Wish Away!

There are always things we want but know for sure we cant. I know! Holidays can make you really wishy washy! :P But what the hell, its Christmas just round the corner, and whats Christmas without a small wish list? :)

1. 1Mbps unlimited download speed! :D holidays can get a real drag when your download speed forces you to wait a whole 4 hours to download 350Mb with a constant nagging reminder that it will only go downhill further. Sucks!
2. A really good book. Now that’s what you wish for after you finish a fast paced Kane and Able and discover that the Jeffrey Archer you hated before that only good book is back with a bloody vengeance in The Prodigal Daughter. :/ been sitting with that stupid book for a while now. Arghh, cant wait to put it down! Any takers?? ;)
3. Heroes Season 5. That’s a tough one, but who cares about the budget? Oh, please get started with the production!!
4. Dream Country! The third of Vertigo’s "Sandman" series. “I ll show you terror in a handful of dust!” oh dear Sandman, show me a sale where I can get your third volume!
5. 1Tb hard disk! I could very much use the almost infinite space! Yeah, storage space, you know!! ;)
6. MEAL PASS! Damn those lucky people out there who carry around 3K in those passes! :X
7. A chess mate. Need to master how to checkmate!
8. A cheetah cub, which wont grow! They are too cute! :D
9. A canvas painting stand, pastel and good brushes. It’s a good art to practice! :) :)
10. Its never too late to long for a box of Ferrero Rocher! :D

Whats on yours? 

Divine Comedy

India, the old country of “ethics and conservation”, makes another desperate call for upholding the “culture of the country”. Newest in the series of “reforms” is the law passed in the state of Maharashtra which raises the “legal” drinking age from 18 years to 25 years in the entertainment capital of India, Mumbai and the rest of the state.

Many opinions have surfaced but none of them are in support of the law. I am no supporter of drinking but its just another law which is not going to be implemented. And it is only going to rise the corruption rate in the already corruption ridden state. The hitches are too many to enumerate. For one, the law hopes to discourage under-age consumption and drinking problem. What I don’t understand is how is the legal age to “buy” liquor going to reduce drinking? Its not. The black market will grow and the underground is going to be the only benefactor.

The law makers are yet again making an erroneous assumption that enacting a law will change the situation. India is not a drinking country. Most youth all over the country feel that the drinking stops at around 25. Rising the drinking age makes no sense. Even when the drinking age was at 18, there were too many cases of under-age drinking. So when the law enforcement couldn’t monitor a few teenagers, they are surely going to see to it that people don’t drink before 25. Doesn’t sound soo sane, does it?

Another view I hold is how are the drinking habits regulated in the villages? Aren’t we a cultivating nation with the majority of the population residing in the villages? Liquor is not even sold in those places. But can the law makers do anything about the consumption? The night life in the city may be attracting a lot of youngsters but the drinking problem is more acute in the villages. So, what is the law going to do about it?

The claims about the taxes the state pays for the imported liquor is just another feeble call from the dark because ultimately the taxes for imported goods are borne by the particular consumer, not by the government. Maybe its time to pay more attention to the tax scams because if the state is finding the liquor tax unbearable, then there is something wrong with the taxation department, not with liquor consumption. That may be something for the law makers to look into, instead of passing such useless laws and wasting everyone’s time. Raising the tax on the imported liquor won’t change anything, it will be just another reason for the youth to vote for the opposition in the next election.

Maharashtra's chief minister, Prithviraj Chavan, said drinking problem was a social issue and insisted the measures were not an attempt at moral policing. "Liquor consumption stresses the health system and destroys families," he said. What he needs to look into is how he is going to change the attitude and not the habits. If the drinking starts at 25, how does it stop affecting the health or destroying families?! And how does the government hope to stop in-house drinking? Seems like Mr. Chief Minister didn’t do his homework properly before proposing the law. How effective was the law that required a purchaser to produce identification that he is 18 before buying alcohol previously? Most college campuses have drinkers, are they even 18?

We can vote at 18, but don’t have the liberty to choose if we want to drink or not? If we really want to do something about the drinking problem, its awareness that we need, not a law. A compulsory statutory warning will be more effective.

Just another desperate law which is just as out of context as the rest of the “drinking laws”. 

Childhood Memories

Back in school, when I changed schools or when someone left the school due to transfers, all I could think of was missing them. Who would have thought that the concept of a social networking site would come up and change that totally?!

Never imagined that I would be able to contact my long lost “fight”mate from the fifth form who left the school soon after. The mixed feelings that come with those memories have no substitute. :) Those were the days when social-science required us to draw the political map of India on the class floor, when we start hating a teacher for giving a lower grade, when we keep “shops” to learn profit and loss (and realizing how important bills are :D ) and when we dress up to show how the UN functioned! Call me crazy, but mahn, we enjoyed life back then. :D Those long lunch breaks, those small politics and “big” fights, those invented games and copying notes from the black board! :D The first scratches, the first competitions, academic rivalry, the first competitive exams, the first “Eureka” after getting an answer for a question after days of searching… The time of firsts!

It was the time when we made friends, waited for those games hours in the timetable all through the week, when we still completed homeworks and loved what we studied, learning and not just knowing. A time when i looked forward to being in school every morning just to look at the particular someone I had a crush on, just to feel my heart skip a beat whenever that happened, wishing I was a little more discrete in controlling what I showed on my face, and hoping desperately that the person never found out what was going on in my mind. I know we all had those days. :D

The first poems, the first secrets, the first opinions, the first questions which startled our parents, the first sleepless nights, the first tensed moments about exams, they amuse me now. How matter of factly we have become now! That was a time when we wished to grow up and leave the school, go to college, when dreams were all that mattered, where friendships held us close and we actually trusted and loved people. The past seems so beautiful now. But we always wish for what we cant have, don’t we?? :)

The time when summer vacations meant the blazing sun, loads of homework, summer camps, learning the finer details of the game from a senior, two whole months of roaming in the sun (and tanning), discovering the secret shortcuts and realizing two days before reopening day about the homework (which included charts and models!!!) and a couple of sleepless nights and a aching hand for a  reminder! :D

Weekends back then were real. It was the time when completing school work had real rewards, when we darkened the room with bed-sheets to give the theatre feel, when we saw animation movies and dreamt about being in the fantasy world for a whole week! :D

No mobile phones, it was another age it seems, when we talked and laughed together, the time when we actually remembered landline numbers and dialed it to contact people! When we went to the beach and played on the sand, having long drives and trying to find patterns in vehicle registration numbers! Those study groups where we never studied and the time when we sneaked out to play hide and seek (and many variants of the game which in its extremity ended up in a shooting game :D :P). Those days when we cycled to reach a friend’s house, a time when breaking rules was all we wanted, a time when we drank water out of temple taps, when we played in the rain and enjoyed being sick because it meant a day when our moms fussed over us! :D

I know we all had those days but now we are soo busy to even talk to the people from the past, when we barely have time to sleep, to think about how to get ahead. If you had such a beautiful childhood too, make time for your childhood friends too. They were really your friends, knowing you for who you were and loved you for that! :) :) 

The Bermuda Triangle

Wondering what this title can hold in itself? :D I swear I could see your brains swirl in action, imagining yours to be like that of the Glass Cat. Listen to the tale so that you may find some enlightenment. :P

With the day proceeding like any other holiday (with nothing to do, i.e), my friend and I decided to take a “trip” to Spencer Plaza. The plan having materialized out of thin air at 10 in the morning, I was supposed to meet her at the railway station. She arrived a good half an hour late and I reached another 10 minutes later. The proud owner of a cool shades (Fastrack :D ), the scorching Chennai sun forced me to wear them. There she was, waiting for me in the hot traffic prone area of Chennai. Getting on my two wheeler, she said, “its too hot, isn’t it? Shall I wear my sun glasses?”. I told her, “sure, why not?”. Then I turned around to find out “why not”!!! She was sporting her dad’s Adidas ahem cooling glass! No wonder. She laughed and said, “I didn’t want anyone throwing me a couple of bucks when they passed me by. :D ” Well, I had no idea that the crazy fun was just getting started. :D :P

If you know Nungambakkam, then you ll know what real traffic is. For one, the roads are not enough to manage the traffic. The other reason is the bloody one ways and medians. So my dear friend, who was till today making fun of me for getting lost in the roads actually got all muddled up about where we were going. All through the short journey all she could say was, “Are you sure of where we are going? You sure?”. Of course I was sure! I had perfected my road skills after a whole year of getting lost, but that’s another long story. So lets leave it there. :D

Without much event, we reached the parking station, left my two-wheeler in the parking lot and made our way to the Spencer plaza. Our first stop was Landmark. The Spencer Plaza is by a lot of standards one of the most complicated buildings in the city. I had learnt earlier that Spencers has three phases because like every other building in the old city of ours, the buiding was built phase by phase. So an average person was bound to get a little confused with all the secret passages and the connections! But then my friend was not an average person atall, as I found out later. :D

Having taken the secret second floor entrance to Landmark (I always wondered why I could never find the proper entrance, guess its all because of the Harry Potter fan thing! :D :P ), we browsed through the best sellers which were on sale. Having found Bouncie (which is by the way a cute jelly like toy), we went through some random stuff. But the mission was to find a hair straightener. So we stayed focused and found it. Then came the dilemma that strikes every middle class consumer of the country, “which product to choose?!”. Thus began the trial sessions, while I wandered off to look at some other electronic gadgets. After a good 15 minutes of trying and discussion, my friend settled for one. I heaved a sigh of relief!

Then came the age old problem of FOOD. I suggested that we take something from the food court. We took the flight of stairs and after a little searching, found it. But my friend was not satisfied! She had to go to “another food court” that she had been to. So I agreed to search for it with her. This is were we started having trouble with the twists and turns. The “take right, go straight” wasn’t exactly that simple. So a few dead ends and many minutes later we found the “other food court”. When I finally thought I was gonna have food, my friend went through all the menus and decided that she wanted a sub(which was in the previous food court). Well, I had to agree! So we made our way back through the maze, tired, thirsty and famished. And ya, once inside Subway, and a good 15 minutes later she decided that she wanted a KFC Burger! I was just amazed at how bad a decision maker she was when she blurted out, “Sorry, I am a bad decision maker!”. Finally!!!

The KFC inside Spencers has some real nutcases in the billing counter. And ya the law of queues was soo proved yet again. When our turn finally came, the girl at the counter shouted soo much, that my friend got apprehensive and just nodded for everything. I dunno what happened over there but when we got our order, we were totally confused as to what was in front of us. It had two burgers, French fries and pepsi (and some more chicken which we hadn’t ordered!!!) . We were too hungry to argue. So we just sat down and started eating.

I was never good with too much food. Me being the only non veggie, most of the order was my burden to bear. Thus began the eating session which was to last for a good whole hour. We started talking about this and that, commenting on people sitting around us and having a good laugh (well, in our defense, there was this guy who was wearing shades inside the eating area! :D). The shop next to KFC was named “Nala’s Aapakada”. My friend was wondering what it was and was frowning with concentration. So I turned around and tried reading it and ended up reading it as “Appakada”. :D After a while, we figured out what it was and had a hearty laugh! :D

After the food had gotten into the system, we were fuelled up for a little more exploring as there was a lot of time at our disposal. So the adventure of “small shops” started and again the circles began. I dunno what was going on with the three phases and the three floors but everyone there was equally clueless. I m sure we walked every corridor atleast four times! Uphh!!! Then I was reminded of the way people were rumoured to go in circles, trapped in the Bermuda Triangle! Yes, that was us, two innocent electrical engineers trapped in the “three phases” of Spencers! ;) and ya, this is exactly when Cookie Man pops up every 5 minutes, tempting us with the smell! Damn! :D :P

The doors of Landmark loomed back in sight suddenly and as we were just about to enter the safety of the book store, we were sighted by a group of three people who were taking a survey of what should be the next mixed scent for EVA. They ended up separating us, sprayed us with two scents and asked us to guess the scents. Well I m proud of myself, got two of them right! :D atlast when we were free to go back to Landmark, my friend and I got into the Kids section! :D Believe me, you seriously gotta go there if you are the type who idolizes cute stuff! Everything around there was just adorable! It was more than in our powers to restrict ourselves, and left more or less to ourselves, we started playing with the toys which were a part and parcel of every kid’s childhood! :D yess, there was Mikey, Pooh, Piglet, Donkey, Tiger, Penguins, Goofy and many more! :D there was this Dolphin that had this weird look on its face which reminded me of a real person, which when mentioned, both of us were laughing till an actual small kid came there and made us realize how grown up we were for all the chaos we were creating. So grabbing what was left of our dignity (of a college student, as my friend put it :P ), we fled the place. But I still ended up buying a soft doll of a penguin! :D

Then it was time to leave. Sulking that the day had to come to an end, we exited the store. We took my two-wheeler and left the place. Driving back in a different route, my friend was actually supportive of my driving skills and my knowledge of the roads. :D Ha!!! There you go! :D :P

Going home and refreshing ourselves with some water, we walked back to the station. As I watched her board the train, I was just left thinking why people felt just two girls cant have fun on a day out! I had it all today – fun, madness and a great memory! It was just another day that started out soo simple and ended up an awesome experience! :D

Second Time Around

If you don’t value friends, this is not for you. Turn around and leave now.

For others, don’t make the same mistake twice. Read on.

They say everything comes with an expiry date. If someone you consider your friend says that you were the one who spoke to them, theirs’ has long approached. Time to throw them out of your life, before it’s too late. Speak with people who enjoy your company, not the ones who like the idea of hanging out with you just because they are bored. Trust me, it doesn’t work anyways, so why even bother? Moreover when there really are people to whom we matter, lose the losers. Time to close the act.

Then lose the stupid lectures about having a smiling face, there has to be a reason even for a smile. If there’s a perennial smile, its just a poker face. Show who you are, not whom the world wants to see in you. I tried it, its plain boring and irritating. So back to square one – ME. And if anyone has a problem with that, why don’t you take it up with me? Lose the implied public comments, its getting a little out of vogue. Tell me and I ll return the good turn. If not, just shut up and do us all a favour, will you?

Think I m too rude for you? Cant take it? Its time to wrap it up then. Its okay with me.

Rude times, rude measures. 

Recorded Fun

Records are such a drag. Ask the electrical engineers, they ll tell you the horrors of the never ending drudgery! Well the 2009-2013 batch of SRM University was not spared. To add to it, we had to record for “ABET ACCREDITATION”. :/

Not all that bad, since we figured out later that we could laugh it all away! :D let me tell you my experience. First was the part when I kept losing stationery! Drove me mad in the beginning, because I had to keep buying them. Then suddenly it hit me how foolish it was! Then came the adaptation phase. I took a lesson out of Newton’s discoveries! Law of conservation of matter: no matter how many scales or pencils or erasers I lost, by the end of the day, I got a replacement! :D :P not so bad na? ;)

Then came phase famine. My very brilliant department which gave us 200 SRM sheets for two records the previous semester, suddenly decided to give us 150 sheets for three records! Funniest part: was there were no SRM sheets in campus for sale! This is when having friends in other departments helps. I went round asking for sheets! And this is the same time when SRM brains doesn’t actually help! They gave different shades of blue for different departments. Well, had to make it work! Let them deal with the colours, we decided.

Then came the crazy crazy pre-lab and post-lab questions. Just when we think we are over and done with the records, just a week before the exams, ABET comes to test us even more. The scramble for time and papers continued. Thank god, we have google! :D while writing down the answers I realized one thing: it is so bloody easy to ask the questions! :/

The hilarious part was reserved for the exams, I guess. Right after a stressful struggle with the machines and circuits, we were given a “team members evaluation sheet”! I honestly felt like a cosmic joke was being played on me! Seriously! If this had continued a little more, they might have ended up locking some of us up, charging us with “first degree” and the rest with “ABETting”. :P

Well, now that the monster’s behind and with the fun in memory, lets give a smashing performance in our model examinations! My wishes to all EEE engineers in the making and ofcourse to my other college-mates!  :) :) All the best! :) :)

Maturity, it seems…

I was hardly planning to say anything even remotely close to this but a small remark sparked it off and set me thinking. Meeting properly with a friend from the past it seemed, to feel safe and let the guard down.

15 minutes later, she had left, but I was left pondering. How much have people changed? One year, and they have become “mature”, she had said. I couldn’t help strolling down the memory lane, a semester ago when I was told I was lucky to be home. Startled I asked back why!!! I miss you ppl! The reply I got: but you wouldn’t if you knew the way things are now.

Since when did being selfish get tagged as “being mature”? Well I thought being mature meant making the right choices at the right times! Being rude to people who actually care, to live a surface life, telling others you are their “good friend” but what you actually are is using them because you don’t have another choice. Sharing a life with some because its convenient, forgetting what others have done for you!

Another facet of the human mind is yet unexplored. The minute guys get “committed”, they forget the life they once had with friends. I don’t understand which part of the obvious is so not obvious to them. Friends will always stand by you no matter what decision you take. Well, correction. That didn’t include ignoring them totally.

I can’t help remembering a senior’s words which were so obscure to me then. College life loses its charm once you cross the first year, she opined. She was right. They say they are making the right choices, being mature and doing what needs to be done. What happened to living life my way? Just words said in fashion, I guess.

The necessity to crash on each other just to keep away from going numb, when things fall apart, to forgive, the struggle to forget some broken promises, failing to rise up and be someone from the heart, to feel warm. The urge to be perfect, to be “mature”. Now it may all seem perfect and controllable. But one fine day the perfect world will come crashing, the perfect person will be someone you will hate and the perfect time when friends have be there, will be the time they ll shut you out. Think twice before you say “I have become mature, that’s all”!  

Vantage Point

Things are not what they seem. It all depends on where you are standing and when. Though viewed as two different things, the position and time are actually not soo unrelated. For instance, a circle when viewed from an angle can appear as an ellipse. Its not just the viewer's perception, it can also be because the circle is not stationary. Thinking of things that way, nothing is stable or lets say constant. Then what are we basing our perceptions on? Logically speaking, its all based on floating assumptions.

Funny thing is its so easy to lose our way as we wade through the infinite possibilities. Trying to take hold of the situation doesn’t work always. Another example… a simple question:

Since school days, we have assumed that current flows from higher potential to lower potential. Then came the discovery of electron. The concept of potential stayed on, but the perception of the concept of current flow changed. So if current flow is actually due to electron flow then, why can’t we consider that as the direction of current instead of bringing in “conventional current flow direction"?

When I asked this question to my teacher in 6^th form, all I got was “there are far more applications than what u see now. Then there are rules, so even if your question is sensible, it doesn’t always have a sensible answer!”

Then came the wave/particle dilemma, as I termed it later. Years later I found sense in the answer, that didn’t make any sense then. There are too many possibilities to every question and a million more answers. But the success of design lies in the smart elimination of the less probable.

The importance of the vantage point becomes clearer with the question that didn’t become a rage because most people didn’t understand it in the first place. Simple question again:

Sum of the angles of the triangle is 180 degrees. But the position of the triangle can change it. What about it on a curved surface?

On a curved surface, the sum of the angles is greater than on a flat surface, also called a surface with zero curvature. So technically speaking, the basic “property” of the triangle is actually a special case. This discovery shook the basics of mathematics. When this question was raised, it was taken as an “approximation for all practical purposes”. That’s like saying the earth is flat.

So just think twice before you decide on anything… Just consider for a minute if you are in the right position at the right time to make the right inferences. :) :) 

Go Happy! :D

Labs are such a drag, especially after the viva. So we spice it up with some crazy talking. For instance, me announcing to my friends, “Lets hang out in the symmetry!”. I was surprised when I saw that ppl wanted to actually do that!!! Some cool ppl huh?! :D :P

A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine cajoled me into talking with a college-mate I once considered “close friend”. As I promised, I did try but didn’t quite go that way. First, sulked, then “What the hell, screw it!”.  Thank you lab-classes, for teaching me that skill. :P Attitude learnt : What’s the point if you aren’t happy? :P

With the cycle tests around the corner, its back to scrambling for knowledge with the stupid tests bugging you all the time! I don’t mind the assignments(the meaningful ones, not the rote ones, one of which actually sparked me off to write this particular entry!), but cycle tests??!!! Well no use complaining.

Well, its time to get back to my assignment! For fellow SRMites, all the best and fare well. :) :)

Girls just wanna have fun!!! :D

Okay, that’s one way of saying it! Two days and the hostel life has already caught on me yet again. Nostalgia, longing and memories all mix up to give a pleasant feeling making us all smile at ourselves. Thanks to the holidays rent out to SRMites due to Milan ’11 and our hostel friends who most graciously covered for us in the hostel, we actually loved the awesome feeling that comes with breaking rules! :D

Even though the first day was nice, the fun part started with the advent of the meatball tin! Well, we ll get to that later. Punctuality is one thing we Indians will never learn! After a whole lot of planning, my friend who was supposed to be in campus by 10 15 reached an hour later. Tired from the heat of the sun, all of us decided to take shelter in the room. Talking, talking, talking….. then a movie. Halfway through, my good friend decided to go out. Well, I did finish the stupid movie(which was btw titled “Just Friends”, which you wouldn’t watch if you didn’t want an early death!! Just horribly boring!! :/). I was left at the mercy of a mute final year architecture student till my hostel friend FINALLY turned up! This is one thing we experience only at the right time. Even though we meet our classmates everyday in our class, its only at times like this that we actually realize how nice and helping some people are. Thank you people for making our stay there feel welcome and enjoyable, we owe you one!

At around 6 00 pm, my other friend, who had gone to attend the event I,Chef, returned with a perfect batch of cookies! Whoa! Just yummy! :D then it was soon dinner time. Now the actual fun started. My cookie friend, who was Kashmiri, had received a tin of special meatballs from home. Problem was that the tin needed a can opener and all we had was a screw driver. After a desperate scramble for something even remotely near a hammer, we gave up. Its in times like this, innovation can reach its heights! Back to the start, we took the hard way of locksmith hammering with a screwdriver. After half an hour of taking turns and cursing, the tin was finally open! Phew! A digital camera always helps. When my other friends toiled hard, we caught them on the reel. :D a memory frozen on a memory card! :D :D Hot after a boil, the contents of the can more than compromised for the trouble the holder had given. At 9 pm, we were the last people in the mess. The mess food I had hated a semester ago, suddenly tasted fine when I wasn’t paying for it! Maybe this is what they meant when they said anything free seems good enough! ;) :D

Another surprise! The SRM wifi actually is faster than normal broadband connections! Youtube videos buffered faster that they were playing! Checking out tracks, we had a good laugh with some of the dumbest roadies videos ever! :D it was getting late and we decided to hit the pillows.

Fresh after a good night’s sleep, and geared up with good free mess food ;) , we made our way to the auditorium. Substandard performances in the vocals competition left me astounded as to why none of my friends or I made it through the preliminary SRM round! Crazy people! Anyway, lunch at Choice was another good round of food!

At around 5 30, we made our way to the Shreya Ghoshal concert. At 6 45, I had lost interest and ended up selling my ticket! :D :D I m not much of her fan, so didn’t matter much. Turned out, I did a good job. The hyped singer turned up 3 hours behind schedule, delaying the concert to after 11 pm. My friends trapped in, were starving while I was going about tasting good food from the canteen. :D :D Ha~! :P Too tired from the walking around, I dozed off. My friends, I learnt later, continued the talking till early morning.

It was all back to packing and leaving in the morning… it may sound lame to you reading this account, but it was among of the memorable days of the semester. The good feeling is here to stay for a long time. Only a few people can make me feel this way. I m happy I have friends with whom I can have a good time with, with whom I can make memories and have fun my way! Thank you for the awesome time! :) :)

Empty Words

 “Ask not what your country has done for you, ask what you have done for your country!”

The one word I do hear a lot these days is “scam”. The present government, though a very good one, is stuck badly between too many corruption claims. In this connection, Mr. Chetan Bhagat’s open letter to Ms. Sonia Gandhi did catch everyone’s attention. It caught mine too, but from an entirely different perspective!

For one, I didn’t like his way of addressing the whole situation. As to why he chose Ms. Sonia Gandhi to address the situation to, is still in the dark. Whatever his reason, we shall never find out. But I would like to point out major loop holes in his letter.

First of all, he says corruption comes from unchecked power. I do agree, but that’s not the main reason. Its our approach to any situation that defines corruption. The term corruption is too vast to be just bound within the limits of a political party, any political party for that matter. Passing an anti-corrution bill will be of no use as it will become just another line in the penal code. Corruption comes from the deep fathoms of the human heart. If we have to wipe out corruption, its there we’ll have to work, not by passing a bill.

In this connection, I would like to point out something in our everyday lives. As common citizens, we do know so many people being corrupt. But what do we do about it? Nothing. Well, I don’t really blame us either, for we know what happens if we do try to stand up against corruption. It will just be a drop in the massive ocean. So we console ourselves saying, we cant do anything about the situation.

As Mr. Bhagat points out, political parties don’t have a stipend system for young workers. But its wrong to assume that by introducing a stipend, the situation will become any better. I ll give you my justification. By this logic, the salaried employees of the government or any private companies should be clean. But we all know that’s not the case. Corruption doesn’t come from need, it comes from greed.

Having spent my whole life in a central government research campus where my father works, I know the hitches of reaching heights for your talents. Mr. Bhagat again makes an erroneous assumption that corruption is limited to money matters. Its not. The main reason is the wish to attain heights with ease. To look for a shortcut is a good thing, in the sense it helps you reach your goal in a shorter period of time. But to avoid labour and try to reach goals is not good. That’s where your money and contacts play their role. Isn’t that corruption, Mr. Bhagat?

Money may be the end result of corruption, but money cant solve the problem of corruption. When they said “money can buy anything”, they didn’t mean our morals too. If we can keep our morality alive, nothing can shake India. Its not something a political party or an individual, even someone as strong and respectable as Ms. Gandhi, can do. What leaders can do, is set examples which I believe is very much available. What we do need is realization that corruption comes not from outside but from within our hearts. The situation may tempt some people, the power may blind yet others, but we know better. The archaic bull is not corruption, it is greed.

I know a lot of people talked about this article, just like my friends did. But I don’t think anyone paid much attention to the elimination of corruption. That’s the problem. This generation is not bothered about the big picture. All they ask for is “What’s in it for ME?”. Want to do something about this? I say, try changing their mind sets. 

All this being said, the best thing to do is start from the simplest block of the wall, “me”. We can start the change from within. The start to any process is thought. If we can stop for a moment and think about our lives, we will realize that its quite simple. Hyping things up is never going to help us get anywhere. Young India shouldn’t stop at rising questions about problems. It should think about solving some of them. I certainly agree that its going to be no easy job, but to get to the end, all that we have to do is START!

Jai Hind!   

The Poke Master

Well in my defense I was BORED!!!

Its something of a coincidence, but the best moments in life are the simple ones that mostly arise out of boredom. The story of the Poke Master was also a result of intense boredom. I caught your mind voice, so I ll go straight to the heart of the tale. :D :D

One fine Saturday morning, a simple girl logged into facebook after days of abstinence and penance. But to her dismay, none of her friends were online. Then the stroke of genius! She decided to poke everyone! Thus was born the best Poke Master ever!!! :D

To her very great surprise, her friends responded to her pokes. Some texted her begging her to stop, others threatened to kill her, yet others ignored!!! But the poke master was not deterred from poking! The valour some people displayed in the poking field was honourable! Their pokesmanship was mind blowing!!! Their fame spread east and west.

For the poke master, the game became the soul of facebooking! The fame that came with the game was intoxicating! The poke master was also referred to as “the poker”. So, if u hear of the poke master, flee for dear life, for only the worthy can survive in the poking field! So beware!!!

Thus ends the tale of the Poke Master! :D

Facebook Behaviour

Social behaviour defines a person. The facebook behaviour, as we see it, defines their intellect. :D :P Facebook behaviour can be broadly classified into the following categories. :D :P Every one of us has atleast one person on our friend list

1. who puts up statuses every single day.
2. who puts up multiple statuses on the same day.
3. who puts up weird profile pics(yes that will be u, Bhel Puri :P).
4. who changes his/her profile pic every now and then.
5. who pokes everyone!
6. who comments on everyone’s statuses and photos.
7. who posts nonsense on our page which we constantly delete while abusing them in our minds!
8. whose chat window never works!
9. who is online the whole day normally, but when we wanna say something they go offline.
10. who says “long time, no see” and stop it there all the time. :S
11. who comments on your status which only u can understand but constantly leaves you in doubt as to how many more figured it out! :/
12. who gives out of context comments which no one understands and everyone ignores all the time :S
13. lastly, who puts up statuses and gets badly insulted ALL THE TIME :D :P

Any more classifications? :D :P ;)

Thou shall…

SRM! The one college where you can meet people of any kind. Surprised??? Well, don’t be. Just that the population is very high. So it improves the possibility of meeting specimens. :P but that’s not the point.

If you are a student of SRM, you would probably say “SRM is okay”, when asked about life in the campus. Especially, if you are a day scholar who has to travel close to 3 hours a day. But I tell you, life is fun here. Where else can you enjoy the three hour ride? I mean, we have AC buses, cmon! And with the obvious exclusion of the EEE department, you don’t have much work either. So, either way the three hour ride should actually be an excursion with the right friends in the bus. :D :P

As for me, every morning i get off the bus and wait for my friends to arrive at the canteen(which is pretty long because my bus reaches a good whole hour before college time! :S). What follows makes heads turn in the canteen. Literally! God knows what we speak about, but we laugh so heartily that the whole canteen is divided on two grounds: jealousy and doubts about our sanity. Well, I don’t blame either of them! :P

Then I visualize my friends in other colleges coming to their colleges, nodding their heads in greeting, reaching their classes on time, doing their work and going back to sweet home. Hell no! what a bore! I really pity them. Their college life is ruled by “thou shall not…do this, do that”. God really forgot to give a 11^th commandment! Thou shall not refrain from any fun possible! :D

So the next time someone asks you how life in SRM is, think about your life here, think about my blog ;), smile and say

 “Nothing less than great, get a life!”. :D

Class Stands

EEE??? First expression on people’s faces: :O this and then :/. Then :D, all the best! Hell ya! I m in EEE and still surviving strong! :D :P wanna  have a slice of the cake? Come to ESB block! :P somehow the EEE class is not what you think it is!

First thing, it has very few but interesting girls. The ratio is pretty bad, around 10 girls for 50 guys. So the blue nail polishes which are a frequent “surprise”, (leaving me taken aback) do stand out! And the relief that follows when the blue changes to a shocking pink is not pretty comprehensible by the other department ppl. ;) :D

You wanna meet some of the highest brains of the campus?? U r in the right place. Seemingly light hearted, the brains continuously squirming with activity, these ppl are a constant surprise. Nerds, fun-people, fashionable people, flirts(!!!), name it and you have it! :D and ofcourse colours!! ;)

If its lab day, its all the more fun. Every single poor soul is worried about it. And the last time writers who scribble away in a hurry are a frequent sight. No time back at hostel, hum bi bachen hi to hain!, they say. Lets look at what the teachers say to this: What did they tell u when u joined EEE, ma? :P inspite of all the misery, labs are fun too. The viva is very alien. So by the end of it, the doubt as to whether u say “ma’ for girls or guys is very understandable!!! :D

Well, now who said EEE=Energy Extracting Engineering??? (Well I just came up with that.) its just as much fun. The language teaching-learning process is the age old prank people still play. A couple of days ago, I heard the tamil guys teaching a paavum hindi guy that the bus conductor is called “beyimaani”. And to add to it they were enumerating a very interesting tale of how some ECE guy said “fa-ki-yu” to teachers for a whole semester without realizing what he was actually saying. Well, he thought he was wishing them. I shuddered to think what collateral damage it would have been if one of the teachers had figured it out! The evil ones of my class. But whats the fun if you are soo good all the time?! ;)

Still think EEE is hard? No way! Now I say, “Welcome to EEE”. :D

Petty Issues!

The war again! Me asking, arguing, fighting, begging mom to let me have a pet! I don’t know why parents don’t understand. Uph! First I started out strong saying I want a puppy. Straight denial, added with a look of “good joke, go mind your business!”. Yet, I ventured to try again today, saying I want a turtle. Well, I have been certified to be mad. :D but then, I cant say I am really bothered. :P

So today, I have decided: I am gonna sneak in a pet one fine day. I was suddenly reminded of the day when I brought home a homeless kitty which was meowing pitifully on the road as I made my way back home from the bus stop. That day, I was in a fix as to what to feed it. Barely a week old, the olive-sized eyes were the only attractive part of the skinny thing. It’s cries made me anxious, for I had no idea what I should feed it. A saucer of milk was the first thing that came to my mind. But it wouldnt drink it and continued to meow, loudly this time. Then I called up a friend who once had a cat in the house. I drew a blank there too. I was told, the kitten is too young and that he had no idea what it could drink. Then came the moment I most dreaded. The calling bell! I got so badly scolded for bringing it home in the first place. Not having much choice I left it back at the same place I found it. :( :(

Normally that would have been the end of it, but not this time. A couple of days later, I found my little friend sitting under my two-wheeler! I was astonished when it recognized me and came out of the shadows, meowing. At the same time I was devastated at how much it had thinned during the time. Well, I had to find it a home. I went around the area looking for an animal home, but no luck! So I took things into my own hands. I went around my apartment looking for a possible home for it in my building. After almost a whole hour of search, a driver agreed to take it home. I thanked him over and over again. :) :)

Now came the tough part, saying bye. :( kitty had made itself comfortable in my arms during the search and wouldn’t leave me! What attachment! With a heavy heart, I bid goodbye to the short but very sweet friendship.

Machines Lab!!!

Date : ?

Exp : ?

Aim : To perform any experiment in machines lab II

Components Required : 1 student per group who answers most viva questions

Apparatus Required : BLT, observation-notebook, calc

Theory : Blank in class. So try to understand the machines and their minds. I just lost it.

Procedure :

1. Enter lab on time.
2. Blink during viva. Manage to get one answer right.
3. Search for the rest on BLT, then complete viva. This step is purely upto the component to complete.
4. Wait for the component to complete circuitry.
5. Take readings.
6. Get re-do.
7. Copy reading from guiding manual.
8. Get attestation.
9. Exit lab.

Result : The given experiment was executed successfully and the graphs were plotted. 

Friends & Distance

A recent conversation about whether “long distance relationships last” took a very interesting turn with me giving it a new angle. While my friends were divided on whether it can work, I asked them what their opinion would be had the topic been about friendship. All of us were quiet for a while, thinking. As for me, I was thinking bout the last days of school life, when we all frantically filled up slam books, promising to keep in touch no matter how far our destinies took us. Thinking of it now, I can’t help laughing! What a load full of crap! We do keep in touch, like once in a year with a handful of people from school. But does that count as “friends” keeping in touch? It’s been three semesters and the numbers have dwindled since the start from around 10 to 2 right now. So my argument was that the essence of friendship remains with the memories but it does diminish with time when there is a lot of distance and no contact. I mean we meet new people, make new friends and when the older friends don’t keep in touch it really is lost over a period. Maybe for a couple of years we will try and keep talking on the phone, but after that everyone gets bored and suddenly its time to move on. And the phone conversations don’t help after a while when we don’t get to meet. However realistic they maybe, these conversations are still ‘virtual” and need to be supported with real meets and new fun to keep the fond memories going. When these don’t happen, we tend to move with people with whom we really can spend time with. Those who were saying long distance relationships can work were looking helplessly at me. But it’s the truth right?

Then came the stage we all dreaded: what after college? School was fun. But wasn’t really fun when compared to college right? We were more focused at studies back then and I am sure there are a lot of people(like me, I am being honest) who really don’t have much to miss about school life. There was only one choice, to give a promise that we will stay in touch no matter what. A promise, which we all knew would be broken. 

My life – Part 2010

2010 wasn’t the greatest of years, but it was the year I met/got close with some very important ppl who changed my life forever:

1. At first I thought she wasn’t so very nice, but after I got to know her better, became one of my closest friends. The canteen factor. :D :P

2. Boredom is sometimes good. Once I got soo bored I sent out random friend requests on facebook. One of them clicked to be a very good friend. The 2% luck factor. :P

3. One other friend I got into a slight misunderstanding with, made a big drama of a make up but became quite close to me after that. No looking back after that. :)

4. A classmate for two whole years at school, we never spoke. Now at college, the closest of friends. :) Guess there is a time for everything.

5. An old friend who couldn’t stop talking just academics till recently when I convinced (or rather cajoled) her into staying at my house. :D

5 people who made my life a way better than what it really was. If the past year was anything atall, it was “confused”. One thing I sure learnt was all of us need a test once in a while just to know the people we spend our lives with. Just when I thought maybe one was a friend, most of them gave me a good reason not to think so. At the same time a few others gave a reason to trust them over and over again.  

   

Another observation. When you put up the lines of an amazing song as your status on facebook, that too the ones that are really touching, everyone thinks by default you are in love! Well maybe I just liked the lyrics! :) :)

Then comes the phase when you are getting too close to a  person and need a little space. But all the pushing and struggle doesn’t work when you like that person, and not at all when you do fall for that someone. Feel that way with anyone? My advice: run while you can, if you can’t then please stop running! :) :) 

Another thing I learnt: the art of saying no. Being nice is one thing, but certain things need to be denied. It all depends on how it is put. For starters, no=not yes.

2010 sucked big time, but it did have its peaks. I m happy for all the memories. I have a feeling 2011 is gonna be just fine. For one, 2010 made me a lot wiser if not anything more. :)

PS: for my best friend, ^_^ smiley just rocks, its soo cute! :P