Random thoughts reposted: what if...

Pre-script: (since i'm tired of writing post scripts; i promise i used to, some time back.) this is a post that i made a long long time back, maybe during my summer internship. i know i can check the exact date, but i don't want to. so, this is what i had to say, then:

Vernon God Little is a book i read ages ago. that book begins wid a small town police lady asking the 15 year old suspect of a high-school firing mishap about two things of everything. two underlying forces, two kinds of people, two kinds of statements. it turns out that two kinds of forces are cause and effect; two kinds of people- citizens and liars; n two kinds of statements- truth and lies. is there a grey area?

our minds generally hate the grey area. the area that questions- what if. for example, what if today was a sunday in winter at delhi? what if i was elsewhere, and not at delhi. what if ... what if people didn't hate "what-ifs" so much. the problem is that, most of the times, what lies on the other side of what-ifs are things that we want to have, things that we like.

for certain things, people don't care about what-ifs. "What if the earth was flat, not a sphere?" who cares. what if Delhi wasn't the capital of India? at least, I don't care.

for certain things, people are afraid of "what-ifs". "what if it was me in the crashed car instead of him?" or "what if I get caught while dozing off in the class?" (Nothing much happens in the second case. but still!)

so, even grey areas have classifications. it is the inherent nature of man to classify things in the name of simplifying them. you classify stuff into various bogus names that often don't reflect any of their properties- Class A, Class B, Class E...

now back to the present.
it is winter now. well, almost past winter. i am writing one of the last set of exams that i would, in any educational institution. hopefully. because, i had had such thoughts a coupla years ago, when i was in the final year of my graduation. but this time, i'm pretty sure.

it's been my habit to leave things half-done. like what happened to this post, and many more like this. and i'm sure at least some would have been left better unpublished. i guess i'm getting too much philosophical about life, at 23. blame me, yes. go ahead.

current set of what ifs:
what if i had completed that post then itself?
what if i didn't feel like completing the post now?
what if i don't feel the desperation to publish this post now?
what if i had not joined mba immediately after my graduation?
what if i was in a different b-school?
what if i had got placed in a different company?
what if i was a poet, instead of a b-school student? or maybe, in spite of being a b-school student?
what if i stopped asking what-ifs?
what if someone found this post interesting?

i just told (i mean, over gtalk) a friend of mine, an ace blogger, that i won't be posting anytime soon, due to a creative block i'm facing. but i can't help it.

as the swine flew...

i know, and accept, that the title has been inspired by a very very pj... the one where one lady says "oh! this bird flu!" and another replies, "Oh! don't most of them fly!"

anyways, as my classmate says, most of those diseases abt which we used to hear, when we wr back home, are getting closer to us now that v are in delhi! the dengue, chikun guniya, malaria, the swine flu. btech and mtech students over here have exchange programmes and it's arnd this time that they return from their internships abroad, from hongkong, singapore, Europe and the US. and two of my collegemates have been diagnosed with the swine flu, leading to some extraordinary actions being taken in the insti.

it includes a directive by the director with instructions including a ban on hugging and kissing socially. socially? so u can do it personally? wow! tat wud b cool, had i had someone to do it wid. jus joking!

yet another part of the directive wants the students to eat only the healthy and nutritious hostel food. have been searching for it since the directive has been put up, and am really hungry now!

another notice put up near the hostel water cooler proclaims the ban on using drinking water for other purposes, in order to prevent swine flu from spreading. now, tat's interesting. hw does washing your face with drinking water help in spreading swine flu? mus ve some reason to it, this insti is known for its logic. but this one totally escapes my brains!

enough said, but am really scared. scared to cough. scared to sneeze. n scared of being infected by h1n1. hope it bypasses me!

p.s.: Overheard in the mess: "X came from Shanghai. Hope he doesn't have the flu."
"Naa! He returned from china, yaar. the viruses have a low quality there!"

revival of a golden age?

this blog is in partial fulfilment of a promise made to someone close to my heart. I had promised that someone a long time back that i wud blog soon after returning from a visit to central UP as a part of my internship, nearly 2 weeks ago. now is that 'soon after'. and this, as that person said, can be attributed to writers' block, being at a loss for words and more importantly, sheer laziness. those who know me, will understand.

it is, i think, a revival of the golden age for malayalam movies. the last few months, mallu movies i've seen have been remarkably 'not that bad' and some, even good! shaking off its obsession with 'westernized' (read tamil-like or bollywood like) music n romance, and coming back to a brush wid simple realities of life, and actors becoming more like human beings than superheros (leave the actual superstars), malayalam movie scene is breaking out from a jinx. many movies have left a nice feeling these days. i don't remember all of them, but some are arabikkatha, thirakkatha, makante achhan, passenger and even 2 harihar nagar. unlike the situation 2 or 3 years ago, you don't feel sad that you've watched a movie. so much so that passenger reminded me remotedly (I'm not speaking of acting) of Vellanakalude Naadu. blame me for that, if you want to, but i liked that movie. and it is the fact that I watched that movie in a cinema next door to my house. a cinema theatre that shut its shutters down 5-6 years ago after years of showing b-class and soft porn movies. now an AC theatre with DTS. back in action, and that too with good movies.

maybe I'm being overly optimistic. but when a theatre coming out of a shutdown can afford to play movies like passenger, one can be optimistic. maybe something like (i won't say exactly like) the golden age is coming back.

awaiting the monsoon

i wake up. it's raining. the view outside the window is lit by sodium vapour lamps. the laptop's still playing pink floyd. i reach up and shut it down. i look outside the window of my room in delhi. i can see the rain, hear the rain falling on the leaves. the trees lining the avenue cast long shadows in the yellow light. across the trees i can see the b and d blocks of- wait! am I back in GEC thrissur?

i open my eyes to realize that i'm lying in that usual pool of sweat in my room in delhi. gosh! i dream of rain now! outside the window, during daytime, i can see the wall of the campus and houses beyond that. it's pitch dark now. the fan makes a lotta noise to prove that it's working. honestly, it's a lot better with the fan than without.

monsoon's on its way, proclaims the newspaper. 10 days, 1 week, midweek, 2 days... phew... i'm tired of waiting for the monsoon. and i hope, it will be a good heavy one when it comes. India's planning to start cloud-seeding next year onwards, so hope it won't be this long a wait for the rain then.

Ideal Indian Movie

There's a ban on smoking and drinking on screen. Now, Mr. Azad, according to today's newspaper reports, wants to ban rape, murder and dacoity on screen. Soon, there will be a list of things that movies can't have, such as:

• Shouting
• Abusing
• Kidnapping
• Money laundering
• Bhaiyya cheating bhaiyya (a recurring theme in hindi movies of a certain age)
• Gender discrimination (like calling "oye chokri" and "launde!")
• Bar dances and item numbers
• Seduction
• Love before marriage
• Children disobeying parents (it sets a bad impression on the upcoming generation, man!)
• Eloping
• Mobile phones (since they are banned in schools, they should also be banned in movies).
  

It should show:

• a hardworking hero, either a doctor, a lawyer, a CA, an engineer or a business consultant;
• a heroine, who does pooja every day in the morning and in the evening, or spends a lot of time reading the Quran or visiting Harmandir Sahib every other shot;
• a heroine's elder brother smarter than the hero, who calmly advices (or gives a presentation) to the hero on why the hero shouldn't keep following the heroine;
• the hero and the heroine decides not to meet each other until parents agree to their meeting (already came up in a coupla movies, but this has to be a routine, man. it's time to cultivate behaviour through movies!); and
• finally the parents of hero and heroine agrees to their marriage. Any pregnancy later on should be attributed to birds or bees.
  

Oh wow! then it would appear like a perfect family movie, Karan Johar style sans the gay overtones of course... And in the beginning, as a forward, there should be a scene shot, maybe, in heaven, in which the parents of the hero and the heroine would have decided that they are made for each other. and no more "Let's go party tonight!"

it would be better for govt of India itself to write the script for, direct and release all movies by iteslf. i mean, there's got to be a limit! this is going to be termed "propaganda" or "mass media infiltration" soon. I'm not sure where all this will lead to.

beginning of masochism?

after hovering at around 45 degrees for the last three days, Delhi has almost succeeded in convincing me that i've got used to it, n will get to enjoy this soon. in a short while, i'll start enjoying burning myself, cutting off my limbs, crushing my feet and so on!

i don't consider that a great achievement of mine, but the thought just turned up in my mind as i walked back from lunch today. and since twitter is blocked in office, i had to make this post on blogger! i know this is too short a blogpost, but i can't help it...

summer....

i come into consciousness everyday at 6. i kept wondering y for many days y i kept on waking up then. all of a sudden it hit me (Not exactly hit, jus grazed past me) that it ws my roomie's alarm that woke me up! anyways, i go back to sleep almost instantly after that, to be waken up by my alarm at 7. i snooze once, and then wake up by 7.05.

in between getting ready, i get online, check mails, read headlines. then have breakfast from mess and leave by 8.10-15. and after crossing a t-junction clogged by a flyover under construction, i reach IIT Hostel bus stop on Africa Avenue and board the 8.25 blueline bus no. 615.

and then, once that reaches Indian Oil Bhavan bus stop on the Janpath, I get down, all my senses numbed. sun-screen lotion on face, sun-glasses on eyes, HitFM roaring in my ears and often sipping a coke, i walk the Indira Chowk, cross Kasturba Gandhi Marg and reach Barakhamba road. i'm doing my summer internship in one of the thousands of offices in one of the dozens of huge buildings there. then it will be around 9.15.

don't force me to say what i'll be doing till 18.30. then i cross the Barakhamba road, walk the connaught lane and reach Kasturba Gandhi road bus stop from where i get the return 615. by 7.30, invariably, i'm at hostel. then what? nothing much. life goes on.

summer's burning thoughts

the heat is back. delhi is back to burning hot, and yes, i know, this is just the beginning. it can get only worse, and i'm happily stuck somewhere around for at least next two months! my internship might require me to visit remote parts of central UP, which was out of even my remotest dreams. well, things happening these days have been out of my remotest fantasies, so am not actually surprised.

this might look like a random entry written out of nowhere, and it is, indeed, one of those. i couldn't just stand the thought that i hadn't blogged for this long, so thought something is better than nothing. i don't want any comments on this one thought.

the semester is coming to an end, leaving me halfway thru my mba with one more year to go. every1's busy doing termpapers for 6 different subjects. they are supposed to be actual industry examples and cases, but anyone can suppose anything. suppose it is snowing outside. even that.

i miss winter, as i was sure i would. home is a distant prospect, the way things are going. and there is no internet in the hostel these last few days, after ppl tried out tv on LAN. thanx, guys, tech-experimenters. now am sitting in my department, ac is making a lot of noise, and am sweating. got to drink lotsa water, but there's a water shortage! i'm just loving it, n thank circumstances for givin me a chance to experience these while i'm ready to take them up. more challenges? send them to me, i'm ready for all of them! i guess that's the best thing wen u r 22. u r ready for (almost) everythin!

i guess i've done justice to my great urge to blog, so am signin off. i know the post was no good. good posts require a bit of thinking, some planning, at least for a minute. i don't feel lik thinking, don't feel lik plannin. so tat's it.

the philosophy of bargain

delhi is a shopper's paradise. it is an experience. you never know what is the right price. nor the right place. or the right time to stop, or the vendor might even choose to ignore you!

before heading back home in the next few days (i leave tomorrow, n my friends leave in the days following), a few of us went shopping. janpath. karol bagh. missed out on darya ganj. still regretting. however, the title of the post has nothing to do with the stuff we bought (very less) and the stuff we bargained for (a lot). it has to do with the final leg of our journey back to hostel. after shopping , that is. half an hour in hostel, n we again left for dinner.

Standing at the Junction A, my friend d (not the one with whom i went to manali) and i, started waving autorickshaws and asking if they would take us to Junction B (the names of places changed, obviously, for privacy's sake. don't try to find out if we paid extra in the end!) the first guy said, "150". we said, "OK sir, aap chaliye."

the next guy said, "120". again, we repeated our refrain.
the third guy went back to 150.

since we were in no hurry, and almost tired of bargaining, we asked them no further, and they went ahead in certainty that there would be people ready to travel in their autos, at any exorbitant rates they ask, or argue with them and finally reach a decision after minutes of negotiation. that's what we've been doing the entire day except when in metro or in nirula's. but i could see that they were disappointed that we didn't argue. a nice argument and more money- payoffs from any trip. not for us. at least, this day.

then came our lucky break. when asked, this guy told us the rate to be 90. and we got in happily. no more arguments. that's when this thought struck me- had we argued, we would have to go by 70 or 80! which means, we're giving this guy 10-20 rs extra, not that we are in dire need for those 10 or 20. then another though struck me- now, the driver would be thinking, 'oh man, i should have told 120 or so, and these ppl would have agreed!'

so that is the final result of a no-bargain situation. both the players feel cheated out. we just chose not to bargain, and we stole the feeling of satisfaction from that auto-driver. at the same time, when we buy stuff from janpath market or karol bagh, without a bargain, we feel cheated out. 'only if i had walked down a few more shops, i would have got it cheaper!'

but it is fun. that is a type of fun i never could have where i came from. the only thing that i ever bargained for in kerala has been for extending of assignment submission dates. n strangely, that kind of things don't happen here!

is november romantic?

i am a cheat. i had made half an entry last month, titled 'is october romantic?' now am just changing the title, and making a few modifications. at least, that was my intention. but i realised november is very different from october. even 1st week of november is different from the days now. and it's hot, at 10.30 at night at delhi. don't be surprised. i'm in the reading hall. it is strangely stuffy and hot. not warm n cozy, hot and stuffy. outside is cold.

'not as cold as it is going to be in december and january', my delhiite friends say. 'it will get colder than this.'
'but will it snow?'
'no.. not really. n u kno it very well!'

snow. my only confrontation with snow was two weeks ago. rohtang. that far away point on the map of India. three of us left to manali as it was the diwali break. n rohtang, too. the backbreaking roads led to breathtaking sceneries. stopping at marhi for tea, snacks and clothes to wear in snow, was like stopping at a final outpost before heading out into wilderness. that was the most wildest place i've ever been to, except perhaps in my dreams. (i won't take back the double superlative. shakespeare didn't, so y shud i?)

nyways, rohtang changed some part of me. i know now how remote remote can be. n whenever now i feel alone, i think of all those vendors who commute the dreary path from manali to rohtang daily, wid hopes of earning a life by selling coffee, tea and roasted corn there. i can never be as lonely as them, at some corner of this great nation that India is. i too hail from a corner of the nation, but life there is so different, so easy when compared to that.

the white expanse that shifts and changes in size with months might remind ppl of the change and the cycle that life is. goodness follows badness follows goodness. that is what life is.

back to the topic... ( a new usage that i got, thanx to multitude of gd's!) november is romantic. there is a not-so-distant prospect of going back to everything familiar. there is gonna b action. in fact, there already is. in the form of assignments and termpapers. more to come in the form of major exams. there could be humour, as my life always has been. n music? what else have i plugged in my ears? not cotton, certainly!

altogether, it is a well-balanced bollywood movie.

does the hero win at the end? he has to, bcoz there is no option left!

change: is it really refreshing?

i'm shifting from capital to capital. i was born in the capital of kerala, my fav vacation spots these last years have been the capitals of kerala's neighbouring states and i did my college at the cultural capital of kerala. now, i'm at the national capital of India- Delhi. and am learning all about different types of capitals n how to use them, among other stuff. yo. am doing an mba. i didn't dare to think beyond iims, but i had to! so am here in delhi, doing my mba.

truly, after the cat debacle, and also the interviews n gd's that i attended, i never expected me to join for an mba this year. but fate had other plans for me. it didn't want to give me any rest or leisure, so here am i, after having cleared the waitlists of a good b-school, and toiling at a place far different from what i had thought of even in the wildest of my dreams. n i dream a lot.

it's not just the cultural shock that leaves me bedazzled- it is a shock from every side. if i tell you the name of the institute wr i'm studyin and that it sucks, u ll say that i'm the first person to say so! but here, nothing is different from other colleges. there is a huge shortage of hostel rooms. there are water problems. n to add to it, it's hot, n at least, it's hotter than trivandrum under similar levels of humidity. gosh! sometimes i feel sooooo tired!

leave the cribbing part now. though i do crib, i grow tired of cribbing, as fast as others do of listenin to me doin tat. it's an entirely new experience, be in a place where ppl who don't know your place, your language or ur way of life, are in a majority. there is no problem, in fact. n it's not strange or unexpected. what else can a mallu except in delhi? food, though i'm no stranger to the northie stuff, has become almost too monotonous now. i miss those "going-out for dinner" evenings that we used to have at thrissur. here, you don't ve time or inclination to go out. outside is like a far away place, at least now, n i hope it changes. i just don't know how i'll survive just on hostel food!

i know this blog reads like the manifestation of a chaotic mind, n that's exactly what my mind is, rt now. chaotic. they ve allotted me a room that stinks, n i need to find some way to change it!

so till i blog next time....

my final study leave for b.tech...

maybe i should withdraw my statement about not missing my college. now that it has almost come to an end, i miss the stuff we used to have at college. late night card games, roaming out for dinner, lack of all restrictions, n dinner at 2 in the morning... these are what i'll remember my hostel the most for. my college, among other things, i'll remember for all those busy and funfilled days that i had, as in charge of something, or something un-academic, not the classes and labs...

that's what this college has been to me. made me realize how less classes have to do, in education. with so less classes, i routinely get above 80% attendance. my friends at home will realize what a miracle that is, since they see that i'm at trivandrum almost every other week. but those at my college- they too are the same way, so it's not much of a miracle for us...

now i'll be out of the place i'm used to, much the same way i was, after my class 12. but then, i had something sure- i was sure of what i was going to do, only i didnt know where i would be. but right now, i don't know what i'm going to do after next month, leave alone where. and one of the options that i have will take me to a position i've never been before- getting paid for the work i do.

there's hardly a coupla months more in this college where i've been for almost the last four years. yet another separation is certain. yet again, i say, changes are inevitable. so the best thing is, to salute it and to enjoy it. now i'm sure i'll miss the college, the hostel, my travels home and back and most importantly, there's a great chance i'll miss my student's life. i earnestly hope i don't...

my old cat died... will i have a new one?

isn't it really bad that i neglected my blog for 5 long months? it's not just because my cat died. also, i was busy wid a lot of stupid things like exams and interviews... now, finally most of them are over, and ironically, i just want to be out of the college. usually nobody wants that, but maybe that's what my college and my university has done to me. maybe, once i'm out of college, i would crave to belong to it, once again, but i've never had this kinda fed-up feeling wid my school!

now this is just a stop gap blog, am not really in a mood to do it, but still...

so cya.
may blog again later.
it's 5.30 pm at thrissur on this hot day...

MEAOOOOOW!!!!!!!!!

i hope you get me... the d-day is on 18th of november, when i and some other 200,000 odd ppl flock to various schools and colleges to sit in front of question papers that come from some of the best b-schools of the world in one of the toughest examinations... and the toughest is even tougher.

i've been writing a journal (not an online one, tho...) for the last six years but ve always been unable to record my thoughts at situations like this... the first chance to fulfill one of my dreams is on this sunday, and right now, a thought struck me: what abt the match??? lemme check out... INDIA WINS THE SERIES!!!!!!!!!!! ho... this is what always happens! not just cricket. there ll be some other stuff to distract me from the actual seriousness of the day!

so left cat??? nopes!

(let me sign off n decide which product category had the greatest percentage increase of profit in the period 1999- 2003!) ;)

so goodnight!!!

watching Bhool Bhulaiya in Kerala

way back in 1993, a movie took malayalam movie industry and viewers by storm. a movie that redefined the theme of HORROR in Indian movies. when a couple decided to live in an ancient haunted house, everyone foresaw trouble. there might be spirits... ghosts... death sneaking at every corner... and what actually was happening???

superstar Mohanlal and gifted actress Shobhana acted as if competing with each other, and everyone else (except perhaps suresh gopi, who was not made for that role...) did their very best, to provide one of the best movies ever produced in malayalam.

over the last 14 years, it has been remade in every south Indian language and finally, this year, was remade in Hindi as a bollywood flick by Priyadarshan... and this humble movie-goer went to see that the day after release at New Theatre, Trivandrum. in there, i felt sorry for those who were being exposed to the plot for the first time, for, the director had done almost a scene by scene translation work and all of us mallus who were in the theatre had seen the original at least an UMPTEEN number of times and knew the sequence and the dialogs almost by heart. it was a comedy atmosphere, and the horror was not at all reflected. and i can't say the climax was well-taken either. but 'll have to say vidya balan has done well, and has emulated shobhana decently. now, don't, plz release statements sayin tht none of the actors had seen the original version- that wud b absurd.

so...
TAFN.
ll blog more later!!!!

september's ending....

September was once my favourite month. Not 'once' as you mean when you say, "Dinosaurs 'once' roamed the earth" or even, "Once, Dollar was over a 45 rupees!" In fact, I liked it till last month, before the university decided that the exams would start the next day of my birthday, and I had to leave home the day before my big day...

Well, that's a thing of the past. Got over it yesterday. Calicut University is as usual, making it hellish for students, and we are onto them, coz we also have learnt to take it in its stride. that ws already written once abt, so no more talk abt that.

so i'll write abt the silly exam that i wrote today. abt economics n principles of management. and one question was, what are the reasons for performance of the Public Sector? performance? Public sector? cud b corruption, mismanagement, red tapism... er no! tht was a question from the university. so the answer has to be, 'five year plans, experienced management, resources, good planning...' eh???? n hw to improve the situation? (don't use ur idea... wrt wat's written in books that were last updated before liberalisation, when India was not importing any food grain, fish and other stuff that it cud produce and when middle class was exotic!) so jus skipped the question and answered the optional question: role of agriculture in Indian economy and its contribution to the economy. just changed a few values of %s that i remembered from the text and wrote.

and the one about foreign exchange. what determines the rate? if export is greater than import, value of currency increases. does India then export more to the US than what they import FROM the US? else why does the dollar price decline???? don't ask such questions, they are out-of-syllabus, n learn wat's written in the text. is it becoz v r engineerin students tht we r supposed to study economics like this, or is it the same way for everyone? GOD HELP US ALL!!!!

so u c, it's not silly because of the subject... of course, i'll be the last man on earth to say that economics is a silly subject.... management studies is also not... it's just the objective for which university put exams for these...

oops!! got to learn a 100 status words by heart for my microprocessor exam on monday!!! (don't think i'm goin to start studyin rt now... that'll be later this evening... now gonna chumma take a cat-nap...)

TAFN

monsoon!!!!

They said, it'll start a week early this year. 24th, to be precise. i was not here, but i knew from my parents who were here that it rained on 24th in kerala, where monsoon starts. then, it was all very hot and sunny. Days after the prediction, they said that monsoon will get delayed by another week. it rained with a vengeance the next day....

Monsoon in kerala is something which everyone should experience. i dunno how it ll b for the visitors n tourists who roam around only in cars and other private transport. but for rest of us in kerala during monsoon, it is an exciting time. water splashing on the ground, with a threat of drenching us who are out on the road. ppl walking around without being sure of where the manhole is n when they are going to fall in. vehicles negotiating the depths of the puddles on the road, whining as if their axles were about to break. at times, umbrellas turn useless. and we often regret getting out on the road, only after reaching back in the safety of roofs over our heads and walls with closed windows around us.

For those for whom rain is an annual phenomenon, a shift to kerala is necessary to prove to themselves that rain could very much be a part of their lives. switch on any malayalam channel, and you can see colourful advertisements of a zillion different umbrella companies selling their zi-zillion different varieties of umbrellas. we have, other than the traditional no fold umbrellas with a curved handles back in fashion, and the comfy 2 and three fold umbrellas all released under fancy names, umbrellas which are hi-tech, atleast in their names. they have their names- atom, laser, etc.

Right now, at 3 p.m., the sky is overcast and forecasts heavy rain and thunder in the evening.so, i've to log off before thunder starts. so far, so many of my dial up modems that i earlier used to have, have been lost to thunder. also, we nearly lost a tv. but then, when it rains, who can complain? rain is what made kerala what it is. green. and lovely.

selling heaters in trivandrum

big bazaar opened without much fanfare in trivandrum last week. i went there along with A on a short visit last week, but couldn't see much of it. so yesterday, i went there with my parents. it's grand, resembling the huge big bazaars that i've seen at bangalore on my numerous visits there to see my chechi n jeejuji (ettan), and had escalators, a thing i hadn't seen b4 in big bazaars... i read somewhere that palakkad big bazaar also has them.

and there was the crowd.... my dad commented on it as a permanent exhibition that has opened in the city... it was fun, seeing all those stuff 'food bazaar', 'fashion bazaar', 'accessories' and all written meticulously in malayalam also...

roaming around, we came to the 'electronics bazaar' and kept there was, ROOM HEATER!!!! how can anyone think of selling one in trivandrum? who is going to buy them? when it's already sweltering hot tht u can't stand even at 33-35 degrees, all round the year, who's going to take pains in buying a room heater so that they can make themselves warm? well, one thing is, it's pretty cheap, somewhere around 1500... so ppl may buy it, those kinds who don't think what they are doing, and buy what they do not want....

market research by big bazaar also needs to come to kerala... not just the big bazaars... or are there people who buy heaters just in case it rains heavily and it goes freezing cold????

Poooooooooram!!!!!!!!!!

Every city's got its own celebration... Rio and many of the carribean cities have their carnivals. Mumbai has its ganesh chathurthi, mysore its dusshera, trivandrum its Onam (my favorite, since i'm a trivandrumite). and whole of Kerala has got - THE POORAM!!!!! the charisma surrounding the term pooram is astounding. that charisma echoes everywhere in kerala. and myself, a student at thrissur for the last two years, didn't want to miss pooram this year at any cost. so, after i reached home two days before the pooram, i started back on the day of the pooram, to thrissur, by train...


while at the hostel, we came to hear that a coupla elephants cudn't stand the humid damp climate and ran away to cooler shores. any way, we were a safe distance removed from them. by the time we reached poorapparambu (pooram ground) on the vadakkumnatha temple ground, there was an ocean of humanity. since it was my first thrissur pooram, i was really excited. elephants from one camp were all set for the colorful kudamattam (a display of colorful umbrellas). at the other camp, nearer to the temple, there were only umbrellas, no elephants....

soon, some more umbrellas came walking, without elephants... they had the shape of gods and godesses of hindu myths, and provided more colour to the already colorful festival...

then the elephants of the second group came, all decorated and dressed for the occasion...

people started shouting and cheering, and we also were drawn into that one common psyche of a single organism called pooram. we were also cheering, shouting, moving rhythmically with the melam.... the entire town of thrissur bcame one soul, with one thought and a lot of joy and fun...

kudamattom over, we had dinner. from indian coffee house, round south. it was stuffy and real humid. we were all bathed in sweat. then, i walked to my uncle's home, to catch a few hours sleep. for me, the next day was going to be as eventful as this, tho not as fun filled.

the aratt and the festive walk around the town by the elephants and the god on its top had begun, accompanied by music, fire and a lot of people. when all the constituent temples of the pooram complete their aratt, there will be the fire works- vedikettu.



so i woke up at 2. in the morning. raju was also with me. we were walking down the MG Road, and we reached near the round when we heard the fireworks start. we rushed down the side alleys to were our other friends were standing, and could see the final big blast from the round. so one side had been done with, this time. the next one started quarter of a km away along the circumference of the round, and would end right in front of us...

we felt the world shake, we felt the eaves hanging above us shivering in the blasts... we felt our ears paining quite joyfully... tat's pooram- thrissur pooram....

now ppl may say tht the fireworks of thrissur pooram will be nowhere near that at nenmara. ppl may say melam at thrissur is not as good as those at some other places. they may say the best elephants come at other pooram. but can anyone explain to me in simple terms, why thrissur pooram is still the best celebrated pooram in kerala????? the only reason could be, the tradition, so many temples that participate and the people....

and strangely enough, vadakkumnatha temple, that is the centre of all these festivities, doesn't have any special festival, ulsavom or pooram of its own!!!

thanx, calicut university

our s5 exams, december 2006 were scheduled to begin on 23rd feb. that unholy theory crap of analog n digital communications! it's one thing for a university to have 12 month long exam season, n it's even great to have university exams rescheduled because of its overlapping date wid University Youth Fest. well, exam shudn't b on the same day as uth fest, i agree, but they shud ve scheduled like that! then, the day before, adc exam got postponed unceremoniously. since v had received news a day in advance, we started slacking.

then, the next exam of mex ( we are eee's) was also postponed. then came two of our exams. in both, the infamous university played their naughty tricks! then, the day before our Power System exams, we came to kno tht that and the next exam has been postponed to a later date!!!! so our exam that was supposed to happen in Dec 2006 and began in Feb 2007, will end only in April, mostly between the heat of World Cup! i hate the 12 month long exam season!!!!!