Flashback - 4 years @ CEG

The day was 12^th August 2007.. After setting up my room ready, I was getting ready to face what was going to be my first day, rather first night!!  @ CEG. And I was welcomed with a shock at mess.

2 famous quotes were going through my mind when I was having my first hostel food..

“To gain something, u will have to sacrifice something else” - unknown

 “ஹாஸ்டல்ல போட்ற சேமியாவ சாப்டறப்பதான் டா என் சேமியவோட அருமை உனக்கு தெரியும்...” – my mom

Early setback... and I said to myself in a Goundamani-tone, “அடுத்த நாலு வருஷம் எனக்கு சூப்பரா இருக்க போகுது டோவ்..” and it really was a wonderful phase of my life.

I can still feel the taste of my first hostel semiya, and now, I am just a few hours away from leaving this college. Everything went off like a flash. But when run-through in ultra motion, I can see wonderful memories packed in each n every frame. 

Expectation n awe is with what I started off n I was never let down in terms of their fulfillment.  And there was this little horn that started growing on my head. Credits to the fact that I got into CEG.

First semester.. new place.. new faces.. Classes with mixed depts.. n i was put in F-BATCH.. but I hardly felt the difference of a new environment. We befriended each other at a rapid rate and college fun started right away. Room-76, my classroom with six huge doors, was always tempting us to sneak out during class hours n this is no age to control your senses when u get tempted. We reacted as well.. :):) Countless proxies.. Mass bunks.. Sneaking in and out of the room in the middle of classes.. “Devar magan “chorus when classes were boring, (Manjunath-Mech being the lead singer).. and wow.. College lyf is nothing but pure fun... and my first six months in college were my most favourite... until my last six.. 

Amidst all these fun, I was able to score a very decent GPA n both the horns were fully grown now. Engineering, then I thought, was a cakewalk. And with S in both CS related subjects I was feeling on top of the world... hmmm.. Too early to jump into conclusions..

 2^nd semester... Into my dept... More friends & obviously more fun... The department or the subjects dint trouble much. Start was just fine and last bench started becoming “THE PLACE TO BE” in the class.  The haunt of that deadly thing started. First real pressure actually.. It’s a vicious curse on CSE students, I must say. And there was no escape from these PROJECTS. The reason I call projects curse is because once they start giving projects as assignments, there is no stopping them - Project for anything and everything. I remember to have done projects for theory papers.. as a part of an assessment (for some 5 or 10 marks)..!!! even for story writing papers like “knowledge management” (epdi than ipdi pudhusu pudhusaa yosikarangalo...???) என்ன கொடுமைடா இது...!!!

One good thing about all these project works is that, our creativity is greatly developed/ improved. I dunno whether projects made us develop this quality or we noticed such a wonderful in-born gift only then. You propose a project which you know nothing about... You do something totally different from what you proposed and the most interesting part is the review or demo where you say some stupid story to which your code never fits in.. And you manage to pass... The more you talk, the more you score... I seriously doubt if code has anything to do with a project... I guess I (and many of us did) and have been doing only this throughout our course. FYP had no escape either...: P

I made one big mistake in my 3^rd semester. It did me some good too, though..  “கேப்பார் பேச்சை கேட்டு” rep @ class-adimai ayiten..  :P As a result,

·         I failed to complete the German class. Like vadivelu’s “IDHAR AAO” hindi tutorial, they have been teaching the same thing they taught in the first few classes, till the last class. “Ich bin Nataraj” (I am Nataraj ),  “was machst du “ (what are you doing) & “Ich liebe Dich” (I love you) :P :P . German ரொம்ப easy போல இருக்கு..

·         Every day..

o   respect_among_friends++;

o   respect_among_teacher/=10;

Classes started getting bored... Subjects tougher.. My friends and my new computer were always there to nullify the effect. :) And by the end of the 3^rd semester one of my horns was already gone.

Fourth semester.. More classes.. More boring subjects.. And this semester was a horn-breaker too.. The rate of loss of interest in subjects was in GP. Again, my friends and my computer kept me going.. Highly reliable they are..

Sem no 5 and I really needed a break. Like a little ad or a song when a cricket match is boring. I took one. Started shifting focus towards contraption, which has nothing to do with CSE, with my buddies. We chased Shaastra- failed. Kurukshetra- almost succeeded. Finally twin success at Pinnacle and Manusys. :)

The result of my fifth semester was one hard slap on my face saying, “Enough of day dreaming buddy. Get back to reality”.

Some more contraption, LAN gaming and movie downloads dominated my 6^th semester. There was always a race among us in hostel as to who downloads more. :) OC la wi-fi varuthu – adhuvum super speed la. Chance a viduvaanen.. : P . After a straight line with a negative slope, my career graph showed some upward trend.  Did the break work or was that the slap that made the difference, I never knew.

7^th sem, literally the longest sem of the course, went off in a jiffy. Everyone was mad and placement fever was becoming an epidemic.  Company – OD – class cancellation...  Company – OD – class cancellation... This was the only routine, that semester, with very rare “project works”.

Enter the final six months of my college lyf... Everything that happened and we did this semester became special.. became memories.. :) It started off with aBaCUS... numerous late night beach visits.. photo sessions at hostel.. followed by our north Indian trip.. This IV is one major highlight of my college lyf..Group photos.. class lunch, HPL, FYP etc.. :) unforgettable this semester was.. really... gave me loads to cherish about..

One thing common to all these episodes was my “HOSTEL LYF”. I’d be a sinner if I failed to mention it.. Having done all 14 years of my schooling as a day-scholar, hostel was totally a new experience. I expected to get home-sick when I arrived. But, seriously, there was a not even a sign of home-sickness. When people of same age-group and similar thought frequencies are put together, how wud u expect one to think abt and feel for home.. I really pity day-scholars for missing this hostel lyf...

Reasonless night-outs...

Topic less chats and arguments..

One full gang ottifying/teasing a single guy..

Late night cards..

LAN gaming..

Cricket everywhere - inside hostel.. on the corridors... inside room..

Midnight Birthday bumps – the only time you feel happy and ready to be thrashed and banged by others..

Group studies..

12 AM being the earliest time to bed and gets as late as 6-7 AM, with no specific waking time.

I am sure day-scholars don’t get these at home.. Hostel lyf is one hell of a “HEAVEN”. :)

Now (7^th may 2011) most of my friends are already gone and by the time few of u read this post, all of us would have parted. When I see a vacated room, tears start rolling down, memories flashing n I feel like weeping. :( All I am left with, now, is a heavy heart, full of memories to carry back. The time, I never wanted to come, has finally come... Tomorrow, my every relationship and attachment with CEG would become a past tense. It’s the time to move on... There is no doubt that we will... the delay alone matters...

BYE BYE CEG...!!! Thanks a lot for these wonderful 4 years you gave me...

This post is to each and everyone who made my being in CEG, a worthwhile one... Hope distance doesn’t separate us... Stay in touch... I wish you all success in your future endeavours...

aBaCUS’11 – A look back

Deadline:

When our first official aBaCUS meet took place we could see only a rough 40 days ahead of us to realize our works, leaving many raised eyebrows asking if we could really get things done in/on time. A few meek attempts were made to postpone the event, but our CSEA president was very strong in not postponing the event & asked us to CHASE THE DEADLINE..

And yes.... Our chase began there on...!!

The work:

After one or two preliminary meets and deciding on the teams, we caught our breath, the one u will catch when u start running, being chased by 10 dogs on a straight endless road. ;)

·        Sponsorship

·        Marketing

·        Getting the site ready

·        Workshop arrangement

·        Launching online events

·        Pongal holidays

·        First review

·        Assessment

All in a span of 30 days.. WTF.. And the common response was, “You CSE guys really have gone mad!!”

But the guys with us were tireless, always ready to burn extra calories .

- The web team-Paul n Naga, ready n making changes whenever asked.

– Subash and his friends designing something or the other late night. Subash’s role in aBaCUS is very vital, I must say. The design on every single poster, ID, T-shirt, banner and notepad was his contribution

– guys waiting as late as 4 A.M to bring t-shirts.

– ever dynamic workshop team, sending some sort of a mail or other to the participants

- Sethuram, who would have attended atleast 500 calls in 2 days, if I am not exaggerating.

- Harish Swaminathan, always ready with alternatives whenever there is some problem.

- Jai n Ravi – IR team

- Shahul, Chandru n Arun Sivasankar working day and night across all possible depts.

- Harrish, our student-treasurer, such a patient guy who never lost his cool. If u noted any guy with a bag on shoulder or a folder in hand always, then u must have run into Harrish.  :P

- Kathir, Harish Swaminathan, Manasa n Lavanya being my associates in managing events.

- Jagadish n his content factory and

- Our Chairman, Dharani, THE MASTERMIND.

Such a vibrant n determined team was ours.

The days of aBaCUS’11:

The dates chosen for aBaCUS were a little unconvincing in nature. Kurukshetra was just on the heels and IIT-M’s Saarang was going on at the same time. You can easily expect us to lose participants for those two big reasons..  Hurdling these barriers, we attracted a really good no. of people.

3 workshops – 13 onsite Events – 3 Guest lectures. These are with what we pulled crowd to aBaCUS’11.

With participants arriving as early as 27th morning, aBaCUS actually started early for us.

I have stayed awake all night quite a few times before. But this time it was totally a different experience. It had a reason.. a sense of responsibility.. After sleepless nights came restless days.. Running across halls, auditoriums.. Checking if things are going fine.. eating late.. Making/answering calls.. These were a few symptoms common to every1 who was a part of the organizing team..

And all these had one fruitful result at the end – SUCCESS OF aBaCUS. :)

When Guindy almost got re-Christened..

“Haste makes Waste” n this proverb never went false.. When u do things in a hurry, u can very well expect imperfections and we were no special case. A minute mistake/carelessness it was and it cost us big time. We almost made some 1000 people spell Gunidy. Thanks to the timely help from a few sources and first years, Guindy persisted. 

Special thanks to

·        All event organizers.

·        First year boys n gals. Their interest n commitment was awesome. Ready to help us any time not showing even the smallest sign of regret or complaint. Chanceless.. !! 
& Sunil - our photographer.. :)

Something I will cherish for long..

Taking up responsibilities.. Being a part of an organizing team.. deriving a sense of satisfaction and pride when u see the event succeed.. Its altogether a different experience. This aBaCUS month will continue to remain among the most memorable pages of my college lyf.. :)

It must be their day.. Was it really ours.. ??

Every Diwali has always had something interesting for me. Neither did this one disappoint me.

Going home during Diwali in train in an unreserved compartment is a hell of a task. Thanks to the idea of catching Intercity from Perambur, I got a seat. Though not a window seat, I am happy that I got me a seat at least. There were as many people as the compartment could hold with no space even to move.

When the train was about to start, came those two guys aged around 20, rushing. They kinda stood near me. They looked restless ever since they came there, as if some1 poked their asses with a needle.

Train started. They kept calling friends asking for a guy. They were expecting some1. At times they started conversing in some foreign language, definitely not Telugu for I ve seen a lot of Telugu movies. (சீக்ரட்டாமா ..)

Some half an hour passed by.. 2 things happened – 1 unexpected and 1 obvious.

Unexpected: People in the compartment started flocking around an unwelcomed guest with something common in their hands – tickets. (i ve never seen a TTR in an unreserved compartment in Intercity)

Obvious: Those two guys, like I expected, were missing.

10 mins later, one crossed me but the other guy was missing..

 5 more mins. Oops..! Nature’s call.. I was heading towards the restroom and there he was.. the 2^nd guy was coming out of one of them.

Oh yeah! Atleast I was correct. It was the TTR whom they were expecting and the poor TTR missed his Diwali bonus.

The rest of the journey, they travelled with some sort of fear n caution. They sighed with relief only after getting down at Salem station.

Lucky chaps... 

It must be their day...!!

5 hours back..

10.15AM - CEG – Kotturpuram gate...

“I don’t think we can catch west coast. Its getting late. I cancelled my tomo’s ticket to go earlier. Lets hurry pls.. ”, I told P.Karthick (a.k.a P.K).

“We ll give it a try, if not , Intercity is there”, Chandru to me.

With the late comer Jai joining us, the four of us ran to Madhya Kailash MRTS station bought tickets to our respective cities. P.K n me both being from Salem were given a single ticket. It was 10.55 when we reached Central and west coast was bloody full as expected. The unreserved compartments’ doors looked like squeezed toothpaste tube’s nozzles with people's back squeezing out of the doors. People were hanging to doors n windows with hardly a space to breathe even. We dropped our West Coast plan at this very sight. Pragathesh joined us there.

Now what.. Intercity was our next hope. We planned to get into reserved compartments early and stand/sit near some door so that we wont be bothered by the rest of the crowd. Plan looked perfect.

We had 3 more hours to while away. Meanwhile a guy came to us saying that some1 stole his purse n he had no money to go home. We gave him some cash to buy ticket. At that time we never knew of the disaster that was ahead of us.

Train was arriving. We got ready to race to catch the seats and P.K ran through his pockets to check if he had everything. To his awe, our ticket was missing..  Neither did I have. Damn...!

We had no time to buy another ticket n TTR would definitely ask for ticket in reserved compartments. (Its Diwali time..) we had to act .

What now? PLAN-B. My experience in Intercity unreserved compartments told others that TTR wont come to unreserved compartments.. that too in such a huge crowd.. (Bingo... Presence of mind...!) . So we sort of split up. Myself, P.K n Jai went to unreserved compartment. Chandru n Pragathesh to reserved. We lost Jai amidst the crowd. We found some place to stand in a full packed compartment.

All set, train started.

Meanwhile we confirmed with other guys in other compartment whether TTR asked for their tickets. N occasionally planned for an explanation about the loss of ticket if caught. In order to avoid suspicion in the compartment we made our conversations in Kannada..

Everything went fine until 3 P.M.

A boy came rushing past us, opened his bag n took something, exactly resembling that cursed thing which we lost earlier that day. And to our horror, TTR was standing there checking tickets.. (FUCK...) Only then we realised that our compartment was directly connected to the last reserved compartment.

The next moment either of us was in a restroom each, for we had no cash enough to pay any fine.

And the next fifteen minutes were the most horrible minutes I ever experienced. I called Jai, P.K. Nobody could be reached.

 Msg’d.. No replies..WHAT THE FUCK...I was having a blessed day.. !!

I froze when some1 tapped the door, but dint open. Atlast P.K attended my call told that TTR went and asked me to come out, and it was that idiot who tapped my door... Crap again..

The rate of my heartbeat never came down until we reached Salem..

And now the question is..

Was it really our day????

At home.. I charged my mobile which got switched off n turned it on..

Rain of msgs from Jai n P.K started flooding my inbox.

Where are you? Looks like TTR went.

Sender:Jai Sent: 3:05:01 PM”

“TTR crossed your compartment.

Sender:Jai Sent: 3:07:23 PM”

“He went away. You may come out now.

Sender:P.K Sent: 3:12:23 PM”

“Come out.

Sender:P.K Sent: 3:13:41 PM”

Damn my mobile..

The SEVEN RUPEE GUY..

In life,we have come across a lot of strangers n of course we will meet a lot of them in future..
Very few among that million leave an impact in us,with their lookz.. actions... whatever..
And we will not be able to stop thinking about them at least for 2 days bcoz of that impact they left in us..

I came across one such guy this saturday and I feel its worth writing about him here..
I'd like to call him the "SEVEN RUPEE GUY".. (Alas.. i dont know his name...) You will get to know in a while as to why i call him so...

Well.. Myself n Nirmal (my buddy.. for those who dont know him) were walking on the sidewalks of Chennai Central in search of a good hotel for our dinner.. We were damn hungry n he had a train to catch @ Egmore after dinner.. We were kinda desperate coz there was not even a single hotel on the side we were walking..

Then came a guy walking towards us. I thought he was just any other stranger.Never cared to pay any importance to him.Suddenly he stopped near us n started saying something. He was definitely talking to us only bcoz we were the only people walking on that pavement at that time..

He wanted us to listen to him n we were quite in a hurry.. We reluctantly said ok n he started.. asked if we knew hindi,english coz he dint know tamil.
"English", we replied n he continued..
He said he is from Bihar n doing EEE in a college in Chennai (well i know which one.. lol). And that he drained all his money drinking.. To make us believe he asked us check his pockets n stuff.. Too strange a behavior for a stranger to ask another stranger to checks his pockets.. I was perplexed.. Wanted to see what he actually is doing and what he wanted of us..

He also assured us that he is no kidnapper.. lol.. (Well what is he going to do kidnapping me and him?? naanga andha alavukku ellam worth illingo...). He wasn't drunk either.. He was very clear in what he was speaking had no sign of a drunkard at that time...


Then he finally answered a few of the questions which were lingering in my mind ever since he stopped at us.. He said wat all he wanted from was "seven rupees".. not a paise more.. not a paise less.. (god knows as to why he wanted exactly 7) He dint compel us. We could go if we dint have any change..

We ran through our pockets n purses n gave him 8 rupees.. His reply was the most astonishing.
He asked us why we gave 8 rupees when he asked just for 7 rupees, as if he was some strict "Mr.Red Tape" and we were trying to bribe him.! We had no time to reply. I said, have a "bubble gum" n started leaving..He wanted our mobile no so dat he wud recharge our balance for this favor.. We dint reply..

And thats where our very short meet with the "seven rupee guy" ended.. Bt still I do wonder why he wanted seven rupees and seven rupees only...

Well,all I can do is convince myself saying this,
There are some mysteries on earth which have no explanations n which even when explained lead us nowhere..

Wish I get to meet him again in my life before i forget his face... lol...

The Fever is on....!!!

It came into existence 2 years back n was a grand success straight away... n then had to be in exile for a year n now its back to its homeland again.. in a more supercilious way....Yes...The star-studded IPL is back n it kick started in a very majestic fashion... with stars from n outside bollywood performing n adding charm to the grandeur of the opening ceremony...

When it comes to IPL,one forgets what patriotism is.... You pick your team n enjoy n laud the fall of another Indian star who naturally would ve become a hero in any international match... Such is the nature of IPL.. But still its one month full of enjoyment n fun.. One gets to see all his favorite stars in action at a time.. And on top of all,its a feast for all those who love balls(strictly cricket.. lol) thrashed in all direction for boundaries.. Its going to be a heavy shower of runs..


Its a good pastime for all, mainly for students like me who don't have any work for the evening (though they have a lot).. lol.. :-) :P

So wat r u waitin for? Choose ur side n start cheering... After all IPL happens once a year only...

It all begins here...!!

Hi folks...
After giving it a lot of thought,i was able to finally convince myself to publish "what-is-going-to-be-my-first-post" ..
Of course,this isn't my first blog.. I have a little experience in blogging but gosh... was too lazy to update my blog..

But now guys...
I am starting my second innings.. better,fresher and more enthusiastic...
And all i wanted to tell u thro this post is just this...
"It all begins here..."

Catch up with u all with my next post very soon...!!! Stay tuned...

Adieu for now...