Chennai, Rains, No School!!

Chennai has its way of keeping you nagging about rains..Eleven months of the year you nag "Bloody Hell!There are no rains"...And in October/November there is this cyclone which makes you say "Nasa Nasa nu mazhai peyudhu" Chennai people don't settle for things easily :P. It is not filmy when it rains in Chennai, no girl goes out in november and dances like shreya or there is no guy who wants to show off riding his bike during rains, no one finds it romantic because when it rains it rains like cats and dogs and people would be surprised by such mental acts. Sometimes the entire city blacks out for a day or two continuously.

I have few memories during school days from these cyclone days in Chennai/Madras (I believe most people like the city being called as Madras :P ). The days in the second term, or the term between quarterly exam and half yearly exam, are the best days in a school student life in Chennai, at least one day in the week will be a holiday. When I was 9 years (4th Std) , morning with one huge determination I used to step out to go to school because I know for sure the school bus guy would say its a holiday. I used to go with my grandfather to bus stop, and my grand father used to ask "Have you finished your homework? have you taken all your books, do you have anju ruba (5 rupees) atleast for emergency, eat everything, don't waste food!" This used to be the daily chant and for everything I used to involuntarily nod my head without even listening. And during these rain days when he asks I used to tell him "Thatha anyway Samuel anna (Bus driver) will tell no school, so don't worry, I'll come back with you ". There would be few more guys in my bus stop, we used to keep bet on whether there is school or not, whoever wins will get a boomer and a tattoo (trust me they were in trend at that time!!). Like expected, the school bus will come and Samuel anna will say "inniki nallaiki 5th std varaikkum school illa, ellarum vituku poi padinga!!(Today and tomorrow no school till 5th standard, all of you go home and study!!)", and the excitement would be 10 fold...all of us would go "Yay!!!!!!!!!". These 2 days, mostly the city would black out so your parents can't ask you to study, all you end up doing is read tinkle, fake a fever or a cold, listen to radio (No suryan or Mirchi, only AIR 102.3).And by the end of 2 days we will switch on the TV for sun TV news at 8, there were no sun news,K TV,A TV and all , only one channel - Sun TV which was the only source of information. We will wait for Ramanan to come and tell "vanga kadalil katraeditha thalvu mayam erpatuladhu (There is a depression in Bay of Bengal)" I never understood what it meant but I knew it meant another day of holiday and he would continue "naalai chennai mattrum cuddalore mavattangalil ulla ella pazhi galukum vidumarai" (Tomorrow holiday for all schools in chennai and cuddalore!!), and that's all we would want to hear. But Ramanan would come only on very few days, but there will be a slight depression for all of us when he comes because whenever he comments about rains, from the next minute there will be no rains, like immediately after the weather report. Sometimes people would start cursing "vaya vechan , rain stopped!!". 

Feeling the rain today brings back these memories afresh. Morning when I woke up at 6:15 after a mere 3 hours of sleep, I really wanted an angel in the form of samuel anna to come and tell "No Class,No Studies, No Tension, Read Tinkle and Listen to Radio!!" Damn it, good old days, its painful to think that you never get to be that 9 year old who stuck boomer tattoos all over you and your books!!

Radio Raja!

Every part of my life I associate it with some kind of music (more of it being Raja's music). When I listen to them in radio or in TV a sudden surge of memories would set in. For the past few days I have gotten addicted to Ilayaraja's songs more than I was before.Today I was flipping through channels while having dinner and I saw that a channel was putting an ilayaraja classic (en iniya pon nilavae!!) and I try switching over to another channel and then again there is another classic (punnagai mannan!!), I was totally confused..I tell my mom I want to listen to both simultaneously.
Few songs I have not even seen the video I don't know who the hero or heroine or anything at all, all I know and I believe is Ilayaraja was there in that music and he is the hero,director, producer and the god of that creation.
When I was really young my mom insisted on me and my brother to sleep by 9:30, growing up in days when TVs were meant only for movies or serials or new songs, radios did have their reach, me and my brother would put on the radio and again no private stations only AIR. At 9:30 I clearly remember there used to be this person Dr.Saiyom (not sure of how his name spells) who used to present a show called ninaithaley innikum, me and my brother would finish all our homework, studies and dinner only to run and listen to that show. We used to love his voice and we would be betting on what would be the song that would come next. Some songs till date I have not seen them , those were the songs I used to dread for them to put it everyday on radio, sometimes I would cry if the song didn't come for more than a week; like today there was no computer at home, so no googling  to find out the movie , forget about downloading them (I don't know if such things existed then).There was this beautiful title music for this show borrowed from Ilayaraja's music, me and my brother till today have not found the source but we like it being not found.
I don't know in how many people's lives radio has played a role post 1990s or 1995s but for me and my brother it always reminds of our school days, and the nights we used to fight for pillows and place under the fan to sleep and the stupid abusive languages against the person who won the fight.
Our mornings started with Akashavani, my mom would say even without seeing the clock, Akashavani has come go get ready to school, and if the second break has come in Akashavani and if we still haven't left she would get hysteric because it would mean the school bus left!!:P
The reason I started loving radio is because of Ilayaraja's music and till date I'm infected with his music. I'm more than glad that TV didn't have a huge impact those days otherwise I think I would never have listened to AIR, wonderful voice of Dr.Saiyom and his beautiful evergreen Raja collection. Even today if someone says radio the one quick thing that would strike me and my brother would be the title music that we have still not found out and all the memories along with it. There is one deep regret in me, I want to watch these songs in theatre and feel them along with the movie. I think blessed are the people who belonged to the generation where Raja's music was on theatres . But at least we have Rahman to wipe away all the regret, I pity the future who will have Harris Jayaraj and his likes!! :P:P

Mom and MasterChef

I'm spending my time home these days, when you are kind of struck between classes and studies and a fatigue sets in, you really want some kind of entertainment.And for me there is exactly 2 sources one is MasterChef ,which according to my family is prohibited show as they show non veg during dinner time :P and also because it clashes with the endless radhika serials that have been telecasted in TV ever since I was born, and the other source of entertainment is my mom.She has this theory behind everything that is not pleasing behind everything I like.
A few days back, in MasterChef she saw people cook, of which I am sure she didn't even know what the ingredients were, she said "idhu enna periya pramadhama, naanum ippidi 2 beans,2 apple,2 layer cabbage pottu honey mela pottu kudupaen, nee sapduviya?" and if the people who were cooking heard that they would have really cried, she thinks they are cooking unnecessarily. She has started hating those programs because I ask her to learn the way and the dish they cook. The other day, she said she is going to apply for MasterChef Australia, and I asked her why...she said "I'm going to make rasam,sambar, curd rice, roti, daal,kaai"..and those idiots will eat and say "Wow..its very delicious" . or May be I can do idly...starting from how to take the flour till how to eat...".All this so that I will at one point stop watching this show.The very next day, she brings in a plate pf paniyaram neatly arranged in a plate and decorated the plate with curry leaves and fruits and she says "I have cooked like Emma (the only girl she knows in that show)".I reply back saying "why are there unnecessary things on my plate?" she says, "that's exactly what I'm asking when they cook, why does she keep fruits when she cooks pastas???, see in reality, you can't eat them,those are camera tricks, that's why I tell you, appreciate amma's cooking of rasam and rice and pickles.." . But my grandfather has a totally different theory about this show..."He says no wonder these judges are fat,they eat up all the food and fill their stomachs and reject people, also look at them they don't give food to the people who make it....that too they yetchai pannifying the spoon and again keeping on the food, the other person also eats the same yetchai..chee, enna nalla iruku indha show...". Amidst all this I still watch this show
One day my mom, "vada kanna, food inga irukku", astonished by the sweetness in her tone I turn and look at her wondering if she really was talking to me, and not to my surprise it wasn't to me, it was a lizard, I ask her "amma, why you talking to that lizard", she says "adha edhuvum solladha, he belongs to my army...the army which fights against cockroaches!!!"...then I realised what has me and my brother being away from home done to my mom...my thatha and my mom together are raising the lizard much better than they way they take care of me and dad...And when my mom and thatha talk to lizards and watch serials, my dad sits in a room, writing some kind of accounts in Excel which he'll ultimately forget where he saved, or will keep browsing for poramboku land to invest, according to my mom he searches for lands where only wild animals exist and where there is not even a remote connection to civilisation, she says we will come in that areas' history book in early civilisation chapter..
So basically sitting at home has made me wonder if this is how my family was 5 years back when I left to hostel!!!

Chennai is Super in its own way

I had gone to this overly heard and praised hotel in Chennai, very well known for the continental food it serves.It definitely didn't let me down in its variety and taste.Basically, this post is not about the food.
What is the quick image of a restaurant we get when we say continental food and pastas and burgers?- A huge hotel with glasses for walls, loud music, young guys or girls wearing caps with a strong english accent serving us and trying all their best to impress us.But this place took me aback, it definitely had a good ambience but no music, and it had young to old men to serve people. These people did not try talking in english, they knew people here speak tamil however they feel like and it is never mocked at. With their pleasant smile and the welcoming interest they show to the never ending crowd on a saturday afternoon makes you smile and think "Wow!!This is awesome". Trust me when I say when you see the crowd, you think they definitely are not gonna know tamil, but they terribly prove you wrong, this is one restaurant where people say "oru cheese ball, oru lassagne, rendu ice tea, oru fried ice cream". And if you are new you forget about everything but enjoy this mix. May be in a lot of places this happens, but in so many years of going to such restaurants I have only spoken in english and people have been looked down for talking anything but in english.
The best is in the end when an old man with specs and vibuthi in his forehead comes and asks you "Food nalla iruka?pudichi iruka?" and all you do by being a typical chennaiite is you say that word " 'supera' irrukku".Whatever it may be it is 'super' only for us when we have to give a true and a good compliment

It may be stupid to like these things but I don't know this is what we are, I wish such restaurants come all over India where they promote foreign food and surprise your taste buds but at the same time remind us of our culture and telling that there is nothing wrong to be reminded of our language and our ways. The number of these restaurants are increasing so are the people's desire to eat exotic food, and all we know in the end is  to talk in english and scare the people who do not know english away from the restaurants that they will never get to enjoy such exotic food.

M.Sc. Software Engineer!!

Yay!!!!!!All of us graduated:):).It has been one hell of a dream run for all of us.Congrats to Softies2k7.!!
May 31 would be remembered by all of us ,as all of us have crossed a huge milestone in our lives.Pointless it may seem sometimes to think "Really is it that big a thing to get a degree???", and the immediate answer is "No".
Go back 5 years in the past. In May when the XII results came out, most of us in the class wouldn't have been very happy or sad with our marks, we would have been content with it but wouldn't have known what to do with it. At that time, an Ad on Hindu would have been one small ray of hope to all of us.Out of a 1000 applications, being short listed to around 400 students for interview and being selected as one among the 38 is not an easy task as it may appear.
Even after getting in, hostel,hopeless class timings, few faculties,labs, subjects like ASC,Graph theory,UNIX  would have been another hardship.
But in spite of all these, the 38 of us coming together being as one family leaving all our egos,adjusting and sharing everything under the sun is something from which we have learnt a lot in these 5 years. Today on graduation when we meet, there is this huge plastered smile on all our faces, it was more like a wedding where all of us were proud to be a part of the family that we are today. The happiness when we get to see a class mate and introduce him/her to your parents or the love and attachment in every "How are you" or "Do come home once atleast". All of us knew deep inside whatever we exchanged as greetings were not for courtesy but they were really meant with infinite love to each other. This graduation was more of getting to know the parents and making them understand how huge and a proud family that we built for ourselves in these 5 years.
In these 5 years, we have met a lot of people and we need to agree however much you want all of them to be together just like in college it will not happen, there are only few people who would continue this journey with you,few would leave you in the journey of life today.
It was a wonderful journey for me with the 37 people.I feel proud that I belonged to Softies 2k7.
When the chief Guest announced "Now I pronounce you as graduates"(not sure of the exact words), the sense of happiness and satisfaction and the quick wave of memories about all these 5 years the friends sitting next to you made me forget the place I was in for a moment.And I instantly knew it is not big thing to get a degree, the biggest thing is the lessons we learn, the friends we make, the decisions we take and the knowledge that we have obtained is what makes it difficult.5 years is long time to survive in the same piece of island with the same people but how easier are we going to make it depends on us.When you graduate more than the degree required for procedural and formal purposes it is important we learn the art of survival too.I think we mastered even that easily without much difficulty!!
To the Class of Softies2k7 Cheers!! :) and Congrats All!! :):)

Its not the brand but its you!!!

Well, If you think is really cool to own a audi car or a skoda or a civic or any fancy named car, I will not disagree with you!! And to match your appearance with it and to show off you might wear puma shorts,puma chappal,rolex watch, ray ban glasses..again well its cool!! (Ofcourse I'm jealous!)
But what I just don't understand is that why you don't behave in a way that suits your look and that reflects your status!!Fine, everyone looks at you cos you have a shiny car but it doesn't mean you own the road..
Why can't you wait when there is a red signal??and why the hell do you keep honking, you want everyone to see your vehicle, come on when I see that a fancy car's driver honking at me for not moving my scooter when there is a red signal, there is just one thing I want to do, get down and scream at him. You do not earn respect by the way you dress up or by your possessions but by the way you behave.Don't cruise through the road as if its your private lane and don't despise people who walk on the road, don't scream at watchmen or securities who try helping you because they are a class lower, they are much better people with  a lot more sense than you!!

Want to go back in time!!Can I?

Sometimes it is very hard to get some things sink into your head.
Like the fact that I need not go back to hostel, and my mom need not pack snacks or thokkus for me and my friends anymore,I need not board the Cheran train in platform no.11, or get down in the morning and curse the auto and call taxi guys for charging triple the rate or the bus guys for dropping me in a place far away from hostel and that I have to walk all the way with my luggage. Or get a small nap as soon as I reach hostel and make up reasons like I didn't sleep in bus to bunk classes.
Never will I get a chance to sit in that mess table and while away all the time with the juniors and seniors and classmates by talking the same old things again and again. Never will we get to throw our plates out of anger, or get excited about the thakkali thokku, and the pickles during romali roti days, or smell the aroma of that coffee that pulls us back for another round.
Never will I get messages telling "Come to M-203" , "Don't bunk,you'll get caught with HOD" or will I get suspended for the various silly things, or will we get to stand near the water doctor after every single hour.
Never will we get a chance to go for a trip as a class and scream out of happiness or dance away to glory.Never can we go to the day scholar's house every other weekend for that home food.
Never will we get to sit in those conference halls or Q-angle and scream each time our classmates name was announced immaterial of whether it was of any importance or not.
Never will I get a chance to run away for dinner with the guys and get away with a lab slip.Never will I get to sit in the EDP and spend time, never will I get a chance to fight with selvarani or the dep warden.
Last day in the hostel I couldn't sleep, I wanted to cry miserably but I couldn't. When I packed my things and when the driver took off, I realised how much I belonged to this hostel, the things I have learnt here,the adversities I have faced here, the friends and the acquaintances I have made here. All I could do at that time was silently cry when I saw " PSG HOSTELS - HOME AWAY FROM HOME" , indeed it was and I for the first time after so many years agree to it!!A week has passed and I'm still not able to believe after these holidays I need not go back there and I need to start a new life all over again!!