Looking around

The toughest of 'em yet

2011-09-15T13:06:00.000-07:00

Its been a real long hiatus this one- clocking just over 9 months. But I am at least happy to be writing again. And instead of the famed proclamations of previous times, I don't want to send out an empty statement saying "I am KCAB". Its good to be writing again and I hope I write again frequently in the near/far/whatever future.

So, as it is, VI Semester at IITM began inconspicuously with me beginning to take on more work primarily for Amalgam 2011 (hope I chronicle Amalgam 2011seperately- it required quite an effort!) and also for the year's edition of Saarang. I expected the semester to be a tough ride, but I didnt quite forecast what was coming!

January:

First week of January was filled with meetings- both at Saarang and at Amalgam level. But the cash resources in Amalgam was drying up and we still had not got most of our sponsors! So we (myself and my co-secretary) had to step up real gas and pursue all ends possible. Meanwhile in Saarang, the ticket sales finally started in the outlets and before that on the net. The course work apparently had no work. Most of my friends at Meta had taken up this course "Finite Element Methods" under the Chem department (taken by the one-who-must-not-be-named) and tragically we also had the worse Meta core course in this particular semester (taken by a particular woman who had in previous years started the "Iron and Steel Making" course with a peculiar "Iron and STEAL making" writing on the board-- from here on referred to as 'femme-fatal' (no, I have not spelled that wrong--she is more a deadly woman by conventional means than a femme-fatale)).

But the one-who-must-not-be-named (chuck it, writing with all the hyphens takes too long, will hence forth be referred to as 'Tan sak') actually appeared a chilled-out guy (despite all the hype and warnings that had surrounded him previously) and took the classes pretty well in the first week. He did not send anybody out, did not ask any questions in the class, allowed people to ask him doubts and primarily did not send anyone out of the class. All this changed when a particularly loud mouthed hyper-active-super-computing individual (ok da-- will refer you as Ram itself) added on to the course in the second week.

Read more

cheers,

Welcoming 2011

2011-01-01T08:56:00.001-08:00

I wish a very happy and prosperous 2011 to all my readers. Hope this year augurs well to all your desires and ambitions.

cheers,

The Aaromale moment of my life

2010-12-31T08:23:00.000-08:00

Funda:

The last segments of the song "Aaromale" from the movie "Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaya" show a re-union of sorts between two people. The guy thinks he has permanently lost the girl from his life, when all of a sudden she jumps back into his life, out of nowhere. Seperated in Chennai, the couple re-unites themselves in New york amidst a film (within the film) shooting. Those sequences are wonderfully picturized in the song under the beautiful backdrop of a bridge. Well, something similar happened in my life too.

The happening:

It was Day 2, Shaastra 2010 (thats October 1st). I was having my breakfast in the grub stalls (I was having Pongal and Onion Uthappam if I am not mistaken) with the EP core of Shaastra. I was just finishing my onion uthappam when my eyes caught the side view of a white+blue chudidhar at about 150 metres from the stalls (near the big dice that was erected). It just caught me for a fraction of a second--and my mind was racing--"could this be the Aaromale equivalent in my life?". After a second I looked again and this time I almost confirmed it was. I was in downright disbelief as the uthappam was still struck in my mouth. I was too shocked to believe this! So I had one more look--and there I confirmed! It was that woman, whom I thought had walked off from my life nine months ago. I never imagined to see that girl in years, never imagined I would see her at IITM, never imagined I would see her at Shaastra and never imagined I would see her that very day! I was beginning to push that woman from my life-yet she just bounced back from nowhere (yet again). And I couldnt but just admire the skills of my eye--it just took me a fraction of a second to notice her (that too I didnt notice her face-on. It was from the side).

I followed her and noticed that she seated herself on the mini stage that was erected near the dice. I quickly wrapped up the remaining uthappam, turned down the EP core's offer to go round the exhibition stalls and walked towards the dice. I was a little nervous all through my walk, partly due to disbelief and the rest in the diffidence I had about my eye-sight. I was wondering what to say if it was a wrong woman. But I didnt know what I was going to say had I met the right woman-anger and surprise was catching me short of words and expectations. Finally I turned over the other side of the dice, the side that she was seated and found that my eyes didnt lie. It was a deluge of emotions-happy that I had spotted her out of nowhere, anger on her walking off from my life and surprise that she turned up all of a sudden. I was also acknowledging the brilliance of Gautham Menon, director of "Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaya" in depicting those sequences so beautifully. I felt those few minutes of my life to be a beautiful depiction of those scenes in real life.

I spent most of the day with her, trying to sort some things out. It was also one of the longest chats that I had. It came out to be a nice experience on the outset.

Moral:

a.Film incidents can happen in real life too. And when they happen and if you are able to relate to them--the beauty just strikes you down! Those few minutes of extrapolation are just so beautiful in life! Never miss them.

b.You can trust your eyesight, especially if you are a teenager (or round about that).

The Video of the song:

PS: This might be the last post of mine in 2010. So I wish all of my readers a Happy 2011.

cheers,

Shaastra 2010 and Core works

2010-12-02T08:59:00.000-08:00

Funda:
Briefly, at the later half of my fourth sem, I was selected as one of the core group members for Shaastra 2010. Cores are popularly referred to as the "bosses" (:P) of Shaastra and I was made the core for the Web Operations dept apart from my co-core. Together, we also had to take care of the Mobile Operations as well.

Following will be a time-based break up of the things I remember and the things that I did.

March and Early April:
Happiness knew no bounds when I was elected the core in March. Had some core meetings which were kinda "brain-storm" for Shaastra(but I mostly slept through huge portions of those meetings-being rudely awoken for the web related ones). We maintained the applications portal(the 2005 coded version still worked!) for aspiring coordinators to apply. We also put a full weekend+two evenings to conduct interviews in selecting our coordinators. We did select a team of 12 for Web Operations and a team of 4 for Mobile Operations. We also had the additional baggage of the QMS coordinator. So, in all our team comprised of 19 members(including us). And looking back, I have no regrets about the selection of the team--we did well.

Late April and Early May:
After the end sems ended, we had a rush of inter-departmental meetings for finalizing the requirements. We also had a couple of meetings with the design team in getting on board the customized design of the Shaastra site and with our own team before we parted for the vacations. During vacations, I realized how hard it was to coordinate work. And the situation became worse once I joined TVS as I was almost cut-off from internet connectivity for a major chunk of day time. Whatever time I got, in addition to the restrictions on sites, I used it to push through work. Meanwhile, the events team was reluctant in its pace to fill up write-ups on the site and the PR team took care of the blog. Hence we waited and used the time gained there to fix up the design of our main site. All the while, the cover provided by the temporary landing page helped. Work was also a little compartmentalized and streamlined in the sense, the account management across the main site and the mail server was done uniformly. We were also helped by the fact that the evolve team decided to make (a mess of :P) the symposium site and the AGSTVC site.

May-June-Early July:
I had always set 2009 web operations as the yardstick when it came to deadlines and I wanted to make sure that the deadlines were met with earlier. So after a great push of last minute work, we made the beta version of the main site public on July 5 at 09:00 hrs. It was a remarkable feeling to put the main site up. But the design got a few negative feedbacks partly because of the crowded header and the dodgy right menu. Once the main site was up, work was split to getting the Userportal up, the Smriti site and the Coords portal up and running. Meanwhile, all the while the mobile guys and the QMS coordinators hardly worked :'(

Late July-August:
Late July always reminds me of franatic night outs close to the beginning of the semester to get the Userportal(portal used for registration of participants) and the Helpdesk up and running. It also reminded me of pushing through work in getting the Smriti site up and running(which was done a week after the sem opened). The beginning of the sem in August again marked a return of meetings(within web ops and inter departmental). The website needed a revamp of designs desperately and we did bring out a fresh looking website by the second week of August. The hits and the feedback also improved because of this, thanks to the design team. The first all core meet was marred by a 2 hr delay in Pizza arrival! Work was devoted to the coords portal in a full-fledged manner(despite which infinite password change requests were given later) and the portal was up and running by the third week of August. So that left with the Hospi portal to be done. Meanwhile userportal had been giving us the bugs all through out. August 2010 also set the record for the best bandwidth of all Augusts put together in Shaastra site's history and was second best in number of unique visitors by a small margin. August ended with the Chairman Committee Meeting and the Steering Committee Meeting(SCM). Its a nice memory to have gone on to the 5th floor of the Admin block(might be the first and last time I have got there) where the top bosses of IITM generally have their meetings. We also obtained the confirmation of our main sponsor during the meeting which was swiftly followed by a treat at an Adyar restaurant.

September:
Early September marked the deadline for registrations for Shaastra. Userportal had its issues of mass mailing and memory usage (due to zipping of files!!) which resulted in a "lockdown" of the site. It involved days of panicking emails and meetings to set the issue to rest. September 3 also recorded the best ever bandwidth in the history of the Shaastra site(at a staggering 8GB). Once the registrations got over-the only thing remaining were the Hospi portal and the Landing pages. Meanwhile the mobile application was put up sometime in the middle of September. The Landing pages(both the Home page and the official landing page) were taken care of by my co-core while I handled the Hospi part. Despite advance planning and execution, the Hospi portal, true to its nature, stretched till almost to the brink of Shaastra. We also had a small treat at the campus CCD to appreciate our coordinators of the work done so far. The Shaastra All Coords Meet also happened and it was good to address a gathering(albeit for a short while). The end of the month marked an amazing one-hour photoshoot session for the cores! The month of September recorded the highest ever hits and unique users in any given month in the history of the Shaastra site.

October:
The only thing that was threatening a peaceful Shaastra was the Hospi portal--which was stretching on and on with changes and modifications. Finally, we could get it up and running by the midnight of Sept 29(day 0 of Shaastra) and all the bugs were fixed up by day 1 of Shaastra (Sept 30). This was the first time ever that the Hospi portal was used in Shaastra(kudos to my team and the hospi coord who helped in coordination). Shaastra 2010 this time around was more majestic and bigger than the 2009 edition, though, on sheer footfall did not match the 2008 edition. Shaastra had some cool exhibitions and some good lectures and VCs. Personally, this Shaastra was a little let down in terms of events, coz I didnt make a single final or a semi-final (the best performance being a 4th round finish in the 5 round Pentathlon event on day 3 of Shaastra). Time was mostly spent on grub stalls(thanks to the large number of grub coupons) and walking through different events. Despite all the fight I had put in preparing for the Hackfest event, I packed it out of sheer fatigue and non-willingness to put 3 night outs together. The Laser show was good but the fire show turned out to be horrible. The RC car show was a different attempt which could have been better. The Air show wasnt as great as the previous edition and I missed out on the Planetorium. Overall, this Shaastra was the most peaceful Shaastra ever and I enjoyed every moment of it.

Shaastra was quickly followed by a core-treat at the Residency. Looking back, the core ship, in its entirety was an awesome experience. Six months of nerve-wracking work(with the last two months being so tiring) and the whole thing about leadership and working alongside a pack was superb. I would always remember this experience not only because of its high-points but also because of the subsequent burn out that it caused(from which recovery was extremely difficult). We had also failed in a few objectives we started off with, including making the Shaastra games event wide and well recognized, but those were minor objectives. Anyways, one duty still remains-that of selecting the next core, which will happen in March 2011.

My only wish is that the 2010 site is never dismantled or broken apart. It has taken quite a bit of work, and hopefully I can still see it standing 4/5 years down the line. An awesome coreship and an awesome experience.

PS: Sorry about the long post--just so many memories made in those 6 months.

cheers,

1/2 Alas!

2010-12-02T08:39:00.000-08:00

It was sometime in early June, 2008 that I stepped into the IITM gates unknowing whether I will become an IIT-ian or not. Was filled with fear and nervousness that day as nothing was certain. I was just sure about one thing-I didnt want to let go off 2 years of hard work. Two years have flied past now. And here I am, finally a half-engineer.

Considering the state of mind that I had that day, I guess its quite an achievement that I have moved past 5 semesters of IITM life without major hiccups. IITM has been tough, but it has indeed taught me how to be strong and how to say a "no" boldly. These 5 semesters have been a great learning experience and hope the next half of IITM life also is.

5th semester was probably the toughest of semesters personally for me. It might not be as tough as the 3rd semester on the face of it, but considering the sheer mental struggle I had to undergo post-Shaastra to get some focus back, I hope I dont recount such an experience again. The sem is not done yet, but I have learned to hope against all odds. A brief break up of what happened during this sem.

August:

Moved into a bog room-201. I was really terrified to move into that room, simply because it was the room adjacent to the toilet, which was used by the freshies. The bog did become worse through the later days of the sem, but it didnt terrify me as I did expect at the start. Had my plate full with the core works of Shaastra. I had put full fight for it to get things done earlier than usual. There was another 2 week fight early on with the acad section to change my minor from Physics to Economics (thank goodness I did change it). It was also a month when I became the secretary of the Metallurgical Students Association (MetSA). It was another dream come true. I had only dreamt of becoming that when I was first introduced to Amalgam-the dept festival. Being the MetSA sec, I had to immediately coordinate with my co-secretary and conduct the Freshies night and the Brahmprakash quiz--I guess we did a good job. 2nd August was probably the last day I saw a movie for the next two months to come.

September:

Shaastra work load slowly crept up with events and hospi tightening the screws on us. It was also a month of crashing servers and desperate mails to keep the server up and running (looking back-it was actually fun). The pre-Shaastra core treat, where the pizzas arrived two hours late was enjoyable too. In between came the quizzes. All of my quizzes bombed, except for possibly the F-slot quiz(which might have been saved by a dumb question paper). Quiz 1 also witnessed an event, where a certain prof walked out of the exam hall without collecting the answer scripts! I cant forget the convo that we had with him, trying to convince him not to take stringent action against us, immediately after the exam. Cores for Amalgam 2011 were also elected. I also secured a coordship for Saarang, 2011. Late September witnessed severe fights to get stuff working. But I did like the workload that was given.

October:

Shaastra happened. It was not a very great Shaastra personally-my best performance being a 4th round finish at Pentathlon-but definitely gave me a high for the sheer magnitude of the fest and also my contributions in making the festival better. The closing ceremony was wonderful. Shaastra was swiftly followed by an all core-treat and the devil called quiz 2. I did manage to pull my socks up to a decent extent, but I wasnt out of the woods yet with respect to quizzes. Post quiz-2, I had one of the most torrid times of my life, when I kinda burned out. I lost focus, was searching for something motivating and was tired both physically and mentally. Add to this, slipping health and severe lapses in concentration. It was partly because, the huge workloads suddenly stopped and I felt like a jobless bugger all of a sudden. The month started with a high, but ended up spiraling down as I hit an all-time low. Had somehow evaded work for Saarang and ensured that most of the coords were selected for Amalgam.

November:

Recovery time. I took in a lot of time for introspection and managed to get some focus back onto academics (economics presentations helped). Project was not progressing at the pace that we expected and it was hard to motivate the core team for Amalgam. The design core was changed and hopefully the team has been motivated to the extent that I tried to. A lab course project was done at the last moment, much to the displeasure of the Prof in charge of the course. Add to this-myself and my co-secretary were late for the viva! Finally came the end sems and as usual, flunked most of the exams (including severe bulbs to utter non-preparations leading to being blanked by the question paper). Economics exam was particularly severe, as I had studied till 6 am in the morning only to be asked questions from those chapters that I had not covered. Anyways, all is not lost and hope I can have the results my way, God willing. The sem ended with a thud with growing disparities between ourselves(myself and my co-sec) and a certain MS scholar. I only wish that things are resolved the way that we want them to be.

Hence goes another roller-coaster sem. I am happy that I have crossed this. Hope this december can be peaceful and fruitful all at the same time simply because, sixth sem-academically the heaviest sem ever-is not far away.

cheers,

Summer of '10

2010-12-02T08:35:00.000-08:00

Summer of '10 is probably the time where I spent the maximum time out of family. Lots of good things and a few bad things did happen. I spent most of my time at Hosur and I still recollect the wonderful weather that was around the two months that I spent there.

May:

Early May ended with the beginning of works for Shaastra 2010. With me in charge of webops, early May was flooded with meetings and discussions. I had hit my highest GPA yet of my insti life-so that gave me a good memory to look back on. Moved to Hosur mid-may after and quickly enrolled myself as a summer intern at TVS Motor Company Limited, Hosur. I thank my "athimber" here for his support in getting the intern. A typical weekday was like this,

6.30-6.45: Get up at any point of time in this range

6.45-7.30: The daily chores of the morning

7.30-8.00: Travel to the factory.

8.00-8.10: Breakfast at the company

8.10-8.20: A brisk walk to the R&D Dept

8.20-9.10: One hour of peace

9.10-9.15: Tea break--the best part of life at TVSM

9.15-12.30:Mostly peace plus some work

12.30-1.00:Lunch--sometimes good, sometimes bad.

1.00-2.10: Post lunch peace putting period

2.10-2.15: Second tea break of the day

2.15-5.30: Mostly peace plus some work

5.30-5.45: Brisk walk back to the entrance of the company

5.45-6.15: Travel back home

6.15-8.00: Refreshing+some mail checks

8.00-11.00: Dinner+Web ops works

A weekend would be a lot different with myself getting up late in the morning and sleeping late at the night.

June:

June was very similar to the times during late May except that it had rained for a few days and the weather was particularly awesome. Had a break of 5 days at Chennai, which I welcomed with both hands and had my "athai" and "athimber"'s 25th wedding anniversary late in the month. It was celebrated with much fanfare. This was also the month when I first drove a car on a highway at 110kph. Personally, I could never forget the moment of betrayal by a certain MS scholar at my dept, who left me hanging for two days with no results for one of my intern experiments. Those two days were horrible, with my intern being at stake. Rest of the days flew by.

July:

July was characterized by last minute fights to desperately finish off the intern. The last two days of the intern were packed with a punch and I guess I pleased the industry guys with my work and report. Was back again in Chennai for the rest of the month. The days flew by with more webops work(trying to get things up as early as possible) and battling failing health. The last days were characterized by semi night outs.

Thus ended a good summer overall. It included many firsts. Hope the next summers are great too.

cheers,

Back to my writing days

2010-12-02T06:47:00.000-08:00

It was indeed one hell of a hiatus. My last post here dates May 12,2010 and its been almost 7 months that I have not posted. Its been one hell of a seven months-and I have been through a lot these times. Hope I can recount some interesting things along the way.

I am just back to my writing days--so ignore errors and the inherent "scratchy-ness" in writing. Hope I can set in a more continuous writing mechanism were this blog will not experience lulls like it just did.

To put it once again, whether you like it or not, I am KCAB.

cheers,

Some random thoughts...

2010-05-12T08:05:00.000-07:00

Some people did ask me(at intermittent time intervals) why my blog's name was "anamgine" or why my mail id was "goths_numbers_"@"some_domain".com..So i thought i could actually build a post on it :P

Anamgine:
Anamgine is actually a concatenation of two strings An and enigma. Here the reverse form of enigma || amgine is taken and concatenated with an. So ultimately the name is anamgine.

If the question is why an enigma? The answer would be that I consider myself to be an enigma. I arrived at this conclusion after a simple self analysis where I asked myself a few questions from time to time and came out with inconsistent answers(at the corresponding different points of time). Off late though, the consistency factor has improved a bit with me showing clear lines of demarcations between the different answers/views possible for different questions(if it sounds a little too vague, i suggest you to read the above paragraph again/ask yourself some random questions and try to come out with answers!!)

Goths:
a.Its not inspired from the goths civilization of aoe. I coined this name well before I started playing aoe.
b.Its actually an inspiration from Gotham city of Batman fame. Gautam-Gotham:Homophones. Gotham's->Goths: a kinda shortened form. This was the exact thought chain that went through my mind when I coined this name sometime in my seventh class!!!

The inspiration, as obvious, is Batman. I was so much impacted by the character in my childhood itself. I mean, the way he does things, the principles he stands for, his love for the darkness, turning his greatest fear towards his enemies...and finally doing things "alone"_not trusting anyone else..... All these were traits that I wanted to have actually(I am sure I dont have even half of them)...Despite all this, I was quite rudely shaken at the new definition given to the batman character etched by Nolan and actually found the recent avatar of Batman a lot more well defined and refined than his previous counterparts. And this character has forever created an irreversible impact in my mind. Hopefully I imbibe some traits from my inspiration in the long run.

I am pretty sure many of you would have had these sort of inspirations/ideas/thoughts and I dont think its wrong to be inspired by any crazy thing. "If you are inspired by something/someone, you want to be that thing/person"....

cheers,

Hence goes another sem

2010-05-04T12:56:00.000-07:00

First of all i pretty much know that its been two months since I last wrote and thats a huge time gap considering I saw so many movies, did so many things and flunked so many other things...But i guess the title explains it all and its anyways better late than never...Comebacks(even as mundane as ones of this kind)have to be appreciated!!!

To sum it all up in a few words...4th sem has been a revelation...I have reached the peaks of happiness and depths of despair....Busy like a bee one day, lazy like a buffalo the next...raping one exam and flunking(_big_time_)in another....You could call that a truly roller-coaster sem(and it aint done yet...results_the biggest game changers_are yet to come).

To summarise briefly the things over the past four months,

January:
The busiest of months-albeit non academically. Saarang ambience, Institute Web ops, Lemalabs, my pet project and Amalgam-well...they squeezed all the time out of my hands in the first few weeks. Ambience was especially severe with me having to go to some arbit welding shops in taramani, running temperature and also work late into the night for almost ten days in a row. Then came Saarang-my first insti festival where I had not reached a final/semi-final. But good things turned up at Saarang(Dreams on canvas, Kamal)-but i did flunk big time at flirting(I know i am not "that" kinda guy). And hence went January.

February:
Lesser work load. Federer won the Australian open after three years. Amalgam was taking most of my time now and I think I did a fair amount of justice to it. At the end of the day though, results matter :( ....Flunked almost all exams in quiz-1. Project didnt go as smoothly as expected. Forgot to wish mom and dad on their wedding day!! Slipping health. And to culminate it-the bizarre Kovai trip. Exhilarating ride.

March:
March was a nice turn around. Amalgam got an unexpected boost towards the end. I got my internship confirmed. And the biggest of all-I became a core member of Shaastra 2010. It was only a dream when I stepped in at IITM in 2008-and to have achieved a dream in life was totally great. I owe it to my previous cores for showing immense trust and confidence in me(and dont forget the Gods). My project, though, was completely derailed in a matter of an hour. We had to go in for a total revamp there, and taking such a decision was humongous. As far as my quizzes for the month went, I did them better than I did them during February. It was also a month i went for a few treats.

April:
A month of treats and interviews really. The first two weeks had one treat or the other and I had close to five days of treat food in 2 weeks!!. Add to this the hostel night fever. It was a totally amazing experience(shying away from the mess food that is). I did go to Sharav hostel night for the first time and it was a nice experience(the food was stud!!!!!!!!!!!). This was also a month when my co-core and myself had to spend an entire weekend+two evenings interviewing people and also make some tough decisions to select the "best possible" team...and so we did(or we hope we did). I do regret missing out on the meta farewell trip though. End sems towards the end(as always). IPL took away the chunk of my preparation time with me seeing some hopeless matches like DC vs RCB in the third place play-off. But I was happy that(As Dhoni puts it)"at the end of the day" CSK had won the tournament and turned out to be a deserving winner at that. But my heart also went for Sachin-for coming so close yet too far-and yet again!! The performances in the end sems ranged from Nervous shows(few silly mistakes) to utter flops(silly mistakes giving rise to blunders). There is still hope though that I will put good grades and hopefully I can see light at the end of the tunnel.

And hence went another sem. It was another of my sems where I hit new lows personally. But I kinda think its "OK" to be emotion-less most of the time. Though you grow sick at heart, you do become stronger and less influenced by others' thoughts. Hopefully something good and cheerful comes in the following sems. "Hope is not a bad thing to possess"-Shawshank Redemption.

cheers,

PS: I am not half an engineer yet, I still have 6 sems to go :'(

THE Kovai Trip

2010-02-23T09:14:00.000-08:00

Funda:
I hate this funda part time and again. But as it goes with every story, you need an initial narration to set things up. Amalgam is the annual fest of my dept(to be specific, MME). This time I had(rather have)been given two huge responsibilities on my tender(he he) shoulders. One was that of webops(you can have a view of my "work" under http://amalgam.iitm.ac.in) and other was that of Publicity. As part of plans to publicize our fest in the city of Kovai(short for Coimbatore :D), we, a team of four members inclusive of me, went on an incredible(duh) journey.

Now, for something more interesring:
For a long time myself, and my co-core, looked at our academic calendars and decided that-"ya, 5 and 6th of feb are the ideal days to go to Kovai da....We will be done with Saarang by then(i mean the hangover would have gone by then) and we will have enough time for quizzes da". So we began contacting colleges in Coimbatore(quite a list actually PSG,CIT,GCT,Amrita,KCT etc.). We had also succeeded in scheduling all the slots(a slot is an appointment to give a ppt at a given college)on the 6th of Feb, a Saturday(my co-core was severely against scheduling an appointment on a sunday citing attendance issues...it made sense in a way). So we decided to leave Chennai on the night of 5th and come back on 7th morning.

We initially thought of making the entire trip on a bus. After severe counseling sessions(!!) and advices, we decided to make the trip by train. When I first took a look at the Reservation Charts on the 2nd, it was a hopeless situation with each strain exhibiting waitlist figures in 2/3 digits(pun unintended). The only way out was the tatkal booking scheme. But my mom suggested that her friend might be able to get us tickets. Soon enough he got us tickets for the onward journey from Chennai via a travel agency(it was an air conditioned coach too :P) and the return journey(he put a lot of fight) and got us tatkal waitlist(in single digits)himself.

So we were all set to make the onward journey. I was pretty happy myself considering the comfort with which we would reach Kovai. It was the Cheran express that we had our tickets on and it reaches Kovai by 6 in the morning. Peace in life!!!. I had to take a dose of paracetamol on the night of travel coz i felt slightly feverish. I travelled along with my coords(two of them) and my co-core reached the station directly from his home. The journey to the station was peace max as there was not much of traffic on the roads given a friday night. So we reached the station one hour in advance, just in time for the pasting of charts on the coaches.

We went to our allotted coach B4. The guy sticking the charts had just finished his job. I searched for the seat numbers allotted and suddenly found crazy names sitting there on the chart instead of our names. I was puzzled. I was standing before the right coach and I saw the right seat numbers, yet my name didnt flash up. I immediately took out my ticket. And to my horror, for the first time ever, I saw that the date mentioned in the ticket was 5/3 instead of 5/2!!!!!!!!!!!!.

There was chaos around as expected. I retraced back the scenario of the ticket booking. It had passed around the eyes of almost three people with none of us noticing that the date on the ticket was wrong!!!. We then tried to make our way into Cheran but the TT was firm(as expected) and didnt allow us. But he did suggest that we wait for the train named Rapti Sagar Express which was scheduled to arrive @1.30 in the night. I looked at my watch-9.30!!!!!

Despite my enthu levels hitting rock bottom I was quite astounded by the enthu levels shown by the three others(one of my coords had devious intentions!!). We then stood in the ticket queue for almost an hour, got 4 unreserved tickets in the other train, changed places within the station almost thrice due to a flood of mosquitoes. I finally ended up sleeping two hours after we settled at one of the grand stands of people settlement at 10.30. The others were watching a horror movie titled "Ghost ship"!!!!. We finally made a move at 12.30, had a cup of coffee and then waited in the platform for another hour for the train to come. The train finally arrived close to 2 in the morning. My co-core then took up the responsibility of talking to the TT, bribing him and getting us seats. This wasnt easy as even locating the TT was a big pain in the ass by itself(we covered the entire stretch of the train twice before we located him). But he seemed to be peaceful, as he allotted us seats readily.

And hence, finally the journey to Kovai began at 2.10 on the 6th morning. We had a horrible sleep though with the temperatures taking a severe dip along the journey. We then had to make several phone calls in the morning postponing all the existing appointments and all.

The greatest part of the journey, according to me, was the utter chaos that existed between 9 and 10.30. The chaos included from trying to catch the Cheran express, debating on whether we really had to go there, trying to sit in a place free of mosquitoes and finally, trying to watch a movie....

It was one hell of an experience for each of us. The first one to all of us. Our stint at publicizing our fest at Kovai, I should safely assume now, was a reasonable success. Hopefully all our fight bears fruit this Amalgam(march 5th-7th).....

And there begins the trip :D

cheers,

The heaven that waited

2010-01-30T07:13:00.000-08:00

Saarang-The word still resonates in my ear. For the first time in my life, i had a true hangover. In the past week, i hardly could concentrate on anything useful(except writing about it of course :D). Saarang 2010 has been quite an event in my life. And i am happy that i went through it.

So what made this special??

Isha Sharvani:
Day zero. I entered the OAT just as the legendary BMK finished off his last song. I didnt regret missing the legendary carnatic. All it mattered was Isha. I had seen some of her pics on the web before. But when i first saw her on the skin tight costume far far away in the OAT gallery, I started to feel uncomfortable. I mean when parts of your body stop responding to your instructions, that is, that is, not comfortable :P. She was hot. Is hot. I hope will be hot forever. What a woman!!!!!!!!!! She is, quite literally, very close to the definition of beauty. And when the guy dancing with her held her in rather obnoxious postures, i wanted to kill that guy and wanted to be there in his position. Again, what a woman!!!

read more

cheers,

Aayirathil Oruvan-Who???

2010-01-30T05:22:00.000-08:00

I saw this movie on the first day of its release in the evening. While entering the theatre itself, I heard bad reviews about the movie. But I was in a firm appreciative mood and I wanted to somehow appreciate the movie, however it turned out to be. I wanted to believe that the movie was a different attempt and I wanted to blame the fellows who had seen the movie before me for not accepting different cinema.

When I came out of the hall, I was as pissed as the guy who had come out 3 hrs earlier. I really wanted to hang the director to death for wasting so much talent, resources, time and money on a non-existent movie. Cha. What a waste of my own time!!!!!!!!

Here are some reasons why I didnt like the movie:
1.In many of the interviews that I saw before I went for the movie, I heard everybody, including the director say, that the movie was a "original" movie. And that it was a "fantasy-adventure"(what)??. I was sure about one thing-it wasnt original. You have a mixture of movies that includes Da vinci code, Pirates trilogy, Mckenna's gold in the first half(did i miss anything??) and a mixture of some Zombie movies, Gladiator, 300 and crazy black magic in the second.

2.As far as the genre of the movie goes(fantasy-adventure), i guess its one which shouldnt be attempted in tamizh. (Just like the Superhero genre-remember Kandhasamy??).

3.Logical Inconsistencies:
a.Who is Reema Sen in the movie??(apart from a Pandian royal)
b.Where is this Ming Hua island exactly???-in the narrative its said to be close to vietnam, but when the army guys mark the island, they mark it close to Myanmar!!!
c.What is the relevance of the Drama under the tree in the initial minutes of the film to the narrative??
d.Why should a Pandian royal use Telugu song for enacting a dance sequence?
e.Tell me an island where there is a "distinct" line drawn between a desert and a rainforest.
f.Can anyone jump off a quicksand?? I mean do you get so much of a normal reaction to do that??
g.How are zombie-like people, yearning for raw meat, civilized??
h.Why did Partiban believe Reema Sen indefinitely??
i.Why black magic at all?
j.How are steel plates designed centuries ago be designed in such a way that they withstand rounds of AK-47. That would make AK-47 a completely useless weapon right?
k.Shooting down a single tribe in India is illegal. Shooting an Indian tribe outside India by an Indian National is as illegal as doing it here. Then how come such a large contingent of the military be moved to this island, outside India(atleast that was clear regarding the geography of the island)without the consent of the govt and directly shoot down thousands of tribal beings??? Is it allowed in the Indian constitution??? Law Folks??
l.Why did the military people rape all the chola women?? (I mean they werent looking hot anyway)..there was no motivation for the cruelty meted towards the end. The Indian Army was shown in a very bad light in this scenario.
m.How did the chola prince manage to escape so easily? I mean he slipped off right under the nose of the army jawans.
n.Was the tamizh used by the chozhas, chozha tamizh?? I have strong doubts regarding this..
o.Million dollar question- Who is this Aayirathil Oruvan??

4.The computer graphics sucked big time. And I didnt expect people to copy CG effects from Hollywood movies either. The "snake" vision(through the eyes of a snake in the snake attack region)was a direct lift from the Predator series. Come on guys, be more creative...

5.I was exhausted by the end of the movie(a fellow movie watcher started shouting-"Padatha mudingada, veetukku poganum"). And even the f*cking bitch dialogue(why was it there in the first place??) and Reema sen's nipples(gory costume design, bad cinematography of songs) failed to motivate my interest. Andreah was reasonably hot, but was reduced to a sad looking doll in the second half(btw, why was she not raped by the military guys?? I mean she was the hottest looking woman amongst the captives) and Karthi was more of a comedy piece in the end. Reema stole the show despite inconsistent lip sync in the Chola tamizh scenes.

Reason why some people might like it:
1.Supposed to be a "different" attempt in tamizh.
2.Appreciate the strains of the director in putting together a movie of this scale.
3.Wonderful concept and acting
4.Expand your creative canvas..
and many more,

Now you dont want me to blast the above reasons, i give respect to their thoughts(i mean diplomatically), and i expect the same for mine(i kinda demand it)...

PS:Please dont try the movie(I know some of you will try it when said so-be disappointed that you did). Its a movie unnecessary at this pt of time. It was not long ago when tamizhs in a different nation were slaughtered due to hatred. Enough blood on my hands already.

cheers,

3/10

2010-01-01T12:56:00.000-08:00

At the beginning of December last year, i saw many of my friend's status messages go up as 3/8 of an engineer. But, to my misfortune (or whatever), i became only 3/10 of an engineer :(

Thanks to the dual degree program that I got, I have to content myself with one more year in the IIT system. Well, so far so good, but you never know when things will turn for the worse. Just hoping that Aal Iiz well!!!

So why this fraction? My friend, Jaichu, had asked me for a review of my third semester (quite sarcastically of course. In fact most people are strangely always sarcastic to me) at IITM. So here it comes.

August 1st week:
This was the best week of the entire semester. All I ever did was, wake up in the morning, go to class, come back, watch movies, bath(if possible), eat in between and sleep(you might say this happens to everyone, but the point is i thoroughly enjoyed myself with back to back movies). I was watching legendary stuff ranging from Fight club to Pulp Fiction to Lord of the Rings-3(the longest film I have seen till date). It was real fun to lie around lazily.

read more

cheers,

Happy New Year Folks!!

2009-12-29T12:31:00.000-08:00

As the title suggests, i wish all my readers a very happy and prosperous 2010. May this year fulfill all your wishes and take you forward in life. May 2010 be a lot better than what 2009 ever was.

I wish you all the best, and most importantly, i encourage you to continue reading this blog...

cheers,

Annual Round Up-2009

2009-12-29T12:29:00.000-08:00

Its been quite a year. A year of war (the sri lankan war), promise for peace (Obama), the Nobel gaffe, a breakdown of the Nuke deal, the great Indian elections, Slumdog winning endless awards, a revolt filled west China, a tennis legend coming back to where he belonged, a cricketing genius entering his third decade of active play(also getting the most test runs), a colossal failure of rich nations-content with rescuing banks-to spend on climate change, swine flu doing the rounds, the fall of the pop king, the golf emperor scathed by all corners, a f1 legend announcing his return to the track, a mom winning the US open, Tarentino making a great comeback, Bhagat taking a dig at the whole of south India, Getting an Indian state with CM post just by fasting, India becoming the No 1 test nation in 77 years of cricket, Vijay's flop shows again, Kamal's golden year, the first ever strike by IITs, me beginning to blog, etc...etc...etc...(hopefully i have not missed something really huge).

Its been a big year for me as well. 2008 was a rather tumultuous year for me what with me getting an unlikely seat at IIT-M, those nervous months during summer, the first end sems and so on. At this backdrop 2009 has been a more of a stable year on the academic front, with steady inputs from different corners and a marginal increase in self belief. But on a personal front, it has been a year of loss. But, anyday, 2009 has been a good year overall.

Some of my firsts in 2009:

*Beginning to blog
*Witnessing Saarang-golden edition
*Travelled to colleges as a publicity coordinator
*A coordinator in Shaastra and Saarang
*A core member in Amalgam
*The utmost measures taken to correct the one big mistake of my life
*Breaking of important friendships
*Doing web operations
*Discussions on God
*A deeper delving in Metallurgy
*Reviewing movies
*Watching an A list of movies
*Setting foot on a land outside India
*Being busy
*Becoming a nine pointer
*Managing weeks without a cell phone
*Enjoying thorough solitude
*Being unusually depressed
*Long hours on telephone
*Driving a car
*Greatest insult in my life

*Watching a Vijay movie first day
*And finally, being the numero uno after 6 long years

I hope i didnt miss anything in the above list.

2009, despite its share of upsets has cheered me on to look further.These losses will teach me time and again that i need to improve further, that i need to motivate myself, that i need to hope more. And like most of you, i am waving a happy good bye to 2009 for all the good memories it has given me. They will egg me on forever in life.

Looking forward, i do see tougher times ahead with more responsibilities being forced on my tender shoulders, with a dark force looming large. I hope 2010 ends up being atleast as good as 2009 and hopefully a better year for you-my readers.

A very good bye, 2009.

cheers,

A legend on his own terms

2009-12-24T01:36:00.001-08:00

There are actors.
There are performers.
There are legends.
And then there is Kamal.

From the days of being a six year old in "Kalathur Kannamma" to being the aam aadhmi in "Unnai pol oruvan" its been a journey extraordinaire. Kamal has travelled a full circle "thrice" i guess.

50 years is pretty much a long time in any field, let alone the movie industry. To survive for that long a period of time and to evolve continuously over the period of time, requires a genius of some measure.

For a guy who dropped out of school to learn Bharatanatyam, to have a knowledge of great depth in the latest technologies used in film industry takes some measure. To have the same depth of knowledge ranging from poetry to philosophy to screen-writing requires a special person.

Tamizh cinema is gifted to have an "all-rounder" like him. He has done everything from being an actor, to a director, to a screen-writer, a producer and a dialogue-writer. Even singing has not been left out. He is not a loner in cinema to do this multi-tasking though. People of false demeanour like T.Rajendar have done that too. But T.R is like "Coovum" when compared to the Ganges called Kamal.

In this special year, i would like to look back and recollect a few of my favorite movies that had him in its mix. A top 5 listing to be short.

5.Punnagai Mannan(1984)
With his mentor KB at the helm of affairs, Kamal delivered solid performances ranging from a depressed lover to a comedian. His dance was used well in this movie. I particularly like this movie for the way it dealt with subtle things, such as an estranged romance and a new found love (true KB style). A great tragedy told in the most comic way possible.

4.Kurudhi punal(1995)
Kamal was portrayed as a street smart cop for the first time, a far cry from the all-bash-no-brainer cop versions portrayed by Vijaykant of yore. With fantastic punch lines about fear and bravery, a dangerous villain in the name of Nasser and strong undercurrents of emotions running through, this film was one thrill ride. A milestone undoubted in the great man's career.

3.Virumaandi(2004)
This film was all Kamal from the start to the finish. Starting from the gory looking scenes of a jail to the neck biting kamal in the climax, this movie redefined the way screen writing was done in tamizh cinema. A two-tier screenplay was a successful experiment, i would say, as the film maintained heavy duty momentum till the end. A class act in tamizh cinema screen writing.

2.Nayagan(1987)
Its the only tamizh film in Time magazine's list of "ALL TIME 100 BEST MOVIES". Its also the only "remake" to feature in the list along with its original-The Godfather I and II. Needless to say about the film's magnitude and reach and appreciation world over. Though Kamal borrowed some acting methodologies from Marlon Brando (scratching the head) and Al pacino (dialogue delivery and hugging manners etc), he pumped in a lot of his own skills, as such, to win a National Award for acting. A masterclass, anyday.

1.Anbe Sivam(2003)
Its the only film I have seen till now that defines God to perfection. The most perfect movie ever made by Kamal. Despite its bombing at the box office, the screenplay, some of the conversations, the communist sub-text and the art work that went into creating the accident scenes left a huge mark amidst people. Once again, Kamal's greatest work till date.

Comedy: I would give a seperate nominee here because Kamal has done so many comedies as such (ranging from Micheal Madana Kama Rajan to Vasool Raja MBBS). Each comedy usurping the other in terms of dialogue delivery, the timing and the hilarious situations the protagonist had to handle. But if i should nominate one movie, it would go to Pancha Tantram for the remarkably hilarious dialogues, and racy screenplay (mind you, this over takes Avvai Shanmugi).

The above list has overridden many of Kamal's remarkable performances such as Moondram Pirai, Ninaithale Inikkum, Manamadha Leelai, Sigappu Rojakkal, 16 vayadhinile, Salangai Oli, Moondru Mudichu and so on... But this list is just my most favorite, the most i have enjoyed as a fan, the most complete of 'em all.

I fervently wish that Kamal lives on and on and on and gives legendary stuff from time and again.

A salute to the ever-6 year old-genius. May you live on!!!!

cheers,

A little master

2009-12-24T01:28:00.000-08:00

It was a day in the November of 1989, Karachi when two young and talented players made cricketing debuts for their respective nations. One went on to be part of the famous pace attack that his national cricket team possessed and also captained his side later.

The other became a legend.

At 16, every cricketer who ever got to see him before had already noticed the genius within the kid. Yet it took time to blossom. And so it did in the many years to come, to be hailed the "greatest batsman" to have ever played the game. Even the Don, had that he saw what he was once, within this legend.

The kid was also known for his bravery in his very first international test series. He batted with a bleeding nose to help Navjot Sidhu and India draw the last test of the four test series in 1989, just enabling India a great achievement of not losing a test series in the neighbour's soil.

Yup, no price for guessing. Its Sachin Tendulkar that I am talking about. He has an experience in International cricket, which is older than my age. He began playing cricket at an age when i didnt know of a thing called a bat. Yet he has influenced so many generation of cricket viewers and players worldwide. His achievements can never be put to a scale. His talent unquestionable, and his charm-unmatchable.

So, I, as a simple fan of his, have attempted to list down my most favorite knocks of the legend in tests and ODIs respectively.

ODIs:
5.186* vs NZ, Hyderabad, 1999
His highest score in a ODI. Slayed the new zealand attack on a belter.

4.98 vs Pakistan, Centurion, 2003
High voltage tension. Shoaib Akhtar's bouncer in excess of 150kmph. Sachin's wrists rotate so that the bat is above his shoulder. The ball makes contact. Upper cut. The ball goes to the third man fence for a six. This small hit summed up his stunning world cup efforts.

3.175 vs Australia, Hyderabad, 2009
Too long, yet too short. Tendulkar made chasing 351 on a belter against a less potent australian attack too simple until he fell 17 runs short allowing India to choke(again).

2.117* vs Australia, Sydney, 2008
Couldnt have timed his first ODI century in Australia better. Led from the front to guide India to its first final victory against Australia in Australia. A stunning knock, to which he followed up with a 91 to lead India to its first ODI series triumph against the Aussies Down under.

1.143 vs Australia, Sharjah, 1998
Part one of the desert storm knocks. India, hit by a sand storm while chasing down 284, was given a reduced target of 276 runs(with 237 reqd to qualify for the final)in 46 overs. Then came Sachin, as he dismantled the Aussie bowling attack to all parts of the ground. Yet he couldnt win the match for India. But he compensated for that by hitting an unbeaten 134 in the final 2 days later to give India a famous win at Sharjah. This knock of 143 however, tilted the debate of the greatest batsman ever, in his favor. It still remains the best one day knock I have seen of this great man.

Tests:
5.241* vs Australia, Sydney,2004
Scored a mammoth double century at his favorite Australian ground as India piled on a massive 705. Yet, the aussies hung on for a draw to deny India's first series victory down under.

4.119* vs England, Old trafford, 1990
His first test century ever. One among his only three fourth innings test centuries. Needing to bat out a day for a draw, he played an attacking innings bringing India, sniffing distance to the actual target. India, though had to settle for a draw, had threatened England.

3.114 vs Australia, Perth, 1994
With all the other Indian batsman crumbling to the sheer bounce at the Perth wicket, Sachin stood up tall, put up a marathon ninth wicket, and attacked the bowlers from the backfoot. Some of the pulls and cuts were sheer genius. The way he attacked the bowlers is something that is admired even today. Yet, one man cant give a team a victory.

2.136 vs Pakistan, Chennai, 1999
So close, yet so far. Sachin made an almost match-winning knock of 136 against arch-rivals Pakistan braving back pain. He fell 17 short of victory. But the Indian tail collapsed leaving India a gasping 12 runs short of victory. This is probably his almost-greatest knock ever.

1.103* vs England, Chennai, 2008
On a crumbling wicket, with a belligerent start given by Sehwag, Sachin made chasing down 387 look easy. It was the highest target ever chased in the sub continent. And this is knock is till date, his only fourth innings century which won the match for India. And, personally, i have placed this knock at the top, comparing the 136(mentioned above) only because India won this match at the end.

Despite all the glories, Sachin still has many regrets. He has often not been able to win a match despite all his efforts. He hasnt won the world cup for India yet. And the regret list goes on. Yet he is a legend, the greatest batsman ever, and a God to cricket maniacs.

Salute to the legend.May be play on and on and on....

cheers,

The Prestige-Special Review

2009-12-08T08:57:00.000-08:00

Notes:
A friend of mine had requested that i review this movie. It seems he had liked the movie pretty much and also liked my way of reviewing(he he he). So here goes my review. Its been about two years since I last saw this movie. So, if there are inaccuracies in the detailing mentioned, sorry about those-human memory does hurt a lot.

The Review:
It was once upon a time in 2007 that i cashed in upon a DVD titled Prestige in my uncle's house. It was a sleepy afternoon which was drenched on the outside and i was pretty sleepy. The tagline said, "Are you watching closely?". I saw the director's name, it said "Christopher Nolan". I had heard of Nolan's name for the first time then. So i thought, if it was a boring tale it would aid me in sleeping(the thing is i was really tired, but i couldnt sleep. I needed a "driving force" for that :D). And hence i switched on the DVD.

The first five minutes were pretty confusing with multiple images showing entirely different setups, and the background sound explaining about the various stages in a magic trick-the pride, the act and the prestige respectively. And then Bale asked, "Are you watching closely?". I didnt.

I ended up staying awake at the edge of the sofa all afternoon. I just couldnt sleep. The tale was so absorbing that it woke me up from sleep(near sleep that is) and forced me to concentrate the entire sleepy afternoon.

So what made the drastic change??

read more

cheers,

Verdict 2009- Vol 3

2009-12-08T07:56:00.000-08:00

This post will primarily deal with sports.

Cricket:
Test team of the year: India
-Undefeated this year. Year end numero uno

ODI team of the year:Australia
-Champions Trophy, Series win in England. Australia-B side winning India 4-2

T20 team of the year(International): Pakistan
-Champions in World T20

Test cricketer of the year:Gautam Gambhir
-Remarkable consistency this year

ODI cricketer of the year:Shane Watson
-Match winning knocks in the Champions Trophy

T20 cricketer of the year:Shahid Afridi
-Almost single handedly winning the T20 championship

F-1:
Driver: Sebastian Vettel (this guy drove better than the winner Jenson Button)

Team: Brawn(of course, they won close to 6 races in a row initially)

Tennis:
Player of the year(male): Roger Federer(obviously) :D
Player of the year(female): Serena Williams
Comeback of the year: Kim Clijsters
Players to watch out far: Juan Martin Del Potro, Caroline Wozniacki
Farewell: Marat Safin

If the above post looked more like an "award-listing", i guess i couldnt present it properly...suggestions??

It finally ends here :D

cheers,

Verdict 2009- Vol 2

2009-12-08T07:35:00.000-08:00

Funda:
Read the first volume of this series.

Movies:

Tamizh:
Top 5:
1.Nadodigal:
A revelation really. Fantastic tale of post love-joining friendship. Cheesy lines and good performances. Movie of the year.

2.Eeram:
I was personally pretty impressed with the screenplay and the characterisation of the lead characters. The supernatural element was dealt with beautifully(of course the climax didnt require that much of dramatisation, but thats usual in tam cinema)

3.Vennilla kabadi Kuzhu:
A nice theme on a nice game. The main strong point of this movie was the liveliness and the amount of comedy introduced in a serious tale. The climax, i thought, came out of an afterthought to the director. Anyways, this was a different movie and had a different ending.

4.Unnai pol oruvan:
Kamal+Mohan Lal+Fantastic dialogues=Wholesome entertainment. Needless to say, one of the better and crisper movies this year.

5.Yaavarum Nalam:
Supernatural thriller again. Though the screenplay speed was a tad low, i liked the fact that everything revolved around a serial (I hope atleast some people have stopped watching serials after seeing this movie).

Disasters:
Tam movies are known for disasters. I am gonna restrict myself to the biggest.

1.Villu:
Vijay-that one word says it all.
2.Sarvam:
An impressive original turned totally morbid with Trisha looking like a grandmom of Arya.
3.Kandhaswamy:
Read my post on it. I guess you kinda understand (if you had seen the movie that is).
4.Vettaikkaran:
Its not released yet. But i can tell its surely gonna be a new year disaster signaling the end of the world. There is vijay, horrible punch dialogues, shit songs and there is this waterfall jump. What more do you want for a disaster??
5.Aadhavan:
The fact that Surya starred in this movie was a big let down by itself. One of the actor's crappiest in his recent history.

A small value addition:
Tamil Cinema Music, Top 5 songs of the year '09, according to me that is
1.Vizhi Moodi-Harris Jeyaraj-Ayan
2.Yogi Yogi thaan-Yuvan Shankar Raja-Yogi
3.Yeno Yeno panithuli-Harris Jeyaraj-Aadhavan
4.Yeppadiyo maatikitten-Yuvan Shankar Raja-SMS
5.Aathichoodi-Vijay Antony-TN(blah blah)

To be continued,
cheers,

Verdict 2009

2009-12-08T05:41:00.000-08:00

This post is meant to list out "my" favorite incidents in sport and "my" favorite movies of the year. So, lets get started

Movies:

English:
1. Inglourious basterds:
Easily the best Tarentino movie i have seen after "reservoir dogs" (yup, it bet "pulp fiction" at the post). Excellent screenplay, superb sub-plots, cheesy lines (Pitt gets most of it--again) and excellent performances (from Pitt and Waltz and all the others), and you cant expect more for a good movie. Not to mention the excellent cinematography and the great start to the movie in the first ten minutes. "Monsieur La Pedite, this is your home. Make yourself comfortable"

2.Gran Torino(Indian Release-2009)
Vintage Eastwood. Good tale about life and death, and bonding between "americans" and "asians". The climax was a stunner.

3.Public Enemies:
Johney Depp lives the character of John Dillinger. Bale provides a powerful cameo, but is completely overshadowed by Depp (just like Heath Ledger in Dark Knight). But somehow, the movie lacks the punch to be called a "great" movie. "Bye bye, black bird"

4.Hangover:
One of the best comedies to come out off late. Rib tickling dialogues, and amazing re-mixes as background scores.

5.Watchmen:
I guess the director has a lot of hangover on "Fight club" and many tarentino movies. Some of the scenes and angles were pretty much reminiscent of the former and the sub plots reminded me a lot of Tarentino. But the film had a really absurd climax, and the character of Dr.Manhattan was not conceived properly. The length was another deterrent. I have not seen "milk" yet. May be it will beat this movie to this spot.

Animation:
Bolt:
Amazing animation, screenplay and a very good plot. The "acting" was pretty good. And miley cyrus rocked...:P

Disasters:
1.Twilight:
Yuck
2.Termination Salvation:
Please stop the terminator series
3.HP 6:
I never thought there could be a rom-com made out of the HP series...but they did exactly that in this movie. Yuck maxxxx...

To be continued,

cheers,

21 grams-An editing masterpiece

2009-12-08T05:18:00.000-08:00

I was filled with apprehensions when i began watching this movie. I had already watched the tamizh version of it-"sarvam" and the tam version was real bad. The screenplay was sagging and the chemistry of the lead actors and the impact was just not there.

But seriously, what made the big difference between the english and the tam versions was the superb editing and the screenplay in the former. The screenplay moves backward and forward(of course one direction at a time :D) much like Nolan-ish movies. And essentially what makes this happen is the editing...

Right from the initial introduction of the characters to the narration of their "parellel stories" together, the screenplay was real razy. The best part was even the dialogues had a sense of continuity.

Sample this: Somewhere in the middle of the movie(its been a while since i saw the movie...so i dont know exactly the moment it happens), there is a talk about drinks and glasses, and cut, you see a tray of drinks aligned for a party that night. This party takes place in a different character's story and its in the past. Thats good editing for you.

Same follows in the gun shots that happen in a hotel room, and the continuity in dialogue between that scene and the scenes that happen in the past.

The accident, which is pretty much the turning point of the movie, wasnt shown one bit (sounds like "Reservoir dogs" right...ya, the accident scene was pretty much like it...but this movie is no way a match to Tarentino's masterpiece) and this accident was revealed pretty much late into the screenplay. (in the tam version however, for the purpose of dramatization of this accident, the director showed it infinite times during the first half itself, which meant you literally slept through those scenes in the second).

One thing which was pretty much a horn in the rose was the romance part. I mean, the main guy loses love for his wife who dedicated all her energies to him while he was sick, and goes after the wife of the guy who donated him his heart. I mean, come on guys, you need to show some respect to your god-damn wives. This sort of a romantic interlude was totally unwarrented. And the first scene in the movie only reinforced this (both the women sucked anyway).

Despite all the crispness and stuff, the climax, was a bit off a let down except for the cheesy lines and explanations about 21 grams. But who cares, just watch it for its technicalities, the screenplay and the editing.

I didnt lose 21 grams after I saw this movie, but i did after i saw "sarvam" :D

cheers,

Fight club-My review

2009-12-02T10:09:00.000-08:00

Tyler Durden, the name still resonates in my ears.

Fight club-what an experience it was..

So what makes fight club tick??

When you have this fantastic plot with schizophrenia linked-joker type chaos creation-and a feminine interest with an amazing cast consisting of edward norton and brad pitt, you can expect a roller coaster of a movie which exactly is fight club

Plot:
Pretty simple. Our protagonist suffers from insomnia. Later suffers from schizophrenia(without his knowledge of course) which cures his insomnia. Later realizes that he actually suffered from schizo...and realises that he is too late...pretty simple right???

The Ups:
Cinematography:
The strength of any good movie. And the frames are amazing. Right from showing the sleepy face of edward norton first up, to the close-up of the "man-boobs" of Bob, to the sensual scenes of pitt and carter and the final apocalypse, an amazing set of frames just adores the movie. Each angle has been chosen with care.

Screenplay:
One of the best i have seen. The way in which the insomnia was dealt with first up and then the schizo under-current and the all revealing climax, there can be no better screenplay for this script. And to put a girl as a pivot for a plot with two mental illnesses is to put the icing on the cake.

Dialogues:
Though a bit Tarentino-ish, the lines were cheesy. Sample, the soap preparation and the film making tutorials. Even the "oath-taking" dialogues were pretty good. And dialogues, being the essential portion of any movie, this surely had things up and right.

Acting/Casting:
I have no rights to comment on this section. Amazing actors and amazing acting in short.

Music:
Above average music(according to my ears that is). But the music in the background carried the movie forward.

Errata:
I have a special affection towards the Tyler Durden character, because, he did what the legendary Joker could never do(In Dark Knight), despite suffering from schizo..which is that of creating chaos. I have a personal affinity towards chaos, and Durden just beat the Joker at the post!!! (of course, he didnt have the incorruptible Batman to handle, but YOU are always YOUR best enemy)

Some Negs:
The climax was a bit off the mark. The gun shot and all was exaggerated. Edward Norton's character could have as well been killed in the movie. It would have given a better impact.
More cheesy lines could have been included for Edward. Its Pitt who always gets the best lines.

I learnt a few things from this movie though:
1.Schizo is a very tough mental disease for anyone to handle
2.Creating chaos is rather easy
3.Follow fight club's guide to create your own blind following(if you want to that is) :D

anyways, great movie, great work Fincher and Uhls

cheers,

Why Aadhavan killed me??

2009-12-02T07:55:00.000-08:00

Aadhavan is supposed to be this tamizh(tam in short) movie which almost killed me this Diwali. No one other than Vijay has come this close to killing me!!

Reasons:
1.Story:The movie had the story of(ah..u call it a story huh??)"Ayan" which was "modified". Here the hero was an assassin, instead of a smuggler.

2.Surya: Look, this guy is more of an actor/performer. Not a rock star. No way. He cant even dance properly. So when you try and portray this guy as a rockstar...well...it sucks!!

3.Graphics: Just because the director had learnt some CG under Kamal's guidance in "Dasavataram", he shouldnt go about using it overtly and ineffectively.
Ex 1: The sniper scene in the beginning of the movie, where the hero shoots a guy miles..rather light years away,in another building from his building(the buildings were "part" of the graphics too)
Ex 2: The flashback scene where Surya's face was shrunk and morphed...horrible!!

4.The first kill: From underneath a pond!! with nobody noticing it...phew!!! I dont know how long tam cinema will survive these kinda murders

5.Nayantara: She always sucks. Doesnt dance, and she doesnt look good in bikinis and all(well...except the..hmmm...top parts of course :P )..But in this movie though, she looked a lot better than movies like "Villu" due to superb designing of her wears. But still...she sucked(except for the final shots of yeno panithuli song :P :P )

6.Flashback: Was it required?? I dont think so

7.Choreography: What happens when you have two people who can never shake a leg properly as the leads?? The choreography sucks right??? Thats what exactly happened

8.Cinematography: Bad cinematography for the songs especially
Ex 1: I heard the producer saying-"we wanted to shoot the song 'yeno yeno panithuli' in a snow filled region(due to the word 'panithuli' in the song), so we went to iceland". This clearly proves that the producer(and/or the cinematographer) have failed their respective geography exams at school. I mean, iceland is a region of hot springs, geysers, volcanoes, and fertile land. Consequently, they have got only one region of some sleet. So they shoot half of their song there-cups max. Second, they see a beautiful waterfall, show the same thing from infinite angles and bore the viewers.
Ex 2: In 'hasili fisiliye' song, nayan's half baked smile was shown for close to 10 secs, with the camera almost making a 270 degree turn corresponding to real peppy beats in the background. Now thats bad cinematography
Ex 3: all songs were shot really bad :D
Ex 4: In some scenes, the color wasnt maintained in the same tone. The boat scene in the 'yeno' song is a sample. In the same moving frame, i see different colors at different angles

9.Climax: I am too exhausted to write about it now, having written the above experience. So you know how was it right??

Saving graces:
Vadivelu's comedy in the first half
Harris' copied tunes

Hopefully Surya wakes up and gives sensible films from now on...

cheers,

The Shaastra that wasnt

2009-12-02T07:31:00.000-08:00

Funda:
1.If you dont know what Shaastra is, dont read further.
2.If you do know what Shaastra is, I dont have to explain you the funda right??

Why this title?
The answer is explained later in this...hmmm...hmmm....post???ok, whatever. I forgot the name.. Its been so looooonnnnngggg ago that i had written a full fledged "post" before.

Shaastra 2009:
The positives:
1.Had cleared a Shaastra quiz prelims for the first time
2.Had accomodated two of my friends in my room for the first time :D
3.Had a tough time during the 4 days, which taught me time management and "distance" management
4.Most importantly, I was a coordinator-for web operations that is. Learnt quite a lot from there.
5.Grub coupons(the extra that i got-thanks to my core :P) and the grub as such(it was superb)

The negs(obviously the bigger part):
1.This Shaastra wasn't as big as the previous one. Well, it got "recessed" i guess.
2.Due to bad planning, I ended up not doing a proper app for the hospi desk=>>hospi pain on all the four days.
3.I didnt apply for any of the "useful" workshops(like hackfest)
4.I applied for a workshop which was real dumb-the cinematography workshop
5.I flunked the first day fully.
6.I didnt win any event(last yr, i won chem x)
7.The standard of questions in SMQ and HTW was pathetic :(...(you see, i cleared the prelims...I!!!!!!)
8.My cycle cupped at the start of Shaastra=>>I had to walk all four days.
9.I was feeling real depressed through out the four days-dont know why
10.I couldnt give proper time to my friends who had come there solely to meet me-inter personal relationship cup(again :( :( :( )
11.Etc.

Hopefully, the next time around, it will be a lot better.

Thanks for everybody who either helped me/impeded me...You made a difference this Shaastra(I mean, I will remember this as a trough for sure :P )

so...looking forward to Shaastra 2010(and my role in it)

cheers,

Dormancy

2009-11-10T01:58:00.000-08:00

I guess i have tested the limits of your patience. I know my blog has been HIGHLY inactive and dormant for more than a while now.

I know you have waited much, in vain, for my reviews of this Shaastra, Fight Club and 21 grams. I know i have not done them yet. I know I have promises to be kept.

But patience is a virtue. There is a famous proverb in tamizh stating "One who is patient will rule the world"

So i guess i am providing you the ideal opportunity to become a world conquerer :D

So grab this opportunity, be patient and be the king. Be REWARDED.

But how long?? Not so long i say, only 2 and a half weeks more before this blog rises like a phoenix. The activities, the buzzing will all come back. The writings will all flow in.

So i REQUEST all my readers to be patient. Please stand by me. Please support me. I bank on you :P

In case you found the above post to be a hard core "mokkai"(aka poor joke), here is another:

Etymology of "mokkai":
The word "mokkai" was derived from the word "Mokkaiappar", the name of a king who was known for his poor jokes(or mokkais in short) :D

I WILL BE BACK...

cheers,

What an idea!

2009-10-12T06:00:00.000-07:00

Its time that i revved up changes in my blog.

There has been continuous cribbing, skepticism,negative feedback, etc,etc. And obviously i want to minimise the negativity surrounding the blog.

So this is what will be done.

*If the post is pretty big(exceeding two paragraphs on my scale) only summary will be posted and the entire post will be uploaded at my site here

*Smaller posts and all announcements(like this) would follow the main draft.

*All requests for the posts can be directed to goths_the1@yahoo.co.in/downloaded from the site

So hopefully, this change increases both the reading apetite as well as the number of readers.

cheers,

PS:Special mention for my friend Karthik(Aero) who came up with this suggestion

Coming not so soon

2009-10-04T06:01:00.000-07:00

The Shaastra that wasn't

A discussion on God

Fight club-my review

21 grams-my review

And much more

I know its been a long time since my announcement of these topics. I just haven't found the time to write these things. The next few weeks are a bit of a crunch on my side. So will try to post on these topics by mid october.

cheers,

An Adventure with the Black Hole

2009-10-04T05:46:00.000-07:00

Funda:
There was this event called the "online science fiction writing" that happened just before Shaastra-09. I wanted to write a story (it was a long time since i had written a story) and this is the one that i managed. This is the first draft that i wrote and no significant improvement has been made. The same was submitted to the contest as well. So i do agree there will be some flaws. But hopefully its good enough. And as of now, i don't know whether i have won any prize in the contest. Happy reading!

The story:
It was the same boring signal again. The red was stagnant, refusing to move. As the seconds trickled past, the boredom increased gradually. It was one of the worst moments of the day. But somehow, the past few weeks have been, kind of, boring. NO SLEEP........

To read more, click here

cheers,

The joker dialogues

2009-09-23T05:13:00.000-07:00

I had wanted to put this up long back. I practically lost this file. But better late than never. So here is the compilation of the joker's dialogues that feature in the movie "Dark Knight"(2008). Enjoy!

Grumpy: I’m bettin’ The Joker told you to kill me soon as we loaded the cash.
The Joker: No, no. I kill the bus driver.
Grumpy: Bus driver? What bus driver?
The Joker: Oh, and by the way, the suit, it wasn’t cheap. You oughta know, you bought it.

Gotham National Bank Manager: The criminals in this town used to believe in things. Honor. Respect. Look at you! What do you believe in? What do you believe in!
The Joker: I believe whatever doesn’t kill you simply makes you… stranger.

The Joker:Ha ha ha..hoo hoo.. ha ha.. And I thought my jokes were bad…
The Joker: I know what you’re afraid of. I know why you choose to have your little “group therapy sessions” in broad daylight.
The Joker: The Batman.

To read more, click here.

cheers,

Festember 2009

2009-09-21T11:28:00.001-07:00

Funda:
I hate to write this part. But when i utter the word Festember, 99.99999% people react in the following manner: "Ah???!!! whats that???"
So to all those who dont know what Festember is, it has a very simple funda. Its just the so called cul-fest of NIT-Trichy. The dates were 17th Sept-20th Sept.

The content:
My friends and i had a prolonged discussion on whether or not to take pains to go to trichy and attend festember about ten days before the event went underway. Train tickets would be a problem. So if by any chance we were actually going there it was by the bus. And getting a bus on a friday night before a three day weekend to trichy is-to put it simply-a herculean task.

We were indeed getting mixed responses about the event. The "driving force" was the presence of friends over there and an exposure of events conducted by other colleges. The drawback was-the events were not supposed to be good, the quality of participation poor, and not to forget, the travelling and the wastage of a full weekend.

read more

Financial Entropy

2009-09-21T10:46:00.000-07:00

Entropy:
Definition: Entropy is the quantitative measure of disorder in a system. The concept comes out of thermodynamics, which deals with the transfer of heat energy within a system. Instead of talking about some form of "absolute entropy," physicists generally talk about the change in entropy that takes place in a specific thermodynamic process.
-physics.about.com

Thus goes the famous definition of a famous thermodynamic function. I tried to "extend" this concept to the financial world using the feeble knowledge of economics that i posses.

A completely "ordered" system in terms of economics, or the idealised system can be considered as one in which every individual has the same financial potential. Each earns the same, can spend the same, and can invest the same amount. All financial powers are identical.

A completely disordered system is one in which no individual has the same financial potential. They differ by atleast one financial unit.

So, is a scenario possible where every individual possesses equal financial potential, is a "perfect idealised system" possible?

Intuition says, "its not spontaneous, but its worth trying out". My point is, its not even worth striving for.

Imagine a world where the prime minister earns an equal income as you. So both of you will have the same meal everyday and will go through the same transport mechanism everyday. Sounds cool right?? But that only leads to huge security uncertainity. So ultimately, to protect the PM's life, money will be spent on security. This money is not actually "earned" by the PM but he somehow spends it. So, this implies that his "financial power" has increased out of nowhere.(the assumption here is that the govt funds form a sink-any amount of money can be deposited and any amount can be spent).

So ultimately, the ideal world only leads to destabilization. Say the cost of a vegetable is made higher. Since everyone has the same potential, no one will buy it and hence the vegetable's cost is automatically lowered causing considerable loss to those who tried to sell the vegetable and those who cultivated it successfully. Meanwhile, there will be a huge demand for vegetables with lower prices causing abrupt changes in the economy of such vegetables and corresponding changes in their production industries(which in the case here is agriculture). Similar problems arise everywhere.

Nature only tries to increase the entropy. So when you create an idealised system, it becomes unstable, as entropy is stored up. A small disturbance and the system breaks down to chaos.

So, will it be worth a try??I guess not. But what can be done is, drilling in a sense of satisfaction in everyone's mind. This might seem a "retrogative" idea. But what is the ultimate cause for all problems is, as Buddha put it, desire. So as long as there are people wishing for more, none will be sufficient.(the grass is always greener on the other side).In my view the Chinese govt has done a decent job towards achieving this state.

And i do propose, to create an open environment, where anyone can progress and where anyone will not have a problem if they stagnate in the same financial position. Such a system is "create-able" and as i view it is the most stable ideal system that can be brought about.(The US, though on track, is far from reaching this state).

Hoping I can do something towards creating such an environment in India and elsewhere.

cheers,

Why Kandhasamy doesnt work

2009-09-07T04:39:00.000-07:00

This was a very bad experience of mine. Having spent one hundred and twenty bucks to get a plush seat at the satyam cinemas and hammering myself to squeeze out three hours(plus two for travelling) during the middle of a horrible week only added salt to the wound. Here is my outline..

The + points:
1.Vikram-this guy's underplay is sensational. Breathes life into one hell of a crap movie. But this is an implicit minus point as well. Why did an actor of his calibre choose such a dumb project?

2.Mexico-the locations choosen in this swine flu land were wonderful. Pure eye candy.

The - points:
1.You can watch Batman Begins, Spiderman, Anniyan, Sivaji, Gentleman, etc, etc etc movies one at a time. Surely you cant watch all of them at the same time. Which is what kandhasamy desperately tries to do

2.Devi Sri Prasad-He has indeed run out of the telegu tunes of the 70s and 80s to provide hit rehashes. So, he opts for remixing his own copied tunes and other shit tunes in recent telegu movies. As a result all the songs hurt the ear. My advice: Devi, please retire!!!!!!

3.Lyrics-WTF!!!!I guess the director, trying to act as a means of communication/trying to write his own lyrics, interchanged his script pad with the lyrics pad. As a result all the songs are like dialogues. EKSI

4.Shreya-Pack her!!!Seriously i have seen enough of this "guy-calling-herself-girl's" hips and boobs and ass. Its too boring. And seriously i dont think she knows enough belly dance to try and match Shakira. Bad move!!

5.Vadivelu-EKSI to him too. I dont call this "KAAMEDI"...anyone who does so??

6.Prabhu-A bad choice by Prabhu to act in this movie. Seriously, he is shown as a stupid genius. Which cop in our country has enough rights to launch an investigation into the "power of God" suspecting some malpractice???Logic missing??

7.Villain number 1-Aashish vidyarthi as the PPP is shown to be too intelligent a villain for tamizh cinema. He figures out the real identity of our so called "super hero" in just two frames!!!!!!EKSI(again)

8.Villain number 2-Shear dumb villain to be the richest man to be in TN. When vikram breaks this guy's bus with a single sledge hammer, this guy-in his panties(the undies didnt fit him..so i call them panties :P) doesnt even bother to put on his clothes.

9.Stunts-Seriously Vijay's 2km jump in kuruvi was more logical than these guys' so called team work. Dont tell me you can setup a wired network capable of withstanding a guy's weight in an agricultural field without anyone noticing.

10.Cinematography-Too shaky(pun unindented) and too unsteady.

11.Art work-You dont call plates of aluminium piled together as art. Eg: the police station in which vadivelu is investigated

12.Romance-Fck it. Its more artificial than Yaarukku Yaaro stepnie.

13.2nd half-Mexico was not needed at all. But atleast it provided some good locales that is hard to see in a lifetime

14.Director-well..he is the epitome of everything bad this movie has to offer. My advice-Shankar was eight films old when he took Sivaji-and he had 7 hits in the list!!!

My advice to the director: You could have as well used up the 40crore-or so, money, pooled to making this bull shit, towards adopting villages and improving them. Sheer waste of time and money.

Moral:never trust big budget movies. This applies to all heroes.

cheers,

A Faint glimmer of hope

2009-09-07T03:24:00.000-07:00

Funda:
The basic funda behind this post is that-i had attended the "aspiring co-ords meet" for Saarang-2010 and a number of depts had called for coordinators there. One such dept was the newsletter dept. In the application form that i had to fill in order to apply for the newsletter coordship, the question was-"Connect in about 300 words--ACM,JJ,Lays,Pluto,Pratibha patil,election,Saras,IITM,chinky chicks,42". Yup, the question was vague indeed and it was the first time that i had tried to write an article of this kind. The article didnt fetch me the coordship-but i didnt want it to be lost in the oblivion because it was the first time that i had attempted something like it. Here is the article-christened forever in cyber space. :D.

Feedbacks strongly welcomed for this article.

Article:

Fine evenings at IITM are hard to comeby, but I did get one on August 12,2009. A calm evening because I had spent the entire afternoon seeing LOTR 3. The movie really exhausted me. Wonder how people managed to retain high concentration levels during that epic. I was munching a packet of Lays(Spanish Tango flavour) and was browsing through the net when I received a post on gtalk from my friend who lives in Saras. He asked me to come there to discuss “our prospects for doing something useful this shaastra”. So, while leaving the hostel I saw an IP saying “ACM* today at 10”. Oh!!! So soon!!!

I rushed to the CLT at 9 30(for obvious reasons), but found a placard saying-“ACM cancelled”. So I returned to my room(not knowing that it was the one stuck for last week) and started listening to the nice melodies from the movie JJ. Ten minutes later one of my neighbours came rushing to my room saying “macha, we have ACM today!!”. So I packed my comp and reached CLT by 9 56 and luckily found a seat in the middle. Just before the show was about to start came a group of semi-hot 2nd year MA girls. Something has to be done to IITs, to improve the quality of girls here. It desperately reminded me of some awesome chinky chicks I saw at Singapore during the summer(ya…agree Bangkok is way better, but Singapore is not bad either).And Pratibha patil’s famous statement of “creating exclusive IITs for girls” came to my mind. I cursed her one more time adding to the infinite number of times I have done that in the past year.

The presentations began at I(nsti)ST. The projector was kinda weird giving a very “red” display of everything(red enhances aggresiveness-not good at AC halls :P). The cul-secs threw some “PJ”s and profoundly refused to apologise for the “red” projector. Starting with publicity and sales a slurry of presentations began to follow, each one claiming to be the “backbone”, “face”, “lungs”, “kidney” etc. of saarang. Thankfully no dept claimed any part of the human body below the backbone :D. It was evident that the cores wanted to take a dig at one another and also frustrate the audience with even more “PJ”s. In one of the presentations was mentioned the number “42”. I was caught napping as I didn’t have a clue to what it referred. My friend later explained the adage from the Hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy.

Then came the Spons, PR and media team. Strangely two coincidences-Lays and JJ :D. The guys were joined by the only girl in the core team as well(What happened to male chauvenism??-but good in a way :D). I found a “faint glimmer of hope”(that explains the title right??)that I too can become a co-ord as they had asked for writing skills :D. So I had fixed it to be one of my choices. Then came Oops, the hospitality core who profoundly explained his becoming a core after losing insti elections(its an appreciable fact).I must thank this guy really-he has indeed helped me a lot.

Facilities, QMS, Security etc. soon followed and the presentation was culminated by web ops dept which offered a refuge to all the maggus. The population of maggus in any saarang team is like pluto occupying the solar system-non existent.

And so I finished off a fine day with the faint hope of becoming a newsletter co-ord.

*-Aspiring Co-ords Meet

Poll Results-2

2009-09-07T03:05:00.000-07:00

Q:Honestly, Do you like this blog?
A:Yes-54%
B:No-0%
C:No opinion-46%

Primarily, I thank all those who voted. Your enthusiasm encourages me to explore further. Also, this poll saw an 83% percent jump in the number of votes polled, which indicates that the number of people who have started reading my posts have increased. For a small time blogger like me, this is surely an achievement. Thanks to all of you.

Secondarily, I would like to encourage all the readers to vote on the polls. It does help in judgments and determining tastes. And that influences to a certain extent the stuff about which i write.

No one voted corresponding to the "no" column of the blog. Its good in a way that atleast from those who voted, no one outrightly rejected my blog. Its bad in the sense that there arises a doubt in my mind whether people actually wanted to poll in a "no" and wanted rather to be a "softer" critic by polling on the "no opinion" column(which has got a whooping percentage of votes to its credit-the least i expected). Personally i am against this "softer" form of criticism. If you dont like it-say it. Atleast you may like the modifications. Also, i want all my leaders to be honest on my blog-while reading, writing comments and polling.

Another mention-do write comments. Blast me if you want to. I am a recipient of constructive criticisms and i take criticism and critics by my stride(i am a very bad critic myself). So i appeal to all my readers to constructively criticise my posts-it helps.

Special Mention-Many people complained about the length of articles on my blog-especially the "Does God exist??" post. My answer is-The post in mention is actually smaller when compared a few of my other posts and its lengthy only on the intellectual scale. Moreover i am a fan of long writing. So all my posts will be longer than the "average" post that you find elsewhere. And regarding the post in mention-i request you to read it fully to get the full impact and then take a decision on whether the time spent on it was useful.FULL READING=>>FULL IMPACT. Please read in full.

Hoping to write more and more..

cheers,

An ode to a GIANT

2009-08-29T07:52:00.001-07:00

The legends, the giants, the greats-and their synonyms-have always fascinated the quintessential ordinary guy. I am no exception on this account. Some people say great people are born, some say they are made, some say it is just an illusion created by the mind out of deep respect or reverence to the acts the “great” person has committed. But by all means, greatness is something that is always looked up to, something that inspires people, something that stands as a symbol for the times.

The greatest thing about greatness is that it keeps producing greats. Time and again some person just rises up from the rubble left behind by a legend, steals the occasion and becomes a great by his own standards. The legend I refer here is no different. He is a guy who rose up to the spot no one thought would rise to and how fast did he do it!

Tennis is such a fickle sport. It can create and destroy players at the drop of the hat. One injury can destroy a range of things from consistency to the whole career. The individuality of the sport is what brands the sport and both affects and elates the sport to a great extent. Tennis is often characterized by eras. One era after another, one great after another, one beautiful moment after another. And what is so special about the legends of this sport is that they have lived a dream career amidst so many people who generally struggle to have a satisfactory professional career.

The titans of the game include an exhaustive list of greats like Fred Perry, Don Budge, Roy Emerson in the pre open era and Rod Laver, Bjorn Borg, John McEnroe, Ivan Lendl, Boris Becker, Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras in the open era. Sampras was often considered the greatest in the earlier part of this decade and his numerous records were considered untouchable until one man stepped up his game and the standard of the game of tennis as a whole to an all new level. Roger Federer-the new king.

It is fascinating to note that the world of tennis has never allowed two emperors to rule simultaneously. The transition has always been made well. Borg didn’t come into the picture till Laver ruled. Lendl came after Borg left. Sampras came after Lendl. And Federer is no exception. Given that, the thing that makes him special is he has risen above all the above mentioned players- just like that.

I would say the strength of his game is simply the beauty of it. Elegancy in tennis reaches its pinnacle in his game. The way the forehand curves in from beyond the side lines, the arc of the backhand, the subtlety of the volley. His serve is the most underrated "vicious" serve in tennis circles right now. His attitude towards the sport is amazing-he sounds real humble in everything he does. (Sampras in his interview after Wimbledon 09 mentioned-“the guy is really humble”) – i e, he is not flamboyant in the absolute sense. His calm mentality on court is amazing. The best of the lot is, he is so emotional but appears on court as though nothing has happened at all.

Not many know of the difficulties faced by him in becoming what he is now. Faced with emotional inconsistencies, he used to lose more matches than win just because he got psyched up due to a bad shot. After winning the Wimbledon boys title in 98, it took him almost two years to reach his first ATP final at Marseilles in 2000, and one another year to win his first ATP title in 2001 at Milan. His not-to-be-big break came in the same year when he defeated the then reigning Wimbledon champion Sampras(many consider the famous match to be the “exchange of guards”, the passing of the baton). It took one more year to clinch his second ATP title at Hamburg.

In 2003, after all the training to achieve mental stability he won his first grand slam at the All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club. There was no stopping from there. He became the number one in the world soon after winning the Australian open in February the following year. And he was going one way-up.

The pinnacle of his achievements came in the year 2007. From the start of 2008, he was going one way-down. Mononucleosis implied a below par Australian open. The rise of a Spanish Armada meant he fizzed out at the French open. Rain saved him the blushes and motivated him to fight a great match only to lose a brutal five setter one month later at Wimbledon. A quarter final exit at the Olympics meant he lost his number one ranking. Save a victory at the US open and a doubles gold at the olympics, he had a traumatizing year by his "own" standards-he won just three titles through the course of the year.

The thing special about 2008 is that, it is considered to be his worst year after escalating to the top of the tennis groupings. And his worst year consisted of one grand slam victory, two slam finals and a semi final and a world ranking of no 2. Any other player would have taken it hands down. But it is just that Federer has rised the level of expectations, level of playing standards and the level of results so high that people actually considered this as “bad”.

2009-no promising start. No titles in January culminating at a five set-third consecutive slam final defeat to the Spanish bull. Then no titles till late May when he beat a weary bull to clinch the Madrid title. People hardly gave him a chance at the French open that followed soon after. He was more of the “fourth” favorite to win the title. It can be considered only as divine intervention-but all the guys who were put ahead of him in the favorite list were eliminated during the course of the tournament implying that he didn’t have to beat them to clinch the revered clay grand slam that had eluded him all the years. And he did so, comprehensively, winning the French final in straight sets having survived two very close five set matches in due course of the tournament.

It suddenly changed the equation all of a sudden as some of the doubters were finally proved wrong with the musketeers’ cup in his possession. Then came up the mammoth Wimbledon victory, in the absence of the Spanish matador, in one hell of a final, sculpting Mt. Roger at 15 slams high, one step higher than Mt. Sampras. And presently, after the dramatic 2009, after some of the record books he has re-written, he is now revered as the “best-ever”.

He still has a few imperfections to his credit-proving that he is after all -ONLY HUMAN. He has an adverse head to head record against his arch rival, he doesn’t have an Olympics singles gold and a few such others. But all legends have imperfections. It’s the imperfections which make them so affable. Perfection should always be strived to achieve, but once achieved a perfect object loses the charm of an imperfect object, and closer the imperfect object to perfection, the more is its charm. And right now Roger is the closest to "the most perfect tennis player".

I wrote this short phrase like thing after his Wimbledon victory this year..

“It takes a below average human to give up during tough times.

It takes an average human to harbor hope during tough times.

It takes an above average person to endure and fight during tough times.

It takes a great person to come out winning through tough times.

It takes Roger Federer to rise from the ashes.”

To Federer, to tennis, to sport.

Cheers,

Does God exist????

2009-08-03T05:54:00.001-07:00

Statutory Warning:
If you want to convince yourselves of something-this post wont help.
If you dont wanna believe in what i am gonna say here-i cant help you and i dont justify my statements either..
I have tried my best not to invoke any religious principles-sorry if i disappoint you with this..

I guess this debate on the Existence of God has been going on ever since man learned to think for himself. And as with all arguments, all debates and all coins, there are two sides to it. But the majority of the world believes in a superior power(atleast thats very true in my parts of the world) and the strong minority believes in the will of man. I belong to the majority.

You might think, why this guy ever wanted to put a post on a topic which he has an answer to. The purpose of this post is not exactly the answer to the above question, but to look beyond and maybe try and "understand" God..

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Poll Results-1

2009-08-03T05:37:00.000-07:00

Q:Who, in your opinion is the greatest tennis player ever?
Results:
Roger Federer-83%
Rafael Nadal-17%
Others(incl sampras borg and laver)-0%

First and foremost, i thank all of those who voted on this poll..

Second..i do agree with the popular opinion of federer being the greatest player ever..

I congratulate the people who voted for nadal...it shows your intense passion for his kind of game...really appreciate it...tennis needs such fan following....and maybe one day nadal can beat all of federer's records justifying your opinion...time will tell...

Sampras and Borg, despite all their wonderful achievements...not getting a single vote is understandable...but i couldnt understand why a player like laver..who is the only person in tennis history to claim two calendar slams and who despite not playing for six years managed to collect 12 slams as a pro, couldnt manage a single vote...maybe its the lack of awareness...but in many tennis circles he is undoubtedly still a strong competitor with federer for that title...

And i do encourage all my blog readers to vote on the polls as and when they are up...your patronage will be deeply appreciated :D

if this post sounded too "formal"...he he he...let it be formal...

cheers,

The Big Break

2009-07-26T13:01:00.001-07:00

Movies-The realm of human imagination...its fascinating how drastic a turn the field of entertainment has taken in the last century(plus a decade)to turn human imagination into something so close to real...

Movies have always(and hopefully will always)fascinated me...its not the actors, technicians, the laborers or the amount of money that goes into a movie that has fascinated me, but how a simple human mind(in some cases a collection of minds)is able to turn something so abstract into something thats worth speculating and imagining..

Having written a review of a movie..i now consider myself a small time amateur critic of movies...i analyse movies just for my own satisfaction...its a kinda selfish motive only..its like each time i look at a still/frame i notice something new...each time i hear a dialogue repeated i kinda learn something new...guess i learn more from movies than from books...reading does exhaust me at times...but not watching..

It took a pretty long time for me to get propelled into analysing movies given the fact that i have a director within my family...but this propelling action was kinda restricted to tamizh movies only...it was like i didnt sorta "hear" the many brilliant other language movies that were made...and anyways i wasnt really old enough to see all genres of movies...

So what propelled me into movies...the faintest memory i have of first being awe struck seeing a movie is khakha khakha...i was kinda stunned after watching the movie...i dont mean to say it was the greatest movie i ever saw..it just kinda gave a beginning...

But the big break had to wait for some more years...i had finished tenth and i unassumingly caught hold of a dvd of the film "the Matrix" at my uncle's house...it was a combo dvd with the first two parts of the trilogy present...since i was jobless i just played it...

thankfully the movie was sub titled...i couldnt hear most of the dialogues even at full volume...the movie started of pretty slowly...exploded suddenly and finished off in an abstract...

frankly speaking, though i was awed by the movie...i didnt quite connect to the story...so i played it again the next day...and this time it hit me...

i had, before seeing the matrix, had seen a handful of hollywood movies...like gladiator, titanic...some other crap movies(some of which were put on vijay tv :D)...but not quite this...i hadnt seen a sci fi movie before...dealing with the future...man vs machine kinda thing(ya...i hadnt seen terminator then)...but the one real thing which caught me was the "maya" effect(aka illusions)...i had heard of this effect when i was a kid...but to see the effect transformed into a series of incidents and events(ie a movie)...i was quite awe struck by the director's imagination...and i saw the second part the same day...was very impressed by the stunts(till date...they are the best kind of stunts i have seen yet)...and a month later i caught hold of the third part..

i was pretty impressed with the trilogy...it was like the greatest movie i had seen then not realising what was to come..i did manage to see all the three movies atleast a coupla times more in the years to come...

so the basic crux is that...this movie opened the floodgates...i began to see a lot more hollywood and british movies...i read about famous story lines and screenplays and actors...like i began knowing more about cinema..

(if u did realise my nom-de-plume is The 1=the one which is a jumbled form of-"the neo"-the lead character's name in the matrix...thats my ode to the movie..my ode to the big break it gave)

and college has really played an important role in improving my knowledge of cinema...it has widened the horizons a bit...exposed me to newer thinking styles newer themes newer screenplays and an amazing list of actors...and now i do consider "dark knight" to be the greatest movie i have seen till now...but its possible i might see a better movie than that...

off late i have indeed realised one thing...there is no stopping to the process of learning in cinema...you just have to keep learning and keep growing...and i am trying the same...its been more of hollywood and kollywood all my life...in the future i do desire to expand my horizons to world movies...to movies which are made in different parts of the world..i think thats the ultimate place where a true "critic" will want to be...the pinnacle of film making...

the trouble with seeing movies made all over the world is...you cant relate to most of the themes...its pretty much a fair reason though considering you cant see the way of life of most people around the world...another complimenting reason would be "lack of resources"...there are not many people who follow world cinema as such and hence its tough to become a follower...the inspiration factor and the resources are lower(atleast in my nation)...but i do maintain this belief of mine.."if u need something...u need to seek it out"..

of course i am just an amateur yet and with divine help i have quite a few years of my life to become more than just an amateur...to be more imaginatively equipped and creatively enriched...

will put up reviews of some of the movies as and when i see of them...and hopefully you like my way of looking at things and my mode of analysing :D

jai ho cinema!!!!!!!

cheers,

Holidays: May-July,2009

2009-07-26T12:59:00.000-07:00

April 30:
My first year at my college ended..And hence began the mammoth holidays of close to 90 days..

Travelogue:
May3:
Started off for a massive journey covering five places-Varanashi,Delhi,Genting,KL,Singapore...we had to go to varanashi(aka kasi)first and we did so by train..the next day fully was spent in the train(!!)..it wasnt bad anyway..
May5:
Had a wonderful bath in the holy river of ganges..and good "dharshans" at the three important temples..Viswanathar,Annaporni and visalakshi..we departed to delhi that evening
May6:
wonderful weather in Delhi..the heat was unusually pleasant...watched all the important places except akshar dham(ya..the new temple...was closed due to elections)
May7:
late afternoon flight....transit via colombo..stay in colombo for 6 hrs(that was the worst part really...no sleep)
May8:
Reached Genting by the afternoon..nice place...nice weather...good enjoyment...
May9:
we spent the morning at genting...afternoon at the Batu Caves(which house the famous murugan temple)..nice places...
May10:
KL and KL(visited the skybridge of the petronas towers and the KL tower too)
May11:
Reached singapore by the evening...night safari...was ok...i wasnt too thrilled by it
May12:
sentosa-the most exciting place at singapore...was pretty enjoyable..esp songs of sea..it was an engineering marvel more than anything..
May13:
Jurong bird park-very nice collection of birds(none of them are actually found on the island...all bred..thats the best part of it)..the shows were good too..
that afternoon we headed to sentosa again to catch some of the shows we missed :D
May14:
reached chennai by night...it was totally a wonderful journey...and chennai was hot!!!!!:P

It took me almost a week to settle down after the wonderful journey..began working(actually dozing off-my friend did all the work)as the web ops cord :D..also got my grades one by one...and it all added up to a gp of 9.3 in the second sem-target accomplished...i wanted to be a nine pointer :D...also started watching movies...should have watched close to ten movies till the end of may(many tarentino movies)..went out to a lot of movies with very few friends :(..

June:
the sun was hotter this month than it was during may!!..this was a month that i determined myself to do something useful...but hardly did anything useful..read two full books in da vinci code and the pilgrimage...since i am a pretty slow reader it took me about 15 days to complete them both..wanted to learn something productive..didnt do anything close to it..saw ten more movies in the first three weeks and ten more during the last week..i had gone to madurai during the last week of june and stayed there till start of july..watched wimbledon,lots of movies and had long chats with my cousin there(it was good sharing experiences..gave some happy moments)...it was nice coz there was physically absolutely no strain :D...the meenakshi temple was at its usual best..i do remember getting into a fierce fight with my friend one day...and so june went by..

July:
gave up on doing anything useful...saw 18 out of the 20 movies that i had left out to see(1 cupped and the other not watched yet)..have been reading the fountain head for about 20 days now...till about 150 pages to go :(..(i read like 25 pages a day on average)..learnt car driving to an extent(ya...i need lots of improvement to reach the level where i want to be)...and from the date of this post i hardly have a week to college...

Looking forward to a challenging second year..

If u did think the post was pretty dry...it was coz the days were pretty dry as well..nothing great was really happening..and so not much fun...

but this post was basically to illustrate how holidays can be boring too!!!!!!!!esp when there is no solid gang of friends available(all my friends had holidays at different times :(...)

so...hopefully the subsequent holidays turn out to be interesting...

cheers,

My Best Friend

2009-07-26T11:09:00.000-07:00

Friend-What an important word in all our lifes...everybody has and loves their friends...Its pretty difficult to live without a friend really...if all that sounds a cliche to you,they sound to me too...but i just cant help it...the fundamental relationship on which this world(rather humanity)is built around is..of course friendship..

I would really be betraying myself if i say my mom is not my best friend..(actually she is)..but i am trying here to portray a person(rather incidents if u like to call it that way)outside my family who has had the greatest impact on me(outside my family as in excluding all brothers sisters and cousins)...personally i measure relationships based on their intensity(not on the incidents that take place or any other factor that you might use as a scale)...and hence when i say a person is my best friend, he/she has had the greatest impact on me...

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Nadodigal-A Revelation

2009-07-26T08:47:00.000-07:00

To say that this film is good would be a real understatement..

And writing a review of a film for the first time(after giving oral reviews for more than three years), i hope it wont be taxing on both yourself and mine..

To go beyond the commercial realms of tamizh movie making and exploring new areas under the given constraints seems to be sasi kumar's forte...though he has only acted in this movie, to say that he has done only that will be preposterous..

"Subramaniapuram" proved the guy's mettle as a maker(though its not one of my personal favorites its nevertheless a good film)and "pasanga" furthered his reputation...here comes the movie which establishes him as an actor...job well done sasi..

samudirakani, who got into serial direction and then into acting, proves his potential as a maker...kudos to him for pulling off such a movie..

the movie's story line is pretty simple(i would say its a run of the mill with a difference)..what happens after friends join a bunch of lovers against all odds..the movie starts off with its theme music and in the background you see yourself travelling along the median of the road(good theme music)

the illustration of the equality of all kinds of education by karuna(sasi kumar)in the beginnig of the movie(it was the start of an amazing line up of good lines) and the subsequent humour in the introduction of the protagonists were amazing..the basic fun part was that the protagonists were so much ordinary(its not that no other film has shown this kind of intros...but they were pretty much believable)..

the first half is all humour and friendship...karuna's dedication to his friendship and his other friends' dedication towards their friendships with karuna were amazing...good illustration really..(i mean it wasnt melodramatic-like so many of vijay movies...nor was it underplay)..the director could have obviously done away with the item number...but its ok with the front benchers i guess(personally i am used to better things :P-pun intended)..

there were a few loopholes in the "kidnap-the-girl" act...the girl's dad is supposed to be the don of the town...yet he seems to have no police influence...there was also not a single police checkpost it seems around the town(they just drove their way out of the girl's town...no vehicles in pursuit)...and the henchmen werent great either(both the girl's dad's and the son's mom's)...i dont know whether all these things sound "realistic"..but tamizh films have been so brainless in the past(most of them) that when you think of a don you always think of a dozen sumo,qualis,tavera(or whatever SUV the producer can afford)which go after the hero at the drop of a hat..and there are always a minimum of a hundred henchmen who come up from nowhere and the hero(with not even a good bicep)beats everyone of them to earn his reward(sometimes he bashes up the same guy 5 times..and after all the injuries the "goonda" still fights the hero!!!!!!..true..being a tamizh film hero is tough)...what to do...guess my tastes have also been washed off :(...

the second half was more "realistic"...and the back and forth editing helped the pace of the film a little and also removed melodramatic moments off the movie(kudos to the editor)...the stunning reversals suffered by the friends(one loses his love and his grandma, one his ear, and the other his leg)were superbly portrayed..kanja karuppu provided some relief from the sadness underlining the scenes with his typical dialogue delivery(nothing great about the comedy scenes..its just that you were able to laugh to some simple lines too coz of the mood of the screenplay- aka saroja-with much less comedy and impact)...and the ungratefulness of the lovers was portrayed nicely...it was nice to see the small twist in the story here(i mean this is where the story deviates from the usual shit that is often offered...usual tamizh movies end with the first half)..

being unemployed i was kinda surprised with the amount of money karuna was able to churn out with just the sheer strength of friendships(do friends donate so much)???...i was also kinda confused with the sudden support karuna gets from his dad during his grandma's cremation(i mean he was always degrading him till that point)..but these are just minor potholes in the screenplay=>>i ignore them..

the climax was the best part...it was superbly finished..far from predictable...technically the movie is quite sound with good cinematography...above average music and background score..the lightings were real nice..and the art attack was fine...the stunt shows were "realistic"..

Special Mention:

Abinaya, the girl who plays the sister of karuna in the movie is supposed to be hearing and speech impaired...i hardly noticed it when i saw the movie...amazing portrayal given the difficulties...the girl has got good looks too...rock on...

Bottom Line:
A revelation-worth all the money you might spend on it..

i hope u did like my review...looking forward to reviewing more...

cheers,

Feb 14,2008

2009-07-23T13:26:00.000-07:00

Thats the entrance to my former school where i did my eleventh and twelfth(ya..the entrance doesnt look great...the building is even worse :(..)..i have many bad memories and rare spots of good memories of this school, this building, the teachers and my friends...

For those who thought this post might be revealing my "romantic" side or my "love" life...its going to disappoint you heavily...the fact is this...i dont have a romantic side of mine(only front side, back side and side side :D)and i havent experienced love in my life...

The fact is this...Our batch had our farewell day on this date(quite ironical considering the strict regulations inside the school denying the right to speak to the opposite sex)and i have very good memories of this day..

I had come to the school as usual with my scooty(i still use this vehicle...though its not that comfortable to drive, it indeed has served me well :P)...we had classes in the morning and had a break in between which provided us some time to go back home and change clothes(i hope my memory is right on this...coz i did come to the school early that morning)...i had gone to my uncle's house nearby to change...i arrived at about 3 to the school for the party in a jeans and a black t shirt...one of my favorite combinations...

We had a blast of a time in the initial half hour before the program started...and i was clicking and posing to as many snaps that i could come across(but tragically i had forgotten to bring my camera and it was back home)...but it was fun anyway to have a last little chat with friends...

the program began with speeches and mementos to the teachers and all...and they also gave some awards to students(even i got one...i dont know why i got it still!!!!!!!!!!!!)..and the principal gave a short speech(i never listened to her speeches anyway...all crap...and anyways i never had a good memory of this principal...she really troubled me one day for no fault of mine--she had called me a "recommendation" student when i had came to that school through merit...that statement still hurts)...thankfully the secretary had not turned up(otherwise that "kezhavan" would have bored us for another half hour)..

now it was the turn of the class leaders to speak...sudipta mam(english teacher)had asked me whether i had prepared a speech..i was shocked!!!!!!!!no one had told me about it..but she swore that my class teacher had nominated my name over there(he never told me :(...he keeps forgetting things till date)..and by this time the previous guy had started to speak...OMG!!!!i was next!!!!!!!!!!!!

she immediately asked one of my friends from the other section to help me out(he was going to give a speech and had already prepared it)...he gladly agreed and we went to the nearby staff room to begin preparing the so called speech...she actually wanted us to do some patchwork..

i went there and told my friend that i wanted to be honest about my experiences at this venue(which had bitter experiences too)...he just agreed to what ever i said and just asked me to write whatever i wanted to...he was reading along while i was writing and also quipped in with quotes now and then(i am not a great man of quotes...but he is :D)...the quotes were pretty useful...i was writing what ever came to my mind and in 5 mins i had completed 3 pages(enough to drag on for five mins or more)....

came out of the staff room...the guy giving the speech was just about done and sudipta mam was shouting my name..i came walking fast(didnt run :P)...and i came close to the mike...i glanced the audience for a second...the most beautiful girl i had seen in that school came in a pink dress(some vagueish costume..i dunno whether it was a saree...but she looked good in it..and that alone mattered)...and my best friend had come in a black dress(guess it was a chudidhar in this case)..they were seated one behind the other(almost)...i smiled a little...

i decided to sound as cool as possible..i had this habit of being cool when tensions rose on the outside...but even then i had never been a great speaker(till date i have only improved on a little).. i used to stammer a lot when i didnt have a paper in hand(even now)...but when i did have a paper in hand i became a wholly different speaker all together...it reduced my nervousness so much and turned on the AC thats present inside myself(aka induces coolness) :D..

i promised myself that i would speak to the best of my abilities and ensure audience participation... hence i started my speech with "Friends,Dav-ians,Indians"......(ya...a spoof of mark antony's "friends,roman,countrymen" in shakespeare's Juilus Caesar)...and the crowd was filled with an "aaaahhhhh" sound(indicating mokkai)...but i had succeeded...i had got everyone's attention...

i began my speech with the difficulties i had faced esp in the initial stages of the school life here..juggling various activities and tryin to excel in each of them...i had told them how tough a turn life took here...about how free i was in my previous school..and how engaged(pun unintended)i was here..

then i quoted Einstein(this quote was given by my friend who helped me prepare the speech)..about how life was like riding a bicycle and inorder to keep balance one had to move on(everyone smiled at this line, guess they liked it)...and then i told about the positives learned from the dav life...about how life should be made tough to make yourself tougher and so on...

then i praised the teachers as the ironical 23 gems of the school(ironical coz there are only nine gems in the real world....and this was a formality anyway...everyone had to mention them whether they liked it or not)..and i accidentally said that the principal was the king who possessed the 23 gems...an english teacher(so called)herself, the principal pounced on the grammar error saying it was wrong...i coolly apologised in a murmur and corrected the sentence as the queen holder of the gems...everyone applauded here...

and finally after wishing everyone the best in their lifes i added..."and for the one last time..namaste"(and as a student of dav that was indeed my last namaste)....the hall broke into an applause...i had never received such a thunderous applause in my life...i was pretty glad i pulled it off..i had successfully given a speech which atleast most people in the audience accepted(they either accepted or considered it mokkai...i was okay with both)..so gladly i stepped down and included myself in the audience...a flood of congrats...it was nice...a day of redemption really....i wanted to stand out as someone for atleast a day in that school...and i just fulfilled that dream...i had atlast stood out as a speaker..a moment of triumph(which have been so few all through my life)...and my heart was filled with happiness..

my friend who gave the next speech also received a thunderous response..he is a famous speaker anyway..so no surprises...and in the meanwhile sudipta mam had asked for the script of my speech...and she never gave it back...i hope she does have it still with her...the greatest speech i had ever made was lost all of a sudden...it was a nice assembly of words that i dont recollect...a destined assembly really...and i lost the script...but all was not lost...the speech, though not in full, remains in my memory..and will live through this post for eternity...

the rest of the evening passed in a jiffy...the girls made "pack-level" speeches...it was followed by some cultural shows by our juniors that included a spoof of tam actors which involved a lot of double entendres(the guys got the slack later from the princi)...during the shows i also spoke with one of the very few friends among girls that i had there...it was the first time i spoke with a girl inside the campus :D....

we had some refreshments later...and soon packed home...a few hugs around...few handshakes...and the party was over...days were to come during which our destiny was to be decided...i wished all my friends well...bid adieu to almost all the teachers and began my walk to my scooty along with three of my friends...then bid adieu to them too and drove my way home...it was a day to remember...a day of triumph atlast inside that campus..

and so i looked forward to the immediate future..my character was to be tested then...

moments of triumph are not the usual kind of thing for me...i have always been a runner up on most occasions in my life...so to have my first and only moment of triumph at dav at the last day of my school life was somehow fantastic...its a memory that will make me happy any time i think of it...
Months later..i did ask many friends(incl juniors) what they had remembered out of me(through a forward sms)...and a majority of them said..."farewell speech"..

Hope you shared my happiness too..

cheers,

Funny moments at my college-2nd sem

2009-07-21T13:09:00.001-07:00

Making heads turn!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well thats the entrance to the place that i spent most of my time during this semester..and for most of that time..i was alone..

Warning:This post doesnt actually include funny incidents..it has been named so only to indicate that it is a continuation of one of the previous posts about my 1st semester experiences..

Dec 28,2008:
Boarded into the familiar surroundings again..another long four months were to be spent..had a not-so-good cg on my hand...had to put up a good one too..and i became the external publicity(EP) "coord" for amalgam(my dept tech fest)...so lots of things to look forward too...

Jan 1,2009:
New year...spent with my family...not so good a start(most of my starts on new years are not too good)..but i just hoped it would be a new beginning to me and to a famous tennis champion..

Jan,2009:
This month was by far the most fun filled through out the second sem...myself and my friend being EP coords for amalgam had to coordinate to publicise the event in colleges in tamilnadu...we tried to fix up appointments to arrive at a particular college and put up a presentation thus inviting students of the other colleges in an attractive way to boost up the numbers coming to our fest..
we also tried to woo the mech dept of various colleges as mech guys had to do a course related to out dept.. a typical chat with the hod of the mech dept of some college went like this..

Me:Hello sir, Is this Mr.X(say X is our mech hod of some arbit college)
X:Yes,Who is this?
Me:Sir, I am calling on behalf of the metallurgy dept of IIT Madras...we are conducting a tech fest called amalgam during the end of february sir...so for that we would like to invite students of your dept...for inviting students we thought it would be a good idea to put up a presentation...so when shall we come to your college?
X:What do u want?
Me:(sounding exhausted after that long patient speech)..sir, we are conducting a dept tech fest called amalgam sir
X:ok
Me:we would like to invite your students for that by putting up a presentation..
X:ok
Me:so when can we come to your college?
X:why do u have to come here?
Me:(aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh)...we want to put up a presentation as an invitation sir
X:oh!!!!!!!!ok....(realising the thing i am tryin to say only now...cha)
Me:so when can we come sir..
X:you do one thing...i have to ask the students and my fellow professors about this...so call me up tomorrow..
Me:when sir?
X:say 10 o' clock in the morning
Me:Thank you sir..(he hungs up before i complete the sentence)
The next morning the above conversation again takes place and if i am lucky i fix up an appointment...if not...well...one more time :(

But doing all that we did fix up appointments in various colleges...and we did cover a decent number(ceg,mit,ssn,jeppiar,sastra,nitt)and we did send oral invitations and email invitations to some of the other colleges..

jan20:had a very bitter experience at ceg...the hod was a psycho...the students completely uninterested(gosh...bad start)..
jan21:mit was superb...the experience was nice and so was the warmth of the people there...had a nice time there apart from putting the presentation required(and it did work as some people did turn up)....i did catch up with my best friend here...so all together a memorable experience..
jan28:ssn...the travelling experience was horrible..we had to change over three buses to reach there...and it took us more than 90 mins to do so(and the sun was really killing)..and after getting down at the college gate we had to walk for another 15 mins in the blazing sun(i was burnt like coal by then)....we entered the mech dept...a dilapitated building for one which was only a year old(!!!!!!)...and the hod wasnt there...we waited for almost 2 hrs...ate a sick plate of noodles for lunch(yuck)...and finally we gotta chance to meet him...but he turned down our offer of a presentation(it was hearbreak really)...and when we were walking toward the entrance my phone rang...he called us back...and we did manage to put up a presentation(the most disappointing fact was that..the mech guys over there had not heard of internships...and there was just ONE good looking girl there :( :( :(...)...
we visited jeppiar college the same evening...well...not worth an experience to mention..
jan31:
a memorable day of my life..myself and my friend had reached trichy that morning...to cover sastra and nitt...we reached sastra pretty early in the morning...my friend abandoned me to chat with his friend(he left me all alone for 5 hrs...cha...ungrateful fellow)...i was practically there only to correct one of the greatest mistakes of my life(one of the main reasons i became an ep coord)...but looking back i dont think i have corrected it(never had a chance really)...anyways it was nice to catch up with some old friends...it was a nice experience except for the excruciating sun and the lack of shades..
we reached nitt by 4 in the evening...and i did catch up with some old friends there too..and the hod of the meta dept of the college was so warm and hospitable...and the class rep of the dept,who had promised me to bring mech students also gave some excuses for bringing up only meta students..but we did put up a nice presentation(the results showed in amalgam)..we had dinner over there with our friend(and saw a very good looking girl there sitting right across us :P...)..and finally we returned to our city the following morning...the day is still fresh in my mind...

jan21-jan25:
For those studying in my college, the first line of this post should be pretty familiar coz it was the tagline of saarang 05....yup...saarang is the pinnacle of life at iitm...the most colorful(pun intended)days of iitm are these 4 1/2 days...just fun and nothing else...inspite of all the fun i did make two event finals(out of some 7/8 i participated in)...so it was nice...and the pro shows were great...though sonu nigam lacked variety he put sufficient enthu to rock the "OAT"...opeth was "God-level" for rock fans...kanyakumari was sensational...shobana brilliant on her own terms...and DJ Rekha also rocked...5 days of fun...5 days when you forget everything...thats saarang!!!!!!!!!!

feb 1st week:
my friend and i were in the smithy workshop...i was holding a red hot iron piece through a pair of handles...my friend was banging on it to bring it to the required shape...and a slip in balance...bang...the piece shot up in air...fell right on my friend's right hand...he was shivering in pain...later after consulting doctors at the insti hospital(and undergoing treatment of course) he came to know that the burn would create a permanent scar on his hand...i felt so bad for him..but i couldnt help it nor express it...it was a bad thing to happen really..

feb 3rd week,mid sem1:
disaster-thats one way of putting it...i made many crude errors...and after the first four exams i felt devastated...some overwhelming force made those errors for me..and i had never done four exams in a row so badly..was feeling let down...and moreover i was studying alone and the solitude about my room did hurt me a lot...i did reasonably well in the other two exams to acquire a sense of relief..

feb 4th week:
mid sems results came and i was filled with relief as i had done physics and my dept exam actually well comparing my fellow mates...so damage done only to the other two of the four exams i had thought i did badly...some consolation in the end and my mind was beginning to feel relaxed...i also bought a comp during the course of this week..served as a distraction as well as reduced my anxiety...

feb28-march2:
Amalgam finally took place...i had also become an event coord for jaagruthi(a school students awareness programme)and i had to conduct a cluedo event for them...hurriedly prepared a question paper the previous night of the event and got it bulk printed with the help of my classmates(they helped a lot)...and the event was pretty good...i conducted it as smoothly as i could and received some compliments from some of the audiences(that was nice...that was the second time i got such compliments and first in my college)..the event had a prelims and a final..prelims was written and in the finals the participants had to play the board game of cluedo...
Our EP work was a reasonable success as totally close to 200 people turned up for amalgam...our boss was happy with our work...
there was this SoME(analogous to shaastra's SOE)and they did produce a tank of non newtonian fluid..it was fun to play with it...they also created a solar powered bicycle...nice work really...
so overall amalgam was a nice experience...and served up a good weekend..

march beginning:
worst part of the semester...depressed due to the sudden wave of solitude..was missing most of my friends..for long my comp was my only companion...

march 2nd week,mid sem2:
pulled off well this time...the work that had gone into it showed..finally full relief..

april beginning:
solitude was still there..but i was not disappointed as i was in march...saw a lot of movies(alone this time around)...hammered myself into my room...and also managed to become a coord for shaastra 09(ya...luck involved for sure...agree)..

april end,end sem:
the most anticipated time of the year...i wanted to fight harder this time around than i did the last time... wanted to put up a reasonably better show...did well in my dept course,math and ee...not so well in cs and phy...so..overall it was an "ok" feel...it all came down to chemistry
the day before:
after math exam i had lunch and returned to the room...somehow i slept and bathed and read(newspapers)my time till about 7 in the night...then had dinner...had a chat with friends..(as usual these people belonged to the RG gang...so obviously they boosted me for no reason)..i finally started chemistry at 9 in the night(most people had almost finished half the portions by then)..i read and read and read and finally finished organic by 2 in the night...then had some snacks to quell my hunger..then started inorganic...it was close to day break and still i hadnt completed one important portion of it...it was 4 45 by my watch...i gave up and slept the next two hours...
the morning:
i woke up to a very sunny day clouded by a fog(actually it was a fog in my mind...everything seemed to be covered in a whitish cloud)...went to the mess and had one big gulp of hot coffee(took a lot more than usual)...by the time i reached the exam hall the fog had partially disappeared...but then my brain was refusing to think...refusing to think of anything at all...it was just blank...it wanted to be blank...and then deep down a fear rose within me whether i would even pass this exam...coz my brain just wouldnt think...the paper was given...for the first fifteen mins i was dizzy...i hadnt cracked any of the questions..got no momentum going in my favour and i couldnt think sequentially...but luckily i didnt panic and the dizzyness slowly went off...and luck again(rather divine intervention, thats more i like it)no tough question had been asked from the portion i had omitted to read the previous night...did the exam reasonably well..
came back to the room..downloaded a lot of movies...packed my belongings...slept a little...and looked forward to three months of rest, of holidays, of sheer relaxation....

and there ends my first year at iitm....a memorable one...looking forward to more memorable experiences and thought-filled years..

cheers,

The Joker

2009-07-21T11:20:00.000-07:00

"Hoo hoo hoo...ha ha ha...hoo.. hoo... I thought my jokes were bad..." and i really do think that my jokes are bad...after all they are classified under the category named "mokkai".. Anyways if you are wondering why such a special post on a not so special man(if u call him man anyway)???
I would say because he is the joker(sounds trivial right?)..

I dunno why i like this peculiar character....the joker has always like "fascinated"(i dunno if its the right word...inspiration is a contender)me...fascinated because i can never think the way he thinks...

I used to watch the animated series of superhero stories as a kid...superman, batman and spidey were among them(not to forget x men and justice league)...but i was most attracted to the batman series..

True the joker depicted in all versions of batman greatly differed from that of heath ledger's..but that doesnt take any credit away from the initial premise of the character..the basic logic of the character is the excellent absense of logic in the charater's essence..

the origin of the joker is supposed to be "unknown"...none of the readers/authors know the actual origin of the character...the most popular origin is that one night when the joker had assisted robbers to rob his chemical factory to save his pregnant wife, he had fallen into a tank of chemicals(pushed in a fight against batman)and thus got his face bleeched due to the chemicals...and thus became insane...

But i dont think this origin really makes sense...a person becoming insane just because he had a fall and got his face bleeched???became insane enough to become the nemesis of the greatest saviour of Gotham city???(u agree with me right??)

shifting our focus to batman...i personally thought that nolan's batman was the best definition of batman..the one who had thrown away his fear..turning it on to his enemies...overgrown his guilt of being the reason for his parents' death...and burying the anger that he couldnt let out via vengence...so when i mention batman i would place this batman always in consideration...

then again in nolan's case..he completely nullified the impact of the joker's origin by completely ignoring it(even when he is captured in jail..the police arent able to ascertain anything about his origin,they dont even find his name!!)...but this liberty...this freedom granted by ignoring one basic premise created a character much more devastating than what people would have expected..the "why so serious" dialogues and the contradicting stories he gives about his scars are proof enough on how abnormally crazy the character had been portrayed..and since the origin of the character had been ignored..u can hear mentions about the joker's face being painted rather than bleached...

If you did find a lot of "nolan"-ish joker..its because of the impact that particular character has had on me...that when i think of the joker i am unable to really think beyond this character(i hope u dont think something is "wrong" with me)

Coming back to why i am fascinated by the joker...one simple example is the joker's philosophy about anarchy and chaos and stuff...it kinda contradicts with his own methods...like he does all the planning to perfection and executes them with elan...contradicting...but job-fullfilling..

And the other encore about how savage the world was was excellent...the spoof about the good cop bad cop routine too was handled well...but the prison escape sequence and the seeming traps the joker thereafter creates for his enemy were just mind blowing...

If i had ever thinked about a story with a character doing crazy odd things...i wouldnt have come anywhere close to the joker...thats y the character fascinates me so much...the character also inspires the writer(who writes the methodologies of the character) to think real differently...

the ultimate reason i would put the joker in the position i hold the character is in the fact that i can never think like the character thinks..plan like he does...executes as he does...and the secondary reason would be standing up against someone so undefeatable...i have struggled all my life to do that...i havent been the undefeatable..nor have i stood against one such...

so hail the joker..hail the nemesis...hail the anarchy..

If this article was a total yawn and if it was so boring...I am sorry to have wasted your time...I tried to give my ode to the joker...but my mere thought of him doesnt translate into words...

If u did find the article to be some what a review of dark knight...i cant help it...so much is the impact..

and if u liked the post...thank you very much..your frequency matches with mine then...this is my ode to the joker...

so thanks for your patience...

cheers,

Funny moments at my college-1st sem

2009-07-19T13:23:00.000-07:00

Thats the entrance to my home away from home...the epicenter of fun, excitement, depression, hard work, movies, friends, people...and everything that one might ask for(excluding an air conditioner anyway)..

July 28,2008
My boarding into my room...room 373A(the 'A' is insignificant)...climbed up two floors with my baggage...moving into anything is tough(no pun intended)..and this was no exception..it was not funny by any chance..but it reminded me of the daunting tasks ahead...in life...in everything..

The Next day
First day at college...Went ok...was to report to my dept office...received an introductory speech from different people in the next few days...a former director of a nuclear facility in India explained about how he was often left fuming due to people's ignorance about his field(which would soon become my field)..it was a humorous evening..also reminded me that this field i am going to plunge in wasnt going to be easy..

you might be wondering about the serious tone of this post so far...well...well...what to say...just be patient na..:D..

August 2nd week,
Hostel quadrangle...i was sitting on the grass watching my seniors play cricket(i think two other freshies-first years-joined them in the cricket too)...my roomie was sitting besides me...a 2nd year senior was sitting beside him...this was supposed to be called "interaction" because it was not interaction...(he he..it was ragging :P)..
Senior:What do u think of porn?
Roomie:i havent watched a lot of porn and all in my life
Senior:then what kind of porn have you watched?
Roomie:a kinda "soft" porn
Senior:"soft" porn???(smirks)does that mean there is some "hard" porn too?
Roomie:yup..as far as i know
Senior:then differentiate the two
Roomie:soft porn is where you dont get offensive stuff...hard porn is where you get the hardcore stuff..
Senior:"hardcore"????suppose i give u a mallu(malayalam)porn movie...how would you classify that??
Roomie:soft i think
Senior:i say its hardcore...what say....(and the rod is driven in deep...aka..the "interaction" goes on)
as it becomes too boring for me to be waiting to be ragged i go to my room..

That Night
Roll call: A kind of attendance taken by the seniors during the first weeks of the college..it is actually to ensure that the seniors get used to the freshies...they put some fundaes occasionally(i know i am using a fair bit of jargons....it will become clear to you as we go on)...After knowing that i am a "tam" all the tam second years call me for interaction...but they couldnt land their hands on me then...so they put it off for the next night..

Next night:
I go into one of the seniors rooms...a whole bunch of them are stuffed inside the room...awaiting their prey...i enter..they welcome me and take up their positions...first question...Put Intro da....i put my best...next question..did u have any crush??..."no".."wat???absolutely none?"...."no...i did like one girl though"...."so wats that called according to you?"...."admiration"(they get real pissed).....another question..."who is your fav actress??".....i say the name of a leading south indian actress....follow up question..."suppose that actor knocks your door completely naked and you are alone in that room..what will you do??"......."open the door and go to sleep"....(now they get really pissed..they wanna hammer me)...luckily roll call was supposed to be conducted then...and i ran away........great escape!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

August 3rd week:
Introduction to porn..ya...thats what i would like to call it....the whole week the focus of everyone in my wing was to learn more about porn(you see...your hormones induce you into such actions)....one night....6/7 guys were stuffed in a room...3/2 hours of porn...lights off...superb sound quality of the laptop...(not so sheer enjoyment though...i like only the foreplay :(....but the enjoyment of others carried me on)...this trend continued for a while...and soon one of the guys managed to download 10GB of porn(ya..take that)...and we did see most of them(actually they were more of sex jokes than porn).....the culmination to this all was american pie one...about 10 guys...one room..and a superb comedy running before your eyes...now imagine that......:D

August end,one night:
I was walking past the first floor when a senior called me...he was in his fourth year(that was bad you see....the more the years you spend at the col...the more proficient is your interaction)...he stopped me all of a sudden and asked me to put intro..(frankly i had not seen him before that night...and i was a little nervous..but i did put a decent intro)..
He:had any crush?
Me:nope
He:no???absolutely nothing??
Me:i guess not..
He:do u mastarbate atleast??receive erections??
Me:yup...at times..
He:you havent got that by looking at any of the girls?
Me:nope(he knew this was a lie)
He:u gay?
Me:cha...no...
He:have u atleast liked a girl??
Me:ya...sure...
He:then wat do u call it..
Me:admiration(he was not pissed with this reply really)..
He:do u know the difference between crush and admiration?
Me:nope...(he explains the difference)...
all of a sudden..
He:your name is Impotent da...you will be called that way from now on...ok na?
Me:ya...ok..no problems..
He:chalo...all the best...
Me:thank you..
And i had got my "insti" name..

Post Mid sem-September:
successfully seen off mid semester exams...on the day the exams ended we guys from our hostel decided to go to a nearby foodcourt...we walked nearly 10 mins...but we were astonished to find the entire freshies's batch there having food!!!!!!!!OMG...so many dead tongues!!!!!!!hail the mess caterers...

October 1st week, Shaastra:
I think it was day two of the golden edition of shaastra..chemical x prelims...myself and my friend go to the prelims...20 questions...no idea for about 12 of them...my friend panics....i think real crap...write shit(the prelims was a written round)...come out..evening 3.45...the cord of chemicalx calls me up..."machi you r selected for the final da...come at about 5.30 to the chemistry dept".....me shocked!!!!!!!wtf!!!!!!!...
finals:
they gave 5 samples which we should replicate...i mix something and get one of the answers!!!!!!and i do that again and get another!!!!!!...my friend uses his geniuses and does two more...we run out of time...i come to know the next day that we won the second place..
then came to know that thinkin crap pays...
shaastra again:
this time how things work...no idea again for most questions...i think crap(again)...write shit(again)...get selected among the top 25...free t shirt cap and bag........OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!thinking crap is priceless....
if u did think the above paragraph was very abstract...well it reflects the way i was thinking during those events...

October 2nd week,Midsem 2:
this was the first time i tried group studying...it was kinda fun...it was even more fun to sit in the exam hall and blink knowing nothing...but the greatest fun is looking around and seeing none of those seated in the hall doing the same thing that i do...good experience...but exam performance was not so good:(....but that was expected......and one real funny incident was that one morining i woke up so late that i hardly had time to eat breakfast(coz if i did i would be late for the exam)...so i entered the mess...took off four bread slices and walked off eating it!!!!!!!!!...but really suffered from hunger an hour after the exam :(.....

November end, Semester Exams:
I had never seen such rains lash the city...i mean...it was raining continuously for three days...fantastic weather...the weather which u completely hate during exams...you just dont get the "mood" to study..and despite all this background we were facing the most important exams in our college life yet..
Friday Night:
was very nervous, had Engineering Drawing(ED)exam the next day..had already "cup"ped in the ED midsem exam...was staring down the barrel..was studyin along with two other guys...the best part was...i was the only one who was trying to study in that room...
Saturday Night:
In spite of the inclement weather and the lack of "enthu" in the room i studied, i had pulled off ED well...Divine intervention really...so was pretty happy...Had Chemistry exam on monday(quantum mech, thermo, kinetics :(..)...but 4 guys in one room was too much of a crowd to study...so night 10 30 we decide to watch varanam aayiram(a tam movie which was released a week back then)...the movie was ok...but we all enjoyed the first half romance in the movie and the second half "mokkai" in the movie...we were especially pissed that the hero slept with both the heroines(i mean...the hero had a love first..he slept with her..she died then..then another love...slept with her..and later married her)...it was too much to bare...anyways we lasted the movie...and by 1 30 the movie was done and so were we...
Sunday:
Started quantum mech along with my friend after breakfast(about 9 in the morning)...reading reading and reading(seriously its very boring...quantum that is)...by afternoon one more guy had joined us..and atlast we finished quantum mech by 8 in the night :(...and other two guys gave up by 2 in the night...i stayed up till 3 to finish as much as possible in the other topics...tiring night really..
Monday:
did decent chemistry...then the next exam was thermo..we put peace really...slept late in the night...i think about 2...
Tuesday:
the alarm went off at 7 30...i switched off the alarm(instead of putting it in the "snooze" mode which was my practice)...my friend did the same...and suddenly he wakes up at 8 30...and wakes me up simultaneously saying.."machi....its 8 30 da...exam at 9!!!!!!!!"...i was shocked...thanked God coz he woke up otherwise it would have easily been a make up exam(and lower grades)...quickly went to my room..changed clothes and went to the exam...the exam was tough!!!!!!!!and anyways i was already drenched in rain..so the performance didnt matter :D...
Friday:
ID exam...(aka, Introduction to Design).."sappa" exam really...but we really wanted to insult the exam by being awake till 3 30 the last night :D.. woke up at 7 30 in the morning and i went to my hostel...due to the excessive rains the previous night my hostel had been flooded...it was knee deep water...i did wade thro the water to get my id card(ya...it was a not-so-intelligent move)...and that afternoon i was filled with a sense of relief...exams over and a month holiday...vacated the room the next day and went home peacefully...(i thought i deserved the peace coz i had seen off one sem in full)...

To be continued....

July 5,2009

2009-07-18T13:10:00.001-07:00

A beautiful sunday...Obviously everyone knows the significance of this day i think..anyways i wanted my first article to reinforce some positive senses...so i decided to relive this day(this evening rather)..

A warm London afternoon..(I havent been to London though :D)..the time was 6 30pm in my watch...i tuned into star sports with the stupid set top box i have got(i mean these cable guys in my city...they dont give you good stuff for the money they charge...dish should be better)..I(rather we)havent installed a DTH service coz it looks like going back to the good old days of the antenna and the dish(just kiddin)..the players were warming up..London SW19 was also warming up..

The American had won the toss and had decided to serve first up(good decision really...i mean he is a BIG server)..the stats of the players was put up(thanks to the Rolex guys who keep advertising in every other stat being put up)...The American's stat had read...best results..SF in aus open..QF in French open..Runner up in Wimbledon...Won US open 2003...No 1 ranking from 11/03 to 02/04...not bad really...then the stat shifts to the other side of the court...a 6'1" well known guy is warming his heavy serve...best results...Won aus open,french open,wimbledon,us open....No 1 from 02/04 to 08/08...OMG...thats some stat right(well...i really do think these stats dont matter...the guy overwhelms all these with just his backhand)..

Tragically the defending champion had not turned up(to the tournament itself :(..)...Not expected..yes....but anyway it was a blessing in disguise for the 6'1" guy..(i never liked the "physicality" of that defending champion's game)..And this year a kind of "roof" had been added to the center court(which was good coz it did away with rain....the 5 hrs and something final last year was played for like 7-8 hours just coz of the two massive rain delays)..So something new..something exciting..

The television camera whirls around covering some of the VIPs present...In the royal box were a swede guy who won 11 majors...an australian in his 70s considered a legend..and surprise surprise..an unexpected american coming to the center court for the first time in 7 yrs..the camera swings further..a hollywood director in his 70s(known for rom-coms),an australian gladiatorial actor, a manager of an epl team,and so on...the list even included an indian cricket legend..but the cameraman was not an indian(this is one bad thing about india...ask australians about indians :D)..

And so the "final" began..the American served fiercely..Fantastic serving really...his forehand also looked great...and surprisingly he was pulling off his dogged backhand and his reluctant volley well..and exceptionally the guy on the opposite side of the court was not his best(seriously you should compare his semi final game against an in-form german...that was the 6'1" guy at his best)...so this "champion" guy(lets refer the 6'1" guy as the champion from now on...saves me time pressing the shift button :P)is scrappy..but his serve is going well..his forehand ok..his backhand not so good..his volley...bad...his slice doing better everytime(i mean this blog is not enough to incl all the shots this guy has)..and i blink and the scoreline is 6-5 in the first set with the American his nose in front..

Our champion serves not-so-well...commits a few unforced errors and in a flash the first set goes off with a whimper...scoreline..american 7-5..(before the match i thought it would be a three setter with the champion winning...both the parts of the previous sentence cant become true...but the former had the definite chance)..

Second set goes by...the american serves well and deep especially in crucial points..he did save a couple of break points in the first set..was not doing that now though...his serve was strong enough to give him strong holds(is that supposed to be a pun??)...i blink again...it goes to a tie break...now i restrain myself from watching the match for a few mins coz of the work i had(i neednt tell you what work i had :P)...i returned...champion trailing 2-6...OMG(again)...the possibility of a three setter really loomed large...then the champion knocks me out(literally)...rips off 6 points in a row to take the second set(sheer genius plus a little luck as the american missed an easy volley)...so one set all..

This game was really going fast...i breathed a bit relaxedly and now its the second tie break of the match..oops...why are the points so short(i keep telling myself its grass so its short...i e the points)...the champion shows champion stuff(its ok if i keep repeating the word..its my blog anyway :D)and pulls of the tie break 7-5(not much fuss in this set really)..

the fourth set...smooth sailing for both warriors till the fifth game...the champion stutters in serve and the american elegantly takes the break...wonderful game plan from the american really...superb forehand...then serves strongly the rest of his three service games in the set to take it 6-3...2 set all...the game even stevens now(i never expected this game...even in my wildest dreams to go to a five setter...i hope nobody fixed the match before :))..

Fifth set..no tie break..the champion regaining some touch...the american unyielding under pressure...the american had to serve behind through out this set(bad luck this for him..that adds to the pressure)...the set meanders real fast to 5-4 with the champion leading...from here starts the real match actually...coz the american has to serve to stay in the match as long as he doesnt break the champion's serve...this is bad stuff...he will be under pressure always...

the score 9-9..15-40...oops..the champion is down two break points..i made myself immobile(i e i didnt change my position fearin the champion might lose the coming points...kinda superstition yes)..but the champion serves magnificiantly to hold at 10-9(from now on i decided to sit in the same posture for all of his service games...it worked at the end really :D)...

each serving really well...the american was superb...he played all the crucial points brilliantly...there was a dark force creeping across the center court though...it was proceeding towards a fine evening with the sun beginning his set..as the sun's decline increased the shadow of the center court's octagonal roof increased...the shadow began invading the court slowly...the shadow does play a crucial role as its tough to spot the ball coming out of it..

13-13...the champion was standing on the dangerous side of the court...he was standing opposite the shadow...but luck favors the destined..a cloud covered off the departing sun leaving the same level of brightness through out the court...he held off successfully(14-13)...the clouds passed when the american served...he held off without difficulty(14-14)..

the champion was standing behind the shadows..the favorable side of the court..the american showed some trouble in seeing the ball coming out from the shadows...15-14...the american served well...but his forehand was mistimed a couple of times...and before he realised...match point for the champion...two magnificient first serves...advantage american..the champion was running out of time to break the american..it was his best chance to win the match...good serve...good block..bad forehand...an encore...match point again!!!!!

decent serve...superb return..the ball coming out of the shadows..the american doesnt detect the ball in time..swings the raquet..top edges...the ball goes past the line on the other baseline...out...the champion jumps for joy...a fairy tale win...the american was broken for the first time in the match(he had held 37 straight service games)..and ironically he lost the match..handshakes around..and a huge cheer from the crowd(they got more than their money's worth)..

presentation...the american salutes the great american in the royal box admitting that he tried his best to win...the champion says it was a crazy match...not playin his biggest rival was not a problem...and pays tribute to the legends...

and so ends a fine sunday evening...i look at my watch..11 in the night...nice experience it was...

i am sure many of you would have felt the same kind of joy..many the kind of agony the american experienced..its all "part of the plan"..

i didnt incl any photos of the famous day...coz u would have seen them all...if u havent...google wimbledon'09..

so adieu to a great match of tennis...see you all soon with another exhilarating experience...hope you enjoyed your memories along with mine(i hope this doesnt sound like a tv commentator):P................

cheers,

Hello Folks

2009-07-18T12:34:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody,
This is Sai Gautam here...I am an amateur in this arena...Hopefully i can give some fodder to your thoughts..

Cheers,