The Unexpected Friend

Whn adversities strike, we look around to see if we can get s helping hand from somebody. And i got this unexpected friend of mine during one such bad phase(in fact this turned out to be a nice experience whn i look back) of my life. He has been there with me all through my life but i was quite naive to realize that. I always wanted to be like him from my childhood on wards. i wore his big shirt to school when i was in fourth grade, i wore his 'mundu'(dhothi) at home at an young age even against my mi's wishes. i have got utmost respect for him but i dont know if i have loved him like i love my mi. I talk to him but i dont talk to him like i talk to my mi. Whenever i was asked the question who is my role model in life, i dint have to think twice. it was and is him only as always.

".....But it teaches a great lesson... There are limitations to our aspirations, desires and hopes. At the same same the loss has made you richer. Haven't you heard that it is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all? It will take some time to settle your mind and view things as normally.

In my opinion one should experience loss in love rather than achievement(s) alone. When in pain one won't understand the meaning of this statement. But, as the saying goes, wisdom comes late and then you will appreciate the great lesson. Love is a serene feeling and an experience. All men and women should experience it. Otherwise a great chapter of life is lost."

Powerful words....

Till now i used to say i respected him more than i loved him. But now on wards i feel he is the dearest friend i have ever got in my life. But i dont think i can pick up a quarrel with you for nothing which i used to do with mi hi hi...

And one last thing that i forgot t0 tell you in all these yrs...

Love you Dad..

urs

Solitude

I am scared of solitude. That is whn d wounds of the past draw blood from the heart n gets back to life.

To the unknown

i lost a battle to someone whom i dont know, havent even seen once but one thing i know is dat he is lucky. I know dat i am the loser n i bow out graciously. But let me tell u friend dat i am really really jealous of you and also let me mention that i aslo planned to kill u if i get a chance to meet u. I know i had been so naive.Now i perfectly understand that there r some things that cannot b obtained even if we dive deep into it.

i bow out graciously. i know u wont see this but deep down from my heart i wish u all the best and a happy life. May god bless u n my prayers.....

Aug 29 - Oct 28/2011

I was dreaming... A dream that lasted for two months. Woke up today only. When i woke up i was breathing heavily and also felt a chill all through my body. But i couldnt find what was causing it. I looked at the mirror. I saw me altogether different, pale,lifeless... Just then i realised that my shirt was getting wet. In fact i was bleeding profusely. I removed my shirt and looked carefully and I saw something missing from my body. A big hole deep into my chest with a dagger and my heart missing from my bosom and lying scattered on the floor like pieces of glass.

Random Thoughts

In kerala, 'bandhs' were a frequent happening by the opposition parties to mark their protest against anything. Every month there would b atleast 2-3 bandhs. During these days vehicles were not supposed to be on the road, no shops shud remain open. In short it shud be a total stand still. As a result of this, no big companies were willing to start their manufacturing plants in our "Gods Own Country". To lessen the burden on public, bandhs were banned. So some political parties couldnt tolerate this. so they changed the name frm bandh to hartal and now the same thing happens in a different name.

Looking into some of the positive aspects like the case of literacy and education, kerala is far far ahead of other indian states. Also one among the few indian states with a high female to male ratio. In health care, it is estimated that kerala would surpass USA in terms of facilities provided, quality of the doctors and cost.

But somewhere, i feel we are losing our way. it might be the only state where there is a large number of unemployed youths even after studying upto graduate level. As the saying goes "excess of something good is also poisonous", I feel due to the high level of education, ppl hav also started to think crookedly or how to get away if they do something wrong and our law and order system is twisted for their own vested interests. when i think of the much awaited 'LokPal Bill', even though 50% participation of the public is demanded,our ' educated' politicians will make sure that there are enough loop holes for them to get away for what they hav done to the country. Or else if everything comes out to b as desired by the ppl of india, soon our prisons will b filled with our politicians and we will hav to look for land for building new ones:- A fair enough reason to reject the bill 42 times in the assembly from 1972

Ha ha ha

i was walking to our canteen. on my way i got a call from the placement coordinator asking me to be the volunteer for the company KLA tencor which was on the campus for recruitment. I agreed since i had not much work then. I went there. There were around 20 students appeared for the preliminary test. My job there was to help the HR and Technical heads in conducting the exams, arranging food for them or in short if anything was needed, make it happen.

The tests were of 1 hour duration. So in between i got bored and went out of the room n waited in the corridor. Meantime one of their HR guy also came out. We had a friendly chat. He liked our campus very very much and he started asking me abt various things

HR: "how many students are there ?"

I : "don know the exact number but around 3000"

HR: "how big is the campus?"

I : "around 450 acres"

the chat went on and finally he stood up to go. he took a few steps, then turned back and asked "how many students passes away each yr from iisc???" @#$#@$@#% "What!!!!" i couldnt open my mouth for a few seconds. seeing this he repeated the same question.

"you mean how many students complete their course each yr??" i asked

"yes"

Cost of a Passion

“Ring ring” My phone rang. I looked at the screen. It’s K. Perera (K stands for ‘kalla’). We call each other different names of which one is K.Perera. I also call him d man who got 23 times consecutively ‘the international fool of the yr’ award.

“what u idiot?” I asked

“match on Saturday. Will u come?” he asked

Cricket is my passion and I do everything to play. There are better players than me in the team. In fact I would rate Mr. K.P as the most talented all-rounder I have ever seen but he doesn’t work hard enough to build his stamina to set himself up for a long innings. Anyway I decided to go.

The bus ticket from Bangalore to Aluva cost me Rs 317. So on Friday at 2.30pm, I started my journey. I bought a bottle of water (Rs 15) and a mango slice for Rs 35(MRP Rs 27). Only after the shopkeeper returned a balance of Rs 15 for my Rs 50 note that I realized that the actual price of the drink. The journey wasn’t alright either. Sitting on the chair for long hrs made my back very stiff n also there was an accident on the way that took some time to clear the road. On the way, the driver stopped the bus in front of a hotel to have dinner. We( the passengers) also followed suit. The food was just ok but the cost would have been surprising even for shylock. Rs 55 for two parottas but I was so hungry that I had no other option but to have it. Came out of there as soon as possible, bought 2 bananas for Rs 5 to satisfy my stomach.

I couldn’t sleep properly. In fact it’s really hard for me to sit and sleep. I reached aluva by 4.45 am. At 5.03am I got a bus to my hometown n by around 6am I reached home. Our match was scheduled to start at 8.30 am so it’s more than 24 hrs since I slept properly. We went to the ground by a car n we had a splendid outing. Everything went right for our captain Mr. K.Perera.

I reached home n by dat time dad had made arrangements for my return journey on Sunday. He had to pay Rs550 to a travel agent to get my ticket ready in short notice. The timing of the train as printed in the ticket was ‘sch dep 06-03 17:00’. But both of us didn’t realize that the time was evening 5. Instead we took it as 06.03pm which was actually the date. Nothing more I missed the train. I had to go back so I took a 2^nd class ticket for Rs126 and boarded the sleeper coach of the next train. The malayali TTE was really harsh and even before I opened my mouth for asking something he said a big vociferous NO. But there was a pantry car worker who took pity on me n showed me a compartment to sit which will b boarded by passengers after 5 hrs frm the time I boarded the train. I sat there till 11pm and when the train reached Coimbatore I had to vacate the seat. I was standing by the side of the door on which there was a poster which read ‘Passengers travelling without proper ticket will b prosecuted. Such passengers are liable for fine of Rs 1000 or imprisonment upto 6 months or both’. I started imagining how jail would b n just then another TTE (a tamil guy around 40 yrs of age) came by. He asked me ticket. I started explaining him in English but he seemed not to understand properly

“Go to 5” (Come with me to S5) this was what the TTE meant when he said this which I understood later. I followed him. The train reached Salem (around 11.50pm). I was standing by the door of S5 compartment. The TTE came again

“hey, buy a cold drink” the TTE told me. This gave me the impression that he would give me a berth. So I obeyed him. Rs 30 gone.

Then he called me n said in broken English.

“actually ur fine is…..250+100=350-50=300” he continued “such things shud not b done….” Lots of advice…”ok, u can use this berth”. He showed me a side upper berth. Then he calculated again. Took out some ‘fine’ books from his pocket and finally gave me the bill. It said Rs 85. What happened to the rest of the money Rs 215?shooshhhhhhh…. the side upper berth was a little short for me to sleep. More over the TTE sat just beneath me. So passengers like me kept on coming asking for berths. Evrytime the TTE would switch the light (which was hardly a meter away from me) on n off which made my night horrendous.

Somehow I managed to reach my hostel room n I realized dat I lost my cycle key which will again cost me Rs 85. So finally a journey which started at Friday 2.30pm to Monday 7.45am cost me Rs 1521.5 + 85=1606.5 including the miscellaneous charges for bus tickets. I really feel stupid now when I calculated this

Ormakal

Today was different. unlike my usual days, got up early n as everybody know it was for playing cricket. but had a bad outing altogether for my team except for occasional brilliance which was not enough to win the game. i hate losing...cant concentrate, cant sleep. Through out the day, i kept on thinking how to improve....

The awesome response that i am getting for my photo album "TKM days" is flooding my inbox. That is one thing that makes me forget some other things. By evening frnds were getting ready (skipping tea) for the 'job treat' that we had to give. went to lab but couldnt do much...n the most important moment of today came at 8:29pm when SHE called me after a gap of more than 5 yrs. we talked for around 15 minutes... she hasnt changed much... told her that today i am giving a treat. She does know what the word 'treat' means. n the usual blackmailing... call my mother n tell kinda.... but she doesnt tell even if she calls my mother

the treat was over just now... came back... thought of writing some thing so this post... also feeling heavy even though i didnt do much....

Collage

This is where I am: Indian Institute of Science

My pets taking some time off


This is what we do: A Scene from IISc





Harbhajan singh batting

Welcome 2011

This was indeed a very different kind of New Year for me. Nice serene beaches of Goa gave me a warm atmosphere to spend a memorable time with my friends. We reached Calangute beach by 11.30 a.m in the morning on the last day of 2010. The taste of chicken biriyani from the Kingfisher typsy shack wasnt great but hunger makes u eat whatever u get(which i have learnt long back). My frnds were " having things " for which only they really came here for though i am not much interested in those. Stayed there up to 12.30 a.m enjoying the cool breeze and watching the New Yr fire works.

Finishing all our mischievous acts in the beach, we reached our hotel n by 2.30 went to sleep. The first day of the New Yr, i woke up with severe stomach pain. The pain was so intense that i was vomiting and opening up my bowels simultaneously, once even in my pants. Got admitted in a govt hospital soon. The lady doctor, though beautiful, was not so kind enough to check me up thoroughly. A few presses (felt like punches) to my stomach and she is done. She prescribed some medicine and it was turn of the duty nurse for the rest. The nurse thrust a needle into a vein in my right wrist and to my surprise n to a lot of pain, she was adjusting the position of the needle while it was still in my vein. Already pain in the stomach, on top of that dysentery n vomiting, this seemed too much for me. Felt like kicking her to antartica but couldnt even move. That was my condition then. By around 1 O'clock, i felt better and got discharged (rather ran away). Survived my 1st day of the New Yr on 2 bread slices.

My misery didnt end there. By night we were on our way back to bangalore in bus. The adrenaline levels of my frnds were so high from the 'special drinks' that they had and some of them were doing 'stunts' in the bus. One puked in the bus and another one on to my shoulder leaving me that night full of shitty smell ha haaaaa....

Memorable indeed the most memorable New Year i have ever had in my life time

A New Beginning

Fresh thoughts, ideas, hopes, aspirations, anxieties....some of the things associated with the new bunch of guys n gals who arrived in the campus. Here we prepare to welcome them

We extend u a warm welcome...IISc(2010)
thanks to Deepak Madival, Chunendra Sahu, and all those who helped me in compiling this video

Farewell to You

They were always a source of inspiration. The first ones to seek advice in a crisis. Like an elder brother, a guide and more over a true friend to whom we could share anything and everything.

Wish you all the best and we miss you Our Seniors (IISc 2010).
thanks to Deepak Madival, Chunendra Sahu,Varun S and all those who helped me in compiling this video