Chennai!

After quite a bit of traveling, i decided to write about travel and places i visit.

Perhaps the longest stay in my paternal home town in a decade. 5 days in Chennai. My stay there surprised me.
Remember the days of the golden quadrilateral? Delhi-Bombay-Calcutta-Madras? Something tells me that the era is nearing it's end. Sadly so. More has changed than just the names.

The moment you step into Chennai , you can distinctly tell by it's smell. Coffee,Fish, Fruits and Flowers (dominantly Malli , i don't know what it is called in english, but that's the flower all beautiful ladies have on their hair here).Sometimes , i get a feeling someone forgot to mix some oxygen in the air.
For a city notorious for it's chain snatchers there are surprisingly many jewellery stores , and huge hoarding advertising the same all over Chennai with pretty women covered in over a kilogram of gold. Someone told me, last week all the jewellery was stolen from an advertising board! (they thought it was real :P )
Every other store seems to sell one of jewels , clothing and food. Further , irrespective of what they sell or their size , the shops are majorly named 'Saravanas'. 'Saravanas' is apparently one of Chennai's biggest show-rooms. ( i bet they would have made much more money had they patented the name ). Yes the store is large and popular. And shopkeepers all over the city very innovatively name their own. :p . With a vast majority sporting a plain dhoti and apple-cut shirts ( to be more precise blue/red checked ones ) , i fail to understand how such saravavas make business. Oh , also the inevitable mustache to go with it. I felt naked in the city with a clean shave.

Of the many other things such stores do like selling stuff , they give much respite from the heat and filth around. "They do nothing" a kid half my height exclaimed after stamping into a mixture of dung, peels and plastic looking up at another huge hoarding. Until then i thought it was another jewellery business , but it happened to be that of the chief minister holding up 2 fingers as high as she could.

... To Be Continued.

Fast For ... duh ... well, just Fast.

It was 2 months ago. IIIT Hyderabad NBH Mess.
On one of the few days I was on time for breakfast, I met one of my HV mentors (Yes, Human Values). He urged me to read about Anna Hazare. I had no idea what he was talking. I spent another CSO lab session surfing the net. This time was particularly different.

Anna Hazare immediately brought Mahatma Gandhi to my mind. No No... not comparing the deeds of the two. Just imagine Anna's face being a little less chubby ,place a currency note beside and it u'll realize what i'm talking. I still have respect for this man.

Very soon another young man with much more black hair (Lots of it) , tried the same heroics.
Of the many things his movement has achieved , including inspiring me to maintain a clean shave , is the fact that it has earned itself a place in my blog. (Not every youth's aspiration, but still...).

I have never been the greatest admirers of yoga. No offense to the Indian tradition , but i fail to understand how trying to form human knots can cure AIDS and cancer when the TATAs on the other side have been building a 350cr Hospital in Kolkata for the same. (Seen the Ad? Yes, i've been watching lots of T.V of late)
Yoga will help attain nirvana and Bliss says an anti-corruption 'guru'. My affair with 'Bliss' ends with the default wallpaper on Windows Xp.
Of the few things i may consider agreeing on is that yoga keeps fit. If u ever fear that u may be stuck for 9 without food (But have some lemon juice and lots of honey), u better start practicing yoga. 9 days! that's as far as yoga can go, as recently proved by the Guru himself.

Fasts by Mahatma Gandhi brought India freedom. And a fast by an early morning TV star, brought me a timepass to write and a misfortune to u to read in the form of this blog.
A fast by an aspiring IITian got him the seat. And a fast by me just brought me hunger.

With my yoga credits still incomplete , i just hope i don't have to fast to get them.(IIIT Business)

If u have been following news of late and have nothing better to be doing, our young star promised to raise a 1100 strong army ( I'm not sure why ) and arm them with yoga ( Woa! that's frightening ). There are a few things that i like in that statement.
Firstly , it is his precision in numbers. Most others would have stuck to the number 1000.
Secondly, He firmly believes ( atleast sounds that way ) yoga is the answer to life,universe and everything. After failed attempts to teach the Beatles to levitate and his cancer curing yogic concoctions being banned. I don't know whether it is because of yoga, but this guy sure has self belief.

Just Hoping Anna goes on. I became his follower in the CSO lab. I am still one.
And if yoga can do the same, i would gladly accept it. :)

Any correspondence to real life characters in the above lines is completely unintentional.

Comment or like if u want more.
(Still love Saurabh Sharma Sir's style. It actually works)

Packing Up.

"Wow! I scored an 86 in Hindi" I exclaimed to myself ,while i was going through the old certificates. Sitting on a on a hillock of clothes, hoping to compress it so as to get it to fit into my tiny suitcase, I got the idea of writing this blog. I was packing all my stuff in the room , heading back home. That was when i realized that there has been so much crap residing in my room - comfortably, more than me.Ranging from books covered in dust looking at which i thought "Kaash pad liya hota" , to certificates which triggered the same thoughts . Duh! I hate packing.

Once done , i dragged my unimportant stuff ( the majority ) to the cloak room. Stuff that i'll not carry home. To my dismay , the room still looked non-empty. Still so much stuff lying around. "Drop it" i thought. As i said ,i had lost interest in packing further. My packing was hence complete.

Just like any other accomplishment, this deserved a treat. 040 - 64538585 it was. We placed the most complicated orders. We had coupons :) and the Dominos Pizza has this offer of "30 min nahi toh free". Our mouths were watering waiting for the cheese burst pizzas and at the same time we wanted them to take over 30 min.( At the end of an entire year , you dont have too much money in your pockets , u see.). Kim-Kartavya-vimood it's called in hindi. ( 86 my friend !! oh , btw whats 86 in hindi ?? )

Now that the pizzas were here and that the payments were made. It was time to relish. Silence like never before prevailed.
Memories came back. Vague, but strong enough.

The word of the year was perhaps "Mittal" - We had this awesome Prof this semester. "We'll come back on that later." :)

DoTA unarguably was the game of the year. When it's played the hostel knows it. Age of Empires - Close second. One of my friends had this fascinating timepass to count the number of TAs playing DoTA as we walked past their rooms. God bless DoTA.
Mario was not a lagger. It had a championship of it's own , only 2 ended up participating , but still...

There have been critics, but Felicity was great too! The parities , the overnite preparations, and the protests. Just Wow! There were many many experiences there, nothing to interest most readers though. Celebrations were thorough.
Writing of celebrations , we never lagged there. Holi was a week away and the rooms were already water logged - and cleaned up within minutes of the news arising about the hostel warden's rounds.

The birthday parties and the repeated visits to Dominos and fighting for the last piece ... all is in.

Thats when i find myself fighting for the last piece of pizza we ordered.
Happy Summers.
Hope to add more memories very soon .

Comment or like , if u want more.
( I loved this idea of Saurabh Sharma sir, on the courses portal. Awesome way to attract comments. )

PS : I'll continue whether or not u like it :P