A New Life....

It was a bit of disappointment to leave the IISc Hostels after having enjoyed the comfort of its luxurious room for two years. I've been appointed as a project associate under Prof. Navakanta Bhat. I'm happy that I have atleast a year, before i leave this verdant campus for US. However as a project associate, you are treated in the most indifferent way @ IISc. It happened that, this year the PAs are denied hostels. Fortunately, I have my friend who is joining cypress which is just 4 kms away from IISc. So I decided to stay with him and his friend. The new house that we rented was a brand new building. The advantage of staying outside is that, the sound of the vehicles, cattle and the ringing church bell, the rays of sunlight etc. does not allow one to sleep beyond 6 am. It's really refreshing to get up early in the morning and set out for work by 7.30am.. Hope this continues..

Aqua Day...

I never expected my stay at Madurai, my native town to be so titillating and thrilling. It all happened because of my dear buddy's idea. The first day i went to his house and had a great lunch and just roamed around the streets of madurai, where we used to spend a lot of time before we joined or our Master's. "Sweet Popcorn", 'Puliyotharai", "Vadai", "Jigarthanda" are all my favorites that are available in my native town. I was bit dissapointed as the Jigarthanda , an ambrosia as i would call it, was not available in the usual shop. The major enjoyment came when my friend told that we could go to Athisayam, a water theme park a few kms from Madurai. I've never been to a theme park before. I was skeptical that, it being a week day and after the summer vacation, the park would be deserted and that most of the games and sports would be non-functional. To my surprise the park was crowded, as my old school had come for a field trip there..

All the kids, and other people who had come there were all taking bath with their clothes on. Initially we hesitated a bit, but on seeing the azure blue of the water and the refreshing wind, we stripped off and jumped into the water in our underwears. It was certainly a titillting experience in the water... with water springing from several pipes.. The depth was little less for us but we still enjoyed it.. I taught my friend a bit of swimming. Then we ran to the artificial sea, where huge waves were created artificially. The force of the water from either sides swung us like a pendulum in either directions. It was amazing.. After that, we drenched ourselves in the artifical waterfall, in the background of the rocky pillars.. It looked very real.. the force of the water was very high and gave the feeling as that of a natural waterfall.... After all this fun and excitement we came back to the pool and rested for some time..

It was about 4pm and we hadn't had any food from the time we entered the park, which i think is around 10am. There was a really enthususatic gang of boys, playing the water slides.. We decided to xperience it.. The first time i was bit scared.. On the mat i lay down and closed my eyes... It could easily be the height of a six to seven storey building.. As i came down the slide i gained momentum, you will have the feeling as if you were flying... I took a deep gasp as i felt water in my body.. But it was certainly a thrill experience, with all the screaming and noise.. Both of us got very excited and we went for a second ride.. It didn't stop there. There was a really steep ride nearby close to 20 to 30 degrees with the normal to the ground. We decided to try that.. After getting a few instructions from the people there i sat on the top of the slide.. As i came down i felt my body lifted off from the seat... a loud screaming from me.. i held my breath... saying my prayers to God... And when i opened my eyes.. thank god i was alive.. But the moment i landed, the feeling that i had.. boy.. i can't express in words.. I've never had such a wonderfurl.. thrilling moment in my life.. I could feel my heart pumping at it's peak rate... As my friend came down .. i could see the speed at which u come down the slide.. It's amazing.. We felt like heroes... So we decided to try our heroism one more time.. And we went again.... and to all the other slide games which we now felt like toy games.. Certainly it's a must have experience...

It was almost five and we had an hour before the park closes. So we finally decided to end our water sports.. unwillingly and got dressed up and decided to go for the dry games. The same group followed us and we all got into a ride which on seeing looked like a normal ride. But as i started we were been swung around centrepetally @ several angular momentums... and i felt that had the chains loosened we would have been thrown apart several kilometers.. This being not enough we went on to something called flying ship. Guys there told it would swing like a pendulum on either side.. I thought it to be ok.. It started swinging.. My god the operator started increasing the speed and the ship was almost perpendicular to the land. We all shouted " Operator stop... Stop..." but he was quite deaf and he kept increasing the speed..He was beig loyal to the salary he was paid!! Sure I was saying my final prayers... The ship finally came to a halt and my dear buddy had already vomitted... We just had two biscuits and a glass of water before we took the ride and that was the cause of it.

After that we never went to any further rides..My friend lay flat on my lap.. I also started to feel some sensation in my belly. We both rested for some time and finally walked out of the park like bacchanallian's. I would never forget this experience.. 8 hours of total fun and thrill.. I came home lay flat on bed at 8pm and got up only at 8am the next day.. but my friend is still in bed...!!

Leaving Chennai

It's been three wonderful days at Chennai. After the end of the hectic academic schedule at IISc, my stay at chennai gave me a refreshing holiday mood. I had a mix of all the fun and entertainment at chennai. Got to meet school friends (Karuppiah and Vignesh) and College friends (Mani). A good carnival at church. Had delicious food both at home and outside. And a good window shopping at Spencer's. After all this wonderful moments i'm on my way to Madurai to meet my dad and my dear friends senthil.. Eagerly waiting to taste the native delicacies @ my home town.. more updates after three days..

The Silent Stars

They can't hear or speak but their actions had spoken, what they had wanted to speak. It was a wonderful day with the children of Shastri Hearing impaired school. The Students of the Notebook Drive Committee from IISc had organised a program in which free notebooks and writing materials were given to the students of this school. This year they distributed for nearly five schools in around IISc campus. I was not able to attend the previous programs due to the academic pressure. But the final session, with the children of shastri school was an memorable experience. We distributed notebooks to the children of classes from pre-primary - 10th std. Normally when notebooks were given in other schools, the children used to make a huge noise , jumping and shouting with joy. However here every class remained a bit silent, but with a sense of gratitude and happiness on their face. They live in an entirely different world, with their sign languages... Even I tried to interact with them, after learning a few actions from their teachers. We took some snaps with them. When we left all the kids ran and shook hands with us happily. I loved every moment of my stay in that school. I'm sure there are a lot of children around us, who needs our care and affection. And we should try to spend a part of our time, that we lavishly spend in parties and movies, in visiting such places and making them happy.

My Biggest Party

I had promised my friend(Varun) a party for me scoring 1450 in GRE. So i decided to treat him @ Three Quarters Chinese Restaurant in MG Road. We planned to take the Buffet which would cost about 180 per head. But when we were there, the waitress told that there was no buffet on weekends. So we had to settle for the menu card lunch. When I looked at the rates I was stunned. All the dishes in 3 digits. Of course, on seeing the ambiance and the people I should have guessed before. I feel really bad to take off from there so we continued eating. However the taste was good so we( Especially me) didn't mind the cost. The peak was that a single scoop of Icecream cost 140 Rs. Finally the bill came with whooping 1200 just for two people. It was the highest per head treat that I had ever given... Anyway it was a wonderful experience..

The Tipping Point

I rarely read books. But always had the desire to read them. Since all my academic work is finally over.. I decided to start off with this book. " The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell. I glanced through the introduction chapter. It seems to be interesting. The book is about how and why certain changes in the world happen so rapidly and spread faster as against most of the other happenings. For eg. During the period 1980-82 I guess a particular brand of shoe achieved a 20x increase in it's sales, without any major strategic decision taken by the company itself. It is simply because two girls wore those shoes and went for a party and the people there started buying it and so on... The author explains some such phenomenon happening on the basis of the theory of epidemics. The entire book discusses the three major characteristics that are responsible for such large outbreak. Contagiousness, the insignificant way in which the epidemic begins and the rapidity with which the change is brought about. I find this discussion very interesting and will get back with more reviews in the future

Graduation Treat 2007

It was a wonderful get together with the students, faculty and staff of Microelectronics Lab IISc. Every year the graduating students give a party to the other students and the professors. This year it was arranged in Food Camp. We wanted to have Bhat sir for sure, so we organised only for lunch, followed by a short program. Most of them turned up. It was a wonderful time interacting with all the students, staff and profs informally. We had bought some gifts for the two profs (Bharadwaj Amrutur and Navakanta Bhat) and Dwaraknath. We had beautiful songs from Janaki and Gururaj. They really have a gifted voice. I especially thank Bhat sir because having arrived from US that day morning, he made it to the party despite the severe jetlag that he might have experienced. In all it was the best way to thank and say good bye to all the friends and faculty of the lab.

First Blog

So what's up with this blogging. I've seen my friends having their own blog sites. I guess it's a wonderful way to express things that u have seen, heard or read to your friends. Hope to keep this blog updated as and when I get interesting stuff to share with you.