Once in a blue moon!

அனைவருக்கும் வணக்கம்!
Before I start off, I would like to convey my heart felt Christmas and New Year Wishes to all my friends who are visiting this page! :)
Christmas is always cool for me, even though I don't celebrate it! Last year, I saw my best buddy in school after many many years! This year, it turned out to be a moment of bliss!
It all started when dad invited me for a morning walk. Let me be more specific - I never go for morning walks in Chennai - (in Chennai only, sorry Premnath!) never! There are many reasons for it - dogs, pollution, students waiting for college buses - this is just not the atmosphere for 'my' walks! But that's me folks! :D
You can also say I am too lazy for it! உடல் பயிற்சி nu சொல்லலாம் but ... ! NO!
Today I had some 'அசரீரி' from heaven! Today something happened. "Go Arun, go!!! Don't look! Go!!!"
And I went...
Got to say, it's the best thing, at least one of the best things to happen to me in the recent times. I saw things that usually don't happen in my area in Chennai. Probably, it was made up for this day or something, I don't know! May be, it was just bound to happen... Let me list a few...
I saw people wearing sweaters and monkey caps (This is Chennai!)... Fog (Yes!)... Cloudy lazy weather perfect for walking... Also, appa had company (his friend had come)... சென்னையில் இப்படி ஒரு வானிலை நான் நினைவு இருக்கும் வரை பார்த்தது இல்லை! காலில் வலியும் தெரியவில்லை, பாதை தூரமும் தெரியவில்லை! என்ன ஒரு மகிழ்ச்சி!!! ஆ ஹா ஹா! அவ்வப் போது பெற்றோருடன் காலையில் நடந்து பாருங்கள்! அப்போது நான் சொல்வது புரியும்!
We entered a reputed restaurant (South Indian of course! No names please!) and they ordered coffee and asked me what I wanted. I said, "பொடி இட்லி!".
They got their coffee cups, I didn't get mine! The waiter came and said "பொடி இட்லி time ஆகும் சார்!". I said "ஓகே, எனக்கு வேணாம்". Uncle and dad looked at me. "Time pass ஆச்சு இல்ல, போகலாம்!" என்றேன்...
We bought some fruits and sweets for relatives and walked back home. "Not those apples, he has sugar"; "That sweet, sugar less if possible!". "இல்ல, அவர் சாப்பிடுவாரு"!


" நான் தமிழன் என்று அவர்கள் பழம் வாங்கும் போதும், இனிப்பு வாங்கும் போதும், உரையாடும் போதும் ஒவ்வொரு முறையும் என் நினைவிற்கு வந்தது!" I felt really glad I changed my mind and came with them. 'Intuition' you see! Salute the spirit of Tamil Nadu!

I am pretty sure we walked around 5 kilometers. That's high, but I never thought it would happen. I looked at the watch. நேரம் சென்றது தெரியவே இல்லை! 8.30 என்று என் கடிகாரம் சிரித்தது! எனக்குள் சிரித்துக் கொண்டு வீட்டின் உள் சென்றேன்!

மீண்டும் சந்திப்போம்!

என்றும் அன்புடன்
உங்கள் அருண்கார்த்திக்! :)

புத்தாண்டு வாழ்த்துக்கள்!

The Mistaken Identity!

Hi all! :)
Before I start off, let me wish all the readers a very happy December - a season of holidays, celebration, music, Christmas and New Year! I love December a lot! It has something for everyone - kids get chocolates from Santa Claus, we get holidays, the old people definitely find great solace in music season, at least in Tamil Nadu!
Very recently, the whole word seemed to sing "Why this kolaveri di..." Can't help listening to that song - Well, I did listen... a five times perhaps. But that was all. It is really nice! Got to agree!
In fact, a tamil song creating waves all around the world is really a thing to celebrate for the people of Tamil language and other Tamilians! Some article read "Why this... giving a tough time for people like Lady Gaga..." Well, yeah, this is much better than her songs in any case!
There were millions of shares in facebook and other social networking sites. I even saw the song in UTV Bindaas - first time ever, a tamil song! (I have seen some retarded tamil ads in that channel, but first time a song!). To top it all, a WIKIPEDIA page!
All good, except the madness that was unfortunately associated with this song! "Proud to be Tamilian" some one wrote! Oh are you??? I never understood how this song represented TAMILIANS! Indeed, it doesn't represent Tamil Nadu either! It's just a random song with an interesting tune! That IS all! If you want to hear good tamil songs, look for somewhere else!
All said and done, I love this song too. But I am not listening it now. And I don't think anyone is listening it now either! That says the story...! I still have songs from 'Roja' in my phone. We never considered listening 'Kolaveri' in earphones!

கொதிப்புடன்,
அருண்கார்த்திக்!

மீண்டும் சந்திப்போம்!

ரயில் பயணங்களில்!

My dad and I were watching TV on a lazy Sunday morning. Suddenly some scene reminded my dad of something that happened years ago. He immediately narrated that to me... and this is how it went... And it will go on to stay in my mind for a really long time!

"நான் அப்போ college படிச்சிட்டு இருந்தேன். Train ல போயிட்டு இருந்தேன். நான் போன ரூட்ல passengers நிறைய பேர் அப்பப்போ cycle parts எடுத்துட்டு போவாங்க.

Another routine day. Everything was going on as usual. அப்போ அங்க வந்த TTE ஒரு ஆளை பார்த்தார்.

"பைல என்ன  இருக்கு?"

"ஒன்னும் இல்லை சார்! எப்பவும் போல சைக்கிள் spare parts!"

"I know the difference between parts of cycle and cycle in parts! கீழ இறங்கு!" என்றார்!

அவ்ளோ தான்!" (Experience!)

அந்த காலத்து English அவ்ளோ மோசமும் இல்லை;

இந்த காலத்து English அவ்ளோ super உம் இல்லை!

சந்திப்போம்!

ak

Movies!

Some movies I don't know why... stay in our mind. I have almost always watched movies when ever I am in tournaments... after I got my laptop! Movies are wonderful especially when we are so very upset and down and out! Some movies make us happy, some spoil our mood, some wake us up, some movies we are forced to watch along with our friends, some movies we watch for movies' sake! Whatever happens, there's none without movies! Here are some of my memorable movies starting from my recent favourites...
1) Blades of Glory
2) The Pursuit of HappYness

3) Jab We Met
4) Rocky Balboa
5) Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi
6) Padayappa
7) Anniyan
8) Lord of the Rings trilogy
9) My Name is Khan
10) The Secret

Until next time... Watch these! Not all movies made are bad!

ak :)

Carbon!

This interesting incident happened in the recently concluded Manali International Rating Tournament!
This was one of those tournaments where the players had to pin their own scoresheets. It's a boring job to do! (For the non chess-players, scoresheets are used to record moves; one copy for us and one for the official use. Take two sheets, insert a carbon in between and pin it - that was the job)
There was this box full of carbons, to its side, a box of scoresheets. Scoresheets were all the same. I picked the first two!
For the carbons though, the case was different. First I picked one, then found it torn at one end...
Then I picked another, it was not satisfactory.
I picked another, but the next one looked good. I settled for the third one!

There's always one more thing that's better than what we have! Human beings are never satisfied!

ak :)

Challenge!

Hi all... :)
This semester (6th) of mine started a bit late than usual owing to the Tamil Nadu General Elections. I was left with nothing to do but to write. Not to mention, I missed my State Open Championship held at a walking distance from my house. It hurts!!!
Having scored just around the Seventies in all the previous semesters except the first one, I was pretty sure I will be somewhere around that this time around too. But then, a thought occurred to me. Why not give this one a try? During study holidays, I played a tournament but then, all that I could do was just be a spectator to the State Open. In a nutshell, I was left with the Semester in hand. I remembered reading... 'Be the best in what you are' somewhere in my useless 12th Grade. These lines rang in my mind again and again for 3 times. I took my books...
Everything else seemed to fall in place...
1. PD was ok
2. Artificial Intelligence was marvellous
3. DBMS was a real toughie, with lots to study. I managed it pretty well
and the last three also!

:)

Cheers!
ak

Few hours at the terrace!

Hello all!

SMS... Facebook... Assignments... Calls... TV... Yeah, I am not talking about your lives, but mine! I guess yours would be similar too! Hi-fi!

This day, the 5th of May, 2011, the famed Government of Tamil Nadu had something to offer to me - POWER CUT! 20:30 hours, my area had a power shutdown all of a sudden. We knew it was just an accidental power cut and the power would turn up soon. But what made this special was the experience that it brought to me on this night!

First of all, I was hungry. Mom was determined to make Dosas even when there was no light. We had a few lamps to make up for it as usual. Ok, emergency lamps, but I did not turn them on! I wanted stone-age lighting effects. My mind travelled back to the good old Kindergarten times when there were frequent power cuts in my 'town' of Dharmapuri. It was fun though... Eating in the company of oil lamps!

Dinner was done pretty quickly, courtesy my hunger.

The power was lazy to turn up. I wanted to go to the terrace with my mobile phone and I did just that! Wow! I quickly remembered one amazing fact - I had not been to terrace at all in some five good years (except a few nights with friends in the State Open at Mannargudi, May 2010)... I felt so fresh, probably a feeling of bliss when some cool breeze (Yeah, Chennai!) kissed me out of nowhere! I really wondered if Chennai was so cool. And then my phone beeped for sms. I looked at the sky. It was pale White and had a few stars to show. It was not all Black. I could see the traffic on roads! Mother came and we travelled back again when she recited a few lines of Tamil poetry which we cherish a lot...

'அரிது அரிது மானிடராய் பிறத்தல் அரிது

அதனினும் அரிது...'

(If you readers cannot understand Tamil, contact me to understand this!)
As it often happens, we managed to spot a few flights flying with three lights... We Tamilians always watch it every time as if we have never seen an airplane before. I am in Chennai now, I guess I can't avoid it either! We enjoyed the stars again when it happened...

The power came back! Good bye Nature!
Lights... Noise... Traffic...
---
Few things I learnt this night...
1) There is no substitute for fresh air! :D
2) Power cuts can be a mixed blessing!
3) The greatest enjoyments in life are available free of cost!
4) Don't search for happiness somewhere else when it's right next to you!
5) All is well! :)

Wishing you a bright life without power cuts...
ak :)

Life's boring?

Hi all :)

This day, April 30, 2011, I came across yet another unforgettable experience in my daily life...

I saw my grandmother writing 'Ram' in her notebook, She has a special note for that. It looks like an excel sheet. According to her, finishing one book equals writing 'Ram' in the box one lakh times. So far she has completed THREE books. She's in her fourth, and she has done more than half of it.

Hearing this, I was flabbergasted! Come on! 3,50,000 times??? I couldn't help but ask her how she could manage such a thing. She said, "I watch mega serials; but I write this anyway:)!" But then, writing in that small box so many times is not a joke by any means. Observing my puzzled look, she continued...

"It's easy Arun. I write in diagonals, I write in assorted lines, some times leaving some boxes in between, I frame some patterns, with a lot of dots... You see! I then manage to fill in the boxes one by one. This is how it goes!"

I realized how these great men and women of our previous generation led their lives. I felt really humbled by her extraordinarily simple explanation. I pledged myself yet again...not to say life is boring! :)

Until next time, have a nice time!

Have enthusiasm!!! :)

ak

Smile Please!

I witnessed this memorable incident in one of the many memorable bus journeys of my splendid life!
---
I boarded this bus (a vestibule bus, with a bit of rubber in between; Chennaiites must be knowing!) from Koyambedu and in the same stop, a family with a man, the woman, two children boarded the bus. I was comfortably seated near the back entrance of the bus as usual (it's more comfortable to sit there; it's just next to the way to get down!) and I could easily see this family.
I could easily say they were village people, but to me, they seemed to be the happiest people in the entire bus (the bus was bigger than normal buses with the 'black-rubber' vestibule in between!). The man was playing some thing with his wife, the children were talking to each other happily (probably some jokes, since they were laughing their tiny asses off!)...
Then when the lady turned to a side, I saw some great visible scars of injuries by the side of her hand (obviously this would have been made by her husband)!!! I looked at the man again. He had squint eyes (one looked like some plane crashed on it, I think the left one... yeah, left eye!) and stern looks. He looked like the man who would drink every night in the road-side Tasmac shop and beat his wife up back home! It was frightening. But the great woman from Tamil Nadu (yeah, I am proud!) is still loving her husband to the core (I could see the genuine happiness in her eyes in spite of all these, whenever she spoke with him and stood by his side... Salute the lady!

"Probably all young couples should use public transport too! Avoid divorce!"

This incident is not going to be erased from my memory for a long long time!
Long live Tamil culture!

ak

TIME TO THINK, ENGINEERS!

Out of so many things I heard from my friends recently, this one keeps ringing in my mind again and again. And hence it will remain here! I put it even as my facebook status once!

"I don't deserve Infosys. I deserve something special!"

 - Sri Prasanth, Chess Player, Engineering Graduate

LIVE LIFE!

ak

FIRST THINGS FIRST!

"Kiss the neck, kiss the ear!"
- Ashwin Jayaram 'One thousand lamenting sessions'
Do not hurry with your life. Things are not running anywhere. All you have to do is just plan well!
Enjoy life! Rule the world!

ak

Sportsmanship!

This is one of my most famous remarks on a victory!
"He played well. I played better!"
                       - Arunkarthik
Nice way to stop the conversation! ;)

ak

SMS!

"One typed message with my name in it is worth more than
A hundred forward messages!"
- I forgot who said it! :)

Memories!

"A thought of beauty is a joy for ever!"

                            - Arunkarthik

                 (One thousand lamenting sessions)

Have great memories and smile to yourself!

Arunkarthik :)

Love!

This 'evergreen' incident happened in a train. I was travelling from my hometown Dharmapuri to Salem in a passenger train when this beautiful scene happened. I felt really fortunate to have been born in Tamil Nadu after witnessing this!

I was seated with my grandfather. Seated opposite to us was a very old couple - the man could have easily been around 75 and his wife (so graceful, u could see the love she had for him behind all the wrinkles) may be around 70 (Tamilians, so some age difference at least). The man, typical tamilian, big spectacles, wrinkles, probably from the southern parts of Tamil Nadu. He was reading 'குறையொன்றுமில்லை' written by மூக்கூர் லக்ஷ்மி நரசிம்மாச்சரியார். (Yeah, I remember it all!)

After a long read, he showed a paragraph that he liked ... to his wife. She gave a great heavenly smile and read the paragraph (with him) and they had a smile together. She gave the book back to him and he started to read again!

The பாட்டி started to look somewhere else again!

And I have remembered this incident ever since...

"Happily ever after!"
A fantastic lesson about true love... indeed!

ak

Live Life!

"I don't believe in predictions!
I believe in human beings!"
                  - Arunkarthik
It is much better to have faith in ourselves and go on to live every moment in life than to pay unnecessary attention to predicting the future and pondering over it. After all, a little amount of suspense will just add more fun to your life!
LIVE LIFE TO THE FULLEST - we live only once!

Have a great life!

ak :)

LOVE!

On this year's Valentine's Day, I had the opportunity to talk to one of my friends who has been in love for more than 1500 days now. I asked her what the secret was. So many great persons in the world have summed up great things in life in just three words. This time, it was my friend's turn:

"Just being true!"

            - Swathi Uma

How nice and easy it is to say! It takes an entire life to live by those words...

'Great people do exist!'

Arunkarthik

Pause!

"Golden words are not repeated!"
                            - Maanasa Priyaa, 1998
Even though this quote is old, it holds true for many things even today! Some times some things missed, do not happen again. Some times in life, it's now or never!
Stay awake every moment! :)

ak

PASSION

Day 1: 6:15 AM
Mom: How is the Sambhar?
AK: It's nice!

Day 2: 6:15 AM
Mom: How is the Chutney?
AK: It's out-of-the-world!

Day 3: 6:15 AM
Mom (yawning): பொங்கல் எப்படி இருக்கு?
AK: நீ தூங்கிட்டு பண்ணாலும் நல்லா தான் இருக்கும் (eyes over the pongal still)!

This has been happening for 20 years now!
If you think what you do is boring... Think again!
Is cooking more interesting than what you are doing?

Until next time,
See you! :)

தமிழ் ஹைக்கூ - 1

நானும் ஒரு கவிஞன் தான்...
கழிவறையில்!

அருண் கார்த்திக்

WAKE UP!

"Just because you take one or two decisions on your own,
It does not mean you don't respect your parents!"
                                                 - Ashwin Jayaram

The quote is self-explanatory. This is one of the greatest advises one could get from a friend, in my case, my best friend. When I was faced with taking a major decision in some part of my life, my friend Ashwin gave me this piece of advice. I don't know if he said this on his own or not, but definitely, this helped me take a decision without a feeling of the slightest guilt!

The next time you face a critical decision-making moment in your life, remember this - we are in the 21st century. There may be many a time when we have to make choices all by ourselves. Don't go astray by everyone's suggestions. Think for yourself! Rule the world!

All the best!

ak :)

My Second blog!

First of all, I would like to thank all those who read my first blog and gave valuable suggestions and comments. You guys mean a lot to me!
The idea of a second blog struck me quite recently when I decided to stick on to a particular theme for my blog. Well... in this blog, you will find
1) Inspirational, intelligent quotes and words from my friends and other people in my life and of course, myself ( I do not post quotes from great personalities - if u r looking for the boring motivational stuff of the last millennium, just yahoo or google!) which are well-founded!
2) Some facts for life! :)
3) Other interesting stuff which are needed for a great life!
4) Some amateur poems (Tamil and English)!
5) I do not copy (except in SRM exams) stuff - everything is original here!
6) Any resemblance in my posts to those that already exist somewhere else is purely co-incidental!
Any suggestions or comments always welcome!
None of the posts will take more than seven minutes to read!
Some posts may be in Tamil also! I can't guarantee that everything here will be in English - I am a Tamilian!
The main theme of my second blog - 'WELCOME TO THE 21st CENTURY!'

Welcome to my second blog!