Back to my being myself.. 21 post number 3!!

Gangothri was a fun place, a small school where in you easily get a lot of attention whether you demand it or not. Everyone knew everyone else kinda place. Few things that i still remember about Gangothri include my first picnic, I went on my first picnic when i was in 2nd or 3rd i guess. We were taken to Malampuzha dam and Fantasy park. Malampuzha dam is a beautiful place, and the dam is humongous. I have been there quite many times but offlate I never had the opportunity to go there and see what it is like now. Probably next time i go to Palakkad I should make a list for myself on the things I have been missing out there and work on narrowing down the list. Fantasy park was one among the better parks then, it had some very good rides, I really dunno about how it is now cause the last time we tried visiting Fantasy park some 8 years ago or so it was shutdown due to some union problem, sigh this union concept sucks at times.

The next and one of the most memorable thing was the celebreation of our 50th year of Independence it was back in 1997. There was a small feast and some programs organized by the school then and I went for it. I wished that I could live long enough to see the 100th year of Indian Independence, not knowing how unstable the world is and how unassured our lifes are. I would never forget that day in my life, I guess we had some small debates on the people who suffered for us, the peopke who were harassed by the British, the JalianWala Bagh Massacre, and our Bhagath Singh and Subash Chendra Bose. Yeah I adored them, the extremists and I still believe it was not just Ghandiji's efforts that freed us from the clutches of the British. I even hoped Subash Chandra Bose never died in the Plane crash and that he lived somewhere and I could meet him one day. I was not a great fan of Ghandiji till last year or so when my dad really made me understand what a good person he really was.

Mummy used to teach me back then, she would sit with me and make me learn everything, do the homework and she learnt bits and pieces of Hindi to teach me Hindi. She would pinch me, beat me up and I would cry clamorously in an attemp to get someone by my side and escape the studies part. Like most of the kids then even I hated to study, I would look at the people who would be playing in the ground and wished that I could be there with them enjoying, but she never let me, if not for that care and effort she out then I wouldn't be half as good as my present self, I would have never been able to be what I am now, not that am good but I know am capable, and all credits to her.

I studied at Gangothri from my 2nd to 4th standard and 1 week of my 5th standrad. It so happened to be a cliche that Nimmy was missing in the 5th standrad class, I was definitely disappointed. I just told my friends that even I would be changing the school and it so coincidentially happened that way, my dad wanted me to study in a better school infact the best school in that part of the world then, so thanks to Pappa, what I said actually happened, he has always been like that. And so my world at Gangothri came to a halt and the rest of that phase of my life had to be at Chinmaya Vidhyalaya Pallavur, a school with a really long history and a really good one. Chinmaya was a big world for me, lot bigger than Gangothri. I started getting used to the 7km journey in bus everyday, made loads of new friends in the bus, had a greater exposure to what it is like outside Nemmara. It was fun, and for me everything in my life has been fun lol :).

I am not really sure how much of my life at Chinmaya do I remember. I was among the younger ones in the bus then and hence my seniors would give that extra care for you. We used to sit together in the last seat of the bus, its usually a long one capable of seating atleast 6 of us. We would keep talking about stuffs and go. One advantage was that we had to pay only 1/4th of the usual ticket rate in private buses. But there used to be certain conductors who never let us get in the bus early and would want us to wait till they were about to start the bus from the stand and wouldn't let us sit even if we found vacant seats. They used to treat students in the most pathetic manner possible. But yeah it was their job and we had to suffer.

We had a good cricket ground in the school. I used to play decent cricket then, it was always fun cause every game we played end with controversies :). Chinmaya school had a lot of beautiful girls, most of them were pretty. hehe.

And I remember this incident. Once few of us, I mean guys were called by our Class teacher to the staff room and she was like "who among you wrote that paper and kept it under Lakshmi's(named changed cause I don't remember :P) table". We were like, "What is that paper all about?" and she showed us one, It said "I loved you". We were shocked, and then she said thet she knew one of us did it cause she checked our handwriting with the one in the paper and it matched to some extend. I don't remember how good that girl looked but I never did that and it was the same all of us cause we never did something like that. She kept nagging us saying if we don't say who did it she would call our parents and suspend us and all that. We pleaded innocent and no action was taken for sometime cause she found that the incident didn't happen again. But few days later it again happened and this time the culprit was caught, I really don't how they caught her. But it was found that one of that perticular girls friend, I guess her neighbour named "Neethu"(I have a faint clue that her name was neethu) only did this. Girls can be a pain in the ass right.. :P

This is another incident that happened in Chinmaya, we found that many of the students lost their money that they had kept in their bags for quite sometime. This time again the teacher was suspicious about a few people but thankfully i wasn't there in the list. It was found that the stealer was not just fond of money but also chocolates. She gave a warning for the whole class saying its better if the one who did the crime goes to her and accepts his indulgence cause she had found out that who did it. The next day one of our friends, stood in front of the class and said that it was he who stole everything, she asked him to handover all the money that he stole from us and he did just that. But no one really isolated him despite that incident, everytime i go to Nemmara i end up meeting him somewhere, he is a pretty nice guy.

We had a computer sir who used to be very harsh with students. I later came to know that this guy went to a computer center and learnt stuffs and taught the same thing to us in the classes and that he was one of my very distant relatives.. :P.. What a pity..

What do i do next??

Hey guys am back after a great break. Hope all of you are doing really great. :)

What do i blog about today? Well, not the continuation of my earlier post anyway its just a sort of confusion on what i should do next.

I am into my final year of engineering(Yipeeee!!!), 3 years went so fast and now just another year to go. I wonder what i should do next, i got this inclination towards finance and the working of money which urges me to to my MBA in finance from one of the top colleges(if at all i get into :)) and yeah i am working on CAT(Common Admission Test) to get into the premier B-schools in our country, but these days i have developed an affinity towards the latest technologies that have been developed in computer science and related fields. This is what confuses me the most, right from the day when my staff members started warning us about the final year projects we are suppose to submit next semester i have been thinking and thinking about what i should go for next?

The problem is in here, if i were to do a good project all by myself and not going to any of these so called project-centers i will have to start working on my computational skills, all those programming concepts in Java and php and python and perl and what not!!! No am not proud to say that am bad when it comes to programming really bad!! :(. Its not only me actually, if i were to go statistically then only 8% (approx.) of the engineering graduates are eligible to be (quality)engineers with the skills they possess. I am among the rest 92% of them who are not suppose to complain of not getting a job just because i haven't put to use these 3 years of my life, so its high time i start and try getting into that elite crew of nearly 2% who understand that they are no where and so in a hurry to put to use these final 6-8 months of our so called college life to best effect and learn some computational skills and get some value for our money.

And what project do i do is the next question..

I got the answer, i searched here and there and found out that cloud computing is the next generation computing environment and so i should probably work on that. I know the word sounds so familiar for most of us , its a cloud and computing but not all of us know the meaning lol. Even i didn't know about it the first time i heard the term, i had to google it. Thanks to Sergy Brin and Larry Page, if not for google i wouldn't be doing any of these.

But now i find that the topic that i want to work on in cloud computing is way beyond an engineering project and is something like a doctorate topic, and i am not ready to spent 4-5 years of my life getting a doctorate and working on all that. So for now i have decided that i would go to some bloody project centers and do some useless work and all that the project can do is to get me a decent percentage and add to my already not-that-decent-aggregate. I am so damn confused and confused to the core. I have decided to stick to my ambitions of doing my MBA and then being an entrepreneur, now here again i got problems lol.

I am writing my CAT and XAT this year, my preparations were going good till i guess September and it took a U-turn then. Since then i have not been preparing that good nor have been attending the classes properly. So i had to keep my Plan B that was to give my best shot at these exams this year and if i don't get into the premier institutes i will work on it again for another year and give a better shot in fact my final try at it.

What would i do after my final year till the next MBA admission was the next question in front of me, for this i have a good solution thanks to all the parttime jobs and man power that i have been doing i am confident that i can earn some good money and also get some contacts during that phase and also sharpen my English skills by joining the British Council English Classes and also explore North India and also meet all my friends :). But here the problem is that Pappa and Mummy wants me to go abroad and study and also work somewhere there which am least interested in doing. Mummy still says that my astrologer predicted that i would go abroad and study duh, i clearly say a NO for this.

On top of all this my 7th semester exams are starting this Friday i.e Nov 6th and am zero in all the subjects. This time around i have got lesser marks in all my internals and also in one of the practicals as well and so to maintain that not-so-decent-percentage i think i need to strive a little harder and am not up for this. I am so damn lethargic that i wasted more that 3 weeks of my study holidays doing things that never helped me. :(. Am such a dumb ass.. :(

On a whole the most confusing post in my 2 long years of blogging i guess. I think this phase is something that most people go through these days but i am just not able to digest the fact that things are not just happening at this point of time. Lets see. Pray for all of us who are confused and in their final years. :)

21.. post number 2!!!!

I was just going through my blog, my earlier posts. I haven't been blogging much since this year. :(

I started blogging last year and till my 25th or so post no one even visited my blog, i never had much motivation. The first person to appreciate my blogging was Sajeesh Etta i guess, cause at that point of time only we were into the groove of blogging. Then came Divya, Soumya Chechi, Indu Chechi etc etc. And i learnt that business idea of blogging, you get readers only when you read and respond to others. That was how i got people to read my blog. Sandy was the first person to join my followers list. Today i feel like thanking all of them for helping me into this world which has no limits. Thanks All.. :)

Now back to the post.

So how is my life ka story?? :).I hope i just didn't bug you'll.

The most beautiful thing about Kalpetta(Wayanad) is always its natural beauty and the serene atmosphere. It had an identity of its own. Kalpetta(Wayanad) is the place where most number of tribals lived, since there were loads of coffee estates these land lords got the tribals to work for them in the estates and hence it was a place where the rich always got richer but the poor never really had any identity. Living in those places always teaches us a lot in life.

During my holidays Pappa used to take me to one of his Colleagues house and i used to stay there with her daughters. They took care of me and Rakesh then. We always had fun there, their compound used to be rich with a lot of trees and fruits and all. There were cocoa trees, orange etc. People had time for one another, that was when you get real care and love. I learnt all that then, only when we don't expect anything we get to give that unconditional love and care. People out there were this kind. :)

This was a beautiful moment in our life, this again happened at Kalpetta. I guess it was summer then and mummy was like its too hot in the house and wish i could get a table fan in the kitchen. Pappa somehow heard it, he silently went out and bought one and came back,gave it to mummy. This happened some 15 years ago and then buying a table fan itself might have been a big deal. I remember how surprised mummy was, not juts mummy even myself and Rakesh were surprised as well. I learnt what giving a surprise is like then and since then i have tried giving those odd surprises to my close buddies and parents. That was when i learnt that even those little things in life make a lot of difference, at the end of the day they make our day.

Pappa used to be very good at buying toys for us. Every time he saw something different he would buy it. Myself and Rakesh got our first battery train, that jeep which could perform stunts and the 2nd battery train when we were at Kalpetta. I was never much keen on toys but Rakesh loved them. He even got that bike which when dragged back for sometime and left would travel forward. Everything was amusing and funny. At that age the best things these toys could do would be to make us think. Rakesh used to think over their mechanisms a little too much that he ended up trying to open them and then examine their internal mechanisms so closely, they would stop working soon cause of excessive examination.

This incident at Kalpetta was the funniest of all i guess. Again the fun is when Rakesh is involved in it. We had an uncle who was a chain smoker and lived in the same lane as ours. One day Rakesh was at his house and uncle got a call or something. So he kept his lighted cigarette in the hall and went to attend the call. Rakesh took the cigarette and started smoking. It took sometime for uncle to come back and by then the cigarette, Rakesh and another pack of Beedi(another tobacco product) were missing. Rakesh came home and he was smoking, even mummy was not home. Uncle came home and caught him hehe. Since then all of us were very careful when he was around. Myself and Rakesh also tried smoking when we were at Kalpetta i guess. Just to know the feel of it. :)

We used to travel regularly from Kalpetta to Gudalur. We would go in our scooter. 4 of us in the scooter. It was just some 60 km journey. Rakesh would sit in front, followed by Pappa the rider myself and mummy would be the pillion riders. Pappa rides pretty fast every time, but he is careful. Mummy used to be afraid of speed but now she is used to it as well. Every time we reached the road leading to Gudalur we would make fun of mummy singing a song which i can't remember now. The content of the song said that the roads are really bad, i mean really really bad. We made fun of her since she hailed from the place with bad roads. Little did i know that not just Gudalur roads but 90% of Indian roads are like that. Now they have improved the roads though.

It was time for yet another transfer for Pappa and we had to leave the beautiful place. I have never been to Kalpetta since then. I really miss that beautiful place. Every time i go to Gudalur(mummy's hometown) i wish i could go to Kalpetta but never could i make it. Now am old enough to go there alone. probably next time around when i go there i could visit Kalpetta. The main reason for my not visiting Kalpetta is that these days i visit Gudalur for only 2 to 3 days and my grandma wants me to spend time with her these days. We kept a get together for all our closed ones in Kalpetta before we bid bye to Kalpetta.

Our next destination was Palakkad, Nemmara. My Pappa's place. He hailed from Nemmara. He wanted to get a transfer to Nemmara since his parents were getting older and he wanted to take care of them.Mummy always said, its difficult to get a son like Pappa, he sets an example for me and Rakesh on how to take care of our parents. He has sacrificed so much to be with his parents and look after them. Pappa got a transfer to Kollengode, known for its old palaces. It was some 10 km from Nemmara. Myself and Rakesh joined in a school called Gangothri. It was walkable then. We had to walk some 20 mins everyday but if someone asks me to walk till there now i wont do it. Over the years that lazy goose in me has been growing as much as i did. We stayed at Nemmara itself and Pappa would go to bank everyday in his scooter.

Nemmara was a completely different place compared to Kalpetta. More happening surroundings, more close allies, more temples, less scenic beauty except for the green paddy fields which could be found everywhere. The buses which go at lightning speed in the main road, the christmas carol and most importantly the Nemmara Vela(an amazing festival). I believe everyone must see Nemmara Vela before they die, it is something no one can really miss. We did like Nemmara but there were reasons why we even disliked Nemmara. It had 2 theaters as well. School was nice, lot smaller than the one i studied at Kalpetta but except for that i never really tried comparing both schools since i knew it would only make me disappointed.

My friends at Gangothri were Sarath, Deepak(i met him 4 days back as well), Justin, Govind, Nimmy, i cant get too many names. :(. Justin and Govind joined one year later my arrival. Deepak, me and Sarath had been there since the beginning. Nimmy used to be my class mate as well as auto mate. We went together in the same auto. And she was even my first crush in 2nd standard. Didn't i tell you?? I am among the genetically modified species who lost their innocence very early in life. I was friends with my seniors as well Vinayan and Prasad. One good thing is that even when i meet any of them i can recognize them and i still remember them, and even they can recognize and remember me. I meet Sarath, Vinayan and Prasad almost every year. I haven't met Govind since he left school when i was in 4th. I have met Justin some 3 years back i guess, he was drunk then :(, but still he recognized and remembered me very well. :).

I am getting more names now. Jayan, Sreeju, Govindan Kutty, Sapna, Anjali, Brinda, Sreedevi, Ratheesh, Bhuvaneswari, Girish I seem to be remembering most of the girls names hehe. Jayan used to be bad in studies, last time i met his mom she was asking me about my where abouts, that was when i was in 11th or 12th i guess. I have met him couple of times 2 years back as well when i went for Nemmara Vela. Sreeju is Prasad's cousin, i meet him as well at times when i go there. Govindan Kutty was my school mate at Gangothri and later on became my first friend at Gurukulam as well when i came back from my Trivandrum expedition and joined Gurukulam. I have no contact with Sapna all that i can remember is that her dad used to work abroad and he used to bring all those curious scales, pencils and erasers from in there. I don't know much about Anjali, Brinda, Sreedevi and the rest. I am sure they wouldn't even be thinking about me and would be busy with their life, they won't know how it feels when we dwell into the past, do they? hehe :)

The last time i met Nimmy was at Guruvayur temple, i heard she shifted over to Guruvayur. I met her some couple of years or even more since she left Gangothri, even i left that school to join Chinmaya that year. I went to Guruvayur for my uncles son's naming function i guess and i saw her at a distance but since i was on the queue to the shrine i couldn't go talk to her. We smiled at each other. :). I spotted her in orkut as well but now she has no activity online i guess. Last thing i heard of her was through Deepak, he said her dad expired. :(. I meet Deepak regularly, he had been to my house in Chennai quite a few times as well. He is a very nice guy and a good friend. He is doing his Marine Engineering now.

Will continue in the next post.. :)

Dear Pranab Mukherji.. :)

As we all know tomorrow is the day of Budget, it is definitely going to play an important role since the recession and its after effects have taken a toll on most of the Indians set aside the world economy. Its no more gonna be Mr. Chidambaram delivering the budget and am really happy about it. We got a better human being in Pranab Mukherji and he will be delivering the much awaited budget. As an ordinary Indian I do expect quite a lot from this budget and in this blog i would discuss about it.

I have been tracking the budget over the last few years and it has not been that great or never really made an ordinary Indian happy. I always appreciated the increase in taxes over the alcoholic beverages and tobacco products and i would always appreciate it, i hope at least that can make many of the regular smokers and drinkers in the community to put an end to their smoking and drinking habits. I am sure the class of people who have lost their jobs in the near future would definitely have a second thought over continuing their smoking habits by this. Yeah, if you are thinking why this guy is talking bout cigarettes and liquor when we have more serious issues, i am an Indian who believes that we can get real quality citizens only if these habits of our people stop. In a populous country as ours the quality of its citizens is more important than anything else.

Secondly, the security of a common man. What can the financial minister do for security? Is this your question. It is the same with me, I expect the financial minister to allocate more and better budget for the INTERNAL security of my nation. I am among the Indians who believe that India is not secure anymore. I want to see the police equipped with better weapons, up gradation of the police stations and effective classes for the police men on how to talk to the public. Especially for the ones who think that being a police gives them the license to do anything they want, i pity the ones who have lost their lives cause of the misinterpretation acts of our Policemen. But the more important step would be to form a set of trusty people who can monitor the usage of these funds in the best possible way, I really appreciated the move to constitute Mr. Nilekani as the Chairman of the council for allocating Unique Identification Cards for every Indian. So the government must do something like that even for the effective use of money. Am sure even though it means usage of more man power, am sure it is worth it.

Now the plight of Indians who live in the villages and towns. For me India is really the villages and towns. Those people out there form my nation for me, am annoyed why is it that these leaders never look at that community, the community which struggle hard in their fields to get us our food to eat, the people who stand under the red hot sun working for every single Indians survival. Those people out there who are deprived of every basic right to his living, no good education it sounds as of the politicians want those poor ones to keep struggling all their life. I want the finance minister to allocate extra money for their development in all aspects. They must get better education, better facilities from the government not just the normal ration that every Indian enjoys, they must have more preference in the premier institutes of the country. There are no FIITJEE or TIME or IMS to train them get into the IIT's and IIM's and that needs to be understood by our government. There needs to be better health facilities for them. Unless the rural India develops there can't be any significant improvement in our country, India is still a third world country if not for the Urban India and that face needs to change significantly.

I would like to see the finance minister taking more steps to encourage our scientists to foster the development of indigenously built fighter jets and submarines. India is far behind China in both these categories and significantly behind Pakistan in the development of Submarines are concerned. If India can develop both these indigenously then we would be far ahead in the military perspective and that can even generate a lot of foreign currency as well. The other reason would be that at present we are spending a lot of money in acquiring military equipments from other countries and that can be reduced a great deal. I know that the development of such machines is not really easy but with some motivation Indians can make it, its lot easier than developing space vehicles i guess. Then comes the radar systems for which India still depends very much on Israel, if a small country like Israel can be so good in it, why not the giant India?? Which is definitely considered to have the best of brains in the world set aside you and me. ;)

I want Mr. Mukherji to do something about the volatile markets, i mean they need a far push and that can trigger more investment in them unlike over the recent past which has seen a significant decline in the flow of foreign investment. I would want the finance minister to allocate some resources for promoting the awareness among every Indian regarding the stock market and investing in it. I want to discuss this topic with further detail and hence i wouldn't ponder much with the stocks and trading in here. But i feel an awareness is very much necessary since only around 5% of Indians are presently investing. We should know that the more we invest in Indian stocks the more are we fostering the development of our country. Our markets would no more be controlled by the big guns from other countries.

I do wanna discuss few more issues in here but its time up for me to leave. Let me see how big a smile i get when i listen to the budget tomorrow, am afraid i might even miss it cause of my friends marriage. But still having seen the railway budget which was good enough i expect a little more from Pranabji. Please don't disappoint, I want a better India and its not just a single I, there are a billion of those. :)

Jai Hind!!

Its been 21 years!!! :)

Yeah finally after 21 years of struggle, am old enough for a register marriage :)(all kinds of marriages but registered ones in particular). I mean the first thing that has come to my mind being 21 now is this :). In this blog i just want to look back at my life, it might end up being a big read though. Its not that i have achieved something great in life or am someone successful, but its just that it has been my life and i have had the best of lessons from ma life, that makes me say "MY LIFE IS MY LESSON".I was born in a small town called Gudalur near Ooty , days i can never forget in my life. I am still renowned as the most mischievous kid in ma family. My childhood was all the happy happy wala, wow i still relish those days when i used to climb the guava tree at Ammu chechi's place and the Paneer tree at my mom's house, yeah i was a good monkey then,J,still i am.

My mom will never ever forget those days in her life, the pain that i have given her and still for all the love she showers on me, thats how i got the first Angel in my life. Mummy i love you, if not for your patience and love i wouldn't be living in this world and if not for your sacrifices for us i wouldn't have ever learnt what love is all about.

I was more than happy to go to my kinder garden then. It was called 'Kalaivani' and it no more exists.):. Kalaivani was right opposite to ma house just beside Ammu Chechi's house. I have not much clue on how i spent my days at Kinder Graden, i still have little memories which say i hated to wear trousers(the shorter ones) and they had to get it replaced with the longer ones extending till my feet for me to stop yelling.

It seems during my kinder garden days i used to undress myself completely and put kumkum all over my body and call Ammu Chechi from my house to see and comment on my reddish-looks, its like whatever i do then i wanted her to see it and smile. Gudalur used to be a very small town without much development. All that we had in there was some few shops and a lot of Tea Estates, but the atmosphere was serene and kinda quiet except for those trucks which passed the town regularly. I used to look at them with amusement, i believe looking at them i would have wanted to become a truck driver..an adventurous profession J. I used to find the lorries with Karnataka registration more beautiful and charming, cause of their different from usual designs.

Pappa always became emotional when he said this. It seems when i was really really young, i mean a baby i used to sleep only if he makes me sleep. He used to sing that ''Kannae Kalaimane" song for me and that was when my eyelids would hug each other then. The few years of life when Rahul was really the so called innocent kid, i think i am among that group of people who lost their innocence very soon in their lives.

Then was the arrival of the next most important person in my life, my brother Rakesh. Am sure i couldn't have got a better person as brother but for him. Oh his looks when he was young, with those curly hair, very fair, he was a kid whom anyone would want to pamper. He is again the gift that God gave me, Pappa, Mummy and Rakesh this was everything to me then. But in the initial days i hated Rakesh, just because i felt that my parents were loving him more than they loved me but then when i started loving him i understood my mistake and realized that no one can ever stop loving that idiot. From then till date he has been the one who keeps us going, he is our pet and will remain so however old he becomes. For me he is my care-taker, the charming brother who loves me a lot.

I can never forget this day in my life.

I used to be with my grandma then, and mummy was at Pappa's house i guess. One fine day after granddad left for work, i went and hid myself under the cot in my uncles room. Grandma kept searching for me when she realized that i wasn't to be found anywhere around. From morning some 10 till 4 in the evening i was hiding in there, without even coming out and with no clue of what was going around. By noon all my relatives and neighbors were informed of my missing, grandma started crying and even granddad came home from work all of them worried to the core not knowing what has happened to me, with no clue on what they gonna tell my dad when he calls up. Finally at about some 4 luckily just before they were planning for a police complaint i came out of the cot saying "I fooled you", and for the first time in my life my granddad beat me, i don't remember the intensity of the beatings but it was lot lesser than the emotional and mental stress i had given them. :).

My uncle used to take me to our estate whenever he went there to pay the wages for the workers, it was always fun there. As always i would keep myself busy by climbing the trees and all, and then jumping on the plucked tea leaves and running around the estate. They used to be fun filled days, the water falls out there and all those really big estates with loads of greenery in them, they are all a pleasure for our eyes. (:.

Then the life at Wayanad, the schooling there, the coffee estates, the Pookode lake and the apple milk shakes that Pappa made everyday after we were back from school. Life at Kalpetta (Wayanad) was really nice and beautiful. I studied at NSS school, it was right behind my house a very big one. In front of my house was a small coffee estate, i used to play hide and seek inside it with my brother and neighbors there. NSS was the school which made me realize the fact that am not and can never be a good dancer, that was where i played some of the first cricket matches in my life diving like Jhonty Rhodes, that was where i learnt the basics of football, loads and loads now thinking of those days i miss many things in my life, yeah that hollow part of my heart just becomes more hollow as if i am missing something very significant in making me who i am now. I had a very good friend named Ashwin, i wonder if he would ever be thinking of me now but one good thing about me is that i can never forget the people in my life. Thanks to God for that.

I tried my first shot at dancing at NSS during my Annual Day, for the super hit song "One Way Ticket", the song was so rocking that it dragged everyone outside the hall to come and see what's happening inside. I had practiced the dance pretty well but seeing the crowd i guess i forgot all the steps and rest all was history J. Since that day most of my seniors whenever they met me at school would be like "Rahul i will teach you some good dance so that you can perform well next year". There had been days when i tried escaping their vision and going the other way just to make sure that they don't comment again.(:.

We met with our first accident at Kalpetta, Pappa,Mummy,Rakesh and Me were the victims. Myself and Pappa escaped with not much injuries and even Rakesh was kinda fine. But my poor Mummy got scratches all over her hands L since she was trying hard to make sure that Rakesh doesn’t fall down and she held him even when she fell down. That’s love, I learnt.

We were there at Kalpetta for quite sometime, I don’t remember the number of years though for I haven’t stayed at the same place for more than 3 years if not for Chennai. A little behind my house situated one of my dads friends house and my friends(mostly my school seniors) had told me that another house near that house had ghosts in it. I feared to look that side when it got dark. That was the age when you tend to believe everything you are told, especially about ghosts and all. Whenever mom went out in the evening she would ask myself and Rakesh to sit at home and not go out since there would be ghosts around.

This was funny when I think of it now. At times Mummy used to switch off all the lights in the house and spread her hair and act as if she is a ghost. Oh myself and Rakesh used to get dead scared of it. But its all fun and it was nice. We didn’t have much entertainments but for such things. As I had said, my school was just behind my house and so was the school playground. So everything that happens at the ground could be seen from the house. My Physical Trainer at NSS used to be really a harsh person and he used to abuse the students badly, Rakesh would listen to most of them and one day he abused my PT sir with those words he learnt listening to him, all this happened in front of the students am just imagining how embarrassed he would have been then hehe.

To be cont.

mArRiAgEs, exPeRiEnCes!

I consider myself to be someone really rich, no not in the financial front but i got LOADS of people who make my life more beautiful. Firstly my parents, the best dad and mom i could have asked for. Then my brother, i am sure that no other person in the world would be so thoughtful of his brother like the way he is to me. And then my friends, they are as important as anything else for me in my life and they make me all the more rich. I don't really have an elder brother and sister, yes over the past few months i have got a handful of them and i would treasure them forever. But still my friends siblings have been just like mine and so every marriage of theirs or any function with them on the lead would mean that am around enjoying every bit of it. My parents and aunt would always complain of me attending too many of my friends sisters and brothers marriages but that has never stood on my way of taking part in them.

The first function that i attended after joining college was that of Hassan's sisters marriage. She was then working as a lecturer in my college, we some 15 of us were there helping them with both the engagement and marriage as well. We were there till every work was done and made sure that everything went just well. It happened some 2 and a half years back, we had just joined college and soon we became very good friends. The way we went for his engagement still remains a great experience. Some 20 of us had to end up traveling in a goods auto with an open carriage area in the ECR road, that day most of us were broke but we wanted to get to his house somehow and help them with the function and the last option that was available was the share auto. A really great experience, people by the roadside were gazing at us. We were all really happy to be traveling that way and few of us were singing as well, that was more than enough to attract the crowd out there lolz... :).

The next one was Raja's sisters marriage. It took place at Madurai very close to the Meenakashi Amman Temple, but no we never made it to the temple. This time again it was an experience. A very funny one in fact. Myself,Adi,Kandu,John,Namachi and Gopi were suppose to go for the marriage, but we didn't book the tickets in advance. Among friends nothing is really certain till the last minute and that was the same with us as well. At the last minute Gopi backed out saying some lame excuses. So we ended up buying 5 tickets for Madurai . The train was suppose to depart at about 12 or so and we were waiting for John to come. When we called up he said that the TTR of that train was also coming with him and so the train wont depart till he comes. We were all tensed up, they train was so crowded that we could no more get into it. But still we trusted his words and waited outside thinking that the TTR could get us the berths. And after sometime the train started departing, i called up John and told him this and he was like the TTR who was coming with him works with Mumbai Suburban railways Lol.. :). We didn't know what to do and so by the time John came we went and cancelled the tickets and planned to go by Bus. When he came he was like lets wait for some 5 hours, there is another train at 5 PM and we would go in that. So we again went and stood on the queue booking tickets to Tiruchi this time. The TTR who was along advised us to seat ourselves somehow, as if we didn't know how to do it. lolz. And finally the train arrived and we got into it. We had our dinner from Tiruchi and got into a bus to Madurai. We reached there late night, Dinesh and Raja were there to welcome us. We were given a room in a lodge to stay, we enjoyed the marriage as well.

Though we thought of staying for another day and going to the temple we couldn't since most of us had to leave for college and pay the exam fee and all that. So we decided to leave that day night itself. Ah.... the return journey was even more pain lolz. :). This time 6 of us were there, Dinesh also joined us on our way back. We went to the railway station and took tickets as well, but the trains seemed to be so damn crowded, we tested our patience to see of we can catch a less crowded train but we were left disappointed. So we decided to cancel the tickets and go in bus. We had a tight budget and so could afford only the cheapest of buses. We found a mini bus which offered to take us till Chennai for just 160 bugs per person and we got into it. That ****er waited for 2 more hours to fill the seats and took 11 hours to drive us back to Chennai. Ah... traveling in a mini bus for nearly 600 km was indeed a pain. But at the end of the day it was yet another notable experience. :)

Post will be continued.

Thanks Brother!

Rahman, Resul Pookutty, Gulzar and Danny thanks brothers. We love you all.

Rahman we respect you for all that you have given us, 

That was all that we ever wanted,

Soothing music for our ears,

You did it with purpose and love,

That made us love you as well.

And now you have made us proud,

Proud to be Indians and proud to be your brother.

Thanks my dear brother,this is all that we want.

May God bless you.

Resul finally you have made it,

Finally you got the recognition that you deserved,

Not many of us knew you until the Oscars 

And now not many of us would ever forget you.

Your words had patriotism brother,

Thanks for being an Indian at the Oscars.

We love you and we wish to see more magic with your magicians.

Gulzar you have taken our mother tongue till there,

The world listens to your lyrics now,

Its the story of many Indians,

It talks of the sufferings of the succeeder.

Jai Ho, Jai Ho, Jai Ho, Jai Ho
Aaja Aaja Jind Shamiyane Ke Tale
Aaja Jariwale Nile Aasman Ke Tale.

Not every achiever makes it easy.

Finally Danny thanks for loving this nation.

Thanks for giving my brothers an opportunity to prove,

Thanks for the movie,

Thanks for being humble.

Thanks for being Indian.

Jai Ho!

Jai Hind!

Govinda Govinda...

Wow, finally(lly)... we made the Tirupati trip, its almost been 4 years(5 years for me) at Chennai and only now we could manage to do it. A darshan at Vaikundam , great and i never knew that Vaikundam is actually Tirupati and that Lord Krishna also faced death and died(yes not much related but i didn't know that he died). It was Mummy's b'day on 24th and my grandmom's(mummy's mummy :) ) on 25th and so right after my exam on 24th evening we left for the holy place. Mummy arranged for the tickets and stay through her colleague, so that we don't struggle much on our first visit to Tirupati.  So that was the gift for mummy, the trip to Tirupati and yes yet another gift was there but its not yet a confirmed one and thats from Pappa.

Being at Chennai for nearly 4 years, we were often made to issue a veto for the question "So, did you visit Tirupati?" by all our relatives and friends. And now we can proudly say, "Yeah, of course staying at Chennai it is hard to miss Tirupati, a great temple and the place is also equally beautiful, it was a memorable trip. Make sure you visit it someday". Yeah, a long reply for the small question but it just makes up for all the short answers till date. So let me just give you a gist of my(our) experience at Tirupati. 

** The first and foremost thing is that Pappa wants to quit smoking, the tradition says that we are suppose to leave something at  Tirupati  and we have left back that habit of his. I don't know whether it would get back to him, yes Tirupati  is just 160 km from here and a storm can easily bring the habit back, but he seems to be confident this time. He is a desperate dad (and husband) who wants to make his family happier and for the first time i find some sincerity in his pledge. Lets see. I wouldn't complain if he smokes again, but i want him to reduce the number of cigarettes significantly. 

**I never expected Tirupati to be such a humongous place, and it was such a nice and very well maintained town. The weather was a bit shivery, and early morning wait in the queue did make me shiver a bit. We had to wait for some 2 and a half hours to get the darshan, but by Tirupati standards that is a lot earlier, there has been times when devotees waited for more than a day it seems, lucky you Rahul( and family). But we had a big struggle with the language, though there are a handful of people who speak tamil, it is difficult. So i have decided to dedicate some time to watch Telugu movies(any recommendations???) to improve my language.

**The drive was also a nice one, on the Onward journey i did most of the driving with Pappa sitting behind and yelling at me for careless driving(i wasn't really careless, but he gets tensed fast especially when i drive. Yeah, just like your dad, all dads are like this is it???). I have improved my driving considerably, my dad is happy(but he doesn't even show a sign of that, last time he told mummy that am a good driver, but didn't agree when i asked him that, yes mummy never keeps secrets). 

**One of the best things was that, the road to and from the temple(its situated in a hill) is one-way and we don't even get to locate the other road when we are going in one. It must have taken them some great planning to do it. Hats of to the architects, and the return journey(i mean the road) is a lot shorter than the other one. And the places at Tirupati had a historical significance, its a very nice place to be on a vacation.

**The crowd at the temple, i was pushed like anything when i just entered the main temple, the devotees behind me were pushing me and added to that were the temple staffs(staffs who are assigned to push the devotees, what an idea Govinda?) they were also busy pushing everyone but that's part of their work to moderate the crowd(i suppose). I still managed to have a good darshan but this entire pushing saga made me unknowingly step on a little girl(poor girl), i told her sorry and smiled at her, the innocent child smiled back. I was really unhappy with the way they moderate the crowd, and the issuing of tickets on the basis of the money paid by the devotees, i never support that idea. Mummy did manage to get us the tickets through one of her colleagues.And yes, i got the ladoo. 

**The most pathetic things was that, only 4 of us were there but we ended up buying 5 tickets thinking an aunt of ours would also be there but she couldn't make it. Every ticket actually cost 200 Rs., there should be more expensive tickets as well i guess. And we had to pay the person who got us the ticket(Mummy's colleagues cousin) 5oo Rs. per ticket, that meant an additional 300 and we weren't really happy for that. But we couldn't bargain either and we told ourselves "Tirupati is a place like that, the God here will make us pay for him" and walked back.

**We went to Tirupati on 24th of November and this post has been in my drafts for nearly 2 months, just today when i was editing that section i noticed it and just when i thought of deleting the post i found that most of the work is complete and thought i would flag it. If you haven't been to Tirupati do go there irrespective of caste and creed(i don't believe in both). It should be a nice experience and you can see an entire town developing just because of its temple and the crowd out there should surprise you.

And finally "Ezhukundalavacha Venkataramana Govinda Govinda"...

Getting drunk!!!

Day:-December 27,2008

Place:-Anna Nagar(Chennai)

Time:-Post 10 PM

Incident:- Rahul getting drunk  for the first time.

Gopi started it all when we met at Besi, he said "Mama why don't we booze today" to all of us and i was like "Mama even i would  like to try" and i wanted him to promise that the plan won't be called off. I always wished to try and findout the reason behind people getting drunk very often, though i had tasted wine many a times never did i touch the hot ones. He did promise, all that i had to do was to tell Pappa and Mummy that i am staying at Anna Nagar that day. He also agreed. So i went to Anna Nagar, Gopi and Me went and bought liquor, Mcdowell's Whiskey. "Alcohol doesn't come that cheap" i said to myself. We bought enough of beef chilly to feed ourselves as well. I was all set for the party. And we went over to Balaji's and Naga's colony, our destination was Naga's balcony. I should appreciate his courage, he stays at the 3rd floor of that apartment and we are gonna get drunk in the balcony just above his flat and he is just fine with it, great guy! We waited for our gang to assemble there and i was examining the bottle through all dimensions, and reading every word written over it and it was the closest i could get to a liquor bottle and i was desperate to try it out if not for Gopi who kept stopping me from opening it. 

And by 10.30 i guess we started the party and the first round was poured into our plastic cups, the desperate me took a sip, it tasted yuck. But it didn't check me from finishing my first round pretty soon and guiding myself for the second one. I was made to wait till the rest of my gang  finished it, and i did wait with least patience though. I still wonder how i managed to finish that bitter glass of liquid and yearned for more as well, but i did(Is that the reason??). Then was the second round, i finished it pretty fast, post that i took Gopi's share as well without his knowledge  and i drank most of his share as well, then i took 2 sips from Naga's glass as well but he saw me doing that and so hid the glass from me. 

The effect of alcohol was working on me but i was enacting as if it was not, and my friends were like "Keep talking and you will get a high" i  called my close ones and spoke to them, my tongue was twisting as if every word happened to be a tongue twister. And by the time i had finished talking Gopi had served the 3rd round and since only very little was left i was not served my 3rd peg. When i got back to my place i saw my glass empty and so went for Gopi's glass, he had just then filled it with raw whiskey and i just took it and drank it neat. My friends were like "Gosh, mama it was a raw drink", i was happy to hear that and i could feel the heat on me. And the rest of whatever i did was just what an alcoholic would do, i ended up being a pain in their ass and gave them a night that my friends would never forget. I ended up talking non-stop non-sense for 3 and a half hours, and all the effect the alcohol had on my friends were just washed away by my inebriated behavior.

I was trying to convince my friends that i was perfectly fine and was talking just because of the "Keep talking and you will get a high" statement. I was counting from 1 to 10 , trying to walk properly and saying the names of my friends and abusing the ones who made fun of me and all sorts of non-sense just in an effort to convince them. I was walking as if i was on a dance floor and talking with very less clarity, was shouting at times. And the best part was what Naga had said, he was like "I thought Rahul was a civilised fellow but he seems to be very local". Then i slept for sometime and my friends escaped from my clutches, but the mosquitoes around made sure that i didn't rest for too long and i again got up. But this time i was less violent and seated myself at one corner of the balcony to escape from those mosquitoes. We got up around 5 and went to Balaji's house to get some better sleep. I guess i was fine then, don't really know if i was. I had a sound sleep for nearly 5 hours and got back only at about 10 and that was when i really knew what a pain in the ass i was for my friends. But they did enjoy the day, i really did. 

Getting back home i was very much gloomy and wanted to hit the bed soon. I had my morning breakfast and spoke to my parents for sometime and went on to sleep right away, got up only by 1:30 for the lunch and then left for my CAT classes. But the whole day i was very sleepy and kinda tired, it will still remain a nice day in my life. I have never been such a pain for anyone for a long time if not for my Mom when i was a very young kid, i was known to be the most mischievous boy in my whole family. 

 

Movies… Talkies… and now Smellies!

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*/Cinemakaran thats how he calls himself. And thats what he is trying to be, a cinema personnel. We now each other for some 3 years or so and we have had a wonderful time together. Sajeesh ettan came here as a student and now he is a lecturer. He has experienced the highs and lows of life, but am sure he is set to achieve great heights. This article is something he wants to work on. Its feels great to host his article in here. I conclude by wishing him the very best in all aspects of his life.*/

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Have you ever felt cinema is handicapped when it comes to projecting reality? Is cinema lacking something? Give a thought to it. If your answer is ‘NO’, you are wrong! What about Smell?

Didn’t you ever feel the need for smell in cinemas? If a fragrance of love was incorporated with the ‘I am flying’ sequence in James Cameroon’s “Titanic”, wouldn’t it have been more awesome? With the spectacular cinematography and amazing music in the background, a pleasant fragrance of love would have given an extremely romantic experience for the sequence. 

With the sight and sound making cinema a realistic way of representing life, there was always one thing that cinema lacked; the power of Smell. If smell can be incorporated to cinema, it will have the real 3 dimensional experience with the 3 ‘S’ operating, i.e., Sight, Sound & Smell!

 Smell in Cinema

 Smell is one of those sensory experiences which are strongly associated to human memories. It brings back the memories of places and people. It is also associated with spirituality since divine odors are an important ingredient of most of the spiritual practices. Taste buds also work only due to the existence of smell. Recent researches have also proved that the smell can be used to induce certain feelings like nostalgia, fear, romance etc.

 

Once smell was considered least important. In fact smell was ignored and left in the trash in an era dominated by the computers and electronics. But the sense of smell is now considered as one of the means by which visual media’s delineating effects can be mitigated.

The sense of smell is poised to break free from many of its assumed delineation. The mystery of how smell works, for instance, has defied scientific understanding for centuries. However with the award of the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine to Neuroscientists Richard Axel and Linda.B.Buck, the basic code by which scents are perceived and cognitively processed seems to be on the verge being   cracked (Nobel Prize Org. 2004)

Smell and Cinema is not a quite new concept. In fact attempts to incorporate smell to cinema dates back to 1916; even before sound was introduced! It was S.L.Rothafel, the owner of a film theater in Forest City, Pennsylvania who deluged the audience of a rose bowl game newsreel in the scent of rose oil. He dipped cotton in rose scent and held it in front of an electric fan, there by suffusing the theater with floral fragrance. But soon, a new fad hit the moviegoers; Sound. The technology that would one day be known as Smell-O-Vision was lost in noise!

 

Hans Laube and Smell-O-Vision

Later on, Hans Laube was excited by the idea of smell in cinema. He invented Scent-O-Vision, a system that released scents connected to individual scents in movie theaters, and debuted it at the 1939 New York’s World Fair. The basic concept involved a projectionist manually releasing various scent vials at specific points in a movie, such as the scent of flowers during a romantic scene or the smell of gun smoke during a shoot-out. The original Scentovision system failed to catch on for a number of reasons, not the least of which was the substantial amount of conflicting fragrances which eventually filled the theater.

Scent of Mystery

For years, the technology was forgotten. But it was re-introduced in 1960’s in the mystery film aptly titled as “The Scent of Mystery”. Laube perfected his technology into a “Smell Brain”; a series of perfume bottles with scents that were released into the theater automatically as the film threaded through the projector. The process was called Smell-O-Vision.

Ads for the film read, “First they moved (1895)! Then they talked (1927)! Now they Smell (1960)! Scent track was incorporated on the film itself to trigger odors, analogue to a sound track. The release of the odors was synchronized with specific audio visual events in the film. Several of the film’s most prominent clues were set to be conveyed by the Smell Brain.

Even though the idea got a positive buzz before the release, the experiment was a flop. In fact Times Magazine’s (2000) Reader Poll has selected it as one of the ‘Top 100 Worst Ideas of all Time’!

Even though smell was synchronized with the audio visual content, its immediacy was restrained by the slow diffusion of scent, especially in a large theater space. Audience members in the balcony found the smells delivered to them several seconds delayed; the entire system was olfactory out of sync. Other parts of the theater barely got the smells.

Release of one scent to another was not instantaneous and had to be carefully managed to avoid odorific confusion which was not desired. Subsequent removal of the smell also had to be carried out to avoid the uneasiness created by the odor in the atmosphere. This also was not possible. Smell-O-Vision was temporarily snuffed out.

 There was also another attempt to mix smell with cinema. The process was called “Aromarama” which dispersed smell through AC with Freon gas. An Italian travel feature about China, “Beyond the Great Wall” (1958) came with this technology whose tagline read “You Must Breathe it to Believe it”!

 All these attempts during that era can be related to the frantic efforts taken by the film makers to retain the cinema audience from Television. Certain techniques like 3D, Cinerama etc never caught on like Smell-O-Vision. But still cinema survived with spectacular viewing experience rendered to the audience. Thanks to Cinemascope and 70mm technologies.

Odorama

The idea of smell kept on exciting film makers through the years. Modern attempts at reviving Smell-O-vision were undertaken by John Waters when he released his film ‘Polyster’ in 1982. He handed over ‘Scratch and Sniff’ cards to the viewers and they were asked to smell it during specific scenes.

The ‘Scratch and Sniff’ cards had some 8-10 spots which were numbered. The audience had to scratch and sniff each spot when that particular number appears on the screen. This turned out to be quite popular and more fool proof. When the MTV re-aired the film in 1992, they handed out the “Scratch and Sniff” cards at convenient stores.

Smell in Gadget Age

 

In the gadget age Smell-O-Vision lives on. Digiscents inc. is developing the ismell personal scent synthesizer; a device that will let smells be transmitted through the internet scent synthesizer can be compared to the desktop speakers.

In Cinema, the Collin Farell starrer “The New World” which was released in Japan in April 2006 tried to bring back the essence of smelling cinema. The film which was released in certain theaters in Japan had an internet based fragrance system. The movie goers were exposed to various scents to heighten their sense of joy, love, sadness etc during key scenes.

The technology was based on NTT Com's Fragrance Communication (Kaori Tsushin) system, which uses a special scent-emitting device programmed with information obtained via the Web. Scents were emitted into the theaters using devices placed under viewers' seats. The system was employed at one theater each in Tokyo and   Osaka.

The system downloads an aroma recipe and distribution schedule from an aroma-control server and stores the information in a LAN box, which can then be disconnected from the network and moved freely. The box is then connected to aroma-emitting devices placed under a number of seats in the theater. Each device contains six base oils, which are combined according to the recipes for specifically generated aromas. The LAN box controls the automatic release of these aromas during selected scenes of the movie.

Future Prospects

Research has shown that the human sense of smell can create stronger, more lasting impressions than sight, suggesting that smell has the potential to greatly heighten the intended effect of communication for diverse purposes. So, the idea of smell in cinema will never die. In fact it will get on to Television and of course internet too. And who knows, if we have more fool proof technologies, the entire structure of cinema might change just like sound changed the structure and story telling styles of silent movies.

There should be provision made to remove the scent as and when it is released to avoid the foul smell sticking on to the environment which inturn will create suffocation in the viewers. And there should be attempts to make the fragrance reach each and every member in the audience at the same time. If minor things like these are taken care off, in the digital age, as the mystery surrounding how the smell works has been almost clarified, there will be no looking back for the idea of  smell in cinema.

Cinema is always a novelty. Cinema has not reached the saturation level yet and it will never reach there! More and more newer things will come up to make the cinema exciting as ever. Let there be more efforts to make the cinemas smell in the coming years with the increased and better understanding of the Odors and how they work and transmit. This will make cinema a real 3 Dimensional visual experience!

 

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SAJEESH RAJENDRAN

Faculty –DFM, SAE, India

 

 

Reference : The Smell culture Reader      Edited by Jim Orobnick (Berg Publishers)

                   http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/biosi/staffinfo/jacob/teaching/sensory/olfact1.html