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