The Numbers from the Hidden Treasure..

I am right now attempting something similar to what Mark Zuckerburg supposedly did at his hostel room at Harvard University ( as portrayed in the film 'The Social Network'). I am right now Blogging and replying to birthday wishes on FB in two different tabs at the same time by switching tabs often...(Writing codes and blogging simultaneously was astonishing multitasking atrocity... ).I really like people who wish on Birthdays because , I don't. Sometimes I do.. Sometimes I don't. I don't remember birthdays until I open my facebook page through web.. I mostly FB through the phone and the FB app does not display birthdays on the front page and hence I miss wishing a lot of people... Hmmm.. A lot of my school friends..

So much has happened in the past 2 months... The least interesting of them all was I shifted home.. Not necessarily surprising.. It was special though... We 'discover' hidden 'treasures' during shifting , don't we ? Something very very special... Guess what ? I found my Class IX and X Report Card. The pages of class X were missing though.. So here it goes.. My Class IX Report Card and assessment remarks by the loathed Prathima Sharma Miss...  Wow..

Ha ha.. Treasure...  Nostalgic.

Those were the days where I was consistent. Yes. Consistent non performance.. I was getting some amazing scores.. kidding.. Some of the scores were too pathetic as you can see...

Those red underlines are the periodic class tests I failed.... See that 2.5 out of 20...?? Lol...  

This one is my Favorite page...  Wow... I have got a ZERO !! ROFL... 

My Overall Average was less than 40 in Maths and Science during Class IX. 

Very Very Honest comments from my Class Teacher... 

Courtesy my scores , I was promoted to Class X (what an achievement) based on an undertaking.. Warning Promotion ! 

There are a couple of interesting things here. You could have noticed that my father has never signed my report card. It was always my mother. Not that she was considerate (she was equally livid as my father and had more 'vocabulary' than my father) but for my father it was an 'ego' issue. He could not sign for a son who had failed almost all exams.However somewhere in between my Class X , he started signing again.(not that my scores improved dramatically). He was obviously worried about my scores and had approached for a astrologer's consultation who informed him that it was that 'seven and a half' saturn that was spoiling my efforts and I was actually taking efforts.. ha ha..  The truth remains that I simply did not study well.. I just lost interest.. I was in haze..  Unlike others , (who thronged every tuition centre in mylapore for being Class topper) I used to bunk tuition classes and go to play cricket.. I used to attend tests and exams without preparations.. I was such a care free person... But then,  (surprisingly) I always felt in the back of mind , that if I put my backside to one place and study , I could beat them all hands down... ( That confidence completely vanished one day which is a completely different story about which  I have written a lot). Its just that I did not study then... I was not serious enough with my studies....

Even at that age , I could see the funny side of my failure.. Frankly , It meant nothing to me... I just could not fathom girls fighting for half a mark with teachers.. still cant digest.. I never used to check the totals when I receive my paper.. I used to see my favorite question (Favorite question would always be that enrichment question which would be outside the syllabus ), look at what marks the teacher gave for that answer of mine and then would judge the quality of that teacher and stuff my paper in my bag. How arrogant !.

This report card is precisely the reason why my school teachers and classmates look at me with awe now when I meet them and say to them now that I am a Chartered Accountant..... "I always knew u were brilliant.. its just that you were little out of track.." is what my Classmate Sivaram KP said after I cleared. I replied.. " If only you knew the efforts that went with it , you would not call me brilliant..".  (According to me , CA course is an average student's best friend...  CA course does not want your brilliance.. You being brilliant or not is totally irrelevant... It needs only your efforts...).

I want to dwell on the irrelevance of these marks.. What marks you get at school is totally irrelevant after you join college.What marks you get in college is totally irrelevant after you go to a Job..

Having said that , If only I could have concentrated on Maths during my School days , I would now be fast with numbers. I could have cleared my CA exams a little earlier with less efforts.. The love for numbers has vanished in me only because of my indifferent attitude towards studies at school. The only way to be good and fast with numbers is to constantly practice with numbers.. I had not done that for 7 years in school. And suddenly , you give me numbers in life , I am slow.. Not one day goes without repenting on my slowness with numbers.. Not that I did not have the skills but I just did not cultivate it. I just did not practice it when it had to be practiced..

I was one extreme in school... I just wish I could have taken the mid-path.. But If I had, that would have not been me... :)

Its Tortoise Time.. Jump into the Pensieve ..

REWIND.... Several Years back.. The days of Innocent Sundar.(I am still innocent , but that was a time when everyone believed I was innocent ... oops... choo choo..ok....finger on my lips..no more controversies...I promise..)

Right then.. I am pulling my most favorite photograph. The date on the back of this photograph reads 03.03.1998 !



Some Memories..

It was right inside this class that I for the first time in my life felt really bad for being an 'average'. The class was supposed to be taken to IIT.The class teacher had announced the previous day to not to bring lunch the next day since we would be going to IIT.She could have left it at that. She gave too much build up. She said that IIT was full of deers and we could spot them the next day. Everyone in the class got excited. Next day arrived. However just an hour before the 'departure',the teachers made a mess and for some crap reason they said only 15 of them could be accommodated in the bus for the trip. So who were those 15 ?.

The choice of my class teacher were the meritorious ones.The first 15 rank holders. So.. That being the case , I was obviously left out.I was fuming with anger.(It all started way back...).That disappointment was too much to handle at that age.I was in tears. Half of the 'left outs' were in tears.It seemed like nobody cared. A punishment for being an average.

I went to my parents and complained.I urged my father to take up this issue of 'partiality' with the class teacher in the Parent Teachers meeting. He promised me that he will take up the issue in a big manner.So..I got ready for the 'war' and on the day of the Parent Teachers meeting ,I accompanied him.

However,the class teacher had taken the first step. She handed my Report Card even before my father could raise the issue.He just had a glance at my marks and not surprisingly , my father forgot the 'purpose' of his visit.! By the end of the half hour meet , I had had enough and I pulled some courage to speak about the trip to my class teacher. The class teacher consoled me by saying that I will end up studying in IIT ! and this trip meant nothing..lol.. and 5 years hence...I took COMMERCE GROUP..(for the marks I got in my tenth , I could not even get science group.. Where the question of IIT..)...
.
.
.
Moving on..

I think the photo was taken on the day of a games period.Most of the guys played cricket and the caps say it all.Moreover , I look dark and it confirms that it was straight after the games period that this photograph was taken.!

I vaguely remember the 'Jesus play' that we had staged.Vijay Shankar(Top row second from left) played Joseph.Praveen (Middle row fourth from left) played a sheperd and I played his Son.I still remember myself forgetting my lines and saying someone else's lines.

I have contact with 13 people in this photograph. I dont know what the others are doing presently and where they are.2 other persons from this photograph went to Vivekananda College and one of them was my classmate too.

There was a revamp of sections after class 5. Vijay Shankar , Varun(2nd Boy from left seated in the first row)and myself moved from 5B to 6A. So from 6A , I went to 7A and then to 8A.(Varun left the school after class 8.I'll write about varun separately sometime later.)

I went to 9A...The Real fun Began.....

I think I became a kind of 'poriki' in class 9. I have already mentioned in my previous blogs some of my 'looti's . As a continuation , I would like to mention about everyone in the following photograph , so that the memory remains...

So here it comes.. The Class 10 photograph.I am going to mention every incident I remember and about everyone I remember.



Wow.. Where do I begin...????..I'll go row wise.

The Topmost Row..- WE THE BOYS..
Crude but true..Normally 'cold war' arises with girls. Boys would fight with each other and then forget the next day.However , we had factions within boys too. Vijay and KD (bespectacled boy at the centre) never spoke with each other. Arul (The first from right) and Sivaram( fourth from left) never spoke with each other.I dont know the reason.I still think they dont speak with each other.

SO..lets begin with Vijay Shankar..
He was the Hard worker. He always wanted to win. He wanted to come first in class but could not. Not that he did not put effort. He did. But there were girls who would beat him. He was the first among boys though.(I once beat him in class 3. I scored 3rd Rank and he scored 6th Rank.I remember this because it was both the first and last time that I was among the top 3 rank holders! and my father gifted me a BSA Champ for my 'achievement'.) I still remember how upset he was when in a 'Class Test' in TENTH , he had scored 13 on 20 in mathematics.(I was in joy that I managed 8).These class test marks were averaged and then added to the term marks. So one had to score good marks in the class tests also.He told me that he would get centum in mathematics in the next test and make the average go up.Some say. Some do. He Did.. That was how determined he was.He was the only one in this class who went to IIT. He is presently in some European country doing some research. His present job description is as follows."Heterogeneous catalysis using solid acid zeolites for intelligent activation of methane in the Van Bokhoven Group, Institute of Chemistry and Bioengineering, ETHZ"...As you see.. He hasn't changed.However the thing that surprised me was the fact that in class XI he was into a relationship.

Another memory of Vijay Shankar that I have is the 'Help Age India' Quiz that we lost.Myself , Vijay and Vikram(My Senior) were team mates.It was buzzor round and the answer was Abandiranath Tagore (I forgot what the question was). I pressed the buzzor and answered Rabindranath Tagore and I earned negative points for the team. We were very upset. I was the culprit.I think he did not speak to me for a week after that had happened. That's the way he is.During our Class X excursion , we played truth or dare !. And Vijay's had to dance with someone.I forgot who he danced with. Aishwarya had to give flying kisses to Arul Karthik..! It took some bold shouting from Raksha our senior to stop the nonsense that was happening.Even I felt , things were going overboard that day.

Next to Vijay is Bharath and next to him is Arvin.(Note: He is not Arvind. He is Arvin.He was/is an atheist).Bharath was the fun guy. He would be friends with anyone. Arvin's sister was Akila. She was in Class 8 when we were in Tenth. I remember Bharath dancing and singing 'Akila Akila' song to Arvin's sister in the corridor.What fun he had. He went to polytechnic after class 10. Arvin is now in Perth doing some PG.

Next to Arvin is Sivaram. He was the class leader in class 9. He was the obedient monitor who would promptly note down the names and submit it to the class teacher.He had this notebook where he would note down names of people committing 'crimes' inside the class. Suppose say , I had spoken foul words. He would write 'Sundar - Speaking Bad Words'. And if I repeated it , he would put +1 next to it.!Every one in the class had 'Gaandu' on him.

During one meeting , he asked the principal what must be the student's reaction when some teachers use foul words. All the teachers in the hall were stunned.He asked this because Prathima miss(She was a superstar.First from right in the fourth row) would open her mouth and shout 'U all behaving like rickshawallas and panwallahs..& dressed like onyx workers..'.He was offended I guess. I was sitting next to him and as it always happens , they all thought it was me who had spoilt him and made such a nice boy ask such questions. It was made as though that he was my mouth piece. Sivaram is now employed in Pune after doing electronic media from Anna University.

Next to Sivaram is Muralitharan.The thing I remember about Murali is the fact that in class 9 he cursed me that I would never get any facial hair after we had teased him for his lack of 'maturity'.I cursed him back by saying he would never have any pubic hair.!.. Ha... I am sure he has lot of them now.. (oops).. He was a fun guy. He would imitate everyone and pass comments and would be always laughing. He is doing his PG in United States now..(Unbelievable!).

Next to Murali is KD (Kedharnath).As I have said before , he was my first teacher with reference to 'that'. The biggest problem with this guy was the fact that , he would be around us for all the crimes but this dog would study and score well.During Class 9 , in some application form , KD wrote 'Indian' when asked for religion.! A separate blog is required for writing about him.He has been part of that many crimes.He is also a Kamal Fanatic.(probably much more than me).He is presently doing his masters in Aerospace Engineering at University of Cincinnati.!(payapulla bayangarama padikkudu.)Next to Kd is Arun.He did his engineering from Sastra and is presently employed in Wipro.Probably , he was the most 'Conservative' boy I have ever seen.He once slept in history class and started snoring!.

Coming to the Second Row..( Not sure whether I should write this.. )

The first one from left is Lakshmi Manasa. A CA student.!Everybody (except Swathi)had issues with her and I dont think she is in speaking terms with most of them still. Next to her is Swathi.A very good person.She is now a Pal doctor(Dentist).Her best friend was the person left to her. The fifth girl from the left was Aishwarya and she was a Dubai Import.I dont remember much.The 9th girl from left is worth mentioning. Her name is Sowbarnika.I was once asked to sit beside her by my class teacher and I refused by passing some comments about her.That incident was pricking me for 7 years. I felt really bad. I apologized to her for my silly behavior recently and felt better only after that. Next to her is Poornima. The thing I remember about her is she is a huge Hrithik Roshan Fan.She had gone crazy when FIZA released.The Bottom Row , The first one from left is TK Lakshmi.Everyone says she was very helpful to others.(Enakku yaarume help pannala. Infact she was the one who complained about me to class teacher often).The fifth girl in that row is Preethi. In class six , I had slapped her.! Felt bad later but never apologised.

The Teachers.

I am going to mention only about some of them here. One is VJ(V Jeyalakshmi) , the English teacher. The teacher I loathed.(Fourth from left in the middle row). She was TK lakshmi's Chitti also. I dont know why , but I never liked her class.Once , for a letter writing exercise, I wrote 'Signing off' instead of 'Thanking you'. She was scolding me as if I had committed some murder.It was a letter to a friend and not a formal letter. I tried to make this point to her , but she would never listen. She said "You are using 'Signing off' . Do you think you are a MTV VJ ?.". I replied back "I am not a VJ , you are only VJ". I was referring to her name. The class broke into a laughter.She was an example of how a teacher should not be.

The ever great PGS sir.The Sanskrit Sir.His Sanskrit class were fun.We have had lots and lots of fun.Even though I have got plenty of scoldings from him , I never felt bad. He has even slapped me once.!He was very happy that I scored 83 in Sanskrit. He never expected it from me!.

Aruna Miss.The Vice Principal.(Fourth from left in the fourth Row).The person who was responsible for me going to class X.I had failed class 9.My class teacher Prathima wanted me to leave the school and join somewhere else since she thought , It was never possible for me to clear class X.However, the vice principal had faith in me. (Wise principal, I should say). However my parents had to sign an undertaking that I would study well.My target was that I had to pass quarterly exams. I did not. I scored 30 in maths. But still she persisted. I ended up scoring 74 in maths in my board exams.What an achievement!.
The School House captains were selected from class X only. I stood the election for Kapota House. I had given my symbol and started campaigning too. It was then Aruna miss called me and asked me not to stand in the election since I was 'provisionally' promoted to class X. This was the second time I felt really pathetic for being an 'average'.I had to obey her. That disappointment still hurts me.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Well Back to the present. I met some of my old class mates recently.Some of them could not make it. I understand their problems.I myself being in mandaveli met bharath who is in mylapore after 7 years!.Life has changed so much.




We relived events of the past. It was after a long long long long long time that I laughed out heartily.An evening where I forgot worries temporarily and had a date with laughter and nostalgia ...!

Rarely.. Sometimes..In evenings and memories such as these.. Life seems to be Beautiful..!


P.S:- 100 !!!

Awesome Threesome..

"Hey.. adhu engalluku reserved"..

Kumar was referring to himself ,Vinod & Vignesh. They were the last benchers in my class( Plus one & Plus two). They simply would not let anyone else occupy those positions.The 'havoc' they created during school days were truly amazing.

Vinod was the shortest among the three. His favorite teacher was MKG (physics) though he had never attended her class. The fights between MKG & Vinod rite in the middle of the corridor would evoke instant laughter.Like this one..
MKG:- Why are you in colour dress?
Vinod:- What bothers u ?
MKG :- Ippadi pesina , Seeviduven..
Vinod:- Naan kuda thaan seeviduven... He took out a small comb from his pocket and started combing his hair... (You must have seen MKG's Face..)

I still remember his birthday during class XII.Kumar , Myself and Vinod were late to school. The prayer had already began.After the prayer , the PT master Mr JD(His name is Ramdoss.. we changed it as Jollu Das.. & hence JD) was noting down the names of the late comers. As usual I was not wearing my shoes.He saw it and asked me to go home. It was then Vinod took out his packet of chocolates and showed it to him. Sir ... "Ungalluku chocolate vaanga poi thaan sir late ayiduchu..Inthanga sir.. Eduthukonaga sir...".. JD took two... "Sir.. naalu anchy edunga sir... ".. He took out the chocolates and said.."Inimella late a varaadinga da.. Ponga.."
Sir shoes... ?? -- 'parava illa da.. Nalaiku pottutu va.."... We were allowed inside..(We learnt the art of bribing way back)...

Kumar was probably the best movie critic around that time for me personally and for our class as a whole. One had to just ask an opinion about the latest release.. If he says ..Trash it.. We would .. If he says Watch it .. We would... Probably Kumar was even more known for his snide comments.It comes with such terrific timing that would even invoke instant laughter to the person being attacked.When the entire class got promoted to class XII. He gave us a treat... The reason he told was "Enga kudumbathiliye naan daan tha romba padichiruken.."..Now he is doing MBA.

He is also known for the 'bulbs' he receives .Vikram's Saamy had released and Trisha was a sensation. We were discussing about her and someone said she studied at 'Ethiraj' College. Kumar(With Sheer Ignorace)said..."naan kuda antha college thaan padikallamnu irukken".. You can imagine what happened next..

He once explained the meaning of DIMS kattai..(after that Jothika song became famous).. Though I dont remember the exact words he used.. The examples he showed still remains fresh. He would take us to every class in school and show a girl who looked like DIMS kattai..He would put marks to girls and even the school's best could not cross 5 on 10. When quizzed.. He would say.. "The quality is reducing day by day.."

R Vignesh(R) stayed along with his aunt who was also a teacher at our school. He was the most silent among the three or deemed to be so.Vignesh did not opt for maths and took tamil instead. Kumar left maths in middle of class XI (after a chapter called complex numbers) and took Tamil.So he accompanied 'R' to the tamil class.

The tamil class had about 10 students consisting of 3 girls from biology group. The three girls were Aruna,Aparna and Nithya.. Aruna and Aparna were identical twins.One cannot differentiate between them.Probably the most terrific achievement of 'Kumar' in tamil class was finding out who was 'Aparna' and who was 'Aruna'. The pervert in him had noticed some physical 'attributes' of them for easy identification.Many boys who had crushes on those two girls came to Kumar for help for identifying who's who?. He however did not share the secret with all.

'R' however was not bothered about the twins. His focus remained with the person who always accompanied the twins.Yes.... He had a serious crush on Nithya..He would write poems (which were unbearable)all day in his notebook. He would follow her incognito to all the places she went.One and a half years he had remained silent and he proposed to her sometime during the middle of class XII. She said some bad words to him and rejected him outright.He was dejected. We all went to his home to 'console' him.

After consoling him for nearly two hours, he became sort of OK..He switched on the Radio...The song playing was.. "Pani vizhum malar vanam... Un paarvai oru varam..... ... Inivarum munivarum.. thadumaraarum thanimaram...ey ey..inivarum munivarum... thadumaarum.. ".... We were all listening to it. The song finished.
The Radio Jockey then spoke... " Ippodu neenga ketta paadal idaipetra thiraipadam 'Ninaivellam Nithya'..."..
All of us except 'R' burst out laughing... He broke the Radio..

"Machan.. English teacher engala paarthu edho kettai vaarthaila thitraanga da.. Onnume Puriyala... " - Kumar and Vinod were explaining to me.
"What did she say??" - I asked.
"Edho sonnanga da.. Mustardna kadugu thane.??. Engala Mustardnu sonnanga da.."

I was wondering why would one call them as 'Mustard'.I approached our English teacher and asked her what she had commented on them.She said since they three were roaming together always , she had commented'Three Musketeers'.

That in a way sums up Kumar , Vinod and R.. The Awesome threesome...!!!

Rakhi o Phobia ... !

Its Rakhi season once again !!!(of course.. in more than one way)...

I still remember the good old days in school where we 'boys' would run away from 'girls' for the fear of being tied with 'Rakhi'.I was studying class 3 then.. Now.. Don't get angry..We were early starters..We younger generation have high levels of testosterone I suppose.. ( I began to cut school on Raksha bandhan day from the following year.i.e from class four onwards.. he he...).

It is truly pathetic and heartbreaking when your 'crush' brings the 'thread' and asks you to extend your right hand. You try very hard to wriggle out of that situation. The entire class would watch the proceedings. So if you go away, you will be deemed to be her 'boy' and getting on with a conversation later with your 'crush' becomes a herculean task(since you need to give the reason for not extending your hand and the rumour mill starts ).

And if you do extend your hand , you are heartbroken. The rumours surrounding your relationship with your 'crush' dies down dramatically and it hurts. (since you dont want someone else to occupy that position , for its yours and its booked. For the rumours help you to be booked.)

Another thing that adds to the 'thrill' of Raksha Bandhan day is that it almost often comes within one week of 'Friendship Day'. During school days , people would tie friendship bands to each other. So what??You would be elated one day , that 'she' has accepted to be your friend and one week later you would be 'heart burned'.This is a 'substantive and conclusive' evidence by which 'who's for whom??' gets decided. Four situations normally arise.

a)If your 'she' ties the friendship band and subsequently a week later ties the 'Rakhi' , the 'society' will pass a 'resolution' that you are not her 'man'. You are thoroughly disappointed.

b)If your 'she' ties the friendship band and later does not tie the 'Rakhi'.. Hooray... you are her 'man'.. , the 'society' will 'book' you for 'her' and you are happy..

c)If your 'she' does not tie the friendship band but lovingly ties the 'Rakhi'.. .That is the end of the world for you.. (unless you are David Copperfield)

d)If your 'she' neither ties the friendship 'band' nor ties the 'Rakhi'.. Hmmm.. may be you are not in 'focus' at all.. but it still gives you a glimmer of hope..

All the permutation and combination come into play. The result of Who's Who is always decided in the first week of august and it will remain to be so for the entire year ( unless of course something substantial happens in between).. This is highly crucial because , people would be always on 'R.A.C' waiting for a split between the 'pair'.Most Importantly , There would be a common 'Code of Conduct' imposed.

a)One is not supposed to 'talk' often with a 'Booked' 'Crush'.
b You are supposed to be in only one R.A.C category. Multiple 'bookings' are not accepted.
c)If you are 'confirmed' , you are supposed to be Loyal and not change 'tracks'.
d)If you are voluntarily retiring from your 'She', you must make it 'public' and wait for 2 months before you 'Book' again.
Etc.. Etc..

If you are not complying with the common Code of Conduct, there would be severe consequences such as :-
A) Free Complaint to Class Teacher.
B) Anonymous letters to your 'She'.
C) Your 'She' being transferred to the next person in R.A.C. by the 'society'
Etc.. Etc..

The Drama is high and is truly Enjoyable..If you were not part of Co-Education , You have missed something in life..

--- By a 'Rakhi' Affected Boy..[My 'She' tied Rakhi to me in school ':(']

P.S.
Well.. Since the blog is about 'Rakhi' , I mite as well say about 'Rakhi sawant' and that idiot Elesh.(Well... How can one choose Rakhi Sawant...?.Pathetic.. YUCK..!!). Hello Mr Elesh , Ask Ms Rakhi Sawant to tie 'Rakhi' to you on 5th of August. You will live happily..!!

Teachers,Professors,Staff and Myself(Part II)

Continued from....
Teachers,Professors,Staff and Myself(Part I)...

The Thrill and Fun

Out of School.However Back to School.(Sorry.. I cannot term Vivekananda College as a 'college').Life after schooling is fun. No uniforms.No Homework.No need to go at 9 am.(My coll timings were from 4pm to 8pm).No need to wear shoes.No need to polish them.No need to wear socks(I hate socks!)and most importantly no need to Tuck in.
Perhaps , the happiest part of being at a college is the fun of bunking it and going to movies.The joy of bunking classes and subsequently altering the attendance gives us tremendous thrill and happiness.

Any college student would also tell you the most happiest moment in a class is derived by giving /receiving 'proxy' attendances.Mass Bunking is special.The way the idea creeps in and the spread of the virus is amazing. 'Dae bore adikkudu da... Variya beachku pogalam'..'illa da , attendance kammi..'...'Paravailla vada...polam...avanuku kooda thaan attendance illa...avan varaan illa...unakku enna.. romba scene podama vaa..'The poison is slowly inserted into every one in the class. Then eventually everyone is convinced and the last two hours ( 6 to 8) is spent at the Beach. Mass bunks are dangerous too.. As we found out...

I was Rusticated ... Well Almost...

August 25th 2006

I still remember that day.. It was a wet day..
I was angry (you may wonder when I have been normal) that I could not get the first day first show ticket to my Aandavar Movie.. Vettaiyadu Vilayaadu

Eventually we got tickets at Abhirami for the day's second show.(i.e Matinee). Since the original noon show which was to begin at 11 am that day got postponed by 1 hr,the matinee show began by 3 pm only. We had mass bunked not entirely though. Our row was absent.

I still remember the scene. "Raghvan.. Naan mattum dhaan unna kaapatha mudiyum.. Inba vaa... Namba pogalam.. " My cell vibrated. I ignored. It Vibrated again. Someone was making continuous calls.(Kamal had jumped of the window by then).. I saw a message. It read. "Macha... You all suspended..HOD has asked you all to come and meet him in the evening" .It did not jolt me too much ,for I thought it would be a prank.(Jo was beside Kamal at the hospital)...

The movie got over. We went to US( the tea shop at the other side of Round Tana). It was true. We were suspended for a week by our HOD for mass bunking and going to movie.We met him and gave an apology letter which he did not consider at all.He picked up the attendance and drew out a horizontal line against each of our names for the entire week.

We came out depressed. So what did we do the next five days?? We would start from home by 4 pm and go to park , beach , movie ( we watched VV once again @ sathyam).. Passing that week was very tough.. 5 hrs suddenly in the evening seemed to be 5 yrs... It was fun nevertheless...

During the second year , There was more fun.. Why??
We were the instigating force behind a historic moment in our college life.. THE STRIKE...

to be continued... (Coz my eyes are drooping beyond control)

The Black Gilderoy Lockheart who is not quite charming

Mr.K.Nithyanandam M.Com ( GOLD medalist ), M.Phil,. .. an all-rounder in all subjects .. Motivating force of Vivekananda College, who has a pucca network information system. Even if you breathe he'll GET INFORMATION !! His standard dialogues " nee sound kudutha ennakku news vandhdum " and " enna nee NON-SENSE aatum pesikite irruka ".. One cannot figure him out and no one will be able to identify him if he is near the black board. Guys ...NITHU ROCKS...

Nithyanandam handled accounts and banking papers in my Bcom II and III respectively.Nithu brings back happy memories not because he was a great teacher but he provided us with ultimate comic relief. His punch dialogues were simply the best and often is the hot news in the campus and that's the precise reason for this post. I want to share with you all the genius of Nithu...

Here we go.. Pick your favorite..

--> "If I tell your name to HOD , I'll get a Good name , you will get a Bad name."

--> "Edo nee enna emathara nu nenaikkaada, i`ll get information within 48hrs"

--> "Dei If u go to bar .. they will bar you... "

--> "solve the problem.. Dont be the problem"

--> "i will give u one chance and that is the only chance"

--> "rectify don't justify"

--> "I have brought a brand new second hand phone"

--> "fear don't interfere"

--> "if u r talking wen im talking, u wil be walking.."

--> "Answer the question, dont question the answer"

--> "be an athlete and not obsolete"

--> "Shoot Panna Basket ball... Shot adicha cricket Ball..that is the difference"

--> "if you dont know, dont say dont know "

--> definition of "VIVA" exam?
Student:-Sir VIVA exam naa enna??
Nitthu: Adavathu vaa...vanthu THESIS BINDING a Vai....ithu vanthu VAAVAI....athu vanthu VIVA...... (ever heard such a definition for viva exam??)

and My favorite...

-->

Ganapathy ( my classmate) to Nithu:-'Sir, Neenga Brian lara Maadhiri irukeenga sir...'

Nithu Replies (shaking his head in disagreement) :- 'Naan Lara maadhiri illa ,Lara thaan enna maadiri irukkan.. (and followed by his wry smile..)'

The real fun always starts after he utters his punch dialogues. The expression he gives thinking that he has said something extraordinary.He is master of english, the wizard of words,always has his magical touch...Nithu is special.(He even asked Shravan once to be a spy and give report)...

Nithu a.k.a annachi a.k.a idiamin a.k.a Dwyane Bravo a.k.a all in all azhagu raja a.k.a 'The Black Gilderoy Lockheart who is not quite charming' will always remain in our memory forever..

The SPARK UNPLUGGED !

There are some moments in life you love being a sadist , more so if you become the architect (in this case unintentional)of the sufferings of the party affected. Certainly I do not regret being part of one such 'mischief' , the result of which blew up to immense proportions that I could not have imagined in my wildest of dreams.It happened during my class 12.

There were two factions within the science group( of course without any ideology). On one side was the 'White pig'(hereinafter referred as WP), 'Bombay brought up'(hereinafter referred to as BBP) and Najafgarh boy(hereinafter referred to as NB). The other side had 'Bad No Marks Jokee' (herinafter referred to as BNMJ)' , 'peter drucker(hereinafter referred to as PD)' , 'Deep Mud( herinafter referred to as DM)' Etc etc..

It had been common knowledge that 'WP' and 'BBU' had an affair which came to light by their 'Joint Account' at the 'Bhai shop'. Bhai sold items on debt to students. So if you buy cool drinks with 'Bhai' on debt , he would promptly note it down in his diary against your name column. He would tolerate upto 2 weeks of non payment or Rs 100 whichever was earlier.

We easily knew who had crush on whom by simply checking out which boy cleared the debt for which girl and vice versa. However 'WP' and 'BBU' went a step ahead and created a joint account.Oh what innovation!. Both of them could buy stuff from a single account and both of them could settle the debt to that 'account'.An open proclamation of their relationship indeed.

I guess 'BNMS' had a crush on 'BBU' which caused a rift between 'WP' and 'BNMS' who earlier where close friends.It in the end proved out to be the EP( remember oram po)friendship. I am not exactly sure of the root cause of the problem between those two camps but 'we' made sure that they did not patch up their differences in the future.How sadistic !.

The 'commerce' group is generally given a step motherly treatment in schools.In our case to add to the 'step moms' , we had irritants in the form of students of 'science' group and especially the Computer science group. They did what exactly Manthara did to Kaikeyi. We had been patient enough.It had to burst.

It happened on a fateful afternoon outside the school campus in the parking lot.We managed to sneak out after a test at school. I still remember a 'gang' of six standing around a motorbike and discussing plans to do something mischievous. It was Myself, Rama , Shravan , R , Vinoth and Kumar having round 'bike' conference. The 'board' passed a resolution of removing the 'spark plug' from 'WP''s vehicle. It was Rama who had to remove the spark plug and R had to Watch out . Others had a tough job of keeping quiet.

Rama did it without any fuss.We dispersed.

.
.
.

'WP' came out of school around 3 PM. She tried starting her TVS Champ for twenty minutes before deciding to drag it to the mechanic shop situated 2 Kms away . I suppose the mechanic told her that it was a clear case of 'sabotage'(for she had no brains).

It all started there. 'WP' thought it was done by the other 'camp'. The other camp were annoyed. Each camp arranged for a 'Goonda' group. There were enormous amount of money spent.If any individual of any camp was caught alone , he or she would be hurt to such an extent that they would not be able write the Board Exams. Each day there would be atleast 3 persons who would do an 'Erik Solheim' and be unsuccessful.

The tension within those two camps was entertaining to the core.The joy of watching them clashing with each other gave us immense pleasure. 'DM' was severely injured in one of the 'battles' and police had come to school and started investigating. The clashes died down a bit during exams and I heard from someone that the Fight is still on!.

Maybe this is what they call as the 'butterfly effect'. A simple act of removing the spark plug caused a huge chaos. All these years , our act has remained a secret. None except the six of us know about it. Here I am posting about it hoping that the two camps never read it.

My Cultural Past

Those were the happiest days of my life. My College days and more particularly the Cultural days.

I entered Vivekananda College without any expectations of cultural events. 'Modern School' (where I did my Senior Secondary) ironical to its name had no cultural events. It had been total opposite to the school I studied ( sorry.. Went) till class X.

Other colleges conducted culturals regularly and we received invitations.The seniors in the college selected the teams. There were no Intra College events. Some juniors did get the nod but there were no proper mechanism to select teams that would represent the college. The first year went by.

Due to my poor marks in the plus 2 board exams , I had to take B.Com Corporate Secretaryship as I did not get the B.Com General Seat. I had often heard that the BCS department in a college received step motherly treatment. It had been no different. whatever I heard was true.However there was a surprise in the second year.

In the second year , entered Mr P.C.(HOD - BCS). He brought about a real change.He organized a BCS committee. The Structure of the committee was fantastic. It consisted of a Department Secretary and various other committees headed and managed by the students themselves. I was part of the editorial committee. We were in charge of bringing out a magazine. It never happened (thanks to our swamiji - Rector of out college.)There was this organizing committee that was to organize intra department cultural events every week and it was decided that the winners were to represent the college at other cultural events.The best thing about this committee was the fact that there was a lot of interaction between the seniors and the juniors.

This was a huge success.I got my chance to represent the college at other cultural events. I still remember my first cultural appearance at Ethiraj College. It was one of their department fest. I participated in 'Crossword' and 'Debug' with Roshit and won the First and Second places respectively. I then participated at creative writing and again won the second prize. To win at my first cultural appearance gave me tremendous confidence. We came overall second at that fest with Stella Maris winning the overall trophy.

3 months later , there came another cultural event at Ethiraj. This was much bigger to the previous one. I will never forget this culturals because we won an event that we were considered to be the poorest.This was Adzap. I can never forget the cheers and applause for our rebuttal session with the judge that day.There entered Kaushik Ganesh, my junior ( who sadly discontinued college after clearing CPT)whose performance that day I can never forget.. This was the culturals which was special to me as it was where won a 'Case-Study' event with a special appreciation from the judge.

A poor season followed. I wasn't winning. The comeback of sorts happened at Madras Christian College. I came second in Stock wars. That was it. My only win for the whole semester. However our college team had become a force to reckon with for the other teams that year. We were increasingly making our presence felt. We came Second in "Deep Woods'(MCC's annual Culturals) that year losing to ethiraj by a small margin. Skit,Street play,ad designing,quiz, you name it we were there.

In the third year , I became the cultural secretary for the department.
I was to decide the teams that would represent the college.I was trying to please everyone with my choice of teams and I think I succeeded.My strategy was very simple. I would send juniors to 'Attu' college culturals such as 'MGR Janaki', 'WCC' etc and retained 'Stella Maris', 'MOP' for the seniors. Thankfully the juniors were not complaining.

On a personal front , the third year was my best. I won every competition I entered.
One of the best came at MOP Vaishnav.It was the event called 'Event Management' named as 'preba gestion'.We had to submit a plan for a Mega Indian cultural event happening outside India. We put our sincere efforts in it and created a PPT and presented it to the judges who were spellbound by it. The other teams were no match to it. We won it. It was my first win as the cultural secretary. The Judges that day were professional event managers. They gave their visiting cards to us and if interested asked us to join them in any of their projects. It was a professional performance from us.

Vismith and myself started winning consistently from then on. We won almost all paper presentation events.My juniors Karthik(JAM) and Srivatsan Hari (For any event) also started winning consistently. Nash and Mahendra were terrific actors. We used 'Amullu' to add 'glamour'.They became the mainstay for onstage events.I was part of the Adzap team not because of my 'acting' ability but for my 'Mokkais' and most importantly for the Rebuttal sessions. We were winning everything.(Coming Second among 26 participants at ethiraj in Adzap is worth mentioning). Arvind, Sunder(there were three Sundar's in my class),Kumaran and Surya won almost all art events.

We were winning alright. However the overall trophy was still eluding us though not for long.

Loyala college culturals clashed with Stella Maris's Culturals during over third year. As we had 'seen' lots of Stella Maris and bored to death, I preferred participating at Loyola. This proved to be a great strategic move. Most good teams opted for Stella for obvious reasons and gave Loyola a miss. We (being intelligent)went to Loyola.

The first day was Loyola's morning college culturals. It was a dream day for us. We won every event that we participated. It was one of 'those' days. The quiz that day was simply amazing. It was simply the best quiz contest that I had attended for a long long time (in terms of quality of questions asked ). Myself , Aravind and Vismith came first in the prelims. I almost knew all the answers that day. The Finals was thrilling to the core. We were getting it right almost.The quiz was won by Stella Girls(who gave their own culturals a miss). We came second in the thrilling last round.( thanks to Vismith's guess.. lol.. he never knew it , the answer just came out of his mouth.)

The day was even more special to me as I won one more event . The event was 'Loan sanctioning'.The timings for the quiz prelims and this event clashed. I was itching to go to quiz prelims and I volunteered myself to be the first person who would approach the 'Banker' and approach for loan. Shravan was also participating in that event. I spoke first and then ran off for quiz prelims. The results were announced in the Main Hall and I was surprised that I came first because my speech was pathetic . Even more surprised was Shravan. Honestly , that was an event I should not have won . However as luck would have it I won it.

But we did not win the overalls that day. That hurt.

The best part came the next day. It was the evening college culturals of Loyala. There were three events and then a final event . It was progressive , If we won the first event , we would move to the next event and so on. Each college team consisted of Six persons. Our team was Myself,Roshit,Vismith,Mahendra, Aravind and Shravan.

The first event was academically related. So wisely I sent Shravan and Mahendra.They won it. We progressed. The Second event was aptitude test. We sent Roshit and Vismith.They won it . We again progressed. The third event was Quiz which myself and Aravind breezed through comfortably .( unlike the previous day , the questions were dumb). The Icing on the cake was the fact that we beat the Stella team that beat us the previous day. The final event was some talking event.Vismith blabbered something and came second in that event. Three first prizes and one second prize meant we won the overalls and also a hefty cash prize and a nice trophy.We had finally won an overalls trophy beating the filthy brats from Stella.Those two days at Loyola college are unforgettable days.

Perhaps my only disappointment of being the 'Cultural Secretary' was my inability to conduct a cultural event at Viveka. It was in the final semester that I cleared PE-2 and joined articleship. I was not able to devote time and do justice to my position. I could not carry both simultaneously.No one else from my department took it seriously. It just could not happen.

I heard that the culturals were conducted this year by my juniors. I am happy that they are reaping the fruits for the seed that our team sowed.

P.S.

--> You may think after reading this post that I have been blowing trumpets about my achievements.In a way I also feel it is true.

I would like to offer my explanations.

--> I will be the last one to proclaim myself to be the greatest.
--> At most culturals I have been lucky.
--> My list of participating certificates are greater than the prize winning ones. I have lost lots and lots of events.
--> My comfort zone is being modest.I must admit I have been outside my comfort zone while posting this particular blog.

Still I blogged about it because:-

1.Those were the moments in my life I was very happy and was enjoying every bit of it.
2.Such moments have been rare.
3.I want to treasure them somewhere where I can look back and feel happy about.
5.The greatest happiness comes by Nostalgia.Its like those master card ads. PRICELESS !

P.S for P.S ->>The intentional omitting of point 4 may please be ignored.

Ultimate Amullu !

It was the first day at college...

We were all bored to death in the first hour. In the break , the guys got introduced to one another. And there among the crowd was a 'Amul Baby' kind of a boy. He was Stout , had a round tummy , wore Blue full hand Shirt , neatly ironed pants , perfectly polished shoes ( pacca formals ), wore spectacles and was considerably short. He was introducing himself to everyone.

He came up to me.

Amullu:- Hi I am Sai Prassana Srinivasan.
Me : - Hi .. I am Sundar
Amullu :- Hi I am Sai Prassana Srinivasan.You can call me Sai. My hobbies
watching cricket , reading books.etc.. Overall I am a 'Playboy'. I love
Playing games.( Subsequently I found out , he had been repeating the
same lines to everyone in the class !)

I was completely taken aback by shock.

That is Sai a.k.a Amullu for you . He Blabbers quite a lot . Still worse is the fact he is intolerable when he tries to rectify the original 'olarals'. True , he has given us most of the funniest moments of college life.

Time went by ..

We soon found out that he was not a 'thayir saadam'.He was an expert in 'xxx' matters.He would give 'complete' answer to any queries raised on any 'such' topic. He considered himself a notch above Mathrubootham.

His ever 'dynamic' crush list had some big names .It would be Salma Hayek one day and Katrina Kaif another day. He would shiver at hearing the word 'Nayanthara'. He would say.. " Machan .. ava pera sollada da... enakku ennamo pannudhu".

Foul words would flow from his mouth at a rapid pace. No one stood near him when he was in 'form'. He would even bring your 'great grandmother' to that very place and question her integrity.Such was the Venom in his mouth.

Amullu's family is very orthodox and they follow strict food habits.
Sai's grandma would say 'Dont eat at college Canteen , the items would contain garlic'.

But the following would be his menu whenever we frequent a hotel

STARTER

1.Tomato Soup

MAIN DISH

1.Masala kulcha
2.Kashmiri naan
3.Tandoori Chicken.
3.Butter roti
4.Malai kofta
5.Paneer butter masala

END
1.Ice cream - Chocolate flavour ( the reason being it Increases Potency!)
2.Masala Milk(optional)
3.Chocalate milkshake(depending upon his mood)

Coming back to his 'olaryfying'. He was an expert at that.

Some of them during our Kodai Trip were..

a)"Ellarum Veetla Sollitu vantingala" (When train was about to start to Kodai . We were all starting the trip).

b) "amsterdam" predicted tat world will end in 2020...
sorry da.. tats not amsterdam , amsterdam is a city in australia...( We later found out that he actually meant Nostradamus.!!)

c)We got down at Kodai Road . He comes and tells .." Machan I think , we have come to the wrong place. We need to get down at Kodaikannal road and not kodai road.

d)We reach Kodaikanal. He calls up his mom and Says.. " Amma , I have safely reached ooty". His mother got worried and called to us to confirm that we are at Kodai .

The best of 'amullu' came later.

We all assembled at Nash's Place to practice for ' Business Behaviour ' competiton
for the culturals at Ethiraj college the next day . Every one had turned up except Mahendra. The Skit's script was already prepared and the Main Role was for Mahendra.
We could not start without him. We called him up. He was not available. His sister had picked up the phone and said that he has gone out.(But in the background , we could hear Mahendra instructing his sister to say so). Mahendra finally spoke and said he would be early the next day and we could manage with one practice before stage. We had not practiced before . We were angry.We wanted to win at Ethiraj .

Even ' Amullu ' was angry.Then Amullu Said " Machan ... Naalaiku Mahendra varatum da..avana Naalu vaarthe narukkunu kekaren.".

Mahendra came the next day.None of us spoke. We pushed 'Amullu' in front. We were motivating him to start his 'Foul words Spree'. He had promised yesterday .We wanted to know whether Mahendra had really gone outside yesterday.

Then 'Amullu' with a angry face went near Mahendra and Spoke " Machan.. Nethiku nee Veetla illaya.. ?, velilla poi irundhiya...?". All of us were silent.

Then Mahendra Slowly Spoke ... " Machan ... Rendume ore meaning thana da."


All of us burst out laughing. We did not practice. We lost miserably.



See the above Video.No Prizes for guessing who 'Amullu' is . Clue:- He is the one who comes at the Beginning (trying a sommersault) and at the end( He literally rolls on to the road.)!! Have a great time watching it.

kiss the clouds......

We kissed the clouds literally... 'WE' refers to 15 of my class guys (including me)who went to kodaikanal amidst disapprovals from various corners . Everyone else said " right place but wrong time".However we were adamant and we proceeded with our journey...

The whole trip was enjoyable.. however somethings stood out during this trip that made it unique ....

--> Each and everything about this trip was planned 2 months in advance & tickets booked a month before...( quite surprising .... is it not?)

--> who can forget SAI during this trip...? His trademark blabberings...!!(the surprise element is the fact tat it was intolerable)

--> Venkat fell during the trip from a waterfall & got stitches from van allen hospital..( most unexpected)



--> we all slept well...( ya we did...!!)

--> we played catch & catch...( how silly..!!)

--> we trespassed a lot...(tat too especially actor banumathy's cottage)

--> we never knew the address of our cottage...(lol... seriously it was always opposite banumathy cottage)!!

--> we ate at a pathetic hotel called sornam ...

--> we also ate at an amazing hotel called hilltop...(both hotels extreme)


--> we were being constantly chased by dogs...(it never understood tat we were 'nice' strangers

--> we all GOT UP EARLY IN THE MORNING...( how surprising..)

--> I never knew that my mates would snore like hell... ( very irritating..)

--> There were no fights...( touchwood)..

--> we managed the finances well...( we r commerce guys...we ought to)

--> we managed to bring a puppy to our cottage...(PETA look upon us..)


--> we got appreciation for our behavior by the cottage owner..( astonishing.!!!)

--> 12 guys boozed..... I mean 3 did not booz & tats surprising...

--> sasi got homesick...( pathetic to see him crying on the phone .. felt sry for him ..)

--> on reaching madurai... WE went to 'temple' of all places there.... ( the most astonishing thing...!!!)



so.. we are not normal college students... we are beyond that...( adayum thaaandi)
(gunaa 'caves' effect)

Oh..Watte fun..!!

"Vivekananda college" , people say is one of the strict colleges in chennai...But we the 'BCS gang' always find a way to 'escape'...

I'll try to explain that better...
hmm... ya..maybe...I'll put it this way... We the 'BCS gang' are probably the 'FRED & GEORGE' of vivekananda college controlled by 'Umbridge'.... !!! ( a pity good explanation i think...??) ..

There's lot of hangout's around our college .. the Beach... INOX..,Satyam..,Park...etc etc... How could u resist the temptations of these hang-outs while sitting in coll... So this video put by 'Butty' shows the places that we have frequented during the last 2 years.. this video explains the 'fun' we have had... Iam sad that my coll life will be over after this year....

Enjoy the Video...or may I say the slideshow... Most photos were taken impromptu to capture the emotions accurately...



P.s .In case you are wondering why I am not part of most of the photographs..., the answer is in the 'credits' that comes up at the end....I am 'THE OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPHER' .or that's how the boys call me...lolz...

Back To some Joy!

It was 2 pm on october 22nd. I was having a siesta when i recieved a reminder call .
The Alumni meet of 2k5 batch pass outs was to happen that day.

I was excited in meeting all my school friends whom i had not seen for almost 2 years. Since the meeting was to take place at 4pm , I had to catch the bus by atleast 3 pm to be on time.

The meeting was to take place at 'Mount Heera' hotel. I reached there in time and was surprised to see an A/c hall for the meeting.One by one arrived and soon the hall was buzzing with noise.

The actual meeting commenced with the formal registration of members into the 'Alumni' association.Then some of them spoke on the activities planned by the Alumni association. There were poems being rendered. Then everyone sat in a circle and the interaction formally began.The informal interactions were more than the formal interaction that took place. The function ended with an 'high tea'.

Nothing substantial took place but still the joy of meeting the old friends is something special.

A Small Flashback !!!

I was sitting in my class in college....

The bell just rang and it was now the fourth and the final hour.All the previous hours were free and this hour was again was no exception.The professor took the attendance and went...It was boring......

Suddenly i had a sense of dejavu. It had been like this all through my high school days..... I had some reminisces.

The first period in the morning would be English followed by a spree of free periods coz either my commerce teacher would have some important work or our economics teacher would be lazy to climb up the stairs to come to our class.Since all the hours would be free , I would finish of my lunch by the third period maximum.Never in the history of my school life have i eaten my lunch inthe lunch breaks.!

I noticed that there was a change.I ofcourse is a backbencher in my college but I used to be the first bencher in my school not because i was studious.There would be a platform in front of me in the classroom from where the teacher would take class.She used to stand just in front of me and hold the book in her hands
and i would comfortably doze off right under her nose without she noticing in the first bench..!!

I used to love lunch breaks.It was tremendous fun .We guys would put a small bench outside the class into the narrow corridor.We used to sit on it and pass comments about every girl passerby.It would be merry.!

During free periods we used to talk,play,sing,have book revolving contests,pass comments,roam around corridors. The major time pass would be listening to cricket scores in the radio and I used to be amazed by the unity in which boys and girls would coopearate to this.All the crimes were committed together and all the punishments were recieved together.!

The science students would feel jealous.However these free periods became a bore in the due course of time..........

Suddenly the bell rang once more... The last hour went very fast. It was time to go home..As i packed my bag and stood up, I could not stop but notice a tear roll down my cheek....!
I wiped it.