroke It changed my opinion on fairer or the weaker sex. At one stroke i knew what i wanted in life(im being implicit here). At one stroke I knew that someone got something which He/She(guess which one fits here) doesn't deserve(again Im being implicit here). Now Im happy like Guna Kamalhassan. I have been purified and Im leaving all craps behind. XL here I come. Coulndt wait to leave to Jamshedpur.
2 days , 4 or 5 posts. Im stopping here for this week ......

Chemistry

Rasathantram(chemistry) is the movie which i watched in PVR today. What motivated me to spend 120 Rs is Laletan, meera, Ilayraja and Sathyan Anthikad combination. I have never seen actresses as natural as Meera(cliched... but then meera is a chakkari :-). Her body language depicting a guy/man is ultimate. Tha too the way she walks. First half of the movie was pretty good. The guy who was sitting next to me will be surprised if he comes to know I was a tamil and not a mallu.. because i was laughing loudly for the dialouges :-). was able to make out 70 percent of dialouges.
I used to wonder what goes in ilayraja's mind when he sees that directors like maniratnam are not interested in him. No wonder he is satisfied as the best in malayalam come to him. Techically this is one movie in Mallu which resembles Tamil films. Nice camera work. however the only weak point is the stereotypical depiction of Tamils in the movie (one morai mamman from usilampatty comes to marry meera...).. very cliched. But excused for the ilayraja melody, Meera and Lalettan's antics.
movie "ennaku ishtam Aaye "..

5 worst movies made by Good directors(my take)

boys:
Jeans
Thiruda Thiruda
TajMahal and afer that all his movies
Parthale paravasam

Elections :-)

Me being a Self acclaimed policital pundit, have to give some Gyaan on my take on this elections
Lemme begin with easy ones:
Kerala --- Left is going to sweep the elections. VS (kuttan and his mother are supporters of VS) will be the next CM. Seems that he has a huge fan base out there in Mallu land. The only worrying factor is he is hardliner in CPM. But I too want Left to win the elections and sound Death Knell to Muslim league, RSS and other communal Organisations.
Assam: The opinion polls suggests congress. The minorities moving away from Congress inspite of wooing them is a trend. AGP is split. Happy Hunting, Soniyaji..BAlle Balle
West Bengal---- Buddha be Back :). One of the best pragmatists in the Left. Nice to see that Left is Right these days
The Land of Tamils ( trying to give an Effect )
Historically we have given a clear mandate. But the Cnn-IBn poll suggests otherwise. I do not want these Ramdosses and his ilk to control the next Govt. Be it Ayya or Amma, please form with a clear majority :-). My take is
dmk will sweep North Tamil Nadu. The south should be clear sweep for Admk. The Congress votes in south should nt count much. The Admk with its traditional vote bank of Thevars and vote bank of Mdmk should have a cake walk. it will finally boil down to Coimbatore region. I thought that removal of Cenvat etc should have made the central Govt popular. But will it transfer as votes to Dmk ???
Well as for as vijaykanth is concerned , he is a joker in this elections. 5% vote share- max of 3-4 seats.
pondicherry : Well , not ready to guess it. This state is always an enigma :) because it s mother land of Bun alias Miow alias JoyofNothing

Death and chaos

Finally they buried Dr. Rajkumar. Interesting to see the lives of Single men out there in bangalore. Many wandered without food as the restaurants were closed. Luckily we had a hospi canteen near by. Long live Dr. Rajkumar. The man and his fans who protest whenever they release water in cauvery (which has become a sort of drainage these days) is finally Amar ho gaya :(. Had to part with the lovable IBM laptop of the company. Wrote as many Cd's as possible ( personal photos of HER :-) and US :-) )
Happy Varusha porappu Guys .... I remember an interesting incident abt this Varusha porappu . Me being a Gult ( so called :-) ), our friends(caste) and relatives used to call us to celebrate Ugadi. The only question I used to ask them is " please tell atleast one month out of 12 months in Telugu new year". Its funny when they blink. If you aren't part of the culture, then don't pretend to be a part of it. Just like the puli-poonai-soodu story. I feel Im culturally,linguistically inclined towards Tamil. Infact most of the ppl in the caste speak Tamil or 90 %Tam + 10% Gult mix. THen Why the F*** they dont accept the reality that Ugadi is No more. well , it will be gr8 if i can tel them straight at their face. But then :)...I tell my father.
Since the blog is steering towards somewhere else, I stop with this.
p.s : wanted to add abt Dhil pestering me abt the Gals (HER and US). will add it later.

she played cupid

No I am not going to mention any names here. I got a nice friend because of her. She played a major part in my relationship with that person. We started speaking abt her and then we started speaking abt ourselves. I have never spoken with her. Thanks for giving me a wonderful friend. This small blog is a tribute to her character,attitude and finally to "HER".

she is a fantasy.....

Was seeing kakka kakka movie in the bus...TN buses are rocking... but then this is not the issue for this post :)... as soon as i saw the song "she is a fantasy", I was thrown back to IIT days... kalakkal and kuttan are gr8 fans of JO... One guy thinks that Jo is his girl friend and the other simply adores her...Jo is simBly(me consciously learning mallu) amazing in the movie.. that too the dialouge "thats a girl thing...ungalluku puriyaadhu", goutam menon is an amzing director.
Also read the news that bhavana will be the new heroine in Bala's new movie. Me leched at her like anything in swapnakoodu(mallu movie).Cute expressions and thrissur slang(mesmerizing like coimbatore tamil. U can feel that they are singing rather than speaking)- thats' her : Darling,Hearty welcome to kollywood.............

finally.....XL

Me decided to XL :).....
Other things that happened this week
-- went to madurai ..that favorite spot in the temple (though i m not a believer).... took a lot of time to think abt my career at XL...
-- had a chance to see theni ..seems that AMMA will be back.... No anti incumbency factor visible(what am i ??? sardesai or what ???)
-- Kuttan is settled now at Germany
-- dhil didnt make it :(....Bon voyage da chellam
-- Gave my signed copy of resignation letter :)