Bigger picture, people! Please.

The recent incident in Mangalore left us all shocked, but I fail to understand why, really. We should've seen it coming and we deserved this in more ways than one.

We are all busy cribbing about how this is not democracy anymore and we should have the freedom to do what we want to and how it could've been any of us! That is exactly why we are concerned, you see! Those guys didn't have to pick Mangalore, they could've picked a pub in Chennai (yeah, right!) when my friends and I are hanging out there. They could've picked a pub in B'lore when my sister's hanging out there. This is something which affects us - the upper middle class - directly, which is why there is so much publicity over it!

The journalists - they frequent pubs too; Or their friends/girlfriends/wives/daughters/sisters do! And it scares them to think that they kit and kin could be subjected to such a thing! Hence they make sure it's brought to limelight and pester the CM about it and urge the people to rise in action, etc.. Basically, they're scared. And the pub owners(influential people, all of them) are scared as well. What if the women stop coming? What if ladies nights don't happen anymore. How exactly are they gonna manage the ratio?

The act itself is something which should be condemned, no doubt, but don't you see? The Ram Sena people were just the stupider of the lot. They picked the wrong people to mess with! If they had tortured some poor villagers in some remote part of the country, they wouldn't have gotten more than 5 seconds of T.V time and their acts would've gone unnoticed.

As I said, we deserved this, since we failed to notice the girls who are not allowed to go to school in J&K (they will be killed, no less), and were busy worrying about not being able to go to a pub! We compromised on the rights of those not fortunate enough to be born to parents rich enough or living in the right cities, and in a way told these guys, 'go ahead, we won't stop you yet..' and now we pay for it, albeit meagerly.

Sure the Karnataka police can lock up 10 people and claim they've 'taken action' against them, but we aren't really a free democratic country until everyone is able to practice their right!

Wordle

I made myself one. Loooooook:




If you want one, go to wordle.com. It's pretty neat.

The real bite of nostalgia

I was going though the folders on the pc at home and I found "The Making of Woodstock". Pipe put his foot down and said we weren't gonna print that. Too degrading or some such thing. But I wonder why. I mean who wouldn't wanna be part of that mad maaaad world? It was fun while it lasted. But it was more than that. It's one of those few things I really do (did?) miss about MCC. Pipe goading us on; Roshan's wisecracks during our 3 hr meetings (which consisted of 5 mins of deciding what the next issue was gona contain and 2 hrs and 55 mins of the aforementioned wise-cracks); Sande's "I'll take care of it"s; Danny pretending to know it all- Danny suprising us by actually knowing it all! Vasudha's writing.. Plus that was where I met three of my closest friends..

For those of you who wonder about the nostalgia, I present to you, for the first time, "The Making of Woodstock". May Pipe burn in hell! It's my blog and I write what I want!

The Making of Woodstock

We aren’t saying it isn’t fun. We aren’t saying it is hard work. We aren’t saying that we don’t enjoy it. All we are saying is.. Well, read on and you’ll understand what we went through before we brought out this issue.

It all started on Jan 3rd when we came back after spending 12 days sleeping and eating - and sleeping some more. Realisation dawned upon us that the January issue of Woodstock was due. Someone mildly suggested that we get started immediately, but it was immediately quashed down by cries from the geekier of us claiming that we’ll do it after the CAs – no problemo.

Well, the CAs came and went (and left us none the happier for it). It was Saturday the 12th and we decided we’ll get started. An online meet was scheduled for nine p.m. At nine, I logged in to find no one there.. Frantic messaging gave me to understand that out of the remaining 5, one was in Hyderabad, one was out for dinner, one was practicing.. something, one was fast asleep, and the last one was, shall I say.. at a different level of thinking. With a sigh, we resheduled it for the same time, next night.

Now anybody who knows the woodstock team would not be surprised that the online meet scheduled for 9 started infact at 10.30 and went on till past midnight (which got some of us nearly thrown out of our houses, but we will not dwell on minor issues). The topics discussed included serial killings, shilpa shetty, how to apply Gauss’ law using spherical co-ordinates, pongal celebrations, birthday parties, the book fair, the hottest guy/girl in college, etc.. Finally, we decided we’ll send in the articles by Tuesday – do the DTP by Thursday and get the issue scrutinized and out by the next week.

Tuesday night saw one article in the inbox. By Wednesday there were two. By Saturday, the number increased to 4. On Sunday the following message was sent to all
“Dear team member, This sms is regarding the your article for the next issue of woodstock. On checking the mail account, I am saddened to note that it has made it’s appearance yet. Please look into the issue. Thank you. Your’s sincerely, A teammate.”
Reply 1: Don’t worry sweetheart, it’ll be done.
Reply 2: Tonight. Tonight. I’ll send it in positively by midnight.
Reply 3: What’s the hurry?
Reply 4: If I do it.. Will you get me OD?
Sunday night in the inbox – You’ve got (0) new mails.
(to be continued..)

The reader will please note that close to 600 rupees worth of talk time, 500 messages, three online conferences – each lasting for approximately 2 hours, 15 online chats – lasting an hour, 5 fights, numerous train rides and sessions in front of Nescafe and endless cups of lemon tea (courtesy the college cafeteria) went into the making of this issue.

The change

You may wonder why i now call this blog "Speaking the thousand words". It's because of my name. You see, my name - it means picture. And you know what a picture does!

And in answer to many of your questions, the old name - "Fading dreams grow cold as ice.." is a line from Elton John's "Return to Paradise":

It's paradise here where the sun meets the sea
There's nothing to fear and so much to be
But soon I must go, say goodbye to it all
That homeland of mine is beginning to call

Goodbye doesn't mean this has to be the end
Fading dreams grow cold as ice
And I got a feeling we will meet again
When we return to paradise

The wind in our hair and the sun in our eyes
There's no need for tears and no time for lies
So reach out your hand and I'll reach out my heart
Remember me while we are apart

Goodbye doesn't mean this has to be the end
Fading dreams grow cold as ice
And I got a feeling we will meet again
When we return to paradise

I'm heading homeward
Leaving sunshine and heading for rain
But we'll return to paradise again

Goodbye doesn't mean this has to be the end
Fading dreams grow cold as ice
And I got a feeling we will meet again
When we return to paradise

Hold that thought!

A friend of mine (who begged to remain anonymous) said to me "when I was in school I decided to take up science - because by doing science you actually contribute to the total amount of human knowledge. With humanities, you don't - maybe to the beauty of the world or whatever, but not to knowledge, and with management, you contribute absolutely nothing!"

So, all you geeks out there surviving on phdcomics, now you know..

:-)

Cowardly Cops

A friend and I were travelling by 23C recently on our was to Besant Nagar. As we got into the bus at the IIT stop, two(obviously drunk) guys sped past the bus on a bike yelling and screaming at the bus driver. The driver kept trying to lose them - by either going slower or faster but these guys kept up with the bus and kept screaming. Apparently, this has been going on from Saidapet. Finally, the driver stopped the bus at the Madya Kailash signal.

There were 3 cops at signal - it was sunday evening and they were doing what cops do best on sunday evening - torture inncoent college students regarding lack of various papers and so make huge sums of money in the process. The driver stoped right next to them and tried telling them about the two guys. One cop was on the phone and didn't realise that the driver was talking to him until he caught me waving frantically to him he trotted over to see what was going on and when he found out he came back to his original place, a completely bored expression on his face. The second cop - an old cop, listen to the driver and then walked away, and the third cop was in the corner 'potty kadai' smoking!!!!!

They were completely unconcerned. Why should they listen to what the driver has to say, was their attitude? After all, the driver has no money to hand over as a bribe.. he has no influence, he can't get them a promotion! And helping him, would probably mean, they'll catch a lesser number of students and lesser bribes!

Yuck!

Recently, a friend of mine was caught "speeding" (read: 40 km/hr) at 11 in the night. The cops caught him and because there was a girl(another friend o mine) with him, they started giving him ahard time and demanded he pay them 8000Rs. They kept at it until the girl remarked, "this is ridiculous, lets call your dad". Then they backed off, since the dad was a respectable gentleman who's sure to be influential.

And this other friend of mine, who's doing journalism, tells me that even if he's caught breaking traffic rules (going the wrong way in a one way lane, for example), the cops don't do anything further. They just let him go. Which, if you ask me, is as cowardly as they can get!

This city's policemen disgust me no end!

I wonder if there's something I can do about it - at least the Madya Kailash incident since I witnessed it first hand. If you guys can think of anything, let me know..

Words! Words! Words!

Don't you love them? They way they sound when you say them out aloud? The taste they leave behind? The way they mean something different in every context? The power they give you?

Don't you love learning a new word? I remember the first time I chanced upon a new word. I must've been 8. Maybe 9. I was looking up something in our tattered Chambers' and I saw 'quintessence' on top. The word caught my eye and I looked it up. It was beautiful. Chambers also gives you the origin of the word - it's roots. I won't spoil it for you. Look it up yourself. In a dictionary - don't google it. Googling, for some reason takes away the beauty of words. You can never do the "on the way to the dictionary" thing.

My dad, when he is super bored, and had no new books to read, opens the dictionary and looks up words - their meaning, the story behind them.. It might sound geeky, but I can totally relate to that. I'd like to do that too!!

But, you know, at the end of the day, it's not the words you use that counts. It's how you use them that really matters. Sadly, few people get that.

Take Chicken Little for example. I believe (and I'm sure once you read her blog, you'll agree) that her language is extremely powerful! She doesn't write about anything powerful or deep, mind you. She writes about college, relationships, friends, studies - stuff everyone goes through. She doesn't use big words either. She uses simple, everyday, what you-and-i-will-use words. And yet, her posts are powerful. She has a way with them words.

Or take Roshan George. He has, by far, the biggest vocabulary among anyone I know. His vocabulary is even better than my dad's (yes appa, it is and you know it!), but you hardly find him flaunting his words. He learns these words and waits to use them. He threw this word at me the other day and I went all blank and he said "I've been waiting to use it ever since I was a kid. Try it somtime." I promptly forgot the word.

Me, I'm not so good with the vocabulary. I forget things. I don't remember words easily. They slip through my mind. I envy Roshan George very much. But I envy Chicken Little more. Because while Roshan knows the words, Chicken knows how to use them. And that's what really counts.

P.S: Roshan writes pretty well too. Much better than me at any rate. Loads better.

@ Roshan and Chicken: Sorry guys, the post isn't aimed at either of you. I just used you as examples.

This tag like thingy

It's Roshan's fault this time. Pass on the hate, he says. Very well, I shall.

"..too long; we've got to move on."

Here's how it works:

1.Grab the nearest book.
2.Open it to page 56.
3.Find the fifth sentence.
4.Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.

I was at my desk with my bookshelf behind me. First book from the right, he said. I took the first book from the right. It happened to be Issac Asimov's The rest of the Robots. Collecion of short stories which never got published as a book. This one's from Victory Unintentional.

Apart from that, I apologize for my long absence. I had - you guessed it - exams! And app work. More exams and more app work beckon. Wish me luck, people!

Sabbath day

Well, since I liked the response I got when I told everyone, I thought I might as well post it:

Today, sunday the 19th october, I had my Atmoic and Molecular physics quiz.

There. I said it. The funny part being, we picked a sunday. The prof wasn't too happy with it. Why would he be? He has to come to work on a sunday!. But we clearly told him that we don't have another date to spare. It was now or never. So he picked now. He needs to grade us, you see.

Ah well, says something about wannabe nerds, doesn't it?

So morning I wrote the exam. Afternoon I slept. Tonight I will write record.

In other news, my Toefl results came out. Apparently, my english is good - I know how to read, understand, speak and write english. Well, that's what they said. If you have a problem with that, you may pick a fight with ETS.

As cute as it gets.

Got my first intro to 55 from Pseudo here.

Anyway, decided to write one myself. A '55' is a story which is written in less than 55 words. So here goes:

Her mind wandered as usual. She smiles to herself as she thinks of the previous evening. Dinner was perfect. Her phone suddenly vibrates. She checks it under the desk. A message - 'Stop thinking of me and concentrate on class :-) '. She couldn't help grinning as she continued copying down what was on the board.

Oh, I know that's so-cute-it-makes-you-puke-ish and who-does-that-anyway-ish, but hey, it's my first attempt, so be nice, okay?
Oh and you guys should try a 55 as well!

My third :-)

My little brother(nice chap - brought me baccarwadi's (which is all I could think of all day since I let myself have one. It's one of those Ruffles lays things -No one can eat just one fits right! :-) )) told me last week to expect a tag. Too bad for him I had been tagged simultaneously by the same person. I see he hasn't done his bit though.. Anyway, here I go:

The rules for the tag are:

RULE #1 People who have been tagged must write their answers on their blogs and replace any question that they dislike with a new question formulated by themselves.

RULE #2 Tag 6 people to do this quiz and those who are tagged cannot refuse. These people must state who they were tagged by and cannot tag the person whom they were tagged by continue this game by sending it to other people.

1. If your lover betrayed you, what will your reaction be?
Knowing me, denial.. Until someone kicks me nice and hard!

2. If you can have a dream come true, what would it be?
To be the queen of the world!! :-D

3. Whose butt would you like to kick?
A certain pumpkin's!

4. What would you do with a billion dollars?
Buy a yatch! Travel the world in style!

5. Will you fall in love with your best friend?
Ewwwwwww... No, really. If you know m best-friend, you won't even ask!

6. Which is more blessed: loving someone or being loved by someone?
Assuming, I'll have to choose, I'll say, being loved. The other hurts!

7. How long do you intend to wait for someone you love?
If they love me back - forever. If they don't - maybe a day! Maybe.

8. If the person you secretly like is attached, what will you do?
Sigh over his gtalk icon in secret! ;-)

9. If you could root for one social cause, what would it be?
Global warming! Though i dunno how 'social' that is!

10. What takes you down the fastest?
Cramps! A thousand times over. Literally!

11. Where do you see yourself in 10 years time?
10 years.. Um. Married? Kids? Oh, and a world reknown scientist waiting for the Nobel, of course!

12. What’s your fear?
Monsters under my bed!

13. What kind of person do you think the person who tagged you is?
A great kid! My fav. blogger friend!!

14. Would you rather be single and rich or married and poor?
Um. That would depend on who I'm married to, of course. What if I get to marry Prince William or something?

15. What’s the first thing you do wen you wake up?
Yell at whoever wakes me up! *sheepish grin* Sowwie!

16. If you fall in love with two people simultaneously who will you pick?
The one who loves me back. In case both do, I'll toss a coin! Coins don't lie! :-)

17. Would you give all in a relationship?
Depends on how old the relationship is and how serious it is!

18. Would you forgive and forget someone no matter how horrible a thing he has done?
Um. Yeah, I've been known (infamously) to be very forgiving.

19. Do you prefer being single or in a relationship?
Oh, it can be fun both ways! I don't really care. As long as I'm not in a love triangle or something, I guess!

20. List of 6 people to tag:
Aarti - cause she loves tags.
Mathika - cause she gave me my first ever tag.
Vinod - cause he needs a reson to blog.
Rabia, Roshan - cause I want to know their answers to a few of these questions.
Satyaki - cause if I don't think anyone else gives him tags.

Nsoy! :-)

Footnote: Aquila is a sweet kid as well, considering she showed Ajay where one might obtain the said baccarwadis and Sharmila is 'ze best' cause she introduced me to them!

The list

I had compiled a list of movies-to-watch-when-you're-feeling-bored-cause-you-gotta-watch-them-before-you-die-else-your-life-had-no-meaning sometime back, but never got around to posting it.. and then of course, I forgot all about it. Recently, Aquila had asked me to suggest a movie, and I remembered the list. I took it out, dusted it, and now i'm putting it up. I haven't seen some(say, 30%) of the movies myself, so dont blame me if you don't like it - just know that whoever recommended it did so strongly! All additions are always welcome. Happy watching! :-)

The serious ones

1.Mississipi burning
2.The deer hunter
3.Dead man walking
4.Scent of a woman
5.The bridges of Madison country
6.Flags of our fathers
7.Leaving las vegas
8.Syriana
9.Traffic
10.Cast away
11.Apocalypse now
12.The French connection
13.The swashank redemption
14.Lost in translation
15.Schindler’s list
16.Million dollar baby
17.Crash
18.Blood diamond
19.Arlington Road
20.One flew over the cuckoo’s nest
21.The aviator
22.Life is beautiful
23.Dangerous minds
24.Saving private Ryan
25.Road to Perdition
26.The deep end of ocean
27.A few good men


The not so serious ones

1.Good will hunting
2.Wag the dog
3.As good as it gets
4.Ocean’s eleven
5.My best friend’s wedding
6.Notting hill
7.Music and lyrics
8.Little Miss Sunshine
9. Seabiscuit
10.The greatest game ever played
11.Father of the bride
12.Starsky and Hutch
13.Hitch
14.Forrest gump
15.One fine day
16.Pretty woman
17.Pirates of the Carribeans
18.True lies
19.Erin Brochovich
20.The terminal
21.About a boy
22.August rush
23.Love actually



As kids

1.Finding Nemo
2.Ice Age 1 and 2
3.Madagascar
4.Parent trap
5.Lion king
6.Dunston Checks in
7.Liar Liar
8.Prince of Egypt
9.Baby’s day out


The classics

1.An American in Paris
2.Sound of music
3.Roman holiday
4.Star wars – the whole series
5.My fair lady
6.How to steal a million dollars
7.Sabrina
8.Charade
9.The good, the bad and the ugly
10.Benhur
11.For a few dollars more
12.for a fistful of dollars
13.Once upon a time in the west
14.Unforgiven
15.Mackenna's gold
16.Godfather
17.Casablanca
18.The bicycle thief

I'm a... WHAT?

Scene one(Temashek hall, NUS - my room): Aquila's gtalking and I'm sipping the Raspberry Vodka I split with her. The vodka's getting to me, I guess. I turn to her and go, "doesn't all this feel nice and grown-up. Sitting in a different country, chatting with your best friend and drinking pink-colour alcohol? Like your childhood dream?" She turns back and smiles.
Half and hour later:
Aquila: Do you still feel on top of the world?
Me: No!

Scene 2 (Fruit shop, Anna Nagar): I'm meeting two of my school friends - Banu and Archana - after four years. We haven't met or spoken since school, but we used to be pretty close then. I called them on an impulse and we decided to meet.
Archana: So, what you planning to do next?
Me: PhD, hopefully.
Banu: But won't that take a long time?
Me: 5 years, if I'm luck (yes, I think of Mike Slakenerny and smile!)
Archana: So, when you planning to get married??
Me: M-M-mmarried?
Banu: Yeah..
Me: After that I guess.. Why? When you guys planning to get married?
Archana: In another year or two I guess.. They're looking out.
Me: Looking out??? But that's so... grown up!

Scene 3 (I'm having a messaging conversation with a 'friend*'). Friend sends me a message "... so, we suspected my girlfriend was pregnant and I had to got her a test.."
Me: ??????????????????????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

* I'm obviously not gonna tell you who I'm talking about, so don't even bother asking!


Scene 4 (Bakkiya's house): We're sipping juice and listening to her describe labour pains and how great it is (yeah, you heard me right the first time)! Sug is listening. Soumya and I look at each other. Um, but this is what adults - older women talk about! Not.. not us!!!

Scene 5 (On the phone): A friend is telling me about his taxes and arrears. I go "Ha, ha, you have arrears". I hear a frown which conveys 'grow up already'. I try to cover up with "It sounds so.. you know.. grown up. It's what parents do!!". It does!

Scene 6 (Suganya's wedding): Some dude goes "I welcome Mr.Allen and Mrs. Suganya Princess". Mrs???????

Scene 7 (In the car): Archana goes "do you know we are over age for all sports training camps in the city? Everyone tells us 'we'll let you know if we start a senior batch!'" We are??

Scene 8 (last night, outside my gate): We're returning from Soumya's sister's wedding. Divvya (for those of you who don't know, Divvya is my oldest friend. We've been 'best-friends' since 2nd standard) was dropping me home. It was around 11.30 in the night. I was the last one to be dropped, as usual (It's because I live the closest to her place. Plus I'm good with directions). I had to keep going 'turn left, go right, go straight' since Deena's house.
Finally we entered my colony. I said "you're supposed to know this place.. you grew up here!!"
She goes "yeah, I know"
But to irritate her I continued "take a right here".
"I know"
"Left"
"I know"
"Go straight."
I get a glare.
(At my road) "Turn right"
"Hello? I know!!!!"
"First house on the left."
"Oh, apadingala (Is that so)?? I didn't know.."

We both laughed as I got out of the car and she waited till I got into the house before leaving - like her dad and granddad used to do the many times they dropped me over the past 15 years. I thought of 15 years ago when I actually didn't know her house and went searching for it with my maid on Diwali day. She came back home with me that day and it's been 15 years since then. But it seems like just yesterday. Not that I mind the drop-you-off-post-11-and-make-sure-you're-in-before-i-take-off thing. It kinda feels nice.
(Who am I kidding?)
It feels real good and all.. well, grown up.

Maybe, just maybe, being grown up isn't so bad after all! :-)

Fling! BANG!... Ooops!

Everyone's done a post on LHC. Why should I be out of the loop??

Today, while walking down the down, I happened to overhear two girls talking about the LHC:
Girl 1: So, if this experiment went wrong, yesterday is the last day of earth.
Girl 2: (Shocked) Oh no!
Girl 1: But thankfully, the experiment didn't went wrong, so it's okay.

Anyway, apart from telling us what exactly our government spends half our education budget on, and the state of english in IIT (I told you so!), it also gives us a slight idea of exactly how uninformed the people around us are about the LHC!

My at.mol prof told us on tuesday "So, in the event that the rumour about micro blackholes being created and sucking us all in is true, we shall not meet on monday. But I can pretty reasonably assure you that that will not happen. So, be on time."

One of those times, when you forgot your physics and wished for blackholes. Especially since we have an assignment due monday!

Ah, well, C'est la vie.

I sent this link to most of you. Got it from Ajay's status message. Apparently, most of you have already seen it. In case you haven't:

http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=j50ZssEojtM

It's not completely true. But funny nevertheless.

Apparently, Hawking has a bet for $100 that the Higg's boson will not be discovered. Which is not so good, actually. The search for it will still be on, and they'll just end up building a bigger accelerator and spending more money. Starving millions, anyone?

The latest addiction!

Okay, I admit it. I really am addicted to phdcomics. Just that the strip is so damn funny!!! Take this one for example:




And this, strangely is not even one of the more popular ones.. But you must've seen the others. This one is just my personal favorite.

Anyway, I went into the archives and started reading all the ones written long ago - some 1000 odd strips and I'm proud to say that yesterday, I finally finished reading all of them! Now I'm an expert. Almost. :-)

P.S: Mike is my fav. character. Who's yours?

The poll

Just out of curiosity, how come no one's voting on the poll. Just wondering.. Just 3 votes so far and I - accd to sitemeter - have about 10 visitors a day. Oh, and does anyone know how to change the font colour. It is difficult to read, I agree. And this is also a 'I-just-wanted-to-post-but-didn't-know-what-to-post-on' post.

In other news, I have started swimming again - after 5 years. And it is true what they say - you can never forget how to swim!

Enga area.. ulla varadhae!

Before I begin,
Happy birthday, Madras!

A long promised post. I must say that the repeated requests for it flattered me no end and I wanted to do justice to it! Hence I took a long time and decided to post it on August 22nd - for what better day??

I’m not gonna give you people a list of reasons we love this place. Enough blogs have them. Or open the supplements today. All of them will carry popular opinions which will, I’m sure include filter kaapi, podimas, beach road, mount road, ranganathan street, spencers(for Gawd knows what reason), Anna nagar tower, etc.. I, however, am gonna merely state and refute or reinstate popular opinions, giving credit where it is due.

So what is so great about this place, you ask? After all, it has been voted as being the hottest, most conservative, boring, and most under-developed among the metros! A desert - in short. Chennai autos are infamous throughout the country and the city is definitely not known for its night-life, hot chicks or guys! There are exactly two big malls and Chennai people do not know how to dress and those who do, find it too expensive to maintain it! The city dwellers refuse to learn hindi, thus making it difficult for the rest of the country to come down for a visit and what's there by way of sight-seeing anyway? The city has a rainy season of two-weeks and is eternally on the verge of a water-shortage. The politicians are again infamous throughout the country (who doesn't know Jayalalitha? - who studied in Church Park, btw..)and the people are uninteresting and stupid. Most importantly, according to my friend, "It didn't even have a McD till 3 months ago, and Madrasi food sucks!" and the beach is of course, as dirty as it gets!

Okay, now that I've written all the points which people keep throwing at me, let me start by refuting them one by one.

First of all, this place is not a desert. As my sister put it 'The only thing you don't get in T.Nagar is an aeroplane'.

Yes it is hot, I'm sorry about that - but has anyone ever noticed that it is hot for precisely 3 months a year? The rest of the year, I am cursing the hostel administrators every morning for not having a geyser!

And yup, most people are conservative, but that is just about the way they live their lives and the way their children live theirs! They let everyone else be. Chennites are among those who do not pass judgement easily, believe it or not. We're more open minded than B'loreans or Delhites in the sense that, in either of those places, you need to be 'cool' and 'hep'. You can't be who you are the way you want to be. You need to fake it and pretend just to fit in - something neither I, nor anyone I know had to do in Chennai. It's a city of extremes and weirdly, the extremes get along very well. Here, it is common to find a pardha cladding muslim be best friends with one who sports the minis and halters.

The autos are irritating, but be a sport about it, won't you? Walk! Nothing feels as good as a long walk. Just trust me on this one. And if you hate your feet, take the public transport. Apparently, Chennai is one of the few cities which is very wll connected by public transport! (If anyone has a contention here, they can contact Mr. Ipe Job, who, by the way, spent his entire childhood elsewhere).

And as for the nightlife, we do have our fair share of clubs and discos and pubs. What we also have is more than our fair share of Sabhas and Concert halls and Theatre/Rock fests! *Allow me a huge grin here, will you?*

Two big malls and one McD – forgive me, but I’m kinda proud we haven’t yet succumbed to the US based MNCs who drive our men out of business!

The hindi bit, again something I’m proud of, but that has a whole post dedicated to it. Besides, did you know that you didn’t need to know Tamil at all to survive here? Ask my friend Anisha – she was born in Chennai, lived here all her life, her mother-tongue is tamil, she studied tamil in school till the 8th and she still can’t frame a proper sentence in it! Why? Because she doesn’t need to!
In fact, apart from her, I have exactly, *counts* 5 tamilian friends. No, 6, but the 6th is the same as Anisha - can’t speak tam for nuts! I’m talking about people born and brought up in Chennai, of course. It is expected I should know many more… but weirdly I don’t! *grins* Cosmopolitan, eh?

The city, though has always been on the verge of water-shortage, never actually was! 5 successive years of failed monsoon and I didn’t have to miss a single bath. Compare this with the west, where one failed monsoon and they’re already worried to death!

I dunno what they mean when they say ‘Madarasi food’, but I’ll say one thing – we make the best god dammed sandwiches EVER! (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, please please go to Alsa mall the next time you’re free!
Oh, and one thing non-south Indians should know – idly doesn’t taste the least bit like how you get it in restaurants – I dunno why, but home idlys feel and taste very different!

Hot chicks, dreamy guys – well, you got me there. Er.. * scratches head*. All I can say is Madhavan, Siddharth, Shriya, anyone?? *sheepish grin*

Oh, the sight-seeing bit *chuckles* (bet no one else got the joke anyway!), well.. apart from the beaches (check ‘em all out!), I have on my platter Dakshin Chitra, 3 amusement parks, Mahabs, Crocodile bank (it’s really cool, trust you me!), Vandalur zoo (It’s almost as good as the Singapore one. Almost), etc.. (Remind me to put up a long list at some point of time in life.

As for the uninteresting and stupid people bit, well.. off the top of my head – Indira Nooyi, A.R Rahman, Kalam (well, he studied in MIT – that counts), C.V.Raman, Chandrashekar, Vishvanathan Anand, etc..

So yes, there I refute all the statements ever thrown. If you have anymore, bring ‘em on!

Oh, and also, let me mention that no one can stay in this city for more than 4 years without falling in love with it, apparently. Ask my MCC friends – Unni Nair, Sai Krishna, Satyaki Roy, Prashant Ipe Job, Shannon Peter to name a few..
They constantly surprise me with they proclaimations! Stuff even I wouldn’t dream of saying. Like Unni saying he’ll do anything to settle down in Chennai! Or Satyaki (this guy swore he would never return to Chennai once he was done with MCC) pinging me to let me know that he was returning to ‘his favourite city’ the next day. And Pipe (dude could never stop talking about UP when he landed here) having an argument with me – ME – about the afore mentioned transport thing. And Shannon (sigh, you gotta meet him – no word would do justice here) calling me up the night before an exam to argue about how Chennai is the safest city on the planet. Yes, I said argue. I didn’t agree with him of course!


Last year, same day, I sent a message to all my friends wishing them. I don't have a copy of the message, so I can't quote it verbatim, but here's what I remember of it: "I'm looking out of my window and all I can see is a vast expanse of green trees and shrubs against a light blue and pink and purple sky dotted with white clouds. A few coconut trees are popping out of the green mass and swaying to the wind. In a distance is a solitary building - the tidal park with it's lights coming on! And all this, bang in the centre of the city! Where else, but here?”

That message still holds.

We love you, Madras!!!! :-)

With friends like this...

Have you ever come across a pair of friends you envy - envy, cause you never had a friend like that? A pair who make you wanna lean against the door and smile? A pair you're not a part of, and though you'd love to be, you do not want to even peep into their world in case you destroy the balance? The kind of friends you read about in books, and are talked about in movies - and all this while you thought that that kind did not exist and when you realise they do, you suddenly feel lonely - lonely like never before.. and happy - happy, cause, to re-quote Aquila's blog title "it's a wonderful world indeed which contains something so beautiful!

( To answer your questions, yes I am thinking of certain two people, and no, I'm not gonna tell you who it is!)

My second tag

So soumya tagged me.. Visit her blog page sometime. She updates it more regularly than anyone else i know. The tag itself is simple. You just answer some 30-3 questions. Here goes:

1. What's your latest addiction?
Coffee. Can't live without it anymore!

2. What are you listening to?
Some stupid song which plays everytime I visit soumya's blog. (P.S: Girl, how do i turn it off??)

3. How late did you stay up last night and why?
Um. 3 o clock in the morning.(Dad, if you're reading this, DO NOT freak). We having having a heart to heart thingy follwed by two phone calls (I was returning them).

4. Who were you with last Friday night?
My classmates and my juniors (Dept. freshies!)

5. Do you think you will be in a relationship 3 months from now?
Well, one hopes.. :-)

6. When is the next time you'll see your close friends?
In a few mins.. Someone's sure to knock on my door, calling me for dinner!

7. What were you doing this morning at 7am?
Sleeping, of course!!

8. What radio station do you listen to the most?
104.8 F.M.

9. What was the reason you last cried?
Lemme see.. I guess it was when a friend of mine yelled at me in public.

10. Have you ever talked to someone when they were high?
Oh, yes!!!!

11. What's the fifth text in your inbox say?
It says "what happened". Go figure. :-)


12. Where was the last coffee shop you [went to]?
CCD, of course. One week ago.

13. What's your outfit right now?
PJs

[No 14 and 15]

16. What were you doing at 11pm last night?
Having the aforementioned heart-to-heart

17. Who was the last person you talked to last night before bed?
Um. Jenita and Shravini. Wished them goodnight.

18. Will you be driving in a year?
Unless I have an accident, yeah!

19. Is there anything that you are craving right now?
The beach. (No idea why..)

20. When did your last hug take place?
Last night. I burst into Ranjini's room saying "I need a hug" right after a horrible GRE test!

[No 21 either.]

22. Have you ever started a sentence with "No offense, but..."?
Of course... Many many times. But usually, as a semi-joke.

23. Do you drink tea?
Occasionally. When there's no coffee. [Coffee rocks! :-) ]

24. Have you ever been arrested?
Nope.

25. Have you rode in someone else's car today?
Didn't leave the hostel today (yeah, yeah.. I know. Sad life et al.)

26. Have you made a mistake this past week?
Maybe. I wouldn't know yet.

27. Who was the last person you texted?
Vinod, I think.

28. Are you happy with your life right now?
With GRE next week, how could I be?? ;-(

29. In the past 72 hours have you been under the influence?
Um. "The" influence? Nope.

30. What's the connection between you and the last person you texted?
I'll stick with the "best friend's best friend". It's more interesting than 'friend' at any rate.


So I tag everyone who's on my blog roll!

One jobless optics class..

So yesterday we were studying the Drude model in Cond. Mat. (I can see all of you going "eh? what?") and in the next class - which happened to be optics - Debo and I came up with a poem which is bokka (to know the meaning of the word ask a bong near you) to say the least!

This is what Debo had to say:

Drude the dude,
See, i don't mean to be rude,
But your model is so crude,
For mankind it's no good,
Cv and are wearing a hood,
I'm sorry to say that this'll be definitely be rejected by Sarika's Sood*!

So I replied with:

Hey Debo, this is Drude,
Just wanna tell you that I'm in no mood,
To listen to you be so prude,
I think your humour is better when it's lewd,
So stop putting pseud!

Now you know what IITians do in class! :-)


* Sood is a prof in IISc. under whom Sarika did her summer internship.