Oct 31, 2006

Internals make my internals squirm!

Three days is all it takes to get over. But the feeling you get after it is past and you've done well is one of immense relief. Last minute(not literally) xeroxing(is that a verb?), last minute cramming, the look of a war hero on the face after coming out are all the things associated with a person who is in the "INTERNAL-WEEK". All questions of results apart, the very termination of the internals brings out almoghty sighs of relief from everyone. People in various states of tension, happiness, joy, sorrow, indifference and what not can be seen treading dust. Pens and pencils streak across the paper at speeds never before seen! Frantic hands pick up scales and then realise that their owner forgot to bring a pencil. Improvisation is the need of the day. Pens substitute pencils and make a ghastly drawing ghastlier! The glances of teachers creeping up from behind annoys one to the maximum. It is not as if one is writing a plan to bring down the college or something. Belief is something a teacher can never have, at least not 100%. Internals are hardly treated as something very serious but it does cause jitters however. From the moment the question paper is given till the moment the paper is taken away, it is one boring task. I really get surprised sometimes by some people(not boys!!It's called discretion people!!!) who get extra sheets to write. By extra I mean more than necessary just to write really long answers in a big drawling handwriting. But most often the answer required is a precise one. Thank heavens I did really well in these internals.

One can only wonder what the examiners think of achieving by conducting internals. If it is something different from the externals, it can be understood. But the same pattern is followed which does not make sense to me. Is it just my screwed up mind or is it really a messed up system? I think it is the system.(obviously!!) Innovation keeps a person alive with exuberance. Monotony sucks. That is the blatant truth. My vote is for scrapping the present way of conducting internals and thinking of something better. That is left to them.

Are you pondering what I'm pondering??

Oct 24, 2006

When schumi overtook kimi!!

Funny how the title bears resemblance to the flick "when harry met sally"! Anyone who reads the title should understand what I'm talking about. Otherwise I think I would be totally right in classifying that person under the category of "NERD". Nerdship or nerdliness is guaranteed if someone does not or has not heard about Michael Schumacher. The victory hop on finishing first, the warm hugs to the team on losing, the tantrums thrown after losing due to some one else's mistakes- all these I can remember as though they are just happening right in front of my eyes.

7 titles-that is not any mean feat. But that is not the only thing that matters. The name and fame he brought to the game mattered much more. Not only that. He shut the door on the face of the critics by proving that an F1 driver was not only the machine like being behind the wheel, that there are emotions associated with them, that beneath the helmet is a man like no other. His was no mean feat. Starting tenth, going all the way to 20th then fighting your way back to 4th..Well that may sound like a fairy tale. If that may be called myth then we just have to rewrite the meaning of myth in all dictionaries.

First he overthrew the challenge posted by Mika hakkinen though mika beat him a few times. That was a rivalry to watch. Really sweet!
Then came raikkonen and montoya and ralf. They did not offer much of a resistance but there were a few heart stopping moments. In one such season, I think 2003, he won the title with 5 to 6 races to go in hungary itself. Now that defines a true champion.

He never lost belief in his car, his team or himself. Every race presented him with an opportunity to prove himself which he did gloriously and with panache. The childish jubilance on that mellow pink face and the champagne celebrations after that victory leap will never be forgotten. At least by me. The moment he overtook Kimi I felt as if "Now I've seen it all!!" Wheel to wheel baby!! Now that's racing. There is a difference between a good driver and a good racer. Racing is not always about speed. It demands precision and cunning. Schumacher was an exponent of both. We can only hope Ferrari bring out the same in Kimi.

I don't think I would be wrong in saying that the word "LEGEND" has finally got its meaning.

The rest is silence.

The other side of life

"Life is like a box of chocolates. You'll never know what you'll get." The same way one always fails to be impressed by his treasures till they slip away right under their noses. A call of enlightenment was issued to me. The means it got to me????
YRC notice board!!!! I was one of the few who were enlisted to go on an orphanage visit. It was just one of those YRC camps was what I first thought of it as. I was asked to come to college on a saturdaymorning which was clammy and cold. That too at 7 30. We had to load rations, water and stuff into the bus. Then we got in and the bus started. It was a long ride to the orphanage and a lot of events happened on the way there aboard the bus but those are not worth mentioning in the present context. It might also be construed as my laziness to type!!

Then we ended up at the orphanage which was as secluded as a single hair on a bald guy's head. The camp director asked us to play witht he kids and clean up the place. Me and my pal were totally pissed off hearing that. But we kept our thoughts to ourselves. We were split into batches and our batch was asked to do the hard work. There was this huge mound of who knows what. and the other side of it was shallow. It sounded simple. We had to level the place. It would have been easier if we had been given an automated hauler and a road roller but instead we were given two crowbars and a few shovels. Crawling everywhere were ants(giant ones), bugs of every imaginable kind, Kambli poochi(what's that in english?), pooran(again???) and heaps of weeds which were waiting to be weeded.

They say hard work pays. It did. After an hour of work we smiled at the work we had done. Half the area was as even as even could be. The next batch took over our job and we were left to the presumably easier job of playing with the orphaned kids. When I looked at them, I felt how horrible a person can be. How did they ever have the heart to give away such kids? But viewing it from another perspective, I realised how much better off these kids were here than they could have been with their parents. They were well taken care of. They were allowed to play all they wanted, watch movies, and what not. One guy actually flew. Let me explain that. There is this merry go round over there. The kids just sat down on allt he seats. And asked me to push it. I gave an almighty shove(:)). It spiraled around like a whirlwind. This guy stood up and caught hold of the bars. Due to the centrifugal force that was acting away fromt he centre, as he lifted his legs, they just flew up and he was almost flying. But then he flew totally because his hand slipped and fell down in a heap on the ground. To all of our amazement he just got up , brushed the dirt off, grinned like a four year old who just got a lollipop(he might have been a four year old for all i know!!) and once again started the routine!!
After some time the time for departure came. What started out to be a major pain actually turned out to be a delightful experience. Not entirely delightful because I'd always prefer waking up late and reading a comic to toiling in the mud with creepy crawlies. Nevertheless..............

Then as usual the camp ended with R&R at monkey falls. Reaching PSG tech at 7 30, I looked back to the start of the day. It was not a waste of time after all. I got to cut the programming lab class anyway. As soon as i landed at the college I rushed to RS Puram. The day ended well with a sumptuous treat given by my friend meera on the occasion of her birthday. All is well that ends well they say!!

Life rocks.

Oct 21, 2006

The journey continues..........

So if you people had read my previous post, which obviously is incomplete, you would remember that we are currently in 2001. Imagine on of those flashback thingies you see often in tamil cinemas. So yeah back where it all started. Before starting I would like to state just one thing. "Whatever free time you get, use it to think free. Let your mind wander and reflect on what it stops first. That is exactly what i'm doing now. And been doing all these years." Ok now let's embark...again..lol
Yeah so for the next three years it was the same routine. I got truly interested in BSb and then in Bryan adams and then enrique. So another three years rolled on with bits and pieces of here and there. A jigsaw puzzle with the exception that all the pieces did not fit into place. I knew I was missing something. Something in me was nagging at my insides. I kept hearing the name "linking park", "nirvana. etc wherever I went. Then I came to 11th.
2 years ago

It all started on a trip (cutting school yea) to GCT for Brainstrain( one of the interschool fests organised by college people) . A song was running in the background. I asked my pals what it was. One of em said it was "In the end " by linkin park. Man that was cool. Then that introduced me to the mundane world of rock(Remember we are in 2004, Then it was mundane to me).
Time rolls on as it always does.

2005

A milestone year for me. Twelfth standard is usually considered to be one of the most strenuous(my english teacher spelt it STRONEOUS...for cryin out loud!!!) years of school life where tuitions creep in and try to inch their way towards your neck in a style similar to steven speilberg's JAWS except for the fact that the sinister music in the movie(supposedly!!) is replaced by the unrelenting drone and the occasionally not-so-funny joke of the teacher at which it is compulsory to laugh lest you want to be categorized as someone who does not have a sense of humour. Man that was a big sentence. Right!. Now that we had a detour let's round back. In one such tuition I happened to meet and know a few guys who helped me a lot in the years to come in wading through this ocean of rock and roll. One--> the major one Shreyas Krishna-- the caffeine junkie!!! You can read his spill outs here-->
click me!!

Another guy-->shivram- the one who gives me the stuff shreyas tells me about. So that's how I got introduced. From then on it was quite easy to get in the groove. Now here I am. In the presnt. Listening to "lips of an angel" by hinder. One of those new songs which my brother sent me. By that not so popular artist. But the song is awesome. Well thats about it I guess. The journey ends here. Or, to be precise, for the moment it ends here. I'm trying to get more people to witness the glory of rock. All is well that ends well. ciao!!

Oct 19, 2006

A musical journey....

People with no job at all sit and reflect upon stuff like whta ive done and still more folks like me read them. This may not seem to be of any importance but to me it is. After all those shitty hours of ED (or EG whatever you may call it..it sux), after all those hours of crowded bus travel where every direction you turn you discover a new odour(yeww gross), after all those records written, it is music which delivered me hope and satiation. Let the journey begin
5 years ago

i got my hands on some of my brothers cds which he got forma friend...It turned out to be backstreets back. I jus put it in and played it. Man I liked it. That got me all started. Then my cousins got me a few MJ cds. Then my passion for music welled up and exploded like an atom bomb. It may sound all weird and stupid now. And I dont know why lotta people condemn the backstreet boys. One of my friends talks as if" IF music is religion then BSB is blasphemy!!!"...What do they have against these guys? anyway then I started listening to more stuff like U2 linking park . that was a taste of rock and roll!. And boy what a taste it was!!! I craved for more!! I could not have enough of it. The pain the suffering the bliss the fun such feeling all contained in a single song. Soothing!!!! Thats what rock is all aout!!
Let s take a break rite now coz i ve got some ED stuff to do. Ciao!!