Batak to Matak ?

Ah, a long long time ago, in a Solar system not so far away lived a mortal named X. X's career desire/path kept fluctuating after he entered an institute called '-T'. .... blah, blah..at the end of 6 semesters in this '-T' college, he decides to write again. His sadistic desires were back at play. And forth came out of his keyboard.

Well, what a lazy sem it has been (in terms of acads/blogging). Enjoyed a better Saarang, mech courses didn't seem that painful (the exams on the other hand defied Newton's laws for handpower-required-to-complete-a-paper!!) and yes, a sem in which I saw the least no. of movies (that's irony, coz I was supposed to have more free time compared to my batchmates coz I had postponed one of my electives!)

Anyway, I'm back home for my first full vacation in the last 3 yrs and boy, I sure do wanna make the most of this opportunity! Home-grub is ossum as usual, life without lan and slower net seems a pain but yes, a welcome relief from the searing Chennai heat :)

I enter my matak year next sem with 7 core courses on my palate. Will hopefully be interning at a place where I want to and even more hopefully, will get paid for it. 6 sems have gone by in a whizz but nothing seems like a blur though. Vivid memories of what seem to have happened just a day back. But well, time flies like an arrow. Dunno why it could never fly like a boomerang though. 6th sem, was eventful for me, to say the least! Here's a version of sem 6 ,post Saarang 09, DD-IITM_v6.0.zip

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Acads -- decent. Won't talk much as grades are coming out now. We shall discuss this in the extraaaaaa innnings sans Ms. Bedi, who I guess won't be interested in it as it doesn't feature any pulsating action or her chummy Yuvi baby.

Lit-Soc -- Ah, one of my most memorable ones. I didnt wanna write about it coz there's loads to write to do it justice. But well, here it goes. Jam finished 2nd in Lit-Soc, its best position in 18 yrs (earlier info of 12yrs by a former lit-sec turned out to be wrong! Ironymaxxx ). Well, our team managed to place in all Lit-Soc quizzes finals and that's a high in itself but yes, all-time highs would have been putting 48hrs fight for a inter-hostel creative writing entry and winning it by fair means while others had it all discussed out over 2 weeks on google-groups etc :) Unlike the results of a couple of group events which left a sour taste behind in this wonderful experience as the Soc-Sec of my hostel (yes, including the bumps I got! and of course, for ensuring that we got a hostel t-shirt this year at least after a barren wait of 4yrs !!)

Grub -- Tried out different cuisines in Chennai and wow, must say that they were excellent. That they were expensive is the downside, but when you are part of a treat who doesnt have to shell much except for the travelling part, I aint complaining.

Hostel-Night -- again, undoubtedly my best. Well. goofed it up while trying out the grub here, but everything else was more or less perfect. And yes, I once again resisted the temptation to get sloshed and instead, enjoyed the revelries of my other mates, who gave-in to the hydroxyl group :) Farewells bid to another illustrious batch of seniors and somehow, a sense of emotional void did creep in. Maybe, bonding with ppl for 3 yrs does make a diff.

I think the above 3 segments were what stood out in particular for me. The other highlights -->

1. "Indian coal contains 40% ash! " -- a statement I used to hear at least thrice in every 50 min of our Power Plant course. Obba, that's the only thing I remember distinctly about the course now :)

2. "Chachuration " -- another word etched in our minds, thanks to a certain Refrigeration prof, who also happens to be Chairman, Council of Wardens :( Trust me, if you pay proper attention in this prof's class for one half of the sem, you'll probably sail through the est of the course and also, your english will tend towards the rotten side. My writing will tell you how much attention I paid :)

3. Fiction -- Ah, if there's one person who should not be lectured about anti-feministic thoughts, it's my Fiction prof. And guess what, I happened to do the same for my presentation :( Ah, but then again, the course was appalling in the way she took it and somehow, it didn't satisfy my appetite except for the fact that I read a short story called "Dumma and Dummi" !

4. V-Day -- got bumped maajarly thanks to a prank, which was followed up on my hostel-nite. Got frust a bit, but still enjoyed the fact that people actually put fight to pain me. Well, some are not gifted to pain others on the spot :) V for Vendetta machan, so trust me, I solemnly swear I'm upto no good, when Sem 7 starts i.e.

5. W -- > or how close I came to getting one in each of my courses this sem. Would be surprised to find an attendance grade of 'G' in any course, barring my labs!

6. Elections -- closest I came to following an election, thanks to 4 of my good friends battling it out for the top posts. 3 won, but 1 lost. Got to see the true side of people's faces during this time and yeah, a rich experience as put by one of my friends "Haarne ke baad bahut kuch ssekha yaar!"

7. "JoJo ki maa ka " -- a quote which shall be immortalized in the annals of Jam history. Reason : the guy who made this statement is JoJo' elder sibling. Talk of foot in the mouth! Well, both the bros are Arse-nal fans, so can't expect anything better than this.

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That's more like my sem, barring our 2nd round exit in Cricket Schroeter, where I swear, I would have bumped my Captain had the team supported me in holding him!

Post sem trips :

a) I attended a religious ceremony in Trichy in the first week of May. Mercury levels read : 41 degrees. Add to the misery : There are 4 LCD panels telecasting the ceremony, but just 2 standee fans for a gathering of 300 odd junta !! Preposterous. It was a good thing that as per religious norms, the menfolk needed to wear just the traditional dhoti and had to stay topless (aye, naked torsos floating around!), so we didn't have to strip to bear the heat. Just had to carry the extra towel to wipe your brow and back from time-to-time. A few other things of note included a conversation, which I happened to accidentally eavesdrop :

Note :A= Aunty == Maami = M, in Tam slang. The words in brackets are the translated versions of the tam dialogues (I've included Tam for the few readers who could probably relish it that way)

A1 : Maami, ongu pennu ka kalyaanam aidthaa ? ( Aunty, is your daughter married ? )
M1 : Illaiye, ippodhaan jadhagum patindu irrakom ( No, just going through exchange of kundalis and all)

A1: Oh, ho. Seshadri angeyu orru payyan paati vechirukkan. Avantu pesulama ? (Seshadri there, knows a boy eligible for marriage. Should we speak to him ?)
M1 : paakulamein. Engayi irrakan payyan ? ( sure. Where's the boy ? )

And now's the twist. I can hear this although I dunno who these ppl are and I know they are pointing somewhere coz their dialogue had stopped momentarily. Next moment, I get a tap on my shoulder asking me :

A1 : Onnoru peir inna pa ? (What's your name son ?)
Me : Raghav. Yen (Raghav. Why ?) .. at the back of my mind, this voice seems very familiar for some reason.

A1 : Inna padchirkai ? (Educational qualification ?)
Me : IIT Madras la Mechanical padchinda irrakein. ippo 3drd...

She cuts me short and speaks to M1 : Nalla padchirkaanein, IIT aachey (Has studied brilliantly, IIT boy na!)
M1 : Aaama, jadhugam shikrama paakalam (yaya, let's exchange kundalis fast then)

I sensed something wrong here and interrupted : Maami, na 3rd yr leda irrukein. Inno mudiyalei (I'm still in 3rd yr, not yet done!)

And as providence would have it, the guy named Seshadri and takes the embarassed aunties to the "right" guy ! Phew... This was also a pt which irritated me. I mean you come to a religious ceremony and end up gossiping or discussing marriages!!. Cant you do that at homes, at your leisure, under fans and not in this heat, where I had half a mind to go back unless my parents hadnt insisted I come tehre? And these are the same people dictating the orthodox stuff I'm supposed to follow in life. So much for their devotion and all that crap.. Hypocritemax !!!

b) Venue : Aircel shop, Mumbai --> I was on the hunt for a sim/network which would fit my tariff range and I decided to visit this Aircel priority store, which I presumed would give me a better offer. And when I enter, I see a hot chick there, in her minis with a pom-pom, ala an IPL cheerleader girl. Baffled by her presence, I continue with my necessary checking out rates, was happy , bought their SIM and was about to leave, when one of the promoters asks me to play this computer game simulating me as a CSK player in the IPL. I play it only to realize the purpose of the "cheerleader". She started doing all the wiggly-niggly actions made by the actual cheergirls in IPL whenever I hit a boundary on the computerized game!!!! WTF^3.. I thought I had seen enough crap, and now this incident adds to my list of stuff-which-no-one-can-argue-about,-but-can-be-assumed-to-be-stupid all the same.

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More later. Sayonara. (IPL has caught my attention again while typing, not the cheerleaders though!)