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I have registered a domain www.raasukutty.com. So I am moving this blog to the new domain. Everything remains the same excepting the design and the URL.
Continue visiting and reading.
Thank you all!
I was in my hometown, Neyveli for the Deepavali vacation some two weeks back. Sitting in the garden, in the silence of the morning, I could see a lot of birds looking out for food, chirping and making the scene alive. Four squirrels were fighting over the left overs. It was nice watching them. I felt light then, a joy that can’t be described. Feeling of oneness with nature.
There are some things that money can’t buy. One among them is this. Living in the city, I had long forgotton the charms that nature provides. A part and parcel of city life is pollution, noise and commotion. Here the most important entity becomes, money, work and speed where people themselves get forgotten. Must be the curse of city life everywhere.
This is a follow-up to the previous post on Diwali. I enjoyed it well. Lots of crackers and fireworks to play with, lots of new dresses so that I could change every one hour, lots of TV programs to watch, lots of friends to greet and share the joy of the occasion.
But, I missed out one major thing that completes the festivity. The snacks. My mom had prepared Vadai, Suliyan, Somasa, Murukku, Mixture, Ola pakoda. She had ordered for other sweets like Jilebi (Jangiri), Baadhusha etc., The day I left to my hometown, I ate at a road side shop, that left me with food poisoning of the worst degree. I could just watch everyone eating. I was on just Idli’s and Rasam.
Waiting for it to get over soon, so that I can feast.
Happy Deepavali!
I am leaving to my hometown to celebrate Deepavali with my family and friends. Happy Deepavali to all netizens.
Diwali Lights
Let Light destroy all the darkness out of your lives.
Yesterday, I was in those slog moments (when you feel to do nothing).
I just swithced on my PC to hear some songs. Keeping the volume full on my 5.1 speaker set, (not bothering the neighbours of course), I was just lying there on the bed hearing.
The song was ”Malarodu Malar ingu magilnthadum pothu”‘ from the film, Bombay by A.R.Rahman. Simply superb. It can only composed by such a genius like him.
The music, the voice and the lyrics… Soothing, insiring and comforting all at once. I was lost. Next song on the list was “Yenmel Vizhuntha Panithuliye”‘ from ‘May Madham” againg by A.R.Rahman. Stupendous! No words to describe the feel.
What could have been running in A R R’s mind when he was composing the songs. How did he choose on what instrument should be played when (I really could not guess a lot of instruments played over in it) but it was a great arrangement. How comes he chose the right person to render the vocals. Simply A Genius is what I can say.
These two songs changed the mood of the day. I followed it by hearing to ‘En Kaadhale’ and ‘Vennilavin Theril’ from ‘Duet’ .
Geniuses are born! Not made!
As a part of my recent Cardio routine at the gym, I noticed a lot of difference in the units used in a lot of the machines. Being an instrumentation engineer by the degree I hold, it disturbed me a lot and I wanted to know actually what the units used indicate.
The treadmill read the unit in kCal (kilo calorie). The cycle read the unit in Cal (Calorie).
A unit of energy is calorie. This is what is used in physics and sciences. In nutrition, food and exercises, it is quite different. The unit of enery is measured in kCal or Calorie.
1 kCal = 1 Calorie = 1000 calorie.
So the next time you notice Cal in the gym, remember this!
What is life without an achievement? I had always wanted to live by the saying, “Live life, ‘King Size’”. Work, Earn and Enjoy life. I believe that there should be a good Work-Life balance.
But something inside me maybe the ‘gut feeling’ suggest that, my life has a different purpose. And I feel that I am moving closer towards it. A feeling that cannot be described in words, something like being in love. I am not sure about what to do. Everything that I read, look and hear is beautiful. I have not seen a girl yet and so these can’t be taken to be symptoms of love.
I just do whatever work come my way. Just like ‘Tom Hanks’ in ‘Forrest Gump’, putting efforts in whatever comes at me. I just have a feeling that I need to achieve something. Don’t know what? I have always dreamed about going to ‘Berlin’ (Engineering paradise), ‘Rome’ – to see all the churches. And now that feeling to go to these places is more pronounced.
Let me wait and watch!
Chapter 4:
My new found crush for this girl lost its interest gradually. The reasons which I could figure out were,
- I didn’t know what to talk to her when I met her;
- She got busy in her project works;
- My friends were pestering whether I loved her and I just could not find the right answer to it;
- She was not interested in love marriage and preferred arranged marriage;
- I too got work as time passed;
- Last but not the least, a new girl arrived in my project and my mind said ‘This is your girl; why search elsewhere when you have it in hand’.
It so happened that my team planned for a trip to Kodaikannal. Viola! A great chance! I tried to speak to her, but language was a great problem. While I am so fluent in my mother tongue ‘Tamil’, she never knew it. How good can one try to talk to a girl and get her attention by talking in English! Atleast if you got the looks, you have half a chance! With no good looks, no chance. But that didn’t stop my enthusiasm!
Chapter 3:
It was during the training in Siruseri, that I came across a girl who caught my attention. “She was not beautiful; but to me she was perfect“. She was my batch mate. Initially she paid no attention, and as always I pretended not. One hot afternoon, we were asked to assemble in a common room. We were to have a extra-curricular session (I don’t exactly remember the name that they gave to the session). One was asked to enact something and the others had to figure out what he was doing. This was child’s play for me and my friends. I acted and they got it in their very first guess. She must have been impressed with the performance, for she came and congratulated me. There was that unmistakable smile in her lips. Something that showed interest. I was in cloud nine.
After that first meeting, we used to send SMS and call each other. She was new to Chennai, and who can guide her around Chennai, than me. Late night phone calls, frequent SMS and such I got busy. Soms had developed interest in another girl, but very soon found that she alrady had a boy friend. But she accepted him as his brother by sending him a ‘Raakhi’ on Raksha Bandhan.
As already told of, I was alloted to a project in Navallur and she was moved to Perungudi. We continued our chats through phone.
Soms found his first true love in a girl in his project. She was the girl of his dreams. She was two years younger to him. Soms had organised a tour to Munnar and there the love grew. She saw him smoking and she loved the ‘Rowdy’ in Soms. She wanted him to leave smoking. Soms was taken by this new found interest of a girl in his well being. We had never seen Soms messaging anyone or calling other than to his home, but for a week he was always on his cell. When enquired he just said that he was talking to his sister. We beleived him, as we know Soms was not that kind of person to talk to new girls. But as always an element of doubt lingered. One night, when lying next to me, Soms told us that he loved that girl. We were surprised. When asked if he had spoken to her about it, he said, it was two sided now. Too fast! And now Soms doesn’t listen to his Rock Gods, but to ‘Kannan varum vellai’ from ‘Deepavali’. He imagines himself as the Jeyam Ravi. When we ask him about his love, he just smiles. That has a lot of answers. He doesn’t know why he likes her or what attracted him. Love is blind, comes his reply. True, that is why they call it ‘Falling in love’.
Chapter 2:
The final year winded smoothly, with fewer subjects, project work and lots of time advicing juniors. In April 2006, my college days got over. I was spending the last big vacation in my native place, when I received a call from the HR of Cognizant asking me to join the next day. I packed my bags and reached Chennai the same day night.
When I told Sri and Soms over phone that I got a call from HR, they too got eager and called up HR. To our surprise, they were also allowed to come the same day. On that Friday morning, clad in complete formals, there we were in TCO office, where destiny had brought us. The office seemed like a palace. We were not even allowed inside and had to wait at the security gate. We felt proud then seeing the tight security in office. Anyone wearing a company tag commanded respect from us. We were taken to the Academy block and given loads of papers to be autographed by us. Who knows what it was, the HR person told us to turn to each page and place a sign in the specified places. Once done, we were asked to come to Tidel Park for orientation on Monday. We also has a medical examination that very day. The gals (figures in our slang) were good, but most of them where my college. So we didn’t care much about them. We knew we will get to see more people in the office than these girls. (One point to be noted here is that all three of us had no girl friends, the sad part of the story, but we manage to give the feeling that we didn’t want a girl friend).
In Tidel, it was just a full day of lecture, getting introduced to the ‘Exceeding customer expectation’ band wagon of Cognizant. One session that interested us was when they had all the lights out and asked each guy to take a seat next to a gal. But as fate would have it, again, I got to sit next to my class mate and when I turned to see who else was next to her, it was Soms. Cursing badly, we made it past the session and was back. We had no residence here in Chennai, so we got the Pallavaram office accomodation. We were a happy lot though many complained about the food and water.
Getting into the Siruseri Academy and seeing the facilities, we felt we were truly in the dream destination. The automatic coffee vending machine, the small pool at the academy with seats around it, the lighting, the feel inside an air-conditioned office, the boot polisher were all new to us. We felt we were on top of the world. Training was a honeymoon period. Fun, food, girls, mock tests, mock projects. It was as if we were being paid for attending college. We were not sure on what to do with the two point salary we got then. We wore the tag everywhere in the evening. When in formals and shoes, the textile shops which once would not serve us, showed interest in allowing us to window shop. With money came everything. But all joy should come to an end and so the training ended and we as lucky for Soms and Sri to be on the same project. But I was alone in a new project. I had to move to Navallur and they were in TCO. By now, we had our residences in the IT Hub, Thiruvanmiyur. Those were wonderful days.
